ABSTRACT
This “methods” chapter answers the questions: “What is culture?” and “How may we study it?” In providing the answers to these two questions, the chapter offers basic definitions of culture and an analytical framework for cultural analysis. It establishes the importance of being able to interpret your own culture and other people’s cultures. To understand cultural diversity, it is worthwhile to try and “step into another person’s shoes”: that is, to attempt to see the world through that person’s eyes and cultural context. Responsible global citizens need to be able to approach different cultures from a vantage point of cultural relativism by identifying and circumventing their own ethnocentrism. The chapter provides a methodological tool kit for “reading” and interpreting cultural variation through the matrix, intersection, and integration of cultural elements and institutions. Students will find the analytical toolkit useful in a variety of situations: from reading and interpreting a Maori novel to understanding a family in an industrial city or a rural village.
