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Cultural Viewpoint and Cultural Differences

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Generate and evaluate reasons why people may not appreciate the cultural point of view of others. Use at least 2 references as well as 1 sociologist view.
Discuss how appreciating cultural diversity affects peoples' ability to communicate effectively in the context of a multinational corporation or an international nonprofit agency. Feel free to add your own experiences as well as quoting others.

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Solution Summary

The solution provides a 1,272-word tutorial module that is geared at discussing cultural differences - why people are unable to understand the viewpoint of others. Among the sociological theories and views discussed include ethnocentricism, relativism and cultural viewpoint. These concepts are explained and discussed to provide an answer to the original question. Examples of situations that exemplify effective cross-cultural communication is included. References are listed for further research.

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Cultural Viewpoint

What does cultural viewpoint mean? Simply put, it is the perspective from which a culture or a group of people sharing the same beliefs, ethnicity, traditions or history view the world and their reality. In a way we can equate it to the idea of a worldview. The idea is simple - people from different cultures and backgrounds view things differently. Even people who are in the same culture still have different interpretations of the world because of the uniqueness of their socialization, history, experience and personality. So people hold different views about God, about love, about morality, about education, about wealth, for example. Even in the most common of things we do not all share the same view - like food for example; some like spicy, some cannot eat such food, some cannot live without meat, some can't live with meat. What does this mean? Human beings are unique and societies are increasingly multicultural and diverse and while people can share in a culture, this does not necessarily mean they agree on everything. At the same time, it does not mean that just because you are of the same ethnicity and culture, your opinions and ideas are going to be different from someone outside your culture.

Relativism

Now, how can people agree? In sociology and anthropology we use the concept of relativism to look past the borders of our beliefs, our own culture and see the culture of another within its own context. It helps us avoid judging other cultures based on our own standards and morality so that we can understand others and meet halfway to resolve conflicts. There are 4 'main' relativistic viewpoints: anthropological, philosophical, descriptive and normative, each with their own set of assumptions. Anthropological viewpoints focus on methodology and are usually applied in ...

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Xenia Rochelle Jones, MA, PhD (IP)
Education
  • MPhil/PhD (IP), Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • MA, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • Certificate, Geva Ulpan (via Universita Tel Aviv)
  • BA, University of the Philippines
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