14 Apr 2012
School
Department
Course
Professor
Cultural Patterns
Today’s Plan
- Beliefs
- Values
- Norms
- Social behaviours
Introduction to Kluckhorn and Strodtbeck’s value orientations
Introduction of Assignment 2
Cultural Patterns:
- Shared beliefs, values, norms, and social practices that are …. (Pg. 85)
- Cultural patterns are expressed as concrete actions within a particular context
o Communication
o Food
o Artefacts
o Etc.
- That arise out of more abstract aspects of human experience
- Cultural patterns are interpretive frames that provide a means for operating in the particular
circumstances in which we live
- Geert Hofstede calls these patterns “software of the mind”
- Factors affecting cultural patterns
o Biology
o Geography (location)
o Environment (lived and natural)
o Technology
- Within each of these settings, groups of people respond to the particular combination of
circumstances in ways that allow the continuance of social life.
- Solutions are found for the unique problems that each of these settings presents
Compare:
- Open, fertile grasslands, with abundant water and nearby trees in a moderate climate. Draft
animals and strong metallurgical skills.
- Tropical rainforest with thin soil and no metals to speak of, an abundance of animals and fruits