Abstract
Artifacts
have made intercultural communication inevitable. Communicating with other
culture characterizes today’s way of life and encourages good relation and
bonding. Technologies like the internet, television and radio has increased the
probability that whatever is documented will be used by someone from another
culture. Intercultural communication is important in our lives thus the art of
knowing and understanding how to communicate or interact with other cultures (artifact) should be a skill to be emphasized.
Introduction
Artifacts
have made intercultural communication inevitable. For us to understand artifacts
and how it impacts intercultural communication we have to understand what
culture and intercultural communication is all about. Culture has been defined
in a variety of ways. Culture is a “system of belief, values and assumptions
about life that guides behaviors and is shared by a group of people and these
are transmitted from generation to generation, rarely with exploit instruction”
Peace Corps (2002)
“Culture
is a system of shared beliefs values customs, behaviors’ and artifacts that the
members of the society use to cope with their world and with one another and
are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.” Bates and plog
(1976)
Intercultural
communication is a form of global communication. It is used to describe the
wide range of communication problems that naturally appears within an
organization made up of individuals from different religious, social ethnic and
educational background (Wikipedia)
In
simple terms it is a form of communication that aims to share information
across different cultures and social groups. It is mostly used to describe the
wide range of communication processes and problems that naturally occurs within
an organization made up of people from different background. It also tries to
understand how to perceive the world in general.
Intercultural
communication serves a very important role in preventing misunderstanding and
miscommunication. Because of increased intercultural interdependence, people
are rethinking cultural communication in order to acquire good intercultural
communication competence. Arasaratnam (2005) states, is becoming more relevant
in the increasingly multicultural communities that people live in today.
From
what we understand of culture and intercultural communication, we can say
artifacts are vital as they ensure culture exist and through them understanding
and harmonious co-existence is evident through intercultural communication.
Artifact
An
artifact is a Latin phrase arte factum (something) made with skill. The Oxford
student dictionary defines artifact as an object that is made by a person
especially something of historical or cultural interest. It is also something
observed in scientific investigation or experiment that is not naturally
present but occurs as a result of the preparative or investigative procedure.
The
free online dictionary defines artifact as any handmade object as a tool or the
remains of one as a shared of pottery, belonging to an earlier time or cultural
stage especially such an object found at an archaeological.
According
to the definition of culture by Kroeber and kluckholm (1952) culture refers to all
characteristic common to a particular group of people which are learned and not
given by nature. If members of a group have two legs is not a cultural
characteristic but a natural one, but a special and common way of walking would
probably be cultural. From this we can have four primary cultural dimensions
which are pattern of through, pattern of behavior, pattern of artifact and
imprints in nature. For our case we will deal with pattern of artifact, which
is the common way of manufacturing and using of materials. Where artifactural
dimension of culture is given a special attention is in museums.
Culture
is a system of shared beliefs, values, custom, behavior and artifact that the
members of the society use to cope with their world and each other, transmitted
down through learning. From this I agree that the shared meaning that members
of a society attach to the various phenomena, natural, intellectual, ideology,
religion and artifact (tools, houses, machinery, work of art and the culturally
transmitted skills and techniques) are vital and together they ensure
intercultural communication is possible through fastening and understanding on how things are done.
Artifacts
are objects or thing often used to communicate information about oneself and
they may include clothes, jewelry, trinkets, accessories like handbag,
umbrella, fans, hats and colours to express ones interest hobbies, status or
lifestyle. With artifacts one can be distinguished from others by demonstrating
his or her own taste of life and philosophy. However, different culture has
different interpretations of these artifacts. The most influential artifacts a
person has is one’s own wardrobe. Research in psychology and communication
states that clothes usually make a man or woman in the eyes of the observers.
Colour as artifact usually tells something about your personality. Red
indicates a passionate, assertive and enthusiastic nature. Yellow indicates
optimized, cheerfulness and originality. Blue shows peaceful nature, coolness
and calm.
Media
as artifact are infrastructure with three components; the artifacts or devices
used to communicate or convey information, the activities and practices in
which people engage to communicate or share information and the social
arrangement or organization forms that develop around those devices, activities
and practices (slide share) from this we say the devices, activities and
practices people are involved in as the interact brings about cohesion.
Media
artifacts are media collected which are collected and available to be
re-represented. The media used usually diverse from video, sound to interview,
magazines and photos. If you want to have something documented and you cannot
write it down with words then it can be used as your media artifact. An example
of a media artifact was done by Michael Lesy who stumped on a collection of
photography of late 19th century taken in a small town Wisconsin
called black river falls. Michael was intrigued by this and started reaching
the town newspaper from the same period. He artfully arranged the photos and
newspaper fragment in a sequence. He published the under the little “Wisconsin
Death Trip” in 1973. This audio slide show includes an interview with Michael
Lesy and images from the book, together with other image of Victorian post-
mortem photography.
According
Wikipedia cultural artifact also known as social artifact is a term used in the
social sciences like anthropology and sociology for anything created by humans
which gives information about culture of its creator and user. Current objects
of modern or near –modern society are also cultural artifacts. For example 17th
century lather or a Television each may provide a lot of information about the
time in which they were manufactured and used. Cultural artifacts usually
provide knowledge about technological processes, economy and social make up.
The
study of artifact should be insisted within the social relations and system
through which they are produced and consumed and thus their study is bound up
with study of society economic and politics. The study of artifacts is valuable
because it provides tools that enable someone to read and interpret one’s
culture. It also allows the examination and critically analyzing the whole
range of artifact without prejudices towards one or another sort of cultural
text, institution or practice. It opens the way toward more differentiated
political rather than a esthetic valuation of cultural artifact in which one
attempts to distinguish critical and oppositional from conformist and conservative
moment in a cultural artifact. For example the studies of Hollywood film shows
how key 1960 films promoted the views of radical and counter culture and how
film in the 1970s loss a battleground between liberal and conservative
position.
Intercultural
communication brings about openness among individual of different background
with different view points on matters. But because of the drive to try and understand
the different culture (artifacts) of our neighbour which are in the media, the
world has now been made a small village. Artifacts have a major role in
shaping the society and encouraging
unity through people coming together to make and use them.
Conclusion
“Cultural
communication research tends to focus on understanding communication within
one’s point of views” Gudykunst and moody (2002). From this, we can say for us
to understand the different cultures (artifacts) and be one with them. Then we
have to get closer to comprehend what they mean.
“Although
intercultural communication is not new, what is new is the systematic study of
exactly what happens when cross-culture contacts and interaction takes place,
that is when the message producer and a message receiver are from different
culture.” Gao (2006) The contacts and interaction usually binds the different
point of views together.
References
Arasaratnam,
L.n. and Doerfel, M.L. (2005).Intercultural communication competence:
Identifying key components from multicultural perspective, International
Journal of Intercultural Relation.
Bales,
O.G. and Plog , F.(1976) Cultural Anthropology, (3rd). New York: Mc
Graw Hill.6.
Gao,
F. (2006). Language is culture : On Intercultural Communication Journal of
Language and Linguistics.
Gudykuns
L. W. B. and Mody, B. (2002). Handbook of International and Intercultural
Communication (2nd Ed). Thousand Oaks, C A: sage
Intercultural
communication Retrieved March 12, 2014from http://en.wikipedia.
Org/wiki/intercultural- communication
Kroeber,
A.L. and Kluckholm, C. (1952). Culture. A critical review of concepts and
Definitions. Harvard University Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and
Ethnology paper
Oxford
student Dictionary. (3rd Ed) (2012). Oxford university press.
Peace
corps. (2002) .Building bridges: A peace corps classroom guide to cross-
cultural understanding Washington, DC: Author Retrieved March 12, 2014, from
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