What is meant by culture, cultural diversity, cultural knowledge, cultural encounter and identity? What is the connection between culture and identity?

We are born within a culture, and during the first stages of life we get to know our culture. This process is sometimes referred to as our socialisation. Each society transfers to its members the value system underlying its culture. We learn how to understand and use signs and symbols whose meanings ican differ across different cultures. Without the process of socialisation we would be unable to exist within a given culture [2].

Let’s take a simple example. Imagine a situation where you are not familiar with the accepted custom of greeting another person, for instance, shaking hands, kissing on the cheek, etc.

What do you think will happen?

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We are sure that every time you meet someone, you will be confused and will ask yourself, “What does this sign mean? Why do we need to do it? What should I do in this situation?” Maybe after some time you might even start to avoid other people…

Of course, there is no one objective reason to greet a person in a particular way. Greetings depend on the situation, on the place and circumstances of the meeting, ect. Also, every culture has its own accepted way of greeting each other. Many factors contribute to our process of socialisation – parents and family, school, friends, the mass media (television, the internet). Quite often we are not even aware that we are a part of this process – we simply start greeting people in whichever way we were taught.

1. What is culture?

The first thing that comes to our minds is that culture is something that belongs only to a concrete group of people and is seen in every member of this group. In other words, culture is something universal and stable for a group of people. This is only partially true. In reality, culture is seen as something that is socially constructed and is in constant change.

Steven Vertovec (2007), a famous sociologist, stresses that nowadays societies become multicultural in themselves as they encompass multiple lifestyles that are affected not only by intense migration flows, but also by such factors as one’s educational background, legal status, or access to employment as a foreing national [7].

Thus, we live not in a diverse, but in a super-diverse environment.

Super-diversity implies that we are all connected in the world and creates cosmopolitan societies.

Let’s come back to the greeting example. We give you examples of formal, informal and gender specific greetings in different countries:

How people greet in Lithuania

If you go to Lithuania, usually people will tell you that greeting is pretty formal and there you should greet the person by shaking their hand. In reality, Lithuanians also greet each other in a “warmer” way, especially if they know each other well 😊 In Lithuania you can also see people greeting each other in the Italian and French way of greeting – by kissing on the cheeks. So, our cultural habits are dynamic and changing, being redefined by individuals and groups as we interact with others of different backgrounds or respond to changing circumstances.

How people greet in Italy

People in Italy are fairly popular for their customarily outgoing and informal way of greeting each other, even when greeting someone they do not know very well. On average, it is part of the culture to greet people with a handshake, hug, or even kiss on the cheek accompanied by a loud “Ciao!”.

However, for more formal encounters and meetings, the usual habit is to shake hands and say “Good morning” or “Good afternoon” or “Good evening”, for example. When friends greet each other it is most common to hug each other, and kiss on the cheeks.

Although this is not a rule, female friends sometimes kiss each other on only one cheek, whereas two male friends would kiss on both cheeks (lips not touching cheeks though).

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How people greet in Cyprus

In Cyprus, when people meet for the first time or if they are not close friends, they will shake hands in a formal way. In an informal setting between friends, you will see people greeting each other by smiling, saying hello, and kissing on the cheeks. This normally happens between a woman and a man, or two women. If the greeting is between two women, it is very common to also hug each other. However, kissing or hugging is uncommon between two men, who tend to shake hands or touch each other on the back. There is a gender differentiation for greetings: hugging or kissing tend to be considered more feminine.

How people greet in Romania

In Romania, a handshake with direct eye contact is the typical greeting in formal settings. Men may wait for women to extend their hands first, although this is not a strict rule.

For informal meetings of frenships people generally hug and kiss when they greet one another. Romanians give two kisses, one on each cheek.

Romanians greet friends casually by saying “Salut” or “Bună” (Hello). One may greet strangers with the more formal phrase “Bună dimineața / ziua / seara” (Good morning / day/ evening) depending on what time of day it is.

2. What is culture?

The second thing that comes to our mind is that culture is everything that is visible, like language, music, ballet, opera, literature and other intellectual or artistic activities. However, not all culture is visible. Imagine that culture is an iceberg and as is well   known, the bigger part of the iceberg is actually underwater

So, we should view culture from a much wider perspective. Culture is a complex concept,  and trying to understand cultures, even your own, will entail examining many aspects of life that are both visible and invisible.

What is the best way to understand the invisible part of culture?

The best way is to immerse yourself in culture as much as possible, i.e. interact with local people, ask questions, go to events, follow news, travel, etc. We should not enter new cultures as if encased in a cocoon, but instead try to find out as much as possible.

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3. What is culture?

The third thing that comes to mind is that culture is about the facts and information that let us describe the visible and invisible parts of a particular culture, for example, what are the traditions, what are the norms, what is the cuisine of a particular culture, and so on. From this point of view we could say that it is sufficient for us to read (on the internet, in books) about our own and other cultures in order to understand the culture, its people, its environment, etc.

But would you say that others can understand you only only based on cultural facts? For example, what is your diet composed of? Do you eat food that is typical only in your culture? Or maybe you also like Italian, Chinese, Japanese food? Or maybe you have some unique recipes you have created yourself? In that case, some facts about the food of your culture would be not enough to really know you.

We can conclude that cultural knowledge or cultural facts are an important factor in order to understand other cultures, but knowledge and facts by themselves are always limited. We cannot know everything about our own and about other cultures. Cultural knowledge can be visualized with this picture:

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What do you see in this picture? Distance and difference among two groups. Much scientific research shows (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2006; Greene, 2011; Dervin, Leyne, & Trémion, 2015; Messelink & ten Thije, 2012; Otten, 2003; Portera, 2011) [8],  that it doesn’t matter how deep and detailed cultural knowledge might be, it still remains limited and narrow and inevitably encourages cultural stereotypes and categorization of an individual person, which obstructs perceiving the uniqueness and individuality of a person.

Cultural knowledge encourages categorizations “Us and Them”.  

It is not enough to know facts about other cultures to understand people from other cultures, to have long-term relationships with locals and feel comfort and acceptance. Cultural knowledge is a starting point, but it is not the endpoint.

You might ask: if cultural knowledge is not enough, what can I do to gain a true understanding of other cultures? Our main advice – to seek for this picture:

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What do you see in this picture? Diversity and inter-relation of various objects. In this picture it is difficult to tell apart “Us” from “Them”. In other words, for actual understanding of other cultures and other people and feeling of acceptance we need to encounter others.

A cultural encounter implies a casual or unexpected meeting with an unknown person from a different culture. A cultural encounter is unknown and unpredictable, therefore it might bring some frustration, stress, fear or even avoidance of the contact. To avoid this, we could approach such encounters gradually, for example, going to local events, meeting a local person in an informal place, drinking some coffee, talking about general things, etc.

Opportunities of cultural encounters

➔Encounters decrease our cultural stereotypes and attitudes and help to see not only the culture, but also the individual and unique person (because a person is more than culture). However, encounters can be also risky, because when we meet a stranger, we encounter the unknown and cannot predict what will happen.

➔Cultural encounters become more complicated in complex relations and environments, for example, working in a culturally diverse environment or studying at the university. But the more experiences of cultural encounters we have, the less frustration, stress and fear we will feel in a new culture.

Challenges of cultural encounters

➔Cultural encounters are unknown and unpredictable, therefore it might bring some frustration, stress, fear or even avoidance of the contact.

➔It can also happen that encounters also might bring about new stereotypes and prejudices, encourage discrimination, etc. In this case learning about complexity of culture, diversity, identities, cultural stereotypes and prejudices can be key to become aware of every situation and transform cultural encounters from a challenge to an opportunity.