Return to Unit 3: Culture
Unit 3. Culture. The Cultural Cocktail Party (Group Exercise)
This exercise will help you better understand nonmaterial culture. Nonmaterial culture refers to customs, beliefs, philosophies, patterns of communication and gestures. Sometimes nonmaterial culture is referred to as symbolic culture. These symbols, such as gestures, language, values, use of personal space, norms, sanctions and mores are useful shorthand ways to give messages without using words. While using symbols is a culture universal, the meanings of these symbols differ from culture to culture.
Welcome to the cultural cocktail party, a fun group exercise that will enable you to understand the importance of non-material or symbolic culture (especially gestures and personal space) to convey meaning. For an example of how gestures differ from culture to culture, watch the video - Gestures Around the World. To understand American rules of personal space, watch the slide presentation I developed for you - Conversational Distance.
You will work in your small groups and have two weeks to post your final "party." Each group will be assigned a role and given some rules to follow. (These will be sent to each group separately. Please do not share with other groups. Each group will be required to act out their roles according to their group rules. You can present your cocktail party interaction (5 minutes) via animation (Use your favorite animation tool) or your group may act your roles at the Cocktail Party and film it and upload it to YouTube for the class to watch.
Each group must view the video made by the other groups and take notes on the interaction. What did the video reveal about their cultural identities? What meanings do you think the video attached to the interactions? Relate this back to real life experiences.