Chapter 6

Cultural Practices

"Practices call for the language of participation, to do as the ones in the culture do". 

As we have been reading in the previous chapters, language is a very important part of any culture. And it’s not only about knowing the language, it’s about knowing how to use it like it’s used by the people of the culture.

Cultural practices comprise all the actions that members of the culture carry out as part of their way of life, including language. They can be silent and solitary such as preparing breakfast, doing household chores, taking a siesta, or walking the dog; as well as highly interactive exchanges with other people, such as negotiating a purchase price, making a conversation over a meal, gossiping. There are also collective tasks such as organizing and carrying out a parade, criminal investigation, a concert or civic demonstration. These actions involve people engaged in communication, transacting meaning, achieving ends. Practices, as with products, are infused with perspectives. The kinds of practices cultures employ and the way people enact them, embody their cultural perspectives.

Watching soccer or sports on Sundays is almost a ritual in many costa rican families.

Practices include cultural concepts: customs, traditions, folkways or everyday culture. They may also be seen as products or art forms. Some practices tend to be ritualized, so established series of steps must be followed to carry them out, these steps may be explicit or not.

It is a Japanese costume to wear different pairs of shoes inside the house and on the street.

For some people, the day doesn't begin unless they have a cup of coffee, it is a tradition for them.

The components of cultural practices

Cultural practices take place in chains of actions. A chain of actions ia a group of practices that are organized and implemented in a preordained way, according to the expectations of members of the culture. They involve a linguistic and extralinguistic dimensions; and the manipulation of products, social circumstances, and often occur in particular physical settings or places.

To make the understanding of cultural practices easier, they can be grouped as follows:

Operations

They generally do not require language. they can be daily tasks and also include avocations and pastimes.

Stamp collecting

Using cutlery in the proper way

Acts

Series of actions bonded like the links of a chain, which are ritualized communicative practices, and involve other people. Verbal and non-verbal language is essential.  . Acts alongside with operations are the building blocks of scenarios.

For example: greetings and leave takings, expressing enjoment, making/declining invitations, asking for a price, teasing, etc.  

This videoshows how young people from different cultures say hello. They are students from the International Summer School, University of Oslo (2012).  Pay special attention to the people's accent and looks,can you guess where they are from with those clues before they tell?

Scenarios

They are extended communicative practices that involve a series of interactions, including operations and acts. They can be categorized depending on the viewpoint of social situations.

Lives

Lives are the stories of the members of a culture. They enable to bring together practices as individuals or groups of people have lived them. 

Linguistic features of cultural practices

Language: written and oral.

Paralanguage: all sounds that affect speech utterances such as pitch, tone of  voice, rate and volume.

Extra-linguistic: they involve kinesics, the use of body language and movement; oculesics, the behavior of eye movements; haptics, touching behavior; olfatics; chronemics, things done simultaneously; proxemics, the use of space. 

Context

Context also plays an important role in the way the members of a culture communicate. In low context situations, the context has a minimal influence on the messages involved in communication. These kinds of messages are almost always direct and conveyed through spoken language. Another characteristic of low-context messages is that they require explicitness. On the contrary, high context messages are strongly dependent on the context, and they are usually implicit, indirect and expressed by using tacit messages, deeply significant in the context or social setting.

Appropriateness

By appropriateness, the author means doing or saying the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, in the proper context. This last part of the “definition” is what makes being culturally appropriate difficult, because this means there are no recipes or rules written on stone on how to behave inside an unknown culture. The text recommends following the strategy used by journalists which consists in asking yourself wh- questions to try to assess the suitability of a practice inside any culture.

Remember, practices can be anything or everything that the members of a culture do or say. When they are approached as a predictable sequence of actions-operation, acts, scenarios and lives- one can analyze and organize them in language-and-culture lessons.

I think this chapter is the most complex I´ve read by far. It describes many approaches that may help anyone learn and have a better understanding of the practices inside a culture. I think yet it is divided in many sections, all of them are important as a whole, to decipher the importance of truly understanding the “way things are done” or are expected to be done in a particular community. The paragraphs at the end are the ones that I find more useful, because they highlight the special attention one must pay to the context in which practices develop (a good thing to do in a particular situation, might be the worst idea one can have in another), and it gives “on-the-spot” recommendations on how to determine appropriateness in cultural practices. I believe that the worst thing that can happen to someone is being culturally odd or awkward and not knowing why or what it is that you are doing wrong. 

* * * 

Never say never... or maybe sometimes

Each culture has its own practices, based on aspects such as values, attitudes, views of the world and many other perspectives that define their actions. As we read before, some of them are "exclusive", but others are present in different cultures with little tweeks and adjustments to make them right.

Many of them are admirable because of their complexity or their beauty. Others are appealing because they are breathtaking, daring and dangerous, (you know what I mean... a 100% chance of suffering an adrenaline rush if you attempt them).  On the other hand, some practices may be despised or considered taboo by other members of the culture, that have different values and perspectives on certain matters, in comparison with the people that execute them.

And one, two... one, two three ♫ ♩ 

I have always admired people that can play musical instruments. This practice is not exclusive of a particular culture,  it is an adapted one, because each culture has its typical instruments and rhytyms. Though, the beauty of this practice is that music is a universal language, and being part of the culture that originated the instrument is NOT a must to be able to learn how to produce the most delightful sounds with it.  

It also has the advantage that it can be performed solo or in group, and it doesn't need an specific scenario. One can play anywhere!!! from a bus station or the market, to the National Theater. 

Playing an instrument is associated with discipline and intelligence. This practice involves not only the main performance, one must also clean the instrument and tune it. This can be examples of actions that are part of the links of the instrument playing chain. Musicians can be so devoted to their art,  that activities such as rehearsing and practicing can be ritualized. 

Music has its own "alphabet", that one must learn how to read and understand in order to play. But being a good performer is also influenced by the feeling and passion that is added to the song.  

I never got the chance to fully learn how to play an isntrument, but I know some of the very, very, VERY, basic things necesary to play the piano, soprano flute and guitar. I would love to keep on learning in the future. 

Door!!! (¡¡¡Puerta!!!)

Even though I "admire" the people that are brave (or foolish) enough to do it, I  think I would never, ever, be one of them. I'm talking about "toreros", these men and women that risk their lives to the wrath of a raging bull, to entertain and (in other countries as you will see a little bit later on) feed a rousing crowd. I would never participate in a bull fight or go to see one.

There are some other reasons, rather than fear, that stop me from even considering this as a practice I would be a part of. Firstly, I believe that bulls in these "shows" are not well taken care of, they get injured and are kept in small pens where they can barely lie down. they are also teased (whipped) so they are angry when it is their turn to go to the Arena. In second place, I don't think the entrance fee one must pay to see the show is worth what if costs... this year the tickets were around ¢ 8000-15 000, according to the local newspaper La Nación. Imagine a family of four spending that amount of cash in one evening, oh and don't forget that is highly probable that they might get a bite and that the kids will want to ride the roller coasters and other attractions. 

According to Wikipedia, bull fighting is one of the most antique forms of entertaiment in Spain. In this practice, serveral people are involved: three matadores, each fight two bulls, each of which is between four and six years old and weighs no less than 460 kg (1,014 lb). Each matador has six assistants—two picadores ("lancers on horseback") mounted on horseback, three banderilleros – who along with the matadors are collectively known as toreros("bullfighters") – and a mozo de espadas ("sword page"). Collectively they comprise a cuadrilla ("entourage"). At the end of the "fight", the bull is killed.  

Here in Costa Rica, we have our own version: the "Tico style" bull fighting. Our country´s law prohibits to kill an animal in a public event, so at least that is settled. A lot of people get into the arena and they are chased by the bull. In the past years, they invented different "tasks" to make it harder and more entertaining to interact with the animal. For example, they attatch a balloon to the back of the bull's neck and the "improvised toreros" have to blow it up. Others include seesaws and little pools to dodge the bull's tackles. 

I believe this practice is associated with a false sense of bravery and "manhood". The people involved in this community even have their most admired improvised torero, and they become legends if they get to "defeat" well known bulls (specially when they are riding them). Though, I have to admit that some sort of fellowship develops between the participants and they even risk their own flesh to rescue a fallen one.

This is a very personal oppinion, and I respect other people that enjoy this practice.