The Intertwined Conflict: The difference between culture and religion
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Low-context communicators tend to "say what they mean and mean what they say. As people communicate, they move along a continuum between high- and low-context.
At times, it may be considered as one culture, as the borders and definition as to what constitutes culture changes. High-context communication may help save face because it is less direct than low-context communication, but it may increase the possibilities of miscommunication because much of the intended message is unstated. Islam is the most widespread religion in Europe after Christianity and the majority religion in various member states of the Council of Europe. That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another. Cultures are embedded in every conflict because conflicts arise in human relationships. This is indeed a difficult task. Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.
Depending on the kind of relationship, the context, and the purpose of communication, they may be more or less explicit and direct. In close relationships, communication shorthand is often used, which makes communication opaque to outsiders but perfectly clear to the parties. With strangers, the same people may choose low-context communication.
Low- and high-context communication refers not only to individual communication strategies, but may be used to understand cultural groups.
Generally, Western cultures tend to gravitate toward low-context starting points, while Eastern and Southern cultures tend to high-context communication. Within these huge categories, there are important differences and many variations. Where high-context communication tends to be featured, it is useful to pay specific attention to nonverbal cues and the behavior of others who may know more of the unstated rules governing the communication.
Where low-context communication is the norm, directness is likely to be expected in return. There are many other ways that communication varies across cultures. High- and low-context communication and several other dimensions are explored in Communication, Culture, and Conflict. Ways of naming, framing, and taming conflict vary across cultural boundaries.
As the example of the elderly Chinese interviewee illustrates, not everyone agrees on what constitutes a conflict. For those accustomed to subdued, calm discussion, an emotional exchange among family members may seem a threatening conflict. The family members themselves may look at their exchange as a normal and desirable airing of differing views.
Intractable conflicts are also subject to different interpretations. Is an event a skirmish, a provocation, an escalation, or a mere trifle, hardly worth noticing? The answer depends on perspective, context, and how identity relates to the situation. Just as there is no consensus across cultures or situations on what constitutes a conflict or how events in the interaction should be framed, so there are many different ways of thinking about how to tame it.
Should those involved meet face to face, sharing their perspectives and stories with or without the help of an outside mediator? Or should a trusted friend talk with each of those involved and try to help smooth the waters? Should a third party be known to the parties or a stranger to those involved?
John Paul Lederach, in his book Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures, identifies two third-party roles that exist in U. Traditional elders are revered for their local knowledge and relationships, and are relied upon for direction and advice, as well as for their skills in helping parties communicate with each other. The roles of insider partial someone known to the parties who is familiar with the history of the situation and the webs of relationships and outsider neutral someone unknown to the parties who has no stake in the outcome or continuing relationship with the parties appear in a range of cultural contexts.
Generally, insider partials tend to be preferred in traditional, high-context settings, while outside neutrals are more common in low-context settings. These are just some of the ways that taming conflict varies across cultures. Third parties may use different strategies with quite different goals, depending on their cultural sense of what is needed. In multicultural contexts, parties' expectations of how conflict should be addressed may vary, further escalating an existing conflict.
Approaches to meaning-making also vary across cultures. Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars suggest that people have a range of starting points for making sense of their lives, including:. When we don't understand that others may have quite different starting points, conflict is more likely to occur and to escalate. Even though the starting points themselves are neutral, negative motives are easily attributed to someone who begins from a different end of the continuum.
For example, when First Nations people sit down with government representatives to negotiate land claims in Canada or Australia, different ideas of time may make it difficult to establish rapport and make progress. First Nations people tend to see time as stretching forward and back, binding them in relationship with seven generations in both directions. Their actions and choices in the present are thus relevant to history and to their progeny.
Government negotiators acculturated to Western European ideas of time may find the telling of historical tales and the consideration of projections generations into the future tedious and irrelevant unless they understand the variations in the way time is understood by First Nations people. Of course, this example draws on generalizations that may or may not apply in a particular situation.
Each has a distinct culture, and these cultures have different relationships to time, different ideas about negotiation, and unique identities. Government negotiators may also have a range of ethno cultural identities, and may not fit the stereotype of the woman or man in a hurry, with a measured, pressured orientation toward time.
Examples can also be drawn from the other three dimensions identified by Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars. When an intractable conflict has been ongoing for years or even generations, should there be recourse to international standards and interveners, or local rules and practices? Those favoring a universalist starting point are more likely to prefer international intervention and the setting of international standards. Particularlists will be more comfortable with a tailor-made, home-grown approach than with the imposition of general rules that may or may not fit their needs and context.
Specificity and diffuseness also lead to conflict and conflict escalation in many instances. People, who speak in specifics, looking for practical solutions to challenges that can be implemented and measured, may find those who focus on process, feelings, and the big picture obstructionist and frustrating. On the other hand, those whose starting points are diffuse are more apt to catch the flaw in the sum that is not easy to detect by looking at the component parts, and to see the context into which specific ideas must fit.
Inner-directed people tend to feel confident that they can affect change, believing that they are "the masters of their fate, the captains of their souls. Imagine their frustration when faced with outer-directed people, whose attention goes to nurturing relationships, living in harmony with nature, going with the flow, and paying attention to processes rather than products.
As with each of the above sets of starting points, neither is right or wrong; they are simply different. A focus on process is helpful, but not if it completely fails to ignore outcomes.
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A focus on outcomes is useful, but it is also important to monitor the tone and direction of the process. Cultural fluency means being aware of different sets of starting points, and having a way to speak in both dialects, helping translate between them when they are making conflict worse. These continua are not absolute, nor do they explain human relations broadly.
They are clues to what might be happening when people are in conflict over long periods of time. We are meaning-making creatures, telling stories and creating understandings that preserve our sense of self and relate to our purpose. As we come to realize this, we can look into the process of meaning making for those in a conflict and find ways to help them make their meaning-making processes and conclusions more apparent to each other. This can be done by storytelling and by the creation of shared stories, stories that are co-constructed to make room for multiple points of view within them.
Often, people in conflict tell stories that sound as though both cannot be true. Narrative conflict-resolution approaches help them leave their concern with truth and being right on the sideline for a time, turning their attention instead to stories in which they can both see themselves. Another way to explore meaning making is through metaphors. Cultural identity is, however, not fixed but dynamic Vroom Cultural identity can change over time. Cultural identity is an ideological interpretation as to how people view themselves and want to be viewed by others. People present their identity and thus communicate something about their culture.
Cultural identity is, thus, constructed Vroom The question would arise: If identity is created, what criteria do people select to construct their identity? Cultural groups may make selections of events or elements in history to constitute their identity Vroom A problem arises when multiple cultures co-exist in close proximity and even more so in the same country. What and who determines cultural identity then? One can maintain one's cultural identity and still belong to a particular nation sharing another culture.
It is then possible to belong to several cultures simultaneously. In the struggle to adapt and take refuge in a different culture, conflict might arise. Based on this definition, a strict exclusion is imprinted. One is only accepted when one knows, believes and acts in a familiar way to community. Part of the knowledge, convictions and actions is acceptance of a structure of meaning reached on consensus by a community Geertz Meaning is negotiated through aesthetics.
It seems harmony between religious groups living in close proximity can only be reached when conformity from both sides is employed. Meeting one another at the borders of cultural identity and negotiating boundary markers can lead to a positive conformity. Conformity does not include taking on the characteristics of another culture, but merely recognising differences at the borders and respecting them.
Religion relocated to culture. The shift has taken place that religion no longer resides in the consciousness but within culture. Waggoner's argument in short is that a shift has taken place. Religion is no longer perceived to be subjectively imagined, locating religion in the bodies and brains of people participating in religion, but rather religion is located in culture or a social system. The implication is that studying religion requires a change in focus, away from the individual and group consciousness and finding the location of religion in the exterior to the subjective.
This argument by Waggoner goes back to Bruce Lincoln's contribution to the debate on religion and culture. Lincoln managed to combine Durkheim and Marx's orientation to the study of religion. The first step is to acknowledge that societies construct religion.
The biology of cultural conflict
Secondly, religion, as culture, is always associated with a struggle for power. Culture, especially religion, becomes a site where power and privileges in society are negotiated. Culture has an ideological role in this hegemonic struggle. Culture ignores its historical origin and makes transcendental claims to authorise its own position of power and discredit other claims. Further, the origin of religion is from the point of religion always an authoritative transcendent or supra-historical source, thereby concealing the cultural and historical origins.
Aesthetics and ethics are core components of culture as they are concerns for all human cultures. Kierkegaard in Pattison The role of religion in culture, however, changes from one context to the other. Religion, however, does play a 'role of prime importance' in culture Lincoln The argument by Lincoln makes provision for a situation, as Lincoln points out, how religion as one of the essential elements in culture can from time to time dominate that which is considered as culture Lincoln The implication Waggoner It is clear that religion participates in the hegemonic struggle in culture.
Religion can then act as cultural identity marker. There are, however, many potential cultural markers i. People can view others not in terms of ethnicity but primarily in terms of religion. Ethnicity and religion overlap causing cultural or religious animosity to spill over to religious or cultural animosity. This article does not pretend to have the solution to these cases of animosity.
This article wants to argue that it is important in the study of religion to study ethnicity and culture as well. What are the implications? If the argument is that to study religion a clear cognisance of culture and ethnicity is necessary, what are the implications? There are two implications mentioned here: In the light of the above arguments, studying religion requires a new methodology and a new attitude towards reconciliation, namely making peace with diversity and adversity.
When studying religion, a multi-disciplinary approach will be necessary. This is, however, not new. What is new is that the emphasis will have to change. Much more attention should be paid to an anthropological approach where cultural and ethnic studies are considered as part of studying religion.
Also this is not new. What I suggest is that the anthropological approach should be focussed on studying the boundaries between cultures, which is in line with Frederik Barth's suggestion.
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Studying the boundaries between cultures helps to identify those elements that constitute cultural identity, whether they are ethics, religion or aesthetics or a combination of some sort. In some cases, cultures might meet where the Primordialist understanding of ethnicity determines a cultural group's understanding of its identity. Then, it is most unlikely that there will be change as to how such a group understands its own identity. Where a group with a Circumstantialist understanding of ethnicity is encountered, there does exist a possibility of integration and changed identity.
The ideal would be to convince cultures to adhere to a Constructivist understanding, incorporating a fixed identity with a flexible identity. It becomes clear that a new focus in studying religion should also be to search how cultural groups assign meaning to behaviour. This process is contextually determined cf. Studying religion should include studying action and meaning and discern the criteria relevant to each ethnic community how to determine meaning.
Meaning is determined by values. Studying religion entails studying underlying values in cultures. The author Jos Vranckx refers in a recent blog entry on inter-cultural relations in Europe how the French-Iranian sociologist, Farhad Khosrokha, indicates that this process of seeking meaning overlaps with a search for identity. This search for identity is especially prevalent among a new generation of jihadis who come from 'born again'-converts belonging to good educated families.
They are seeking identity in a society they perceive as divided and without values, where people are only concerned with entertainment. The values of the two ethnic societies clash. In this encounter, a struggle to find identity ensues. Studying religion with emphasis on cultural and ethnic interrelatedness requires a distinction between religion as belief and religion as identity marker, or as Ramadan puts, it distinguishes between religion and civilisation Ramadan This is indeed a difficult task. In a Western understanding determined by Enlightenment thought, such segmentation might be possible.
Within other cultural orientations, such a differentiation seems unlikely. It is clear that when religion functions as identity marker, there are several traditions and myths feeding various claims of racial superiority. Studying religion requires an understanding of the ideological determination of cultural identity. It is necessary to study the myths behind the claims as to racial superiority. Traditions from the past determine social behaviour.
A study of the myths and traditions that contribute to racial and religious bias is necessary in order to understand the Other. From this, it becomes clear that the insights from several disciplines are necessary in order to understand the phenomenon of religion and the interaction between religions. Making peace with diversity and adversity.
Religion and belief
A further implication of the emphasis on studying ethnicity and culture in understanding religion lies on a social level. Can you belong to a culture, not shared in the same race, but have the same history? Yes, white Christians participating in the liberation struggle in South Africa marching, protesting side by side to black non-Christian South Africans, are a good example.
The question, however, remains whether the two cultural groups are viewed as equals? The answer differs from context to context, depending on the meaning assigned to the behaviour i. At times, it may be considered as one culture, as the borders and definition as to what constitutes culture changes. Is it possible to be a Muslim and belong to Western culture, can one be white and not be labelled a Christian coloniser, or be a black African and not be labelled prone to animism and magic?
The answer is, however, 'No! Identity is not only internally constructed. Identity is also externally assigned based on behaviour and the experience of the behaviour by others as well as the meaning assigned to such behaviour. This may lead to cultural and religious bias and generalisations and the creation of stereotypes. One must, however, recognise the circumstantial process that contributed to the formation of identity and perceptions of the other. The end goal of this research is to contribute to the process of reconciliation between cultural groups in South Africa. Ramadan's position on this matter is to acknowledge diversity One option is to separate culture and religion, ethnicity and religion, and the other is to embrace diversity and complexity.
A third possibility is to acknowledge that unity lies in diversity. This entails to maintain religious principles which attach a religious community to the broader community of believers worldwide. The local face of the religious community might look different from the same religious community located in a different cultural setting.
Thereby, a discontinuation as well as a continuation is maintained. This is in line with MacKay's suggestion of a Constructivist approach to the relation ethnicity to religion. The solutions seem to be threefold: Kilp indicates how cultural conflict spills over into religious conflict based on the sequence of events.
First of all, social, economic and political concerns in a multi-cultural society arise. This leads to feelings of insecurity, chaos and vulnerability which in turn lead to the construction of cultural identities. These constructed identities rely on religious and ideological values, beliefs, myths and narratives framed by morals. This can lead to adversity and conflict. In this endeavour of trying to reconcile cultures and religions, peace and harmony seem not to lie in creating peace between cultures and religions, but peace lies most probably in accepting the fact that peace and harmony between cultures and religions are most unlikely to happen.
In this article, I tried to argue that a shift in studying religion is necessary. It has become necessary to emphasise the contributions the studying of cultures and ethnicity has made to the understanding of religion. The arguments used were that cultural migrations necessitate the study of cultures, religion acts as cultural identity marker and religion has relocated to culture. From the discussion, the following elements are clear: Studying religion cannot go without studying culture.
Studying culture cannot go without studying religion. Studying inter-religious dialogue cannot go without studying underlying traditions and myths contributing to how the Other is viewed. The relation between religion and culture seems to be similar to the uneasy relationship between two arguing relatives who cannot deny their connectedness, but wished it otherwise. The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article.
An introduction to the phenomenology of religion. Continuum Publishing Group, New York. Gliederung, Methoden und Teildisziplin', in J. Religionen und ihre zentralen Themen , pp. Selected essays , Basic Books, New York. Monograph series on Language and Linguistics No. A humanities perspective', in H. Defining and measuring contemporary beliefs and practices , pp. The Anthropological scepticism of Talal Assad', in D. Talal Assad and his interlocutors , pp. Religieus pluralisme als uitdaging , Meinema, Zoetemeer. The difference between anthropology and ethnography is summarised by Hackett Anthropology refers to the generalised, theoretical reflection, whereas ethnography refers to the empirical fieldwork on a particular culture incorporating insights gained from participants from the particular culture.
Culture is then understood in the widest ethnographic sense to refer to knowledge, beliefs, art, ethics, customs, practices and skills, which humans as members of a community have acquired based on the definition of culture by E. Tylor quoted in Figl All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
Services on Demand Article. Modern communication through text messaging, social networking and new Internet technologies ensure that news of conflict spreads almost instantly. Thus, where geographical remoteness previously had a strong role in keeping conflicts local, we are now in the situation where riots in Greece or Mumbai, for example, have immediate global consequences.
Consequently, the two basic requirements for the initiation of cultural conflict—substantial differences in beliefs and active challenges to those beliefs—are now done electronically. Physical proximity is no longer a necessary condition for the engagement of the biological requirements for conflict. Cultural conflicts are not simply the result of different traditions. Vertical, generation-to-generation forms of social structure and information hierarchies are breaking down and many, especially the young, are forming their identities in global, media-driven political cultures through horizontal peer-to-peer relationships that ignore historical and spatial constraints [ 36 ].
But whereas Internet communication and revivalist religious ideologies may increasingly serve as facilitators and vehicles for conflict, root causes may remain primitive and biologic. When these basic goals are threatened, conflict is more likely. Many of the papers in this special issue deal with the way in which cultural differences map onto biological differences in the brain.
We will set aside the question of causality and take these observations at face value. For example, biological differences in discount rates have direct implications for behaviour. All things being equal, a society in which individuals tend to have steeper discount rates will behave more impulsively. Just because there are biological differences does not mean they are immutable. We know, for example, that individual discount rates can be altered by drugs. Unfortunately, most of the documented effects of drugs, such as tobacco, are associated with increased discount rates, making individuals even more impulsive [ 37 ].
However, given evidence for the close link between discount rates and foraging behaviour in animals, it is possible that even simple changes in human nutrition would affect an individual's behaviour on a societal scale. Beyond calorie counts, how might different amino acids and fatty acids affect discount rates? Viewed through the lens of biology, dietary choices may be directly related to resource consumption, birthrates and violence simply by the effect of nutrition on the dopamine system and its discount rate for the future. Another area for future inquiry is the possible effect of sacred values on discount rates.
For example, people may perceive temporally distant but culturally significant events to actually feel closer in time than do more recent events, especially in contexts of group conflict: Evocation of these sentiments might have profound biological effects in the form of memory reactivation good and bad and physiological arousal, leading to fight or flight responses. Understanding these biological mechanisms helps us understand why one cultural group might be willing to invest in social infrastructure, while another wants to destroy it.
Ultimately, biological responses determine who is ready to engage in war, and who wishes to seek peace. As we begin to unravel the links between culture and biology, we are seeing how culture affects the brain. But what about the other direction? If the biology of the brain is changed, whether through diet, climate, chemicals or, inevitably, genetic engineering, will culture change?
If, as we believe, culture and biology are yoked together, then future cultural conflicts will also play out biologically. Some cultures will embrace ways to change their biology and, in the process, change their culture. Others will reject such engineering. As a preview of what to expect, we might look to the conflicts that took place and are still occurring over contraception. The development of the birth control pill in the s, set the stage for a full-blown cultural war over the right of women to control reproductive biology.
Downstream cultural effects resulted in more women delaying marriage, going to college and entering the workforce [ 39 ]. The sooner we understand these relationships, the better position humankind will be in to mitigate these looming conflicts. We are grateful to Michael J.
Prietula for comments on this manuscript. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer.
Conflict between religions threatens future of the world, Muslim leaders tell Pope
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Although culture is usually thought of as the collection of knowledge and traditions that are transmitted outside of biology, evidence continues to accumulate showing how biology and culture are inseparably intertwined.
Cultural conflict and why biology matters In the most general sense, culture can be thought of as the knowledge, customs and traditions of a group of people [ 1 ], which systematically drive and channel collective dispositions of thoughts and behaviours into the future. Primitive drives We begin with the most primitive biologic processes linked to decision-making: Enforcement of cultural rules Social groups that affirm and maintain their identity through cultural rules must also have the means to enforce compliance.
From differences to conflict Just because cultures are different does not necessarily mean they will end up in conflict. What does it mean? Acknowledgements We are grateful to Michael J. B , — The native mind and the cultural construction of nature.
The Intertwined Conflict recounts the personal narrative of Najebah Marafi, a Kuwaiti Muslim who seeks to chronicle the differences that often arise between the. Even when religion is part of culture, it is possible to differentiate religion from a In the end, the intertwined relation of religion and culture cannot be denied or Stage 2: Culture is a dominating power and a source of conflict and innovation.
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