Culture as Embodiment: The Social Tuning of Behavior

340 Pages·2013·4.285 MB·English

by  Paul Voestermans, Theo Verheggen

CULTURE AS
EMBODIMENT

CULTURE AS

EMBODIMENT
THE SOCIAL TUNING

OF BEHAVIOR
Paul Voestermans and
Theo Verheggen
This edition fi rst published 2013
© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Dutch edition published 2007 by Open Universiteit Nederland and Blackwell Publishing Ltd
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Voestermans, P. (Paul), 1946–
[Cultuur & lichaam. English]
Culture as embodiment : the social tuning of behavior / Paul Voestermans and Theo Verheggen.
pages cm
“Dutch edition published 2007 by Open Universiteit Nederland and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.”
Revised edition of the author’s Cultuur & lichaam : een cultuurpsychologisch perspectief op
patronen in gedrag.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-119-96188-8 (cloth)
1. Social psychology. 2. Ethnopsychology. 3. Culture and psychology. I. Verheggen,
Theo, 1972– II. Title.
HM1033.V6413 2013
302–dc23
2013011895
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: © Ares, www.areshumour.com
Cover design by Design Deluxe

Set in 11/13.5 pt Sabon by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited

1 2013
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xii
Part One Towards a New Psychology of Culture 1
1 Understanding Culture 3
2 Inventing Culture Theory 27
3 A Psychological Perspective on Culture 70
Part Two Sex, Status, Age, Ethnicity, and Faith 109
4 Sex: The Shaping of Sex and Gender 113
5 Status: The Body of Class and
Organized Compliance 141
6 Age: The Optimal Balance of Love and Challenge 160
7 Ethnicity: Cultural Arrests and
Bicultural Competence 188
8 Faith: Religion as a Man-made Order 211
Part Three Psychology and Globalization 243
9 A Psychology of Globalization 245
10 Epilogue 287
Bibliographical Essay 292
Index 319

Preface
At the beginning of the new millennium, when the tension between the
Islamic East and the Christian West was high on the international
agenda, one topic of conversation among scientists and politicians was
clashing civilizations and confl icting cultures. In New York, London, and
Madrid, in Copenhagen and The Hague, and more recently in Oslo and
on Utøya, terrorist attacks and threats lugubriously illustrated how heavily
societies are under pressure. Culture and religion were seen almost imme-
diately as the culprits and for many people the two appeared virtually
synonymous.
In this book we will pay attention to the relationships between culture
and religion. Yet, our main focus will be on “culture.” When around 2008
terrorism was no longer the most important political issue but instead
the worldwide fi nancial crises had broken, the “culture of greed” among
bankers and brokers, and in the European context also the national
“culture of irresponsibility and laziness” in the south, were held respon-
sible for much of the fi nancial misery. Once more, culture was selected as
the preeminent determinant of people ’ s behavior.
However, time and again it appears to be diffi cult for scientists, politi-
cians, and social commentators alike to really make sense of culture,
cultural differences, and cultural confl icts. That is remarkable in a way,
because of the omnipresence of the term “culture” in speech and print,
which suggests that it must have quite some explanatory power. Dissimi-
larities between people and problematic integration are quickly attributed
to differences in culture. For instance, in the 1970s and 1980s, the mul-
ticultural Dutch society welcomed newcomers with the slogan that they
could integrate while retaining their own culture. In real life, this turned
viii Preface
out to be a highly problematic task, since it proved to be very hard to
establish what the culture of the newcomers entailed. But it was just as
diffi cult for the Dutch to concretely establish what defi nes their own
receiving culture (and what the Dutch identity demands from the
newcomer).
Symptomatic of these challenges are the cases in which the culture of
newcomers needs to be taken into account in a more formal, legal way.
In an ethnic murder case, for example, the cultural background of the
accused might be used as a claim for mitigation when someone ’ s family
honor is violated under the new circumstances. Dutch judges have strug-
gled with this issue. It shows that culture is thought of as the totality of
practices and convictions that are so closely tied to the person that it is
very hard to get rid of them, or as the case may be, to change them.
Problems arise when such a representation is used to justify unwanted
behavior, as we will see in this book.
There are other instances that reveal a way of thinking about integra-
tion and the acquisition of a different set of cultural behaviors that is
downright simplistic. When politicians demand that newcomers take an
exam before they are permitted to settle in the host country, as is for
instance the case in the Netherlands or Germany, the implicit assumption
seems to be that a new culture can to a large extent be acquired from
reading a book. According to this reasoning, sheer knowledge of the
norms and values of a society may serve as the test that successful integra-
tion has taken place. We might wish that it would be that simple. Culture
is by no means something that can be subtracted or added at will. Poli-
cymakers were forced to conclude that “integrating while retaining one ’ s
own culture” calls for a paradoxical task: to try and become r eally Dutch,
German, British, American, and so on, while leaving intact the cultural
self that was acquired in one ’ s country of origin. In North European law
courts it became clear every so often that referring to local codes of
law did not prevent honor killings. Becoming culturally experienced in
a new country or group is not simply a matter of knowing what one
should do and knowing how to do it; it is foremost a matter of engaging
in new practices, while one ’ s existing practices and feelings, acquired
in the society of origin, tend to persist – even if more “knowledge” about
the host society is administered.
We will give practices due attention in this book. By practices we
mean the behaviors that people carry out almost automatically in a char-
acteristic manner. Walking, looking at others, talking, wearing clothes,
gesticulating, and discussing are all examples of practices that people who
belong to the same group acquire and express in a comparable manner.
Preface ix
Not only observable behavioral styles, but also feeling, taste, and prefer-
ence become styled to an important extent in line with communal require-
ments and manners. In all these domains, the differences between members
of different groups are clearly visible. A member of the upper echelons of
society tends to have a distinct way of eating, handling a glass of wine,
moving, talking, and so on. These behavioral patterns usually differ
clearly from someone of the lower strata. It is the person’ s expressive body
that is the preeminent indicator of the social circles in which she or he
has been raised and has been living.
Based on such examples we might be tempted to surmise that the social
milieu, the environment, or even the culture is responsible for the way
the person moves and communicates. Yet, this is precisely the kind of
suggestion we will argue against in this book. In our opinion, it is a mis-
conception to believe that environments and cultures act upon people. It
is only people who act upon other people; there are no other entities or
structures that truly determine people ’s behavior. In this regard, we are in
clear opposition to the common view in sociology that social structures
organize behavior, and that thereby leaves out the acting individual. We
argue that it does not suffi ce to say that culture is the cause of differences
between people. On the contrary, it is “culture” itself that needs to be
understood. The concept and its use need to be dissected, to analyze what
exactly it is we talk about when we say that this or that behavior is a
matter of culture.
An obvious question to be answered is how people learn to act in
accordance with what is common within their group. To begin with,
“acting,” “in accordance with,” “group,” and “common” are terms that
need further clarifi cation, no matter how familiar they may sound. In Part
One , we will deal with these terms in detail. We will focus particularly
on the crucial role of the human body. The body (oftentimes reduced to
the brain) is never an isolated machine, as seems to be assumed in so
many current neuropsychological approaches to human functioning. It is
always related to other bodies – to other persons, that is – as the joint
bearers and co-producers of all sorts of meanings. We will show that
participation in the practices of the group to which one belongs is any-
thing but noncommittal. Rather, again and again people can be observed
to act naturally and authentically in accordance with what is prevalent in
the group, explicitly but also implicitly. The unobtrusive learning and the
self-evident expression of what is considered proper within the boundaries
of one’ s own community are of special importance. Such implicit norma-
tivity is often overlooked in prescribing cultural exams and in establishing
what is successful integration. A feeling for the situation or a s ense of
x Preface
what is proper behavior at a given moment cannot be gained from instruc-
tions alone. In many social situations, one can only learn from experience
what is considered to be right and what is not. This involves enduring
practice, with all its mistakes; and by being continuously corrected by
experts in the situation one may fi nally gain mastery. Especially in delicate
situations in which a “proper” tone or a “right” attitude make all the
difference, behavioral mismatches and incompatibilities of style quickly
become problematic. Invoking an abstract notion of “culture” is of little
use in these circumstances.
In the chapters that follow, we proceed from the assumption that the
most viable way to deal with such problems is to focus on the way in
which people’ s actions, thoughts, and feelings are mutually shaped and
styled within the community they are part of. A well-trained observer
learns to identify characteristic patterns, which can be found in all areas
of life. That is why we will use the notion of behavioral patterns so
explicitly in this book. Without most people realizing it, those patterns
are the result of ongoing practice and training, which also makes these
patterns (practices) so resistant to change. As an example, one might try
to lose the accent typical of the group one has been raised in. It is a very
tough task, surely, in the long run. Yet, we all know that such a minor
thing as having an accent is hardly without social consequences. It illus-
trates the persistence of the behavioral patterns that we will deal with.
Part One is about the way in which persistent patterns of behavior come
into being. We will show that these patterns become almost tangible when
the body, the feelings, and the behaviors of individual people become
mutually styled and tuned within their community. People embody, also
in a literal sense of the word, what is current and common in the group.
This styling results from participation in the practices that characterize a
group. We have devised an analytical toolkit, a set of psychological per-
spectives on how people acquire styles in close relation to the behavior
of their parents, peers, and important others. Our tools include, among
other things, a focus on bodily practices in the intrinsic social group, with
an emphasis on “automaticities” and on the social tuning of feeling. For
cases where there is a mismatch between acquired routines and practices
and what is demanded because of changes in one ’s social situation, we
have created a new research perspective that focuses on so-called “cultural
arrests.”
Topical issues that involve cultural patterning can be found in Part T wo .
It is the proof of the pudding in which our analytical perspective on
“culture” is applied to fi ve domains of human affairs that are, in our view,
crucially important in any society. These domains pose fundamental prob-