Culture!

Culture is something impalpable(nevertheless can be observed by the expression of it) that can be characterised by many appellations but has the uppermost importance for many people-give meaning to life - by guiding behaviour and pattern of thinking and even the feelings towards oneself and the others. It is amazing how the word culture has a great importance nowadays, it seems that as time passes by ppl want to be recognised as a part of something bigger than themselves and to have a feeling of togetherness. In the 19th though there was a clear distinction about what was the most wishable culture to possess "barbarian" or "civilised" one. Whereby civilised was the culture adopted by the western part of the northen hemisphere-it was a battle between superiority and inferiority.
But Nowadays culture is no longer restricted to country or political boundaries or what is worthy or less worthy, it is  a  large number of ppl having a certain common experience, thoughts, pattern of behaviour,values, assumptions about life that guide their behviour and how they should relate to to other cultures. According to Hofstede culture should have: symbols(verbal &non verbal language), rituals( social collective events around the culture), values(strict and clear definition about what's good and bad,beautiful or ugly,normal or abnormal) and heroes (real or imaginary people-culture's myths- who are the most valued role models.Culture is socially transmmitted from past to future generations. Members of a culture have cultural identity-they usually acknowledge their shared experience, thoughts,norms and values ect but it does not mean knowing one person in a culture implies directly knowing all the others(stereotyping).
Interestingly, we cannot know another culture totally because we also bring our backbag with our own set of beliefs, past experiences in short our own culture.Therefore, we can only see the "alien" culture through the set of eyes of our own culture.
Today we hear about global community and globalisation whereby new culture and trends of behaviour can immerge but at the same time as well undermining the others.
           Personnally i think tha globalisation has many obvious advantages such as broadening trade arena and can even create bonds between far-away countries for instance the 2006 Tsunami whereby in many parts of the World there was funds raising to help the victims. But can we really talk about democracy resulting from it because is it not the most powerful countries that will tend to be more democratic than others(or at least having the last word in decision-making? can we say that small countries like Mauritius or poor countries such as Nigeria benefit from globalisation in the same ways as the U.S for instance??Can we safeguard the existence & survival of ancient( in comparision with the advent of new ones) culture? New cultures are they not seem to origninate from one specific part of the world and exported to the rest of the world? Therefore i guess it is a very nebulous debate and i am quite sceptical on the subject.

Ethonography is the direct study of customary behaviours of a culture and implies an immersion into the culture. On the other hand, cultural studies study the cultures through their similarities and differences with others, through history, traditions and values.It Studies the most common features that can explain the actions of individuals in the culture. Ethnographic and cultural approahes are said to be complementary and help a better understanding of intercultural communication.