discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 91
tus are assigned to people within the framework of their culture. For instance,
in some cultures there may be virtual equality between males and females while
in others one gender is disadvantaged in significant ways.
1. Place and time
2. Family life
3. Economics
4. Food, clothing, and shelter
5. Communication
6. Government
7. Arts and recreation
8. Education
9. Quest for the supernatural
Cultural Universals
How Culture Affects Mission 91
Culture is communicated to young children by enculturation while adults
learn new cultures by a somewhat different process called acculturation. In
both cases, culture is passed on by language (“use your fork,” “say ‘excuse me,’”
“sit up straight,” “be quiet,” “don’t forget to burp,” “shake hands coming and
going”) and other physical phenomena to which meanings have been assigned.
Such phenomena can be objects such as headgear (cowboy hats, turbans, hijab,
and baseball caps) or colors such as those worn by urban gangs or used in national
flags, or they can be sounds such as whistles, sirens, or the snapping of
fingers (all of which signal different things in different contexts). The physical
phenomena can be items with religious meaning, such as prayer beads or
amulets or cornmeal drawings in the dust.
All the components of a culture can be divided into nine major categories
(see “Cultural Universals” sidebar). However, while the categories of what people
do are universal, the particulars of how they do these things are not universal.
For example, when people meet, Germans shake hands, Koreans bow,
Mexicans embrace, the French kiss each other on the cheek, the Uduk snap
fingers, and the Inuit rub noses. People from different cultures say “thank you”
in different ways. In much of the Western world, people who receive a gift are
expected to send a note right away and to say “thank you” the next time they
see the person who gave it. In many African cultures, people do not mention a
gift during casual encounters with the gift-giver. Instead, the recipients let time
pass and then they go sit down with the giver and make a big thank-you
speech.
While preparing and eating food is a cultural universal, American business
etiquette manuals say it is polite for people sitting at a table to wait until every-