What is culture? The late British writer Raymond Williams (1983) wrote that culture
“is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language”
(p. 89). Edward T. Hall (1959), a pioneer in the study of culture and intercultural
communication, observes that much of the difficulty is that “culture controls
behavior in deep and persisting ways, many of which are outside of awareness and
therefore beyond conscious control of the individual” (p. 35). Perhaps the song
“Tradition” from the musical Fiddler on the Roof best extols the intricate composition
of culture: “Because of our traditions, we keep our sanity . . . Tradition tells
us how to sleep, how to work, how to wear clothes . . . How did it get started? I
don’t know—it’s tradition . . . Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he
is and what God expects of him.” Traditions express a particular culture, provide
people with a mindset, and give them a sense of belonging and uniqueness. As
Hall (1976) notes, “Culture is man’s medium; there is not one aspect of human
life that is not touched and altered by culture” . Therefore, it can be valuable
to explore how others have defined this medium and related terms.
CULTURE AND RELATED TERMS
A primary characteristic distinguishing humans from other animals is our
development of culture, which many think of as a place—the South American
culture of Brazil, the Western European culture of France, the Middle East culture
of Saudi Arabia, and the Far East culture of China. Culture may certainly
include geography as well as material objects and artifacts (Herskovits, 1955)
but Clifford Geertz (1973) perceives culture more importantly to be the means
by which people “communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge
about and attitudes towards life. Culture is the fabric of meaning in terms of
which human beings interpret their experience and guide their action” (p. 24).
Keesing (1974) suggests that our cultures provide us with “internal models of
reality” (p. 89) and implicit theories of the “games being played” in our
societies, whereas Olsen (1978) points out that “as people communicate the
meanings of their actions to each other and work out shared interpretations of
activities and definitions of situations, they develop a common culture that is
shared by the participants . . . providing them with interpretations of social
life, role expectations, common definitions of situations, and social norms”
.We are not born with the genetic imprint of a particular culture, but
rather learn about our culture through interactions with parents, extended
family members, friends, teachers, and others who are part of the culture.
Moreover, television and other electronic media convey many of the day-to-day norms and expectations of our culture (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli,
1980). The mutually shared beliefs, values, and norms that characterize culture
give each of us guidelines about what things mean, what is important, and what
should be done. Philip Harris and Robert Moran (1991) observe that “culture
gives people a sense of who they are, of belonging, of how they should behave,
and what they should be doing”  Consequently, “culture is not one thing,
but many” . Culture is the luggage we carry with us in our
daily lives and when we travel abroad. It is a set of objective and subjective
elements that shape perception and define our worldview.
Besides culture, there are other related terms that require definition if we
are to properly put in perspective the relationship between culture and international business. These terms are often used interchangeably with culture
or referred to in conjunction with culture—nation, ethnicity, race, subculture,
counterculture, enculturation, acculturation, and popular culture.
• Nation is a political term referring to the formal governmental and legal
apparatus that structurally binds a geographic region together (e.g., the
United States, Mexico, France, Egypt, or Japan) and regulates how leaders
are selected, the way diplomatic relations are conducted, and what social,
political, economic, and educational institutions should do to serve the
greater community.
• Ethnic group refers to a wide variety of groups who might share a
language, historical origin, religion, or home culture (e.g., African
Americans, Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Polish Americans, Italian
Americans, or Mexican Americans).
• Race, although biological in nature, is more a political and legal construction
referring to certain physical similarities (e.g., skin color or
eye shape) that are shared by a group of people and used to justify economic
and social distinctions.
• Subcultures or co-cultures are groups of people compatibly co-existing
within a larger culture, yet possessing a conscious identity that distinguishes
them from others within the larger society. Subculture or coculture
is often used to refer to ethnic and racial groups that share both a
common national boundary with the larger collectivity as well as many of
the other aspects of the prevailing macroculture. However, we can also
identify and talk about other types of subcultures or co-cultures that
share many common cultural ideas with the larger culture while still
possessing some that are unique (e.g., an urban subculture, homeless
subculture, rural subculture, family subculture, legal subculture, or
The Concept of Intercultural Communication and the Cosmopolitan Leader
business/organizational subculture). These subcultures of identification
are often defined by class, education, age, religion, wealth, residence, work,
family, or gender and assume significance depending upon their saliency
for any particular individual.
• Countercultures are groups that engage in behavior that is distinctively
different from and in opposition to that of the dominant culture.
Members of these groups not only reject the values of the larger culture
but also actively confront society and work against the traditionally recognized
values (e.g., organized crime and drug dealers).
• Enculturation is the socialization process we go through to adapt to our
larger society.
• Acculturation is the process of adjusting and adapting to a new and
different culture.
• Popular culture refers to those “systems or artifacts that most people share
and that most people know about” such as television, music, videos, and
popular books or magazines (Brummett, 1994, p. 21). Popular culture is
ubiquitous and distinct from folk culture. It is produced by culture industries
and bears the “interests of the people” so it serves a variety of social
functions (Fiske, 1989, p. 23). Popular culture may transmit values, may
serve to entertain, and is a frequent forum for the development of our ideas
about other people and places. We may choose, however, to consume or
resist the messages of popular culture. A great deal of popular culture is produced
in the United States and circulated, raising concerns from other
countries about “cultural imperialism.”

It's so long. I have to spend more time to read this post than others. However, it doesnt waste my time. Nice post.