Cultural Analysis Project: Investigating a Culture Outside Your Comfort Zone

Body of the Paper

This project will give you an opportunity to become familiar with a culture other than your own. During this project you will venture outside of the textbook and your comfort zone by exposing you to cultures you would not have otherwise been exposed to.  

1. Choose your culture.  Choose a culture you are interested in learning more about over the course of this semester. Do not choose a culture to which you belong or know a great deal about. One objective of this assignment is to stretch yourself and learn something new about yourself and the world around you.  You may study a traditional culture (i.e. Chinese, Moroccan, African, etc.) or you can study a co-culture (i.e. Amish, Catholicism, Buddhism, Judaism, Native American, etc.)  I’ve listed some possibilities, but you are not limited to this list.     

2. You will need to conduct research on this culture. Choose at least 4 topic areas from the list below. Conduct research on these topics within your culture. Your general goal is to explain the culture and communication related issues within the culture in your paper. You should help the reader (instructor) have a sophisticated insider’s view of the selected cultural group. You may include many more than four areas but make sure and include topics/information that will make the paper interesting.  (If you believe you have an appropriate topic that is not on my list, check with me to see if it could “count” as one of the four required topics.).  

3. In addition to traditional research, investigate your culture by watching documentaries, attending cultural events/festivals, interviewing a member of the culture, observing the culture (i.e. attending a church service), and/or going to museums related to the culture.  

4. The next part of this assignment is to prepare a paper so you can share what you have learned. You will want to present the geographic and demographics about your culture (i.e. location, climate, population, etc.) in your introduction. Explain what you learned about this culture.  Make sure and explain what you learned about the topic areas you chose to research for your culture.    

5.  Your paper should be 5 to 6 pages long.  Follow the following format:

a.  An introduction: what culture you chose and why, geographic and demographics of the culture and an overview of the paper.

b.  The body of the paper (divided into sensible units). 

c.  Conclusion.

Choose at least four of these underlying issues that affect communication (be sure to show how the culture’s use of each affects communication in the culture.)  You may also find it helpful to compare/contrast these topics to the U.S. dominant cultural values introduced by Kohl.

Individualism/Collectivism
Power Distance
Uncertainty Avoidance
Masculinity/Femininity
Long-term vs. Short-term orientation
Indulgence/Restraint  
High/Low Context 
Introversion/Extroversion
Time Orientation 
Value systems:  such as for age, faithfulness, wisdom, etc.
Politics 
Religion 
Family life/Relationships/Housing/Marriage rituals/Gender roles