Розділ 1. Стаття англійською мовою та її переклад на українську

1.1. Оригінальний англійський текст

"Culture and Religion”

Stephan Dahl

Cultural Diversity, Globalization and Cultural Convergence

Chapter 1: Determinants of Culture

What is Culture?

The word 'culture' stems from the Latin "colere", translatable as to build on, to cultivate, to foster. Leibnitz, Voltaire, Hegel, von Humbold, Kant, Freud,... all have reflected on the meaning of the word in different versions of its use. In the early stages of the philosophical debate about what is 'culture', the term often refers to the opposite of 'nature', whereas 'culture' was referring to something constructed by men, while 'nature' was given in itself.

Equally, during the mid-nineteenth century, the concept of mass culture and popular culture emerged, fueling the critical theory of the Frankfurt School and the Birmingham School. In the words of Stuart Hall, of the Birmingham School, 'culture' is "both the means and values which arise among distinctive social groups and classes, on the basis of their given historical conditions and relationship, through which they 'handle' and respond to the conditions of existence"

Another view of culture, focuses of culture as a set of values and attributes of a given group, and the relation of the individual to the culture, and the individual's acquisition of those values and attributes: in the words of Geert Hofstede: "the collective programming of the mind"(1).

A group can thereby be various forms of social constructions: it is not merely any nation, but also supranational and international groups are possible, and often clearly distinguishable. The individual and the culture in which is lives is a complex set of relationships. On the one side, the individual determines its culture, on the other, it is determined by its culture. By contributing to the culture around him, the individual is part of the cultural change. S.G. Summer introduced the concept of "Ethnocentrism" early this century: it refers to the tendency that most people see their own culture as the 'center of the world'. Often this phenomenon has been seen as a result of "naive" thinking, following from the assumption of the world in itself being like it appears to the individual: a set of 'self-evident' rules, roles, categories and relationships, seen as 'natural'. The concept of ethnocentrism is often displayed in the form of nationalism.

Returning to our initial discussion of what constitutes a 'culture', various concepts are often displayed as the basic differentiation of cultures:

- national character

- perception

- time concept

- space concept

- thinking

- language

- non verbal communication

- values

- behavior: norms, rules, manners

- social groupings and relationships.

Often, culture has also been described as 'ordered into' three layers, in fact like an onion, where one peel has to be taken off in order to see the following layer. The three layers of culture are explained as: The outer layer, artifacts and products, is the most explicit of all layers: including language and food, architecture and style etc. The second inner layer, norms and values. Norms are "the mutual sense what is right and wrong" while values represent the "definition of what is good and bad" (3). The innermost layer, basic assumptions, represents the core assumptions of what life is, assumptions about how to handle everyday problems that have become self-evident.

The National Character

Each nation has its own character, the French are not like the English, and the Dutch not like the Germans. However, the attempt to define what makes each of the characters distinct will provide massive difficulties. The idea of a 'national character' is based on the assumption that people from one nation share basic common behavioral patterns and personality traits, differentiable from other nations. The concept has however been often criticized, and is often only fueled by perceptions of the one nation towards the other, resulting in a number of attributes that one nation apparently displays: the Germans are orderly, hard-working and humorless... However, findings in that field have been often contradictory, particularly from highly diversified cultures. The methodological difficulties may be one of the reasons why the term 'national character' has widely been replaced with 'basic personality' or 'social character' in modern literature. The two later concepts, although also often deemed as equally unreliable, stem from the idea that the child is being subject to cultural influence during his early stages, and hence develops a 'basic personality' similar in various cultures. Equally the 'social character' concept tries to identify the common character structures of a culture.

Perception

Perception is not a passive, objective and neutral process. Every perception is seen as an active process: "what is perceived is becoming part of the subjective experience, embedded into the whole of the personality structure of that person, including whatever the person's development process, his cultural and material environment has given him or her as ways of thinking and viewing things" . The human being distinguishes actively between important and unimportant: perceives objects actively and clearly, while others are only partially perceived or ignored. Visual perception is one of the traits where the culture specific view objects is clearly demonstrated: Most Europeans will have difficulties distinguishing for example Japanese faces. Tajfel describes an experiment where US Americans and Mexicans were presented with a series of photos, depicting situations which were only known to the one or other nationality. Each participant was found to remember more accurately and vividly the photos showing situations that were familiar to the own culture. The other photos were only relatively vague if at all remembered. Equally, the perception of feeling is altered in different cultural surrounding: shaking hands, kissing, have different perceptions in various cultures. Interpersonal distance may be perceived as essential or undesirable (English culture or Latin culture). Also the perception of what smells 'good' or 'bad' can be highly different in various cultural surroundings.

Time Concepts

The culture has a significant impact on the concepts of time. Time can either be perceived as linear (western perception) or circular (eastern perception). Equally the orientation, or outlook, of the culture can be focused on either the past, the present or the future. Another concept is the notion of monochronic and polychronic time conception. The monochronic time concept follows the notion of "one thing at a time" and time is money", while the polychronic concept focuses on multiple tasks are handled at one time, and time is subordinate to interpersonal relations (4).

Religion and Culture

Culture is defined as the system of shared beliefs, values, customs that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.

Religion is defined as a system of beliefs based on humanity's attempt to explain the universe and natural phenomena, often requiring or binding adherents to follow prescribed religious obligations. Two identifying features of religions are they to some extent require faith and seek to organize and influence the thoughts and actions of their adherents. Because of this, some contend that all religions are to some degree both unempirical and dogmatic and are therefore to be distrusted.

Culture is what brings us together as human beings, as social creatures. We can work together to achieve what is not possible individually. We interact in accordance with the natural laws of social behavior, respecting each other's individual rights and respecting the property of one another.

Culture is learned, shared, and transmitted from one generation to the next. Culture is primarily passed on from parents to their children but also transmitted by social organizations, special interest groups, the government, the schools, and the church. Common ways of thinking and behaving that are developed are then reinforced through social pressure. Culture is also multidimensional, consisting of a number of common elements that are interdependent. Changes occurring in one of the dimensions will affect the others as well.

So, culture is defined as an integrated system of learned behavior patterns that are characteristic of the members of any given society. It includes everything that a group thinks, says, and makes—its customs, language, material artifacts, and shared systems of attitudes and feelings. The definition, therefore, encompasses a wide variety of elements from the materialistic to the spiritual. Culture is inherently conservative, resisting change and fostering continuity.

Edward T. Hall, who has made some of the most valuable studies on the effects of culture on business, makes a distinction between high- and low-context culture. In high-context cultures, such as Japan and Saudi Arabia, context, or the intention and unspoken meaning, is at least as important as what is actually said. The speaker and the listener rely on a common understanding of the context. In low-context cultures, however, most of the information is contained in the words. North American cultures engage in low-context communications (5).

The Bible as the Word of God

There are many books in the Bible. Many view the Bible as representing the religious history of the Jews. Many others view the Bible as the Word of God - the rules for proper human behavior as described by a Supreme Being that watches over us. Some of those believing it is the Word of God also assume that it contains God’s plan for mankind and it might even describe the final days of mankind.

The first book in the Bible is the book of Genesis. It contains the Jewish legend of creation, a legend that has similar stories in other ancient cultures of the world. Along the way in the course of the other Old Testament books, a number of catastrophes were survived by the Jewish people. In each story, there is a leader of the people that guides them. After Adam and Eve were banished from Eden, they had to survive in less comfortable surroundings. Noah built an ark and survived a flood, a number of people and animals safe for quite a long time. When Moses lead the Israelites from Egypt, a number of Jews survived a parting of the waters in front of them, that returned to flood their Egyptian pursuers. Lot witnesses the destruction of two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. When the Jews were about to do battle, they witnessed the destruction of the city of Jericho. The last book of the Bible is the book of Revelation, consisting of letters to a number of cities in what is now Turkey. The letters describe a second coming of Jesus, then it will be destruction to the world

The Bible is not all of the books written over the course of ancient Jewish history. In the year 367, Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria compiled a list of works to be included in the New Testament. This list was ratified by the Church Council of Hippo in 393 and again by the Council of Carthage four years later. In addition to certain books being excluded from the collection, others were edited to remove sections that could be 'misinterpreted.' For example, in 1958 a letter was found from Bishop Clement of Alexandria to Theodore. With the letter was a missing fragment of the Gospel of Mark. The missing fragment is a variation on the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, as told in the Gospel of John. Since the story does not appear in the current Gospel of Mark, Clement was successful in having it removed from Mark's. The outcome of this conference was the Bible as it is known today, an edited collection of writings that was put together several hundred years after Jesus had died. The Christians of today, living in a world of high literacy, with advanced science and technology, were left with the edited writings of ancient Jewish history as the 'word of God'. The Catholic Church, and the rest of the Christian religions, had no need to add more books to this Bible. The driving message of the religion has been: just believe and you will be saved. The books of the Bible were secondary to the message. The Old Testament included books that described the Jewish survival of various ordeals. The Christians survived the Dark Ages, the Black Death and many wars (6).

East and West Religions

Even though the religious experience, or enlightenment, is based on a similar general concept for both the Eastern and Western religions, the context for that common experience is subject to abuse by the religious leaders in the West.

The ancient Chinese and other rural (Eastern) cultures could recognize the complexity and interdependencies of nature and of man within that complex environment. The religious philosophy of Tao, sometimes simplified as the flow of nature, developed a religious discipline that could lead to the student attaining a religious experience in that context, to be 'one' with the flow of nature, where one's life is felt to be an integrated part of the universe. The experience is difficult to describe but one way would be to say that the person feels part of something much larger than himself/herself - that something being the flow of the entire universe. The Zen philosophy experience is rather similar, since the two Eastern philosophies have common origins. In these religions there is no belief in a life after death because that belief is a contradiction to feeling part of this life. The Calvinists and other strains of Christianity that confronted the belief in an all-powerful, all-knowing God lead to a conclusion of predestiny where one's life is preordained, where the events of one's life are part of God's master plan. The immersion in this belief can lead to a religious experience where one feels part of something larger than himself/herself - that something being God's master plan. The person is riding along according to a predetermined path. Even though the various religions of the world can enable a similar religious experience, to feel part of something much larger than oneself, the context for the experience can be very different. That difference is part of why there is such a debate on the mix of religion and politics here in America.

The religious discipline instilled into the students in the East is built on respect and tolerance for others. Perhaps at some point many quotes from Eastern teachings but I doubt this emphasis would be debated. Certainly every religion has many relevant quotes to any reader's perspective. However some Western religions offer a repository of stories of either tolerance and intolerance. The religious context for the Western religions is the belief that there is this all-powerful, all-knowing supernatural God and we are all subject to his master plan for the universe. While it is one thing to feel a part of that plan, it is quite another to understand what that plan is. When reading the Old Testament, there are many passages that, at different moments of the Jewish history recorded in the Bible, direct the Jews of that time to wipe out neighboring people (men, women, children), including all their resources (like cattle and food). When reading the New Testament, there are many passages where Jesus suggests a more tolerant way (e.g., turn the other cheek) to deal with conflicts (7).