Culture shock

Culture shock
Living and working in a foreign culture can be lonely and frustrating; we must disregard much of our own cultural background in order to get along in the new situation. In the process of shedding our cultural preferences, we often experience what is called culture shock.

This is not limited to anthropologists; if you have ever spent much time outside your own country, or even in a different subculture within your country, you have probably had a taste of it.

Culture shock is the feeling of depression and frustration that overcome people when they first begin to comprehend the tremendous difference between the way of life they are used to and the way of life in the new setting. It happens to all people, not just anthropologists but immigrants, tourists and anyone else who must get used to different way of life.

Why does culture shock occur? In the process of being brought up in a society, every person is trained to accept the values of the group and to follow its unwritten rules of behavior. But it does not stop, for acceptance if a particular way of life is not based simply on fear of punishment or social isolation.

As part of the process of learning a culture, we are taught to believe in that culture, to feel that it is the right way and the best way to live. Its value are not merely seen as the ones that fit that particular way of life; they are thought to be the best ones for all people. Any way of doing things that does follow the same value system is wrong, if not repugnant.
Culture shock

Society with culture

Although the basic types of cultural behavior are universal, in most cases they differ in form from one culture to another.

The potential for cultural variation is enormous; the only limits are that a particular way of doing something must get the job done and that it must fit in with the rest of the culture.

Take endorsement of the body. In the United States, it has many ways of changing the natural appearance of the human body.

On a fairly simple level, some people do things such as comb their hair a certain way, pierce their ears, or polish their nails. Others have parts of their body designed with tattoos, permanent mutilations of the body following patterns that are unique to our culture.

Tattoos in other cultures are quite different. Still others have cosmetic surgery such as nose jobs, hair transplant, and silicone injections to change their appearance.

Young people often try to look older – men grow facial hair; women arrange their hair in certain ways – while older people try to look younger by having their faces lifted, wearing trendy clothes, or dyeing their hair.

In other cultures the ways in which the body is adorned are quite different. Some of the better known examples, such as the extended lower lip of the Ubangi women, or a bone inserted into a pierced nose, seem bizarre to us. But in every culture we find some form of adornment.

Among some South American Indian tribes boards are tied firmly against the head of an infant to change the shape of the skull.

Among the Dugum Dani, a highland tribe in New Guinea, women and young girls have a finger imputed as part of the funeral service for a close relative so that they will be reminded of that person for the rest of their live.
Society with culture