2. • As many things, housing too offers
considerable variety even within a culture.
• In fact, people fantasize about their «dream
house» more then they do about food or
clothing.
• In this presentation, we are going to have a
look at how housing, a necessity, influences
cultural patterns of communication.
3. • «First we shape our buildings and then they
shape us» Winston Churchill.
• We all are born into and influenced by a home
which was shaped by our parents and the
people who lived before us.
• Of course, the same can be said about the
language that we are born into or any aspect
of culture for that matter.
• However, homes are both more personal and
subtly influential.
4. Two Styles of homes in the
United States
• In this home style, there is a certain authority
figure which serves as a standard in discussing
important matters.
• This authority figure can be:
- a person (father, grandfather)
- a religion or religious book
- education or a symbol of that
- family buisness or family name
• Communication is centered around this figure.
5. • Generally, in this home stlye, there is a clear
distiction between family areas and guest areas.
• The family dines together. Children are expected
to be present at the dinner table. This is how the
children are socialized into the family.
• There should be no secrets in the family.
6. • The parents’ bedroom is a setting for little
intimate communication, largely off-limits to the
children. Even the father and the mother have
different areas in the room.
• According to the parents, outside of the home,
the best place for a child to be is the school. The
parents assume that as long as the children is in
school, the control is maintained and
competitive values of children are sharpened.
7.
8. The nature of social interaction in the Middle East is reflected in
the structure of the average home in the area. In urban or rural
settings, a room is usually set aside for receiving and entertaining
guests. That room is the pride of the family.
Valued heirlooms, pictures of the dear, living or
dead, and cherished souvenirs are displayed in the
salon, an Arabicized word from the French.
9. By the same token, the room's furnishing reflects the family’s degree
of education, affluence, and modernity. The taste, the quality of
furnishings and the degree of Westernization that the room reflects
is a mirror of the family’s status and the light in which it likes to be
viewed.
For example, the family that seats its guests on rugs and
hassocks reflects a different structure of internal
relationships from the family that seats its guests on sofas
and armchairs. The message reflects an advertised
measure of identification with the Western, the modern.
Although the “salon” is a very important room in the home, it is
not the most frequently used. It is, paradoxically, both focal and
peripheral. It is the center of the family's formal social interactions
with visitors, while it is physically located on the periphery of the
home.
10.
11.
12. • The salon is usually the room farthest away from all others and the closest
to the door leading to the outside. Actually, in older buildings, the “majlis”
or the salon or the guest room (which is a literal translation in certain Arabic
dialects), a door leading to the outside opens directly into this room on one
end and another door opens to the inside of the home.
• In such a layout the guest knocks at the door and is either led into the salon
through the home or asked to please wait until the other door leading
immediately to the "salon” is opened for him.
• The behavior reflects two of the primary cultural values of the area:
13. • The first is the preoccupation with the concept of face, facades, and
appearances. The guest is exposed only to the most shining, formal, and
stylized part of the home and gets to meet only the members whom the
family intends for him to meet.
• On the other hand, relationships in the Middle East reflect contextual
varieties of guest-host interactions with territorial expectations of welcome
and hospitality on the part of the guest and situational obligations of
maintaining the traditional image of an open house on the part of the host.
In receiving the guest in the most distinguished part of the home and in having
him meet only the members of the family dressed for the occasion, the guest is
honored and the family status is reflected.
14. Sitting Room
With close association and the
development of friendship, a
guest comes to be accepted by
the family and received in the
family room or what is
commonly referred to in the
Middle East as the sitting room.
However, between the time a guest is received in
the salon and the time he is accepted as “one of
us,” a translation from the Arabic expression,
certain social processes take place in terms of the
guest's relationship to the family.
15. • The pace at which the
guest meets the
members of the
opposite sex in the
host family, and the
length of the
interaction reflect the
internal sociocultural
norms of the family.
For example, it is not unusual in the Middle East for two men to have
known each other for a number of years without either of them
having met the female members of the other’s family, even though
they may know a lot about each other’s life.
This is in contrast to a modern, Westernized family in which a guest
may meet most of the members during his first visit.
16. Until a guest is accepted and received informally in the family until a
guest is accepted and received informally in the family room his movement is
usually restricted to the salon.
Unlike the custom, in the United States, for example, where a guest
wanting to use the toilet just gets up and heads toward the bathroom perhaps
mumbling an "excuse me" or perhaps not, in the Middle East, the guest asks for
permission to go to the bathroom and for guidance to it.
The request allows the host to go out first and check to make sure that
the way to the bathroom is clear.
That is, he makes sure that there are no family members that the host
doesn't want to introduce to the guest, that those around are decent, and that
the place is tidy and in agreement with the image that the host would like to
create.
17. Consequently, because of all these little inconveniences, it is
uncommon for a salon only guest to go to the bathroom in a host's
house.
The situation is of course different in the case of a guest who is
invited to a meal.
18. The most exclusive
place in the Middle Eastern
home is the kitchen. Its territory
is the domain of the household
members and mainly the
females in the family. To that
extent it is the most intimate
place in the Middle Eastern
home.
A guest, whether male or female, has to have achieved the
highest degree of familiarity with a family to be admitted into their
kitchen.
19. Depending upon the socioeconomic level of the family, the
home may have a sitting room and a family room with one of
them the equivalent of a North American den.
The use and functions, however, are different. In the
Middle East, it is not too frequent that all members of
the family gather together in the sitting room.
20. In fact, when the older members are in the sitting room, the young may
stay away in the “den" or in their bedrooms out of deference, unless
there is something specific that they want to discuss with their parents
or aunts or uncles.
In behavioral terms, deference is reflected in subduing
physical noise or keeping it away from the ears of the
elders in the family.
21. In the Middle East, however, the men usually congregate together in the early
evening and night hours in indoor or outdoor cafes. Meanwhile, the women visit
together, and the young have uninhibited access to all parts of the home, since it is
usually the presence of the father or the elder male members in the family that
regulates movement and noise in the home.
However, with the
introduction of television,
and the appeal of
contemporary programs,
family togetherness has
begun to center around the
television set.
Even popular cafes in the
Mideast have had to acquire
television sets to help
maintain their appeal.
22. The allocation and use of private space in the Middle Eastern home
reflect the value system and lines of authority within the family. In some
homes, for example, only the elder male member of the family who
might be alone in his room working, sulking, or visiting with a friend.
It is not unusual to find that only the mother has access to the father if
he is alone in his room behind a closed door.
23. The Middle Eastern home, like others, reveals
the authority system within the home, the roles
and norms of behavior for each sex, and a
culture’s outlook toward friends and neighbors.
The home is a miniature replica of its society and
a propagator of many of its values and patterns of
communication.
31. Closed doors,hedges,fences,thick walls
reflect the privacy of German life.
Yards and gardens take place in the
back of home and are well shielded
from neighbors by shrubbery.
Balconies are very common and well
planned.
32.
33.
34. Most of German houses have entryways
that lead visitors into the house without
exposing them to specific rooms and a
resultant loss of privacy for the family
members.
35. Germans have a great love for the out-
of-doors since the outside is a central
part of the concept of an ideal home.
They eat meals or snacks outdoors at
all hours of the day.
Homes are not used for entertaining
guests.
Garden restaurants are among the most
frequent settings for communication.
36.
37. “Good fences make good
neighbors.”
A good neighbor is likely to be one who
is quiet,knows his place,doesn’t object
when children make noise, and keeps
his own sidewalk clean.
A lease will often specify who may use
the garden or the yard in the back of
the house.
38. If there are children in the family who
are old enough to be quiet,they may be
expected to appear immediately,greet
the guests, and stay quietly for the
length of the visit.
39. phone usage :
The morning is a good time to call a
private house; calls should not be made
around noon (since meals would be
interrupted) and through the early
afternoon (people might be napping);
late afternoon is acceptable.
41. In the traditional Japanese home a single room can be used both living
room,dinner room and a bedroom contrary to western homes. Very little
furniture is used in the home and instead of beds there is futon (thick sleeping
mats with a comforter like top) and it is spread out when it is time to sleep.
42. Cushions rather than chairs are used for sitting and these are easily moved or
removed as requirred.
43. Western homes may have several tables (a coffee table a dining table study
table) in japanese home a single table may serve several of these purposes.
Lightness and sense of space are characteristics of japanese homes.
Doors of home are also lightweight sliding doors therefore a room may be made
to seem larger or smaller as needed by closing or removing these doors.
44. These sliding doors have no locks and one cannot go into his own room and lock
the door but windows and doors which open out onto the garden or street do
have locks and there is also an additional set of wooden doors (amado).
This aspect of home structure seems very consistent with contrasting values
japanese and western peoples. That is the family as a whole rather than the
individual is highly valued in Japan. Choices and decisions must be made
after a discussion within the family.
Japanese people don’t use the word of privacy ,speak of a private room,private
car while americans are likely to speak of my house in japanese it is the word
for house itself –uchi- they say our house or our car.
45. Japanese take care to distinguish the bath and toilet as the clean place and dirty
place. When it is time for a bath the ofuro or japanese bathtub is filled with
cold water, and a small stove is lit which heats the water. Preparing for a bath
at home thus requires as much as an hour just heating the water.
46. Bathing is generally regarded as relaxing and refreshing in japanese culture
rather than the – hurry up , i’m waiting to take a bath-attitude in western
families. Also there are thousands of bathing spas throughout the country
which are favorite meeting places for friends and social groups.
At home and away it is very unusual to telephone a japanese home and receive
no answer. Somebody is always at home it seems ; it is still very rare for a
wife to work. When the wife must go shopping or take a child to school her
mother-in-law will answer telephone.
So near, so far the japanese language contains many expressions for
organizations of houses. One has obligations toward the neighbors which
date back centuries. For example, giving gifts to families and neighbors on
either side of the house.
47. All of these observations may help to explain the puzzlement felt by foreign
visitors in japan when they find they are treated with generosity and kindness
but almost never are allowed to feel – at home -. Emotionally and quite
literally they must always be yoso no hito – people outside our house –
49. • There is not a specific part for Turkish home
style in the book but there are some
similarities and differences with previous
styles.
• Which of the styles is the most similar to
Turkish style?
50. • Authority or social centered?
• Turkish home is similar to American authority
centered home. Generally the father is the authority
in Turkish families. Children are expected to be at
dinner to have chat with their family members.
• Because of the authorized view of the
parents, children have to be very open to the
parents. They don’t have any secrets or private
times for themselves.
51. • Like the middle eastern home Turkish home has
formal relationships with the guests. There is
hospitality towards guests which shown in special
rooms in a house.
• To host guests there is special guest rooms in our
houses. Generally the father decides who will meet
the guests or who will serve for them.
• There is a room for each family member in houses
but children cannot lock their doors because parents
should have unlimited access to anywhere in the
house.
52. • Can you talk about some other norms in
Turkish home?
• Are there any changes in our lifestyles?
