11 June 2012 The article “The Anthropology of Manners” by Edward T. Hall suggests different culture has their rules of what is considers good manners and bad manners. Also society has a habit of connecting the way a person behaves to the culture of their country; therefore that behavior becomes an identity for that individual action. However, Hall states what one culture perceives as good manners maybe consider bad manners in another culture, because some values and acceptable behaviors in different cultures are vague, unclear and not well known. Hall gives different examples how the use of space, whether it is personal or physical vary in cultures from the United States, Latin American and Middle East. For instance, in the United States
M3. Explain why conformity and obedience are important in the public services, with reference to research studies. Conformity and obedience are forms of social influence which strongly affect our behaviour is social situations, from following fashions and unwritten social norms which organise our behaviour, to committing immoral acts because we are commanded to by someone who appears to be in a position of authority. This essay looks at the similarities and differences between the three, looking specifically at the factors that influence each two. Conformity within a group entails members changing their attitudes and beliefs in order to match those of others within the group.
James Rachels’ on Normative Cultural Relativism Every culture has its own customs, traditions and beliefs that dictate the actions of its citizens. Cultural relativism states that although practices and ethical beliefs differ from society to society, it must be accepted as good, relative to each respective culture’s beliefs and moral code. Rachels believes that an act that may be frowned upon in one culture may in fact be totally acceptable in another. The theory of Cultural Relativism puts in action the idea of what people believe is morally right and how it relates to the culture that it is practiced in. Morals concern what is right and wrong.
Ethical standards are the code of conduct required by the organization for workers to follow. The relationship between organizational culture and ethics is that the organizational culture guides workers when faced with ethical problems. If the organization culture counters what they are required to do ethically, workers may put the organization in jeopardy by not act ethically. When a worker is faced with a decision that others within the organization think as appropriate, though it is unethical, the worker may follow what is acceptable as per the culture. It is the relationship between organizational culture and ethics that can get businesses into significant trouble in the long term.
− Is it necessary? − Constructing hierarchy − Constructing inequality through ideology − ideology: a set of beliefs and values − typically, that are a worldview, or that explain a worldview − often (not always) characteristic of a culture: shared ideas about how the world works, and shared values about what is good, bad, appropriate, etc. − Most or all societies have an ideology that naturalizes their social organization − makes it seem normal, reasonable, necessary, natural − ideologies are emic − they are ideas that the people in a society have about their own society − how they see their own cultural world − Some societies have ideology of equality − such as the Ju/’hoansi − most societies societies today have ideologies of inequality Intro to Cultural Anthro S 2011 / Owen: Social and economic hierarchies p. 5 − that is, they have an ideology that naturalizes inequality − makes differences in status, prestige, wealth, power, etc. seem normal, right, natural, inevitable − that allow people to construct and think about ranked categories in ways that
The role of an individual can be to be a part of the community. But if the community is too controlling then the individuals cannot express themselves. There are a few fundamental ways in which conformity is important in society. These include the importance of following the law to ensure safety, peace and harmony within our community. If society had no laws to which to conform than it would be pandemonium.
Ideas of what is orderly and disorderly are also imagined and invoked by different communities in different ways. These ways of imagining order and disorder are heavily mediated through the mass media. (Staples et al., 2009) While there seems to have always been disorderly behaviour, it has a history. Forms of social order that are acceptable to some people may be seen as unequal and unjust to others, and thus prompt disorder as a form of resistance or opposition. Rather than addressing issues of inequality and injustice, people in positions of power may focus on governing forms of disorder.
Conformity is an act of matching one’s character and personality to another that is socially accepted and perceived as “normal” in a situation or group. Social norms are implicit, unsaid rules shared by a group of individuals that guide their interactions with others. Conformity is the tendency to align your attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those around you. It’s a powerful force that can take the form of direct or overt social pressure or subtler unconscious influence. Three reasons why people conform are social pressure or norms (normative social influence), the need to look right or not foolish (informational social influence), and the desire for security within a group often of a similar age, culture, religion, ethical values, or educational status.
Belonging can be self-fulfilling and self-destructive. Discuss. The belief in an ideology can give shape and meaning to the world and create a sense of belonging to a community. However prioritising personal beliefs over those of the community may require difficult choices that can lead to individual suffering and possible tragedy. There are many ways through which an individual can belong to a group or relationship, nevertheless some individuals find it difficult to establish similarities in identity with others, so must suppress their individuality in order to belong or else completely withdraw.
Culture includes social norms, attitudes, values and beliefs which are learned and shared by people who are members of a particular society. The major problem that limits the definitions of abnormality is culture bound which means a group of people at a period of time accept some behaviours but these behaviours are unacceptable to others. Culture bound syndromes are psychological disorders that are limited to a particular culture, for example ghost sickness in American Indian groups. An extreme preoccupation with death and dead people causes nightmares, sense of danger, hallucinations and feelings of suffocation. We cannot judge ghost sickness behaviours properly without viewing the context of American Indian culture; this fact is cultural relativism.