Intercultural Communication Project: Charity in Cultural Contexts (United States of America and Russian Federation)

Chelyabinsk, 2013

Сontents

Introduction 2

Part one. Theoretical approach to charity 4

1.1. Dominant cultural patterns 4

1.1.1. Worldview as the general dominant cultural pattern 8

1.1.2. The notion of charity and its types 10

Conclusion on part one 15

Part two. Charity in cultural contexts 17

2.1. Charity in USA 17

21

2.2. Charity in Russia 28

Conclusion on part two 37

Conclusion 38

Bibliography 39

Appendix 41

Introduction

As defined in Macmillan dictionary, charity is money  or  food  that  is  given to people who are poor or ill so that they can live; or, kindness  that  you show towards  other  people  by  not  judging  them  or criticizing  them too severely [18]. It is regarded both as a material and moral help towards those in need. However, in the modern developed world the attitude towards philanthropy is varied depending on culture.

Since the problem of moral issues concerning helping the poor and devoid has always been a burning issue, we decided to carry out our own research concerning the attitude of different cultures towards charity.

The topicality of our research concerns the fact that nowadays there are thousands of people who are ready to help the others opposing those who are totally against it for certain reasons.

The aim of our research is the study of attitude to philanthropy in different cultural contexts.

In order to achieve our aim of research we have set up a list of leading tasks that are necessary to be fulfilled:

1. To define the major cultural patterns of the two countries – USA and Russian Federation;

2. To find out which cultural pattern can be defined as the leading;

3. To support our ideas by researching the minor values and beliefs of the two cultures;

4. To state the place of charity for people of the two cultures.

The subject-matter of the research is the image of charity and the means by which it exists in different cultural contexts.

The theoretical basis of our research is created relying on the works of outstanding scientists and researchers such as Fred E. Jandt, Geert Hofstede, Harry Triandis, Leo Apostel, Richard L. Wiseman, E.P. Griffin, H.W. Ellingsworth, etc.

The practical basis of our research consists of the results of the questionnaires concerning charity that were given to people from Russian Federation and USA.

Our research consists of the introduction, two main parts and conclusion.

In the first part we describe the dominant cultural patterns of the two cultures and the place of charity among them.

In the second part we analyze the results received from questionnaires and state the differences of attitudes of different people to philanthropy.

In conclusion we recapitulate all the results we managed to get in accordance to our research and draw a summary.