Lifestyle > Train of Thought
my brother, don rizzle, virtouso!...any other academic or intelligent cats!
LyRiCaL_G:
--- Quote from: 11z Is Fuckin' Serious About This! on April 09, 2007, 12:25:49 PM ---
--- Quote from: LyRiCaL_G on April 09, 2007, 10:01:23 AM ---yo that "communication: blending the psychological theories with the reality of influencing all kinds of people" stuff you be learning sounds crazy man!
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Haha, that's a description I use to define my education. It's mad interesting indeed - I love it!
Now first up, the defenitions you asked for:
--- Quote from: LyRiCaL_G on April 09, 2007, 10:01:23 AM ---oh and what do you mean by the following...
relation between man and supernatural
Prestations versus commitment
Avoidance of uncertainties
Relativating (what does this mean?)
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Relation between man and the supernatural: how do people in certain cultures look towards the position of man towards a certain divine force? Like Christians go to Church on Sunday and they pray before dinner, while in some African tribes the young boys have to go through torture to show the gods they're ready to be considered a man and ready to go hunting. What do divine powers mean to the people in cultures, and what role do these gods have in their daily life?
Prestation versus commitment: to put it plain and simple, the word commitment is not a good translation I made for this, so let me explain what's actually meant by "Prestatie - toeschrijving" as my lecture puts it. I guess it should have been called Prestations versus ascibed status.
The question here is, do people acquire status through what they do, or what they are? In prestation cultures, you'll be judged by your personal achievements, whereas in ascribing cultures it's more about your ancestors and your social network. It's the difference between asking a person what he did for college (prestation culture), or judging him by where he went to college and who his dad is.
The way people go around uncertainties in life is actually culturally determined. Some cultures feel a stronger resentment towards the unknown than others. This is reflected in the way people behave towards taking / avoiding risks and decisionmaking when it comes to your career for example. "Western" people, as you put it, generally have a higher acceptance of risks, which is easily explained by the highly raised bars for success society sets us. We want to shine individually, and so we take a lot of risks on the way. We go out bungeejumping for adrenaline rushes and to be considered brave, and we jump at sudden opportunities when it comes to our careers. In other cultures young people are much more likely to simply follow up their father in trade.
Last point: relativity. That's a philosophical thing, about the way people moderate all the things that go on in life. In simple words: what does the world mean to them, and how do they respond to it? It's more or less a gathering of some of the other aspects.
--- Quote from: LyRiCaL_G on April 09, 2007, 10:01:23 AM ---yo just a few things homie, you said you could go a lil further into what you mean about how different cultures behave like they do....explaining why is it they act like they do and so on...could you like you said, further expand on that a lil bit....kinda like even though europe and north america have the same values pretty much....as in they both have a mindstate which would be considered "western"....(thats true right?)....would you say the states is a more I culture and europe is a more collectivist culture....and how do we all compare to countries like china and japan....and where do places like russia and korea fit into this?
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Western Europe, North America and Australia are the roughly meshed areas in this world. Latin America, Mediterranean Europe and Eastern Europe are medium meshed, and Africa and Asia are tightly meshed. That's roughly put, because culture is so hard to measure and there's loads of cultural differences for example between the French and the Irish, even though they both come from roughly meshed cultures.
Some numbers that might be interesting when it comes to defining I-cultures and We-cultures (source: Hofstede):
The most individualistic country in the world is the USA, with a "individualism index" score of 91. The least individualistic country is Guatemala, with a score of 6.
Australia: 90
Great Brittain: 89
Australian Aboriginals: 89
Netherlands: 80
Canada: 80
Italy: 76
Belgium: 75
Canada (French speaking): 73
France: 71
Ireland: 70
Germany: 67
South Africa: 65
Spain: 51
Argentina: 46
Iran: 41
Brazil: 38
Turkey: 37
China: 20
South Korea: 18
Taiwan: 17
Colombia: 13
I can add more, if you have any specific countries you want to know about, but those seem the most interesting ones to me. And of course, the lower a country scores in these individualistic numbers, the more of a "we-culture" it has.
Hofstede has put some other definitions to measure culture, other than the individualism index: they are the indexes for hierarchy/respect, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and long term orientation.
Sweden is the most feminine country in the world, with a masculinity score of 5. Slovakia is by far the most masculine country in the world (110). That's an odd conclusion, because these countries are relatively near each other. Japan was the only country coming close to Slovakia, with a score of 95.
Singapore (8.) and Jamaica (13) are countries where people don't mind uncertainties in life. Uruguay (100) and Portugal (104) are the countries with the most avoidance of uncertainties. Countries like the USA (46), Great Britain (35), Netherlands (53), Germany (66) etc. are "average" when it comes to this. Basically you could say that the higher the value of this index number, the more conservative the culture of a country is. An odd side note: Japan scores 92 while China scores 30.
When it comes to hierarchy and respect, Malaysia (104), Slovakia (104) and Guatemala (110) are countries where hierarchy and respect are extremely important. Denmark (18) gets an extremely low score compared to other European countries (GER 35, GB 35, NL 38, FR 68, IT 50, etc). Lower importance of hierarchy and respect is to be found in Isreal (13) and Austria (11).
The whole index of "long term orientation" was invented long after the other four indexes, so the calculations for that aspect are rather incomplete. China (118) scores extremely high, while Australian Aboriginals (-10) and Pakistan (0) get extremely low scores. Most "western" countries (USA: 29) get average scores for this: their economies are well established and perhaps these nations are even overheated when it comes to the quest for success, welfare and future planning. The culture of the Chinese obviously hasn't reached that point yet: they're constantly looking to expand the horizon.
Now, there's one last thing I'd like to say about public and private areas, because even though some countries seemingly get identical scores in all of these indexes, they may differ a lot in reality. I learned about an example where the French, Germans and the Irish are compared when it comes to the acceptance of guests all over their house. In the following list, you'll find what areas they consider private, and what areas guests are welcome to:
Garden: French: Public, Germans: Public, Irish: Public
Couch: French: Public, Germans: Public, Irish: Public
Working Desk: French: Private, Germans: Private, Irish: Public
TV: French: Private, Germans: Private, Irish: Public
Refigerator: French: Private, Germans: Public, Irish: Public
Bed: French: Private, Germans: Private, Irish: Private
Car: French: Public, Germans: Private, Irish: Private
Shower: French: Private, Germans: Public, Irish: Public
Telephone: French: Private, Germans: Private, Irish: Private
You thought these countries were so close to each other their values were at least very similar? I guess not...
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yo you the truth homie, mad props....cannot really ask for much more without making you basically write my essay for me,lol....yo props on learning so much in your classes too dawg, you gots to have the right lecturer and a good mind state....believe it or not, i aint a dumb cat...its just my lecturer is someone who cannot get through to cats...like 15 mintues before its over, peopel already start talking...wanting to leave,. he has no idea of how keep people interested...and if you got cat in the morning, damn that shit is like a sleeping pill.....but we got like 2 different cats teaching us the lady we got is actually pretty good mang...she keeps you checking till the last second, and she looks like she wants to be teaching...other dude just comes in like he does it cuz he has to,haha....
anyway yo that private and public info was hella useful, thats gotta get me some marks, for looking outside the box and criticizing certain theories....mad props for that info......just a quick question....where did you get the info of which country considers certain things public and private?....did hofstede do that or is that done independent of these theories? and finally do some of these theories contradict with each other, or are some weaker than others?....like how can i give a good analysis of these theories?
peace!
p.s...mad props for the help mang, its dope to know cats on this board not only down with hiphop, but straight 2!
pz!
Elevz:
--- Quote from: LyRiCaL_G on April 09, 2007, 08:22:35 PM ---anyway yo that private and public info was hella useful, thats gotta get me some marks, for looking outside the box and criticizing certain theories....mad props for that info......just a quick question....where did you get the info of which country considers certain things public and private?....did hofstede do that or is that done independent of these theories? and finally do some of these theories contradict with each other, or are some weaker than others?....like how can i give a good analysis of these theories?
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I personally got the info from
Claes, Marie-Thérèse & Gerritsen, Marinel (2002): "Culturele Waarden en Communicatie in Internationaal Perspectief" (Cultural Values and Communication in International Perspective) (Coutinho, Bussum, Netherlands)
For the information on Private and Public spaces, they're referring to "Cultural Differences in Territorium and Public Spaces", by Bernard, Garric and Passette, 2000.
It's too bad the book doesn't have an accurate list of sources, so that's all I can tell. The whole list of "aspects to take into consideration" is also coming from the Cultural Values book.
None of the theories contradict each other; they're in fact more of an addition to each other. Of course, certain aspects may be of greater importance than others, but it's impossible to accurately define this. And let's not forget: culture is made up of some of what you see (symbols, heroes, rituals), but 8/9 of a culture is defined in moral values. There's so much about it you won't instantly experience when you're in a foreign country.
In general, by simply using Hofstede's cultural dimensions, you can pretty much globally analyse the setup of a country's culture. A google search for "Hofstede + dimensions" should help you a great deal, for instance take a look at this description of the dimensions, which is more accurate (and official) than the one I gave.
http://www.geert-hofstede.com/geert_hofstede_resources.shtml
You'll also find a more specific description of each country there. That should help you a great deal!
--- Quote from: LyRiCaL_G on April 09, 2007, 08:22:35 PM ---yo you the truth homie, mad props....cannot really ask for much more without making you basically write my essay for me,lol....yo props on learning so much in your classes too dawg, you gots to have the right lecturer and a good mind state....believe it or not, i aint a dumb cat...its just my lecturer is someone who cannot get through to cats...like 15 mintues before its over, peopel already start talking...wanting to leave,. he has no idea of how keep people interested...and if you got cat in the morning, damn that shit is like a sleeping pill.....but we got like 2 different cats teaching us the lady we got is actually pretty good mang...she keeps you checking till the last second, and she looks like she wants to be teaching...other dude just comes in like he does it cuz he has to,haha....
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I don't really have any dull lecturers in my school really! They might not always be the brightest - with some I wonder how they got their university degrees - but the stuff they teach is usually really interesting. I guess the environment has a lot to do with this; attending classes is not obligatory at my uni so most people who don't care simply don't show up at all. That's just the way things work, and it's really for the better.
--- Quote from: LyRiCaL_G on April 09, 2007, 08:22:35 PM ---p.s...mad props for the help mang, its dope to know cats on this board not only down with hiphop, but straight 2!
pz!
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You know that's cool 8)
LyRiCaL_G:
^^^yooo mad props on the info dawg, that info is gone be killin it....
anyyo mad props to all y'all again mang, i got wayy more than i could have asked or expected, dubbcc came through for a nigga once again mang! and like i said mang, this the last time imma be coming making y'all watse your times helping a brother out, but still mad props!
pz!
virtuoso:
No probs man, if you need some clarity with what I said then just say. As for what I am doing on a hip hop message board, before it was dubcc it was ingangsta, not sure how but in my uni days i was looking for some audio and stumbled across this site....allhiphop.com and a couple of others. First and foremost I am a lover of hip hop but then I got involved a little on the forums and then it just becomes infectious despite clowns like real american haha.
Oh by the way I have tried to elaborate on point 18 a little more because it seemed a little too vague before
jeromechickenbone:
I don't really have anything to contribute, but I think it's dope yall are spreadin some knowledge. +1 to all.
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