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From the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute’ s Definition of Culture, we can understand that Culture is made up of many elements. In this Chapter, we shall attempt to discuss some of the elements one by one.

From my research, I found that there are about 1,300 different ethnic groups, each having their own customs, traditions and taboos.

There are 500 different languages / dialects in the world.

In China alone, there are 56 different ethnic groups including the Hans, and each has its own language and/or dialect. Hans from different regions in China speak in different dialects as well. The marvelous phenomenon is that when the words are expressed in written forms, all ethnic groups in China write the same way, and they understand each other. Not all countries have such a phenomenon .

To enable the population of their countries to understand each other, most countries have official languages, some have only one official language, but it is also not uncommon to have more than one. Official languages tend to be the language of the dominant ethnic group in most countries. However, where the ethnic composition is spread evenly, so to speak, there may be more than one official language to appease the ethnic groups and to avoid possible ethnic tension. There are about 20 countries that have more than one language as their national/official languages. India ranks the top in terms of its number of official languages, 16 altogether, as far as I understand.

In an article from St. Ignatius High School, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, it cited articles by The Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) Ethnologue Survey, Dr. Bernard Comrie’ s article for the Encarta Encyclopedia (1998), and George Weber’ s article“Top Languages: The World’ s 10 Most Influential Languages”in Language Today(Vol. 2, Dec 1997).“After weighing six factors (number of primary speakers, number of secondary speakers, number and population of countries where used, number of major fields using the language internationally, economic power of countries using the languages, and socio—literary prestige), Weber compiled the following list of the world’ s ten most influential languages(number of points given in parentheses):

A common language used in different countries and/or regions of a particular country can have different meanings and subject to different interpretations.

There was a case about a lady of Chinese descent from a Southeast Asian country, which may well illustrate the issue. The case started when the lady landed in Shanghai’ s Pudong International Airport. Using English as her mother tongue, the lady only has a very limited knowledge about Chinese language. She hailed a taxi and tried to tell the driver in English her destination. The driver could not understand, and in her frustration, she tried to liken their communication difficulty to a situation that a chicken talked to a duck. She then told the driver in her limited Chinese, “I am a chicken and you are a duck...”The driver immediately told her to get off his car to take another taxi. In Chinese, to describe a female as a“chicken”means that she belongs to the world’ s oldest profession, i.e. prostitute. Similarly, saying a male being a duck means that he is of the same profession.

Non-verbal language, also known as body language, is also important in the study of the language element of culture. This branch of the communicative action is manifested in time, space, material possessions, friendship gestures and business negotiations.

Religion and Spiritual Traditions

The number of Religions and Spiritual Traditions, with its splinter groups, is just countless.

L. D. Howe in his article on Religion in Society described the relationship between Religion and Culture as:“Religion is almost always a belief in some form of supernatural happenings or causes. It is always associated with some sorts of discipline, something physical, mental or psychological. Such disciplines often manifest themselves as religious ritual or habitual behaviour. Religion underpins the emotions and logic of almost everyone. In today’ s secular societies, many deny the fact, but all are so steeped in the traditions and ideas basic to religion that it is impossible to shake off its effects. Even in societies where the official line has been that there is no God, the ordinary people have been so exposed to a long tradition of religious concepts that almost no-one could be devoid of its effects. Religion effectively provides an identity for those who consider themselves to be members of a particular group. Even those who do not consider themselves to be members, or do not actively participate, but are associated mainly with those are members of a sect, effectively identify themselves and are identified by others, as belonging to the culture of the sect.”

Religion satisfies the human need for spiritual fulfillment. It serves as a code of behavior for its believers to achieve the ideal of common good and a sense of well being.

What one group’ s beliefs would generate the realities of its culture, it may take time to formulate, but it is certainly how the society is navigated.

As such, religious influence on decision making must be analysed for the reason that those who profess faith may use it as a compass to view and judge all aspects of their own lives and actions of others.

Every religion has certain restrictions for their worshippers to follow in terms of food, dressing, behaviours,etc.

Political communities have distinctive ideologies, values, attitudes and behaviours. It is made up of recognizable, affective and evaluative directions towards a political system. Its essence is not agreement, but a common understanding of rights, regulations and responsibilities of membership, citizenship in the case of countries, to participate in the political process. It guides public life and is more lasting, stable and across generations. We can witness this by the different political systems that exist in this world, no matter they are communistic, democratic,etc.

American political scientists Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba in their book, “The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations”(1963) suggested 3 basic models of political culture based on their research.

They felt that political culture is determined by 3 main factors, namely, Awareness of government, Expectations of government and Participation in politics.

The 3 models of political culture are:

1.Parochial Culture (low awareness, expectations, and participation) e.g. Mexico

—Citizens are cognitive of political system

—Societies do not expect anything positive of government, nor do they participate in politics as it is seen as a domain of the elite

—Government is the enforcer of rules, thus to be avoided as much as possible

2.Subject Culture (higher awareness and expectations, but low participation) e.g. Italy, Germany

—Citizens are cognitive of only the output aspects of the political

—Societies expect positive action from the government, but citizens do not want to be active in politics

—Also see it as an elitist domain for the powerful and influential

3.Participatory Culture (high levels of awareness, expectations and participation) e.g. United Kingdom and United States of America

—Citizens are cognitive of both the input and output aspects of the system

—High expectation of the government and personal participation, at least in voting in elections

—It is the focal point of a democratic society

Through various political socializing activities, the political culture is passed down from generation to generations.

Thus, there are many different political systems based on their government:

1.Political Ideologies-Democracy like USA, Europe; Communism like China.

2.Economic System-Capitalist like USA; Socialist like China etc.

3.Government System-Monarchy like Brunei, some Middle

Eastern Countries; Parliamentary like Australia, New Zealand; and Republican like USA.

There are many countries with mixed systems such as United Kingdom and some European countries, Thailand and Malaysia with a mix of Monarchy/Parliamentary, where the executive powers rests with the government of the time, and the monarch is revered as a Head of State, a unifying symbol. Similarly, the Republican system of government may have the President as just a Head of State with limited or no executive powers, and the authority rests with the government of the time. Some European countries, Singapore and India subscribe to this system. But, USA, some European, Middle Eastern, African, China, and Russia adopt a system where the President has executive powers.

However, extremism in political ideologies exists in the world today. These extremists make use of religion to achieve their own ends by suppressing and terrorising people to submit to them. Terrorist incidents such as the well known“9·11”horrific incident and suicide bomb attacks in many countries are examples of the inhuman extremist acts.

Values, Attitudes and Behaviour

One tends to use the term“Values”rather interchangeably with“Attitudes”.

Kluckhohn, C. defined Values as “a conception, which is distinctive of an individual or characteristic of a group, influences the selection from available modes, means and ends of action”.

Values are fundamental convictions of an individual/group about what is right and wrong. A person’ s value system is acquired from hereditary, nature, nurture, education, society and other influences. It is fairly stable and lasting, so that we can predict a person’ s attitude and behavior towards a certain situation.

There are value differences between individuals, generations, social groups, organizations, regions and countries.

Values can be terminal or instrumental. Examples of terminal values are comfort/excitement, achievement, equality, peace, security, love, friendship, recognition and self-respect. Being ambitious, able, cheerful, helpful, forgiving, honest, creative, responsible, logical, caring are what we consider as instrumental values.

Values would generally influence attitudes and behaviour.

Attitudes, as defined by Hogg and Vaughan in 2002 as“an individual’ s evaluation—either positive or negative—of some person, object or issue”and by Rockeach M. in 1973 as“an organization of several beliefs around a specific object or situation”.

There are 3 evaluative components in Attitudes:

1.Cognitive — a value statement as the opinion or belief segment

2.Affective — emotional or feeling

3.Behaviour— intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or　something

Attitudes of a person come from nurture, education, peer groups, observations and imitation, even though there are “genetic”dispositions. Attitudes can be changed, thus not as stable as values.

We often come across the proverb“Birds of the same feather flock together” .Thus, people of the same values, attitudes and behaviours tend to group together. We can see this phenomenon in schools, social groups, Organizations, races, regions, countries, religions, political groups. It is what we recognize as the culture of the groupings. Typical examples are the NGOs, pressure groups, political parties.

Customs and Traditions

Customs are a set of generally agreed standards, norms and practices of a group. It may be in written form as in the laws, rules and regulations of a country, social grouping and organization. For example, spitting and littering are unacceptable behaviours in most countries; Singapore has it in their laws to impose very heavy penalties to the offenders. Drink driving is now an offence in many countries with very heavy penalties. China, I believe, is perhaps one of the strictest countries with the toughest punishment to drink drivers. Another example is that the drivers in the UK and its former colonies drive on the left side of roads, while drivers of most other countries including China drive on the right side of the road. It may also be unwritten, such as not to shake hands with ladies when being introduced in conservative societies or for religious reason.

Traditions are beliefs, objects or customs originating from and performed or believed in the past, handed down through time from one generation to the next, and are still performed or believed at present. Wedding ceremony is a typical example which differs from region to region, country to country, religion to religion, race to race，and so on. The transmission can be done orally or written through stories, poetries and verses. Religious rituals are passed down through the carved scriptures. Confucian and Taoist teachings are recorded in volumes and handed down over the years.

Traditions are thought to be antique and sacrosanct. Respect for the elderly is one such example in the Eastern culture. It is said that it must survive for at least 2 to 3 generations for any practice, belief or object to be seen as traditional. Some traditions were created for a specific reason, to stress the importance of a certain practice. The cremation of the deceased is unheard of in the past, but because of scarcity of land, it is now a very common practice. It took generations to have cremation accepted by the people and various religious groups. Traditions may be adapted to suit current requirements, and the amendments may be acceptable as a part of the ancient tradition. Having smaller families for economic reasons in modern society instead of the traditional bigger families to provide the necessary labour for the agricultural past is one example. It still maintains the tradition of marriage and family when one reaches adulthood. Tradition may change at a slow pace, with changes from one generation to the next not being seen as significant. As such traditions will not be consciously aware of the change, and even if a tradition undergoes major changes over many generations, it will be seen as unchanged. The transition, change and/or simplification of political systems and religious practices give many testimonies to this. China’ s reform and opening-up is a very good example.

The Material element of culture refers to physical objects, resources and spaces, the results of technology that is directly related to how an organization, a region, a country organises its economic activity. It concerns the economic, social, financial and marketing infrastructures of these entities.

Material culture is manifested through the availability of transportation, communication tools, energy, housing, education, health, banks, places of worship, offices, factories and plants, tools, means of production, goods and products, stores,etc.

The possessions of these physical aspects determine the values, attitudes and behaviours of the members of a particular society. The caste system of India is a typical example.

Technological advancement in communication has created a generation of youngsters who just can not survive without their electronic devices. We can see this phenomenon at homes, offices, public transport and many other places. It is not unusual to have people with earphones stuck in their ears, eyes glued to their ipads, using multiple mobile phones and communicating electronically even though they may be staying together at home or sitting next to each other in the office, totally oblivious of their surroundings. People who do not use or do not know how to use such instruments are considered not with it, or worse antiquated.

Food & Agriculture Organization,“Global agricultural marketing management (Marketing and Agribusiness Texts) 1997 Chapter 3 The Cultural Environment”defines Aesthetics as“refer to the ideas in a culture concerning beauty and good taste as expressed in the arts—music, art, drama and dancing and the particular appreciation of colour and form”.

Fashions, artifacts, art, performing arts are but just a few of the items where different ethnic, religious groups would have their own standards of aesthetics. Chinese would like red for joyous occasions of Marriage and Spring Festivals, Royalties in ancient China, Brunei, Malaysia, and Thailand would have monopoly of the yellow colour as their royal colour.

Buddhists, Taoists and Catholics would have statues in their places of worship, while some Christian denominations have no statues.

Education transfers skills, ideas, attitudes and training in specific disciplines. Education can disseminate cultural ideas or be used for changing a group, a region, and a nation’ s future direction.

It is common for graduates of schools, colleges and universities to form discipline-based alumni as platforms to foster future liaison and mutual help in their careers. Internationally, we have the Harvard, Ivy League, Oxbridge, Peking, Tsinghua and Renmin Alumni for the graduates to interact, exchange ideas. There’ re also fraternities of different professions and disciplines. The bonding is international and strong. They have their own specific value systems, attitudes and behavior.

Organizations and Social Institutions

Organizations, such as government, business or social groups of people which relate to each other, with a common goal, belief and practice. Starting with the smallest unit, the family (immediate and extended), it extends to kinship, tribal, religious, political, interest, and pressure groups.

United Nations and its various Agencies, Regional groupings like EC, SCO, ASPAC, ASEAN countries, NGOs like Red Cross(Crescent),　Oxfam, Green Peace, Sports fraternities Olympic Council, FIFA, IAAU and FINA are just but a few organizations and institutions.

Clan, PTAs and Trade Associations are the social institutions that can be influential and determines the value system, attitudes, behaviour, thus the forming culture of the respective grouping.

All these Organizations and social institutions have their common vision, mission and goals, to serve the interest and betterment of their members on a micro scale, and of human on a macro scale.

In this Chapter, we have an understanding of the various elements that contribute to the culture of a group, an organization, an ethnic group, a region/country. In the next Chapter, we shall look at some aspects of cultural differences.