Importance of intercultural communication to ist assignment
Importance of intercultural communication to ist assignment
These institutions tell you how we fit into the grand scheme of things, whether you should believe in fate or the power of free choice, why there is suffering, what to expect from life, where your loyalties should reside, and even how to prepare for death – these and other consequential issues fall under the domain of church, family, and state. ii) Deep Structure Institutions and their messages endure The enduring quality of the major institutions of culture, and the messages they carry, is one of the ways in which cultures are preserved.
These institutions are important because they endure through time we can trace the strong pull of religion, family and community. Generations after generation of children are told about Abraham, Moses, the Buddha, Christ, Muhammad, and the like. Whether it is the Eightfold Path, the Ten Commandments, or the Five Pillars of Islam, the messages of these writings survive. Each generation is given the wisdom, traditions and customs that make a culture unique. However, one needs to be aware of the fact that often deep-seated hatreds that turn one culture against another also endure. ii) Deep Structure Institutions and their Messages are Deeply Felt The content generated by these institutions, and the institutions themselves, arouse deep and emotional feelings. Think for a moment about the violent reactions that can be produced by taking God’s name in vain. Countries and religious causes have been able to send young men to war, and politicians have attempted to win elections by arousing people to the importance of God, country, and family. Regardless of a person’s culture, the deep structure of that culture is something people feel intensely about. v) Deep Structure Institutions Supply Much of Our Identity We are not born with an identity and of the most important responsibilities of any culture is to assist its member in forming their identities. Through countless interactions we discover who we are. “ We learn our identities through socialization. Charon. Remember that socialization takes place in the family. As you come in contact with other people, you begin to develop a variety of identities. “ Everyone has multiple identities which may compete with or reinforce each other e. g. inship, occupational, cultural, institutional, territorial, educational, partisan, ideological and others. Your identity, who you are, is composed of many facets (Huntington). These and countless other “ memberships,” help define you. However the identities that mean the most to people are gained through deep structure institutions. That is, at some point in your life you move from identities based on the “ I” to identities linked to “ We. ” You begin to see yourself as part of a larger unit. At some point of time in early life, the child’s “ I am! ” announces the birth of a sense of community. I am” differentiates me from other individuals. “ We are” makes me aware of the other dominant group (or groups) sharing the physical and cognitive space of my community. ” Kakar As you can see, this “ we” identity connects the individual to cultural groups and the main institutions of the culture. “ People define themselves in terms of ancestry, religion, language, history, values, customs and institutions. ” Huntington, Regardless of the culture, each individual identifies himself or herself as a member of these cultural organizations.
The pervasive impact of our world view Olayiwola to conclude that a culture’s world view influences the social, economic and political life of a nation. Because world views deal with the topics that penetrate all phases of human existence, they start with questions about what we commonly call the meaning of life. The importance of examining these crucial issues has been identified by Pennington: “ If one understands a culture’s world view and cosmology, reasonable accuracy can be attained in predicting behaviors and motivations in other dimensions.
Worldview, therefore, is a culture’s orientation toward God, humanity, nature, questions of existence, nature, the universe and cosmos, life, morals and ethical reasoning, suffering, sickness, death, and other philosophical issues that influence how its members perceive the world around them. E. g. , the Islamic world view provides insight into the Islamic culture’s perception of women. Bianquis points out, “ Generally speaking a woman as an individual, was subordinated to man both by the Quran and the Hadith. God created woman from a fragment of man’s body that she might serve him. Knowledge of world view can even help you understand a culture’s perception of nature. People perceive them as lasting things among which their ancestors lived and died Another link between world view and behavior can be seen in how a culture perceives the business arena. The foundation of a nation’s culture and the most important determinant of social and business conduct are the religious and philosophical beliefs of a people. From them ‘ spring’ role perceptions, behavior patterns, codes of ethics and the institutionalized manner in which economic activities are performed.
Culture deals with the nature of life and death, the creation of the universe, the origin of society and groups within the society, the relationship of individuals and groups to one another, and the relation of humankind to nature. (Nanda) The deep structure of culture deals with issues that matter most to people. Whether it is conceptions of the first cause of all things, or natural occurrences such as comets, floods, lightning, thunder, drought, famine, disease, or an abundance of food, people rely on religious explanations.
The study of religion not only assists one in their quest for a meaning and purpose to life, but it also gives clues into the social aspects of a culture. The social functions of religion are no less important than the psychological functions. A traditional religion reinforces group norms, provides moral sanctions for individual conduct and furnishes the substratum of common purpose and values upon which the equilibrium of the community depends. (Haviland) Religion offers insight into the members of that culture. As Lamb observes, “ It is clear that religion and culture are inextricably entwined
Whether the figure is a supreme all-knowing God such as Allah, a philosopher such as the Buddha, Jesus, “ the Son of God,” recipients of divine revelation such as Moses or Muhammad, or the wise counsel of Confucius, all traditions have someone greater than the individual who can be turned to for emotional and spiritual direction. 3) Traditional Rituals Rituals, like so many aspects of culture, are not instinctive and therefore, need to be passed on from generation to generation if they are to endure. Ritual is one of the oldest, most complex and persistent symbolic activities associated with religions.
According to Haviland, not only is ritual a means for reinforcing a group’s social bonds and for relieving tensions, but it is also one way many important events are celebrated and crises, such as death, made less socially disruptive and less difficult for individuals to bear. Rituals serve an assortment of purposes. In addition to what Haviland notes, rituals also express the psychic, social and religious world to its participants while providing “ identity and structure. ” Rituals take a variety of forms.
This recognition of the importance of time may mark important days, months, years, life cycles and significant historical events. Religious Traditions Something worth noting: i) Religion is but one kind of world view, and even the person who says “ There is no God” has answers to the large questions about the nature of truth, how the world operates, life, death, suffering, and social relationships. It is important to realize that everyone has a worldview whether or not he or she can recognize or state. Ridenour ii) Religion pervades many spheres which we might call secular and it cannot easily be separated from them.
Hendry It is often difficult to draw a line between religion and a subtle manifestation of religion. What one person might call religion or world view another might call philosophy. For our purposes, the labeling is not nearly as important as the notion that a culture’s heritage includes ways of dealing with timeless and fundamental questions. iii) “ The world’s major religious traditions have both reflected and shaped the values of the societies of which they have been an inseparable element. The focus of religion is in persons and in human interaction. Christianity
For example, salvation, particularly for Protestants, “ is achieved by our own efforts alone and there is a tendency for deeds to count more than prayers. ” Christianity discovers individuality in the sense that it stresses personal conversion. In addition, the Christian theology begins with the assumption that the world is real and meaningful because God created it. Human beings are significant because God created them in his image. God has a special relationship with each person in that God sees and hears, rewards, and punishes. Each person is important to him.
The Christian God is a personal God, who desires a relationship with his creation. ” In a culture that values individualism, Christianity is perhaps the perfect religion. “ Doing” Much of the Western “ doing” orientation can be found in the life of Jesus. Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, once said, “ He went about doing good. ” This example set by Jesus was translated into action. For instance, the Romans would cast out people into the streets at the first sign of sickness because they were afraid of dying. Christians would take an active role and try to nurse the sick. ” This is not an isolated instance.
For example, with the exception of the Catholic Church, the number of women who are becoming priests is growing at a rapid rate. Some biblical scholars are asserting that Jesus might well have been a feminist. They offer some of the following examples to justify their claim. First, prior to the coming of Jesus, Roman society regarded women as inherently inferior to men. Husbands could divorce their wives but wives could not divorce their husbands. Jesus banned all divorce. Men could even marry girls ten or eleven years old. Jesus challenged all of these practices.
Wrote one biblical scholar, “ The new religion offered women not only greater status and influence within the church, but also more protection as wives and mothers. “” Second, “ although he called only men to be apostles, Jesus readily accepted women into his circle of friends and disciples. “” Defying custom, Jesus even invited women to join him at meals. All of this leads Murphy to note, “ Women were often prominent in the accounts of his ministry, and he acknowledged the oppression they face. ” Finally, Jesus helped define a new role for women by giving them greater responsibility.
This family can be defined either as a religious group or a national group. At the heart of the Jewish religion, lies the existence of a covenant between God and his people. Although Jews believe that God’s providence extends to all people, they also hold to the notion God entered into this special covenant (solemn agreement) with them. In this agreement God promised to make Israel a great nation; in response the Jewish people were to be obedient to God and to carry God’s message by example. From circumcision to the observing of the Sabbath, signs of the covenant abound in Jewish culture and religion.
It is this covenant that is at the heart of why Jews consider themselves God’s “ chosen people. In Jewish theology this special consideration never meant advantages for the Jews, only increased responsibilities and hardships. The Jewish world view is expressed through a number of concepts basic to the faith: (1) God is one, (2) no human ever will be divine (3) humans are free (4) humans are the pinnacle of creation (5) Jews belong to a group or nation whose goal is to serve God, and (6) humans must be obedient to the God given commandments in the Torah (first five books of the Bible) and assume personal responsibility
As early as the first century, Jews had a system of compulsory education. Even today, after being in existence for thousands of years, occupations using the mind (teacher, lawyer, doctor, writer, and so on), are popular professions in the Jewish community. Justice The Jewish faith also teaches a strong sense of justice. An individual’s responsibility and moral commitment to God and other people is clearly spelled out in detail in all Jewish religious writings. In fact, one of the four categories of Jewish law is actually “ To ensure moral treatment of others. ‘” You can see this concern for justice in everything from ancient Jewish writings to the active role Jews played during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. So strong is this basic precept that Smith believes much of Western civilization owes a debt to the early Jewish prophets for establishing the notion of justice as a major principle for the maintenance of “ social order. Family For the Jew the family is the focus of worship and devotion. On nearly every occasion, be it in the home or the synagogue, the family is an active participant in the Jewish religion.
From circumcisions, to Passover Seders, to Bar Mitzvahs, to marriage and death, the family and religion are strongly bond together. For 4, 000 years, the Jewish family has been the very core, mortar, and citadel of Judaism’s faith and the central reason for the survival of the Jews as a distinct ethnic group. The Jewish home is a temple, according to Judaic law, custom, and tradition. Rosten. c) Islam Some 1. 3 billion human beings one person in five-heed Islam’s call in the modern world, embracing the religion at a rate that makes it the fastest growing on Earth, with 80 percent of believers now outside the Arab world.
The first Pillar is called tawhid. While this term can have a variety of meanings, it mainly calls attention to the fact that Muslims believe in one, unique, incomparable, eternal God. So strong is this commitment to the “ one true God” that Muslims believe that every other deity is false and that “ it is a grievous sin to worship any other force or being in the universe. You can clearly observe this obligation and commitment to a single God in the word Islam, which is the infinitive of the Arab verb meaning “ to submit. The word Muslim is the present participle of the same verb.
A Muslim, then, is one who accepts and submits to the will of Allah. So powerful is this belief in Allah that, according to Fisher and Luyster, “ The first sentence chanted in the ear of a traditional Muslim infant is the Shahadah-`La ilaha illa `llah. ” This saying literally means, “ There is no god but God. ” To utter this allegiance to a single God is also one way a person can become a Muslim. They also believe that everything, good or evil, proceeds directly from the divine will as it is irrevocably recorded on the Preserved Tablets. This orientation produces fatalism: whatever happens has been willed by Allah.
The result of Allah’s judgment determines whether each person will be sent to heaven or hell. The Islamic teaching makes it very clear that these two places are poles apart. Speaking of heaven Elias notes, “ The Qur’an paints an extremely vivid picture of Heaven as a garden with streams and fruit trees, where we will live a lavish and comfortable life. The picture of Hell, for those who oppose Allah and his prophet Mohammed, is very different. For example, in Hell, according to Islam “ infidels, or unbelievers, will experience the torments of Hell, fire fueled by humans, boiling water, pus, chains, searing winds, food that chokes, and so forth.
While many Muslims may only see these two descriptions are metaphors for an afterlife, the two depictions nevertheless underscore the importance of good and evil, and the consequences of each, in Islamic reaching. vi) Five Pillars of Practice Having looked at the Five Pillars of Faith, we are now ready to see how these Pillars are put into practice. The acting out of these Pillars is referred to as the Five Pillars of Practice (Statement of Belief, Prayer, Fasting, Alms, and Pilgrimage). Many Muslims follow a sixth Pillar-Jihad-which we will include in our analysis.