Economic Loss Equates with Cultural Diversity Loss: Merkel Pins the Tail on a Muslim

German Chancellor Merkel mourned the loss of "German-ness" this week as the advance of economic hardship in Europe puts strains on tolerance for ethnic and cultural diversity in Germany. The best way to make a man retentive and conservative is to threaten to take away his property, thereby creating a shift towards intolerance of ethnic or cultural differences. The problem is not as elementary as Merkel wishes it to be when she equates economic hardship with the threat of German "Christian "values against a perceived onslaught of Muslim infiltration. We've watched this movie before - as recently as 1930s Germany, when economic hardship caused leaders to pin the tail on another ethnic group. But black and white solutions, like the one Merkel proposes, are dangerous. The stability of a nation depends on its level of ethnic and cultural tolerance. Once the pendulum swings too far in one direction or the other, the system starts to tilt away from any hope of a solid economic or social foundation.

Codification of Culture

David Miller of Matador.com reprimands travel writers for utilizing a detached style of observation that mistakenly assumes a common culture.

A Culture's Vocabulary Comes Full Circle: Monosyllables to Acronyms

Culture in the 21rst century has come full circle in terms of daily vocabulary. Agrarian societies operated with a set of basically monosyllabic words: fruit, bean, soy, corn, wheat, rake, hoe, weed, plant, seed, reap, eat. Advances in agribusiness technology marked an increase in syllables: partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, high fructose corn syrup, emulsifying soy lecithin, farm-based intelligent default software, satellite radio implement guidance systems, Smartstax, etc. etc.

The syllables pile up faster than a fresh load of hay to the point where acronyms are needed to digest the significance of each agribusiness tool or activity. Genetically modified foods become GMs, seeds and chemicals are applied according to prompts from satellites in the form of RTKs. But only the industry giants hold dominion over the new vocabulary, and thus, daily activity of farmers. To understand the acronym, you must submit to the instructions of the "club".

The response is the slowfood movement. The movement not only sticks to one and two syllable words to describe daily activity, it empowers those wishing to work the land to break away from agribusiness giants. Good food. Slow. Fresh. Yum.

International Conflict Resolution Program at Kennesaw State U.

Kennesaw State University, one of the largest in Georgia , is offering a new doctoral degree in the fall of 2010 that specializes in international conflict management. The program addresses a growing need for understanding the political and economic roots of conflict as well as the intercultural dynamics that lead to resolution and the maintenance of peace.

Using Clay to Bridge Cultural Divides in 13th Century American Southwest

13th century Salado pottery reveals how indigenous women utilized a household craft to spread a message of cultural accord throughout the violent American Southwest. The particular style and design of pottery is found within three separate and often conflicting ethnic groups - a pattern that University of Missouri researchers say represents the infiltration of a unifying religion based on peace and accord between tribal nations.

“Conflict was defused through the direct action of women who sought to decrease the tensions that threatened to destroy their communities,” VanPool said. “The rise of the Salado tradition allowed threatened communities to stabilize over much of modern-day Arizona and new Mexico, altering the course of Southwestern prehistory. Given that the Salado system lasted from 1275 to around 1450, it was most certainly successful.”

Source: Kansas City Infozine, Wed. March 10, 2010

Rosier Book on Native American Culture's Contibutions to U.S.Politics

Paul C. Rosier's "Serving Their Country - American Indian Politics and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century" (Harvard University Press) makes the case for cultural accord. Indigenous people were utilized as "cultural ambassadors" during different conflicts throughout the 20th century. As part of a "cultural offensive" in Vietnam, indigenous people showed the face of patriotism to the South Vietnamese. To promote the idea of patriotic solidarity within the United States, indigenous soldiers represented a "hybrid American", blending tribal values with a duty to serve the country as a whole. But most of all, American Indians were vital to the effort to connect indigenous tribes of other countries to similarities found in the U.S. tribal cultures.

For excellent review see Washington Post.

Cultural Conflict Hardens Opposing Sides

Anna Haynes presents an argument that cultural conflict mars the climate change debate.

How Culture Affects The Choices We Make

Columbia psychology prof Sheena  S. Iyengar explores how culture is implicit in the choices we make each day in her book, The Art of Choosing (Twelve, 25.95). She explains the motivations behind the choices we make, and how those choices cannot be made devoid of a cultural or social context.

Great read for global organizations and companies that need to draw people of diverse cultures together to resolve problems or create products. Iyengar urges the practice of finding shared values within a diverse climate of people and focus on reaching a common ground to make decisions and choices.

A clear and concise breakdown of the process of choice.

A New Culture of Love: Economic Parity

Seventeen years ago, our then six year old son handed my husband and me a list of seven qualities he felt his future wife should have. Intelligence ranked among the top three along with a sense of humor and a refusal to smoke.

"This is good," I told my boy, "The key to a successful marriage? You should marry someone smarter than you are."

Little did I  know a new cultural trend had already begun.  According to a Jan. 19, 2010 Pew Research Center report on social and demographic trends, women have closed the gap in economic parity between themselves and their husbands in less than four decades. The trend may not be directly related to intelligence, but it is definitely related to education.

In 1970, for instance, just over half (52%) of American couples born and raised in the States shared an equal amount of education by the time they'd reached their prime (30-44yrs), while in 28% of American households, husbands held more diplomas and degrees than their wives.

By the time 2007 rolled around,  53% of marriages had couples of the same age on equal educational footing; but by then, 28% of the marriages had flipped the scale, with the wife holding more degrees than the husband.

The trend continued to flip in terms of employment and careers. In 1970, only 4% of marriages had wives out-earning their spouses. By 2007 this had jumped to 22%. And women brought home 44% more of the bacon in 2007 than they did in 1970, while their husband's earning potential increased by only 6%.

Statistically speaking, marriage is good for the pocketbook, as the majority of high earners in the country are currently married. So love in the time of recession and war remains a vital component of economic survival, if not economic parity. With women now outnumbering men on college campuses across the nation, it shouldn't be too  difficult for men of the Millennial generation like my son to find smart, funny women as mates.

Being married is also associated with a lower incidence of smoking, according to another Pew report (Apr 8 2009) especially in the Millennial group, where 60% of people under thirty have never or hardly ever smoked. Non-smokers now count nearly 6 in 10 women to nearly half of all men. However, more men are kicking the habit than women, a cultural trend that associates smoking with work related stress. Women continue to take on higher paying yet more stressful positions.

Finding a mate with a better education, a better job and better health habits may seem like a tall order for a man in his twenties today, but the cultural stigma is lifting against the effort to try. My son and I both know there is no magic formula to a successful marriage, but finding a smart woman is a good start. If he doesn't believe me - he can always ask his father.

Culture in a Suitcase

A successful restaurant owner in Istanbul talks about the life-changing journey from one culture to the next in a recent article from the Daily News and Economic Review. (12 Feb 2010 Hürriyet Daily News)

The article describes the experience of Alp Eyüboglu, who arrived in the U.S. to attend university in Boston, Mass., and faced a struggle to defend himself in a foreign culture. Cultural transitions were not foreign to Eyüboglu, however, having spent his earliest years in Germany before moving back with his parents to a town in Turkey. There his German dialect drew attention from his Turkish classmates and he suffered through the adjustment of carrying an accent as excess baggage.

Once in Boston, he said, "I learned to differentiate the different types of dialects between black, white and Hispanic people. I then learned the differences in their cultures...I received a lot of support."

But once again, his accent seemed to oblige people to treat him differently.

"It was when I started to learn about the differences among the branches of American culture that I realized I could be friends with everyone."

Sadly, his accent and appearance continued to attract the wrong kind of attention. Stopped by police for a speeding violation, he claimed he was harassed by a trooper with insults aimed at his ethnicity and religion. He responded by striking the officer.

"I could not help  myself," he said. "It was direct cultural discrimination."

He was promptly deported back to Turkey with remnants of American culture packed in his suitcase. Today he attributes his success to what he feels are the best aspects of American culture that he's implemented in his work in Istanbul. Hard work, a thirst for learning, fair play, honesty and a sense of social obligation are cultural elements that make "the American dream" come true. And from Eyüboglu's perspective, these are elements Turkish culture still lacks. The key, according to Eyüboglu, is a willingness to learn about the culture from the inside out.

Whether migration is of free will or imposed by force, transplanted individuals carry a cultural understanding from one cultural context to the next. Strangers, exiles, diasporas, emigrants and immigrants are resources for anyone who wants to understand how cultures collide and enmesh themselves. There's something to be said for carrying culture in a suitcase - and opening it wide no matter where the journey may lead.

Think Before You Pitch: Material objects provide cultural clues of historic value

Some people are known to hoard objects obsessively. Attachment to an object is most often more emotional than monetary. That's why mountains of family possessions left behind by dead relatives may present a challenge to family members left to deal with "the mess".

Sometimes the easiest solution is to sell off the valuables and send the rest to the dump. But a wealth of info is often mistaken for trash.

Pack rat behavior by our ancestors can reveal a treasure trove of data for generations to come. Clues to the culture of a period are contained in the smallest and most insignificant of objects. And when tracing a family tree or conducting research, these small clues help to piece together a larger frame of reference for the period.

Material objects found in the collections of historic homes shed light on the cultural context of different periods in history. Observe how these institutions chose to organize personal objects and use a similar methodolgy when preserving your own family treasures.

For a compelling tale of how insignificant objects take on incredible significance check out this NPR broadcast: House on Loon Lake (This American Life, first broadcast 2001)

Family Tree rooted in cultural diversity

A new NBC series in collaboration with Ancestry.com will examine the labyrinth of cultural diversity contained in every person's ancestral roots.

I've learned the rewards of such a process first hand. My husband and I are currently involved in a project to examine the history of our family in Cuba. The family tree is beginning to look like a giant illustration of DNA. We've found that the bloodline is interlaced with strands from every continent and enriched with traditions from many cultures and ethnic groups.

Preserving a family frame of reference should be a top priority for every family. And the sad fact is that a generation of experts on family lore is quickly dying out. Don't wait! Get an audio recorder, a web cam or a simple paper and pen and sit down with elder members of your family. Pick their brains with simple questions such as:

1. What is the first thing you remember about your childhood?
2. What songs do you associate with your grandparents?
3. What do you think are the prominent family traits? From whom do you think they originate?

The main thing is to START the conversation and see where it leads you.

Protecting Haiti's national cultural treasures in the face of disaster

Natural disasters like the recent earthquake in Haiti quickly unravel a country's infrastructure. Unfortunately, there are those willing to exploit the situation when a system is down. Haiti is now faced with the task of protecting cultural treasures from being "liberated" from the rubble by dishonest art and artifact dealers.

In an effort to protect legitimate sales of artifacts throughout the world, a monitoring system quickly went into place to put a spotlight on anyone wishing to deal in stolen Haitian cultural items - from rare books and documents to sculptures and paintings.

Protecting the island nation's rich Caribbean cultural heritage is yet another addition to the global response to the crisis in Haiti.

Anglicisms and Americanization: I Say, Old Boy, What's Up?

Americanization is a term used by sociologists to describe the process of imposing the values, attitudes, beliefs, roles, and meanings that are inherently part of the American culture on people of another culture. The context of the term can be seen as an infiltration of one culture into another.

From Pedro to Peter

The term is not to be confused with anglicizing, which attributes words of another language with English qualities or characteristics. For example converting the name Pedro to Peter would be considered anglicizing a Spanish name. The term also describes what happens to foreign words when imported into English. The most common examples of this can be found in the anglicized names for countries, principal cities and capitals found on world maps published in the U.S. or U.K. A common example is Munich for Munchen, the city in the southwest German state of Bavaria (Bayern on German maps).

It's All in the Name


Anglicizing and Americanization both reflect the process of change that happens when cultures collide. One culture can often readily accept the other, as in Japan, where certain aspects of Americanization defines social groups. Products reflecting U.S. brand names effectively attract Japanese consumers.  While other cultures seek to expel vestiges of former colonization and British rule, as in the case of India's bustling western port of Mumbai. Named by British settlers in the 17th century, the name Bombay withstood three centuries until it was officially changed by India's Shiv Sena nationalist party in 1995.

Texting in French

Like the former colonies, France has also made efforts to preserve the novelty of its culture and language by creating neologisms, newly minted French terms to reflect English equivalents, especially for terms of technological innovations like PC, texting, and tweet. It is not hard to imagine why a country would want to retain standards of culture and language. For example, the French use EDR (Ecroulé de rire) for LOL (laugh out loud).  The use of les textos appears to growing at a slower rate in French culture than elsewhere in Europe.

From Pidgins to Creole

In some former colonies like Hawaii and Haiti, indigenous populations used creative derivatives of language to communicate with the colonizing settlers. These pidgins of European descent developed into the creole languages used today. In this case, language and culture were not so much anglicized or Americanized as creatively invented to promote the flow of communication and trade when two cultures lacked one language in common. Pidgin vocabularies are usually regarded as marginal languages but eventually they can become established in a population, as in the case of Haiti and Jamaica, where they are recognized as creole languages.

Anglicisms can be viewed by some cultures as encroachments while in others they are perceived as mechanisms for social mobility. Therefore, the business or pleasure traveler would be wise to utilize them judicially when in a host country. Most cultures will not take kindly to visitors or expats who act as evangelists for Americanization. With a little investigation, the right cultural equivalent  in both language and gesture for "I say" or "what's up" can be but a few keystrokes away. It is always wise to utilize empathy rather than imposition in any attempt to communicate.