Culture Shock: What It Is & How to Cope

Anthropologists are concerned with understanding what makes us human in all aspects.  In pursuit of this goal all anthropologists, regardless of subfield, typically study groups of people- be they from the past or present-that are very different from their own.  This leads to exposure of cultural standards that may be very different from those that the anthropologist is most familiar with.  When this occurs, anthropologists may experience culture shock, which is the topic of today’s blog post.  Culture shock is not exclusive to anthropologists, however, and it is something that anyone-be it on vacation, away on business, or in one’s own community-can experience when coming in contact with a new culture, particularly one that is very different from his or her own.  In this post you will learn what culture shock is, what the symptoms are, and how one can go about best dealing with culture shock.

Figure 1: Example of Culture Shock (from a journal excerpt of an anthropologist in the field for the first time)

Culture shock is the personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life.  Culture shock is experienced when an individual experiences a culture very different from their own-be it in a different country or in one’s home country.  Culture shock was first identified in 1954 by Kalvero Oberg, but it was and continues to be experienced by people across the globe, meaning it is a universal situation.  Individuals who experience culture shock can experience a variety of feelings, including disorientation, frustration, fear, irritability, sadness, anger, resentment, boredom, and fatigue (Figure 1).  In addition to emotional reactions, physical symptoms such as physical pain, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, compulsive eating and drinking, and oversleeping may manifest.  

There are multiple ways that individuals can deal and cope with culture shock.  Here are some of the things you can do if you find yourself experiencing culture shock:

 

• Be proactive!  Learn about where you are going and what you may realistically expect from the people and culture(s) you may be exposed to.  Additional tips for preparing ahead of time can be found here. 

• Be prepared!  Recognize the symptoms of culture shock, be okay with admitting to yourself that you are experiencing them, and be ready and willing to make proactive and positive changes to help you deal with them.

• Be realistic!  Cultural diversity exists, and not every culture is the same.  If we all were life would be boring, and we wouldn’t be able to creatively solve problems, which is why several cultural and technological advancements have happened.  Have realistic expectations about cultural differences and be prepared to confront your ethnocentric feelings about them and be proactive about being more culturally relativistic. 

• Be friendly!  Whatever the purpose of this excursion, be it for work or play, remember that you should have fun, and part of fun means getting out and meeting people.  Meeting people can provide you insights into the culture(s) you are being exposed to, and you can also have fun and make friends (Figure 2).

•  Learn the language!  Language is a key element of culture, so by learning the local language you can better learn how to cope in your environment.  It also helps you in being friendly and making friends, which assists you in acclimating to your new cultural environment.

Figure 2: American ESL teachers (two ladies on the left) and American anthropologist (far right) hanging out at a Halloween party and making friends with local Chileans and Peruvians (one is pictured second from right)

  

• Be healthy!  Be sure to eat well balanced, nutritional meals, get plenty of sleep, and exercise.  These all help keep you healthy and reduce stress, which will ease your emotional and physical reactions to culture shock considerably.

• Keep in contact with friends and family back home!  Your friends and family back home know you well, and they can be amazing resources to assist you in coping with homesickness, your feelings, and more. Don’t cut them out of your life just because you are in a foreign country and experience a new culture.

• Don’t idolize your own culture!  Your own culture is what you are most familiar with, but it is not the best or end all be all culture out there.  If you stick to closely to your own cultural norms, values, and beliefs you will be unable to experience the new culture around you and you will be stuck in culture shock.  Furthermore, learning about the new culture will help you learn more about yourself, and you may actually learn how to improve yourself and/or some of the things you do on a daily basis.

• Keep a journal!  Writing down your thoughts and feelings is one way to cope.  It is also useful in allowing you to reflect back on your initial thoughts and feelings so you can see how much you have grown from the experience.

• Be kind!  This means not only to others but yourself, as well.  People around you are not trying to offend you.  They are merely reacting how they believe is best based on their own cultural norms.  Keep that in mind if you find yourself feeling offended.  Also, be kind to yourself.  You will make mistakes, and that’s okay.  It is how you react and what you learn from those mistakes that is important.

  

Bibliography

Culbertson, H.  2016.  “Understanding Culture Stress: Coping with Culture Shock.”  Missions Mobilizer.  https://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/shock.htm

De Jesus, M.  2004.  “How to Overcome Culture Shock.”  Culture Shock.  http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/DeJesus/page3.html

No Author.  No Date.  “Student Handbook-Coping with Culture Shock.”  ISEP.  http://www.isep.org/students/placed/student_handbook3c.asp

No Author.  2013.  “How to Deal with Culture Shock.”  University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center.  https://www.uthsc.edu/international/shock.php

No Author.  2016.  “Coping with Culture Shock.”  Government of Canada.  https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/living-abroad/culture-shock

Warrior Women & Domestic Goddesses: Examining the Roles of Women in Pre-Christian Viking Culture

Vikings are popularly depicted as brutish, blood thirsty warriors who conquered and terrorized much of the European continent.  Television series, such as Vikings, and popular culture depictions, such as Thor, are driving interest in Vikings, but very little attention, both scholarly and popularly, has been paid to Viking women.  Today's blog post is dedicated to discussing the roles of women in Viking culture in order to demonstrate their active role in the Viking society and culture.

The Vikings existed in the modern countries of Scandinavia in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark of  northern Europe between 700-1200 AD.  Vikikings are characterized as seafarers who conquered much of Europe, which is true, but they had a much more complex culture and lifestyle than that.  They were avid farmers and fisherman who has complex social organizations made up of specialized workers (ranging from merchants to craftsman), monarchs, distinctive social classes, as well as slaves.  A system of taxation existed among Vikings, and it may have been a driving force for their desire to conquer new lands, which was driven out of a need to get necessary supplies for the groups' survival.  

Viking Women served in domestic roles in Viking culture, but they had the autonomy to choose what career they wanted to pursue...

The majority of scholarly work on Vikings has focused on men despite the central role that female gods played in Pagan Norse mythology, but more recently scholar have begun looking into the roles of females in Viking culture.  It appears that women had somewhat equal social standing in Viking culture, as well as played a central role in community activities.  Women were involved in building structures both domestically as well as while raiding, had their choice of profession they pursued, had the right to own property, and were responsible for conflict mediation.  The central role that most women seemed to occupy was that of wife and mother, but these women had the option of initiating a divorce if proper grounds were met.  If this happened women retained any and all property they brought into and gained during the tenure of the marriage.  Mothers received custody of young children, but custody of older children was shared between both parents.

Recently, renewed attention has focused on the role of women in Viking culture.  A number of women have been found in graves that contain weapons, leading to the question of whether or not women were warriors themselves.  Women warriors play central roles in Viking mythos as Valkyries are women who road out to battle to return fallen warriors to Valhalla, the preferred Viking afterlife.  Several engravings and art pieces also support the notion of women as warriors as women have been depicted in these roles.  At the present time it is unclear if women (or men) were specifically warriors as grave goods cannot 100% conclusively demonstrate that, but the grave good and other evidence taken together does seem to strongly suggest that Viking women could be and were serving as warriors and conquerors alongside men.

...such as being Shield Maidens, or warriors.

Vikings are popularly depicted as barbarians, but they had complex social organizations with unique cultural attributes.  Women were a large part of that society and culture, serving in various roles that were not clearly understood until recently.  Both women and men in Viking culture served their roles that allowed for the survival and expansion of their culture, leaving a memorable mark among modern cultures.  


Bibliography

Adam, J. 2014.  “The Lives of Women in the Viking Age: The Role of Critical Feminist and Historical Assessment.”  University Research Paper. http://wgst.athabascau.ca/awards/broberts/forms/Jessica.pdf

Holcomb, KM.  2015.  “Pulling the Strings: The Influential Power of Women in Viking Age Iceland.”  Thesis.  Department of History.  Western Oregon University.  http://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=his 

Holloway, A.  2014.  “Research Suggests Viking Women Accompanied Warriors on Overseas Missions.”  Ancient Origins.  http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/research-suggests-viking-women-accompanied-warriors-overseas-missions-002045

Jesch, J.  2014.  “Viking Women, Warriors, and Valkyries.”  The British Museum.  https://blog.britishmuseum.org/2014/04/19/viking-women-warriors-and-valkyries/

Larson, C.  2012.  “Viking Social Structure and Gender Roles in Scandinavia Based on Burials & Grave Goods.”  Bachelor Thesis.  University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.   

McLeod, S.  2011.  “Warriors and Women: The Sex Ratio of Norse Migrants to Eastern England Up to 900 AD.”  Early Medieval Europe 19: 332-353. 

Sawyer, B.  1998.  “Women in Viking Age Scandinavia.”  Academia.edu.  https://www.academia.edu/12462598/Women_in_Viking-Age_Scandinavia_or_who_were_the_shieldmaidens_?auto=download

Spotlight on Students: Social Institutions Assignment

The following is a post dedicated to showcasing the work of one of my Anth 101 students.  Students were tasked with comparing three social institutions of a foreign culture to the same social institutions in American culture.  Please show your appreciation and support for this amazing work by an exceptional student.  :)

Inuit Man and his sled dogs (Windows to the Universe)

By: Charina Molina

            The world is culturally diverse place, but each culture contains key aspects that are shared by all. It is important to note that it is with those key aspects where a culture is able to define itself and create a culture that is unique to that area of the world. The Inuit of the Artic can be found in areas of the United States and Canada. This particular culture group is in many ways diverse when it comes to foodways, political structure, and features of gender. The culture in the United States, similarly, is significantly different than the Inuit way of life. Each culture brings new ways of examining culture in a particular part of the world: North America. It is with these two cultures that one can examine the diversity and dynamic aspect of two different cultures. It is also possible to examine the similarities amongst these two groups as they are very close in location. Both the cultures of the Inuit and the United States express differences and similarities in their values, norms, and traditions-aspects of what defines culture. 

            Both the Inuit and American people are based on the same continent: North America. Each culture group, however, has adapted differently to its geographical area, which has led each to diverge in some aspects of their culture. The Inuit have adapted to the weather and the conditions of living in the Arctic Tundra. Specifically, these groups can be found in the Northwest Territories, Quebec, and Labrador in Canada. They can also be found in the above tree line in Alaska, the Inupiat and Yupik, as they are called. Living in these areas has affected the way individuals function as a society, which ultimately affects the culture. They have invented tools and gear that have helped them survive. They have built their homes out of snow (also known as igloos), and some of their beliefs are based on the aurora. They hunt for food and get around on sleds made out of animal bones and their skins. Inuit life has since changed by the twentieth century, but traditions such as storytelling, mythology, and dancing have remained the same (Gardiner).

The American culture, however, is very diverse. It started with the population of aboriginal people that settled parts of North America originally. As soon as European settlers came, the culture of the United States became a melting pot of various cultures. The general aspects of the culture, such as clothing and music, change all the time. The people of the United States act in an informal and direct way. Despite that, the people of the United States are friendly. The culture centers itself around individualism, self-reliance, and egalitarianism (“International”). Each of these cultures are unique but can be similar in many ways.

            Foodways in each culture differ in how the food is obtained, but there are some consistencies with what are staples in the diet. The Inuit live in places where plants do not typically grow, so they hunt for their food (Gardiner). In this way, they are a foraging society. They search out their food, which consists of fish, walruses, seals, whales, etc. They do not overuse their resources as they use the animal’s bones and skin for tools, sleds, and clothing. Their diet “cures illnesses, makes one strong, and provides a level of energy and stamina” (Searles).  In comparison, the United States uses industrial agriculture as a means of obtaining food. Farmers produce many crops, and there is application of industrial principles. This is prevalent in the United States because it is an industrialized nation (Boston).

Similarly to both cultures, meat is a staple to the diets. Americans enjoy their steak, while the Inuit eat their protein sources because that is what is available to them. These foods show an individual’s identity, particularly in males. In both the Inuit and American culture, it is deemed masculine to eat a lot of protein. Foodways are able to show the development of masculinity in both cultures (MacNeil).

            The gender roles in both the Inuit and American culture are specific as they pertain to the biological sex of the person. With the Inuit culture, however, their gender roles are very much pliable. Because they are a foraging society, their gender roles are the least separate in public-domestic spheres (Boston). These roles are “situational and contextual” (Morgan). For example, if a family does not produce a male child the father will teach his daughters how to hunt. In the United States, “feminity and masculinity are clearly distinguished (and enforced) through the use of formal and informal sanctions” (“Gender”). An example of this is the toys that boys and girls are allowed to play with when they are young. In the United States, it is masculine for a boy to play with cars and airplanes, while girls played with dolls (Boston). People who disturb this social norm are criticized. It is important to note that in both societies that the male is the main provider of the family, while the women take up the job of taking care of the home and family.

            The political structures of each culture group differ. As a foraging group, the Inuit do not have a structured society. Ranks and social classes do not exist. With that, each Inuit tribe cannot be considered a political entity. There are few leadership roles in the Inuit tribes. Because they are politically centered around their families, the eldest male usually assume the role of the head person (“Inuit). In the United States, the government is structured, and the people vote to appoint a leader into office. The President of the United States governs a large mass of people, but he has subordinates in which he dictates his authority to. The President has political power but has shown that it is usually to the interest of the people, not for themselves (Welsch).

            Based on the cultures of both the Inuit and the United States, culture is diverse and dynamic. Its fluidity allows for culture to change over time to adapt to the needs of the people at a specific point in time, although that is subject to change all the time. The definition of culture can be interpreted in various ways, as culture encompasses the arts, fashion, literature, food, etc. of a certain people. It is with the study of culture that anthropologists are able to examine the natural actions of a particular group of people. Additionally, one can study why a particular group acts the way they do in social situations. Anthropologists are then able to see how different cultures interact amongst each other. Culture allows for the investigation of certain behaviors amongst a culture group as well as the beliefs that each culture group holds about particular things.

Works Cited

Boston, C. "Chapter 10: Politics: Cooperation, Conflict, & Power Relations." Reno. 29 Apr. 2016. Lecture.

Boston, C. "Chapter 12: Gender, Sex, and Sexuality: The Lives of Women and Men." Reno. 29 Apr. 2016. Lecture.

Boston, C. "Chapter 7: Foodways, Finding, Making, & Eating Food." Reno. 29 Apr. 2016. Lecture.

Gardiner, Lisa. "Inuit Culture, Traditions, and History." Inuit Culture, Traditions, and History. Windows to the Future, 5 June 2007. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/polar/inuit_culture.html>.

"Gender Roles and Gender Stratification." Gender Roles and Gender Stratification. People.vcu.edu, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://www.people.vcu.edu/~jmahoney/gender101.htm#usgender>.

"International Student Services." Lewis University Student Services Culture of the United States. Lewis University, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <https://www.lewisu.edu/studentservices/iss/usaculture.htm>.

"Inuit / Eskimo Society." Inuit / Eskimo Society. Astronomy.pomona.edu, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://www.astronomy.pomona.edu/archeo/alaska/eskimo.html>.

MacNeil, John Grant. "1.2 Background of the Problem." The Construction of Identity Among Inuit Men in Ottawa Through Foodways (2015): 3. Curve.carleton.ca. Curve.carleton.ca. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <https://curve.carleton.ca/system/files/etd/18dc8725-bb4c-46c1-b127-3a834e804e69/etd_pdf/e5cdd9444cb9b6fe6ee39979762a75a0/macneil-theconstructionofidentityamonginuitmeninottawa.pdf>.

Morgan, Clara. "The Arctic: Gender Issues." The Arctic: Gender Issues. Parliament of Canada, 24 Oct. 2016. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://www.lop.parl.gc.ca/content/lop/researchpublications/prb0809-e.htm#gender>.

Searles, Edmund. "Difference Through Diet, Property, and Time." Inuit Identity in the Canadian Arctic (n.d.): 247. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.

Welsch, Robert Louis, and Luis Antonio Vivanco. Cultural Anthropology: Asking Questions About Humanity. New York: Oxford UP, 2015. Print.