A Full Picture of Culture in South America: Living Arrangements and Communication With Society - Research Paper Example

According to the dictionary, culture is defined as “the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.”1 Culture allows people to experience the world and carry out daily functions based on their traditions. We often learn our culture from the people in our environment, such as family members, close friends, and our community. Culture consists of the foods that we cook and eat, our living arrangements, communication with society, and our behavior. In order to get a full picture of culture in a general sense—and culture more specifically related to South America—we should like at four important aspect: Values, beliefs, norms, and behavior. What are values? Everyone decides for themselves what they believe to be right and wrong, but they are often powerfully influenced by the people and traditions around them. Some people have been colonized by other dominant countries and therefore have a slight inferiority complex. Others belong to ethnic and linguistic minorities—facts which influence the way they see the world. Some countries have religions that encourage them to have large families. All this must be taken into account when entering another country with the intention to practice business there. There are many different ways of measuring these different values in Argentina. Beliefs can be summed up as ideas that are held by a large number of people—perhaps not always based on empirical facts. They might be a religion held in common, for example, or an idea of history, which perhaps does not perfectly accord with the facts. These are often powerful motivating factors in a culture. Norms are very similar to values, but they are broader. Norms are what the society at large tends to believe are the correct values or morals to live by. In most societies, for example, including South American societies, the idea that lying is wrong is considered a norm. Norms might change, but usually they change very slowly. This is especially true of South American societies, which tend to be somewhat religious and conservative. Behaviour is to some extent motivated by values and norms. What people can and cannot do may be dictated to them by the law, but also by the expectations that society has of them. There may be cultural expectation that they act a certain way if, for example, they are a married Brazilian woman. It might not be appropriate, culturally, for such a person to dance provocatively at a nightclub. These behavioural expectations may come from their families, but really cultures are just large collection of families sharing the same sort of ideas. All of these things help to define people. The best way to understand people is to learn about what defines them. This helps to peer into a nation’s cultural soul and see what is important to them and why they do the things they do. It is difficult to describe the culture of a whole continent, especially one as large and varied as South America, but for the purposes of this assignment I will try to do so. Some assumptions will have to be made. To begin with, many South Americans live in a rigid hierarchical society and are collectivistic, but can be very individualistic outside of their work time. They enjoy leisure and it is important to find time for work as well as for family. When it comes to problem solving, many South Americans are emotional and individualistic, even sometimes irrational. They look at the world in a more intuitive manner. There is a reason, for example, that the tango was invented in South America—it is very emotional, irrational, and intuitive. This is a very representative culture export. South Americans are also considered to be quite an informal people. They don’t like doing a lot of complex paper work and certification, and it is clear to anyone who has ever gone to Carnivale in Rio that they know how to party! Aside from the above cultural characteristics something else that is quite representative is machismo or a type of stylized and assertive masculinity. Argentineans, for example, are definitely a machismo and assertive bunch. Women get less respect (although this changing with Christina Kirchner as president).2 Throughout the continent, men have a lot of the power and have elaborate ways of styling themselves and of demanding respect from society. There are complex rituals in the old boy networks. Young men drive around in scooter gangs and have various catcalls with significance to other young men. As stated above, one of the most important characteristics of South America in a cultural and political sense are social hierarchies and respect for authority. South American political history is littered with dictators. Through the 1960s and 70s many military generals came to power in countries like Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. In the 1950s, the Peronists ruled Argentina. Even today, there are leaders like Chavez of Venezuela and Morales of Bolivia who do not brook dissent. These people come to power in part because of corrupt political systems, but also in part because of historical and cultural reasons.3 South America has a history of being dominated by outside forces—in particular the Spanish and Portuguese—and they also have a religious history of being strongly influenced by the Catholic Church, which was in itself rigidly hierarchical. They were often told how to behave and what to do, and had little chance to express themselves individually through the political process. Authority and faith in the strongman are an important if unfortunate aspect of South American culture. Culture can define a whole country, or even a continent. It binds people together and also puts them into different categories. It is based on the values and behaviour that large numbers of people agree on and implement in their day to day lives. In order to understand a people, you must first understand their culture. Works consulted Barzilai, Gad. 2003. Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities University of Michigan Press. Cormier, Bill. “Move over, Machismo: Women take over defense posts in South America.” Chicago Sun-Times. January 31, 2007. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3715581.html Definition of culture. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. 14 Oct. 2009. . Green, Eric. “Brazil Reforming Business Climate.” America.gov. July 31, 2006. http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/July/200607311718471xeneerg0.3501093.html Lula da Silva, Luiz Inácio. “Putting the B in BRIC.” The Economist. November 8, 2008. http://www.economist.com/theworldin/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12494572 Munck, Ronaldo and Anny Brooksbank Jones. Cultural Politics in Latin America. (London: Macmillan, 2000), 65. Mothershead, A. B. Dining customs around the world. Garret Park, MD: Garret Park Press, 1982. Read More