2.21 Language, Culture and Ethnicity in the US

As we saw during our last lesson, culture is made up of different components that shape how we think and act and what we assume is normal.  Another aspect of culture is language.

Symbolic culture is shared meaning that involves communication such as gestures and language.  

Gestures

What are examples of the importance of gestures?

Gestures are important to understanding and communicating within a culture.  Understanding a culture's gestures can also help us avoid ethnocentrism and culture shock.  Here is a guide for international business travelers to help them understand the impact gestures can have on their interaction with other cultures.  Here is a link to a list of some single-hand gestures from around the world.

Gestures are also an example that culture is a result of shared meaning among people.  And among groups of people, meaning can change over time.  Here is a post about the Bellamy Salute, a gesture that has changed its cultural meaning over time.  Another example of the changing meaning of symbols is the ok gesture which has become associated with white supremacy/white power and it is now listed as a hate symbol by the ADL.  See this link for a detail of that evolution.

Language itself is a cultural universal and part of human nature.  But the different meanings of language shared within each culture is an example of nurture.  People learn different meanings from their language.

Answer a few Questions about language without reading ahead:

Here is the Google Form for this lesson.

1.  One of the shapes below is called a "Takete" and the other is called a "Malunga."  Take a guess which one is which:

            Shape A                    Shape B

2. Which one of the color circles below does not belong with the other two?

3. Which word does not belong or is the most different for each set below:

Set 1. Auto, turtle, basket, bird

Set 2. Laundry, beer, clothing

Set 3. A chair, a spear, a couch 

4. WHAT ARE THREE WORDS TO DESCRIBE THIS BRIDGE:

5.  5.  If you speak a language other than English, what is a word that you really like in that language?

WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE?

Language is important because it affects how we think. When we think about something, we are using language inside of our heads so if we use certain words or do not have certain words, it may affect how think about things especially how we categorize something.   We even think based on how words sound.  

For example, takete and malunga.  Takete sounds harsh and therefore angular.  Malunga sounds softer and rounded.  But these are just made up words.  

Shape A                    Shape B

What is the Saphir-Whorf hypothesis?

The importance of language was first highlighted by researchers, Saphir and Whorf.  Their hypothesis and conclusion was that language shapes how people think, especially when categorizing and naming.  For example, in the color samples above, Americans typically group the chips by blue and green, but Tarahumara people do not have a word for blue and green, instead they have words that mean the color of water and the color of night.  Because each group of people have different words with different meanings, it shapes how they think.

Another example of language's effects on our thinking is a lesson from Carol Mukhopadhyay on classifying in other cultures.  For each of the following sets, choose the item that does not belong:

Set 1. Auto, turtle, basket, bird

Students generally select auto or basket using the culturally familiar categorizing device of machines vs. non-machines or and movement vs. non-movement. At least some non-western cultural groups, however, would see birds as most different because their culture emphasizes shape and birds are relatively angular rather than rounded in shape. Our culture tends to emphasize use or functionality. Thus correctness would be culture-dependent.

Set 2. Laundry, beer, clothing

Students generally, with great assurance, select beer as most different. Functionality places clothing and washing machines together. Yet, at least one culture views clothing as different because laundry and beer are both “foamy”. Visual appearance is most salient. US slang for beer (“suds”) also recognizes the attribute of foaminess.

Set 3. A chair, a spear, a couch 

Students again select the “wrong” answer—at least from the perspective of traditional West African cultures. US Americans tend to emphasize use, thus placing couch and chair together as types of sitting devices (i.e. “furniture”). Ashanti apparently would see the “couch” as the most different because both a chair and a spear can symbolize authority.

Evidence of different languages with genderized nouns shaping how people think about those things:

Lera Boroditsky, professor of cognitive science and cultural psychology has published research that concludes language affects how we think.  Her evidence is in the genderization of nouns in different cultures.  Here she is explaining her research at Ted.  Here is an explanation from NPR about Boroditsky's research and how language shapes our description of bridges.  This Psychology Today article explains more about the importance of genderizing nouns in language.  This NPR story highlights how language affects our thinking, especially for bilingual speakers.  

University of Illinois Chicago's Language Lab provides some words that students most enjoy.  Here are three from Italian:

Here is a list of untranslatable ideas about love from around the world.

  

• In Other Words is a book that highlights untranslatable words from around the world.

More evidence for the effect of language on thinking:

• The NY Times ran a story about how the idea of language affecting our thoughts. See that article here. 
  
• The ASA's Society Pages shares research by sociologist Matt Wray highlighted on NPR's Code Switch.  Why would using the term "white trash" support white supremacy?
• This New Yorker article explains the research of professor Adam Alter on the hidden power of words and naming.
• Also, here is a study explaining that without language, numbers do not make sense.
• This episode of On Being from NPR is about Rabbi Heschel who insightfully explained "words create worlds."  Here is a link to a medium article about Heschel and words.  And this link to a passage about the importance of words from Heschel to William Blake. 
• David Treuer is an Ojibway translator who explains the power and importance of language on this episode of On Being.
• The episode Lost in Translation from NPR's Hidden Brain is a social science podcast from NPR and this episode explores how language shapes our thoughts.
• Also, see this post about politics and how the use of English frames every debate especially the debate over gun violence.

Cultural Diversity and Language in the US today

 

Where cultures in the US come from:

There are different types of people who are seeking to come to the U.S.

Migrant Workers - the US permits hundreds of thousands of seasonal workers to work temporarily (less than a year) in the country.

Asylum Seekers - people who are seeking asylum from oppression in another country. 

Immigrants - people who want to live in the U.S. so they file paperwork and wait for approval and then travel here. 

Refugees - people who are forced to flea due to violence or a threat of their basic needs. 

This post has a detailed and critical analysis of  immigration to the US.

6. What are the different ways that a person from another culture might come to the USA?


General Immigration to the US:

As detailed by the Pew (2015), the number of foreign-born people living in the US reached its peak at 14.8% in 1890.  Then, it slowly declined to a historic low of 4.7% before the 1965 Immigration Act.  It wasn’t until the 1965 Act took effect that immigration began to increase until this year, 2023 when, for the first time in the history of the US, there are more than 15% of the population who are foreign-born. 

The PEW (2020) provides a snapshot of what immigration looks like in the US.  Mexico, China and India make up the vast majority of new immigrants to the US.  And, the Kaiser Family Foundation published a 2023 study about immigrants here.

 

Research the cultures/ethnicities in a locale.  

If you are from outside of Chicago:

The relative number of foreign-born people

Statista shows the US states with the highest percentage of foreign-born people living there:

What languages do we speak in the US from the Census:

From the Census, A Geographic Analysis of the Languages Spoken at Home in the US:

https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizations/2022/demo/Poster%20PAA%202022%20Language%20Geographic%20Distribution_20220323.pdf

The Migration Policy Institute provides details about who and how many immigrants are settling in different locales of the United States:

The Visual Capitalist which examines the most spoken languages besides English and Spanish in each state in the United States:

If You are From Chicago:

This graphic from Storymaps shows the most prominent languages in Chicago:

WBEZ reports on the languages in Chicago here:

Chicago Health Atlas shows the levels of  neighborhoods in Chicago that report not speaking English "very well".

7.  What are the largest immigrant groups/non-English speakers either where you are from - either in the US or in your neighborhood of Chicago?

2.2 Culture

Please review:  Levine, Robert and Wolff, Ellen.  Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture.  Psychology Today. 1985.          

Action Item: Kohl's Values Americans Live By

Today's Lesson:  

Culture

How to examine it? 

culture shock  

ethnocentrism  

cultural relativity

What is it made up of? 

material 

nonmaterial 

norms 

 folkways

 mores 

taboos

language 

As we learned in our last lesson, humans are born to be nurtured.  We are social beings born into communities of other people.  The larger communities of people who share meaning in everyday life form a culture.  So as babies we are born into a culture.  Because culture is so omnipresent, it surrounds us before we are even born.  And so, similar to how a fish has never known what it is like to live out of water, humans have been surrounded by culture their whole lives.  Thus, culture is the first force of socialization, or nurture, that we are influenced by.

Culture as a fishbowl

Google Form for this Lesson

1.  What's the difference between material and non-material culture?

2.  How is a fishbowl a metaphor for culture?

The Sociological Imagination and Social Construction of Culture

The documentary Babies (2010) follows four babies in different cultures from before birth through their first year of development.  You can watch the trailer here or by clicking below.  And this post has more about the film.

In the fishbowl metaphor, the baby is born into the bowl surrounded by both material and nonmaterial culture.

Culture Shock

Because we are so ingrained in culture, when we experience a different culture, it can affect us emotionally. When we are exposed to a culture we have not lived in, we can experience culture shock.  In the example of the fishbowl, imagine bringing a fish home from a carnival or a pet store.  When you dump the fish into the new bowl, it might be a shock - imagine how you feel when jumping into a cold swimming pool. 

One example of culture shock from my life was discovering the Japanese toilet.  At first, the experience can be a culture shock as the traditional Japanese toilet is very different from ours:

In the case of the Japanese toilet, not only does it look and function differently from ours, but it also represents fundamentally different non-material culture. The Japanese are very germ conscious and they try hard not to spread germs. They also do not have a lot of furniture - they do not sit on furniture in their houses so why would they sit on a porcelain throne in a bathroom? And finally, they are used to sitting and squatting in positions difficult for westerners.

What is the shared meaning behind the Japanese toilet?
Materially: what is it?

Non-materially: How to use it? Why use it? 

The Japanese do have a "Western style" toilet that is more like the toilet that Americans are used to, however, it still represents differences in both - its material and non-material culture.

In either case, the point is that there is nothing "natural" about culture. In other words, there are no weird ways of doing things that come quite natural to us. There are only different ways of doing things. And material culture, although physically different, often represents a different non-material culture, such as a different way of thinking about the world.

Ethnocentrism

If we are not in shock about the cultural difference, sometimes we judge other cultures by our own standards. This is called ethnocentrism.  For example, an American might travel to another culture and think, "Why would they want to squat to use the toilet?  Isn't that uncomfortable?  They should use a toilet the way we do - it's much better because it's more comfortable."  That would be ethnocentric.  In the fishbowl metaphor ethnocentrism is a person outside of the bowl looking in and judging the fish.  "Why doesn't the fish go in the castle?  That's what a castle is for."

Cultural Relativity
Instead of judging other cultures, sociologists seek cultural relativity or trying to understand a culture from that culture's own standards.  This will help us to understand people better and be more empirical and less judgemental.  Below is a graphic image called the Iceberg of Culture, originally printed in a 1984 American Foreign Service Handbook (cited by sociologist Robin DiAngelo, 2016 and digitally designed by Dr. Robert Sweetland on his website for educators.)  

Cultural Universals and Human Nature

Although the first glance of a new culture might lead us to an emotional response like culture shock or ethnocentrism, when sociologists (and anthropologists) take a step back, they find many general aspects of culture are similar around the world.  These similar cultural traits are called cultural universals.  Many of the components of the iceberg above can generally be considered cultural universals even though the expression of those universals are different.  Because culture universals are ubiquitous among humans, they might be considered innate, or part of our human nature.  Many of these relate to the interaction between humans.  It is in our human nature to be nurtured.  We need others to survive so we are wired to connect with other people.

3.  When engaging in cross-cultural study, what should we be mindful of?  

4.  Instead, how should we approach culture?  

Cultural Differences and Human Nurture

Although cultural universals might be similar to humans around the world, the specific way we express these universals might be different.  These differences begin even before birth as the cultural norms of one group of people affect the expecting mother (and her baby).  This results in different influences on us based on our culture. And that difference continues throughout our lives as we learn the  shared meanings of our culture.  For example, what does it mean to bath or "be clean"? To eat or have "food"?  To get ready to go out or wear "clothes"?  All of these have different meanings based on your culture, so individuals are nurtured differently depending on their culture.

Levine and Wolff published an article about different ways that social scientists researched time in various cultures.  See the article called Social Time here.

 Using the article, please answer these questions:

5. How did the author conduct cross-cultural research about time in the U.S. and Brazil?
6. What did he find quantitatively and qualitatively?
7. What does the social construction of the shared meaning of being "late" reveal?
8.  What other data did researchers use to study time around the world?

What are norms?

Norms are the shared expectations about behavior - the meaning applied to how we interact with a group of people.  Norms vary around the world.  One example of this is the norms centered around time, as in the article you read for homework.  How do people from different cultures think about time differently? What do they consider late or early?  These are norms. 

Why are norms important? 

There are two important general lessons from norms:

• When interacting with other cultures, recognizing norms is important because if we fail to acknowledge these differences, we run the risk of offending someone or even a whole culture of people.
• Second, norms help us see that we have been shaped to behave a certain way;  they are an illustration that we are socialized by our nurture.  Norms an example of the shared meaning that we learn as we grow up.  

And this graphic explains varying norms from around the world for business travelers:

Also for more humor on cultural differences, checkout these HSBC adds: personal space, wrong flower

Norms that are less important are called folkways. Folkways are not crucial to the order of society and if you were to violate a folkway people would not necessarily judge you.  A folkway in the United States might be addressing adults by "Mr" or "Ms" or driving the speed limit.  A folkway at a dinner party might be not putting your elbows on the table.  

Mores (pronounce mor AYS) are norms important to the order of a society. If you violate them, it will cause a disruption in the social setting.  It is worth noting that these mores, although very important to the society, are not necessarily laws. Similar to the ideas of time being a social construct, they are just the way that people operate and even though they are not written into laws, they are important to the function of society.  The more of how to cross a street can be found in lots of videos on youtube.   Watch this video of an intersection in India and think about who has the right of way? There may not be a law about it, but those drivers know what they are doing.  Would an American know the more of how to cross the street?  Note how the person crossing the street is aware of the norms of traffic and so the pedestrian successfully crosses without getting hit.

When I was in Italy, it took me six days to figure out how to cross the street. There were scooters and cars swerving everywhere and honking. Every time I tried to cross the street, cars would screech to a stop and swear at me in Italian. Then I figured out how to do it.   Just walk a steady pace across the street and let them avoid you - and it worked!  This knowledge of how to cross the street is an important norm, what sociologists call a more.  

And a British explanation of Italian street crossing norms here.

Finally, the most serious norms are taboos.  Taboos are things that you do not even want to think about because it is embarrassing to even imagine it.  For example, look at this port-a-potty created by an artist in Switzerland.  Would you be able to use it?

This is how it looks from the inside:

Would you be able to use a toilet if it looked like everyone could see you, even though you knew they could not?  This is a taboo because even though people could not see us, the mere thought of them seeing us would make us hesitant. In other words, simply thinking about doing this is embarrassing and so we don't want to even think about it.  Perhaps, that is why we have so many euphemisms for using the toilet: using the john, the restroom, the bathroom, the lavatory, the men's room, washroom, powder room?

Example of folkways, mores and taboos from a dinner date with significant other.

Example of norms from your life
9. Have you experienced a different set of norms from another culture either by traveling somewhere or by meeting a foreigner here in America? What was it like? Were there misunderstandings?
Something else that you might want to inquire about is another culture's norms;  where you would like to travel?  What are all of the norms you should know if you travel there?  Find out what unique norms exist in their culture. Here is a link to cultural etiquette around the world:

What are norms in general?  How do the norms of folkways, mores and taboos differ?