CHAPTER I. …………………….. I.1. Culture. Definition. The term culture has different deffinitions according to whom you ask. It can mean a… [616461]

CHAPTER I. ……………………..
I.1. Culture. Definition.
The term culture has different deffinitions according to whom you ask. It can mean a heritage
from our ancestors or simply a set of traditions and ways of thinking belonging to a specific
group.
Culture has also been described as ‘’…shared features which encapsulate people together in
a community’’ (Shah, 2003). 1
According to Edward Taylor, the term ‘’culture or civilization is that complex whole which
includes knowledge, belie f, art, moral, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of society’’. Edward Taylor, 1871: vol.1. ( François Ruegg,
Rudolf Poledna, 2006, pg 15).
It is thought that man, as member of a society, acquires culture throught socialization,
acculturation, or enculturation processes, and that culture is a complex organism or system.
‘’The term culture has different assotiations according to whether we have in mind the
developement of an individual, of a group or class, or of a whole society.’’ ( T. S. Eliot, 1948,
pg 19).
T.S. Eliot consider that the culture of an individual is dependent upon the culture of a group
or class, and that the last one is dependent upon the culture of the whole society to which
they belong. So, we can say that the reflection of the culture cannot be seen only in an
individual or in a group, but in the background of the whole society.
‘’The culture of the individual cannot be isolated for that of the group, and the culture of the
group cannot be abstracted from that of the whole society’’ (T. S. Eliot, 1948, pg 22 )
Also it is said that ‘’no culture can appear or develop except in relation to a religion’’ (T. S.
Eliot, 1948, pg 26). The religion that one individual has may have repersussions in his way
of living. The beliefs, rules, conditions of a religion can become for some people the only
accepted way of living, and that is what we can call someone’s culture too.

1 Preluat din: https://www.kent.ac.uk/cewl/documents/external/talking –
cultures/W2/Talking%20Cultures% 20Week%202%20Unit%201%20 -%20Cultural%20Identity1%20 –
%20handout.pdf , în data de 16.02.2019, ora 18:20.

Concluding this concept, we may say that ‘’a culture is conceived as the creation of the
society as a whole’’ .(T. S. Eliot, 1948, pg 35 )
MULTI, INTER AND TRANS
Nowadays, the term ‘’culture’’ is replaced by the notions such as, multi -culturalism,
intercultural communication and transnational relations.
The notion multi -cultura lism is represented by the prefix multi -, which highlights ''the
importance of cultural differences as well as their related boundaries'' and ''the sharp
separation between ethnocultural collectivities .'' (François Ruegg, Rudolf Poledna, 2006, pg
19)
There are a lot of countries which can be an example of all those cultural differences such
as Germany or Switzerland, whose situations regarding the term multi are completely
different.
In Germany, the term multi has a negative connotation towards the mig ratory phenomenon
because of the presence of the many different cultures living in this country. The need of
coexistence between different cultures was not possible because of their high differentiation
and as a result of all this problem they found themse lves in front of what it might be more
than a simple problem of multi -culturalism, but a social disaster.
In Switzerland, on the contrary, this term has a positive connotation and all the social,
linguistic, religious and cultural fields agree on the fact that this country is a multi -cultural
one. Despite the fact that the country has also four separate communities and that each one
has a different culture itself, all the society is managing to collaborate and they are very
succesfull regarding their coexis tance and promovation of the diversity as a quality of the
country, not as a reason of discrimination or disagreements between the members of the
various cultures. This kind of problems have also been avoided between titular nation and
minority groups due to the cultural diversity that has been imposed within Switzerland’s
political system.
The prefix multi is regarded as a very important concept towards culture and it defines
societies as a unity of different values, religions, languages, beliefs and tradi tions, which
enrich a country.
The prefixes inter and multi are considered as beeing opposed. While multi regards the
culture as a coexistence of various cultures, the prefix inter ‘’presupposes a more

universalistic view and a more voluntarist leaning’’ Akkari, 2002 ( François Ruegg, Rudolf
Poledna, 2006, pg 22).
The prefix inter represents the concept of intercultural communication whose meaning is
clearly represented by the capacity of each individual to choose to be part of one culture or
not. Every pe rson should be able to define himself as part of a culture and to shape himself
according to his own beliefs.
The notion, interculturalit é is obviously comming from France and it has a great importance
regarding individuals comming from different cultures and this importance comes from the
fact that foreigners become to be loyal to the French culture. They start gradually to pass
from their own culture to the french one by assimilating their lifestyle, their traditions and
customs, their values and even th eir behaviours. The best example in this case is represented
by the national soccer team which is formed from individuals belonging to different cultures,
but in spite of that fact, they work together and understand each other in honour of their
team.
The concept, transnational relations is represented by the prefix trans, which means ''an
explicitly voluntarist standing often implying utopian contents by which a human being can
be above and beyond his surrounding society that tries to lock him up withi n rigid norms,
pre-established identities, and ineluctable behaviour models'' (François Ruegg, Rudolf
Poledna, 2006, pg 23).
More explicitellly, the prefix trans means, the possibility any individual has of choosing to
follow or not the rules of his society without any restrictions and to act according to his own
feelings or toughts, beyond the fear or conscience of belonging to a specific society or
culture, which dissagree a certain type of behaviour or beliefs.
According to many doccuments, we fin d ourselves in front of a difference between the
prefixes multi and trans. While the prefix multi group people into a certain category or part
of a culture, the prefix trans, on the contrary, offers the possibility of each individual to
choose freely their membership of one or more collectivities and, to respect o follow certains
traditions, or not.
According to some studies, this ideea of ‘’free will’’ that the prefix trans is trying to
demonstrate is not completely true after all and the real question is if there is really any
semantic difference between the prefixes trans and inter.

Finally, it is revealed that it does not exist a basic model of culture because each prefix has
its own arguments and only together they form a complex deffinition of what cu lture is. So,
we may not believe that only one of those prefixes is superior for the following reasons:
• It is not possible to remain restricted to only one of these prefixes because of the
necessity of interpreting and understanding all the different cultu res by a system
which should involve all the existent knowledges that can ‘’express the plurality of
processes and relations.’’ (François Ruegg, Rudolf Poledna, 2006, pg 24).
• Different contextual situations need different methods, i.d. the contribution of a ll the
three concepts represented by the prefixes multi, inter and trans, used simultaneously
in the same sociely or culture.
• All the three prefixes are used together to develop new complementary concepts.
• Different disciplines from social sciences are defined by different processes
according to differents societies, as we can observe in the study of the US philosopher
David Hollinger, who has created the terms pluralistic multi -culturalism, which
concerns the classic term, multi, and the term cosm opolite multi -culturalism, which
is defined as trans.
• Ultimatelly, the prefixes multi and inter are used merely in the context of belonging
to one group or culture, and the prefix trans is used to express the freedom individuals
have of creating their own
As a conclusion, we may say that all the three prefixes are importants for the study of
cultures and their evolution, and we must be conscious that culture is a large concept that
needs to be studied carrefully.
I.1.1 Cultural identity
We can define the term ‘’cultural identity’’ as the capacity of each individual to consider
himself an unique entity.
This cultural identity can be also passed on from a cultural group member to a imigrant, not
only from generation to generation.
Language is one of the main factors which shows us the social identity of an individual.
Another factors could be religion, beliefs, behaviours, traditions and customs. This identity
is defined as the belonging of one person to a specific country, region, social group, cult ural
movement etc.

Cultural identity includes two subdivisions, as we can see below:
‘’Social identity is thought of as the culturally defined personality characteristics, which are
ascribed to social roles, such as the role of being a father, mother, fri end, employer or
employee (Bhugra and Becker, 2005).’’ 2
‘’Ethnic identity is a source of social identity. Composed of people who may or may not
share the same race but do share common cultural characteristics, including history, beliefs,
values, food and entertainment preferences, religion and language. Ethnicity typically
incorporates both race and culture (Shah, 2004).’’ 3

2 Preluat din: https://www.kent.ac.uk/cewl/documents/external/talking –
cultures/W2/Talking%20Cultures%20Week%202%20Unit%201%20 -%20Cultural%20Identity1%20 –
%20handout.pdf , în data de 16.02.2019, ora 20:00.
3 Preluat din: https://www.kent.ac.uk/cewl/documents/external/talking –
cultures/W2/Talking%20Cultures%20Week%202%20Unit %201%20 -%20Cultural%20Identity1%20 –
%20handout.pdf , în data de 16.02.2019, ora 20:00.