Culture Matters

Chapter 4

Overview of Culture and Cultural Values

Introduction

Edward Hall (1976), the founder of intercultural communication, asserted that “culture is communication and communication is culture” (p. 191). He emphasized that the types of information exchanged and shared, the reason a communication takes place, the way a person communicates, and to whom a person responds—all of these factors are rooted in the cultural values that a person subscribes to. What is meaningful to a person is based on how he or she perceives his or her world through the cultural lens that he or she holds and the cultural environment in which he or she lives.

Culture is an intricate concept with over 160 different definitions (Ferraro 2003; Schneider & Barsoux 1997; ...