单选题
Passage Four
Definition of “culture” are multiple, broad, and notably ambiguous. While there is no agreed-upon definition of culture, the classic definition by E. B. Tylor in 1871 is widely cited: “culture…is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law , custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Most definitions of culture emphasize that it is complex and dynamic,comprised of the shared solutions to problems faced by the group. These solutions include technologies, beliefs, and behaviors.
Culture does not determine behavior, but affords group members a repertoire of
ideas and possible actions, providing the framework through which they understand
themselves, their environment, and their experiences. Culture is a complex set of relationships, responses, and interpretations that must be understood, not as a body of discrete traits, but as an integrated system of orientationsand practices generated within a specific socioeconomic context. Culture is ever changing and always being revised within the dynamic context of itsenactment.
Culture is neither a blueprint nor an identity; individuals choose between various cultural options,and in our multicultural society , manytimeschoosewidely betweenthe options offered by a variety of cultural traditions. It is not possible to predict the beliefs and behaviors of individuals based on their race, ethnicity , or national origin.Individuals' group membership cannot be assumed to indicate their culture because those whoshare a group label may variouslyenact culture.
In its zeal to encourage respect for cultural difference, the cultural competency movement has sometimes lost sight of these important features of theconcept of culture. Instead it has too often represented culture as a decontextualized set of traits providing a template for the perceptions and behaviors of group members. A burgeoning literature on cultural diversity presents the reader with veritable laundry lists of traditional beliefs and practices ostensibly characteristic of particular ethnic groups. 49) This approach encourages the questionable notion that immigrants and certain ethnic and racial minorities are particularly driven by traditionalism. The emphasis in this genre is on difference, pitting the exotic and esoteric against mainstream or conventional beliefs that remain unnamed andunexplored.
The misconception, common in clinical settings,that culture can be understood as a set of discrete traits, has led some mistakenly to treat culture as an explanatory variable, subject to prediction and control. In such applications, specific ethnic cultures are represented as a codified body of characteristics that can be identified and then either modifiedor manipulated to facilitateclinical goals.
Paradoxically ,in such approaches, what originated in a desire to promote respect for individual differences may instead promote stereotyping and essential zing. This process of reifying presumed difference may have the unintended consequence of bolstering a sense of group boundaries.50) It may also reinforce the belief that culture can be diagnosed and treated, that exotic or unfamiliar beliefs and behaviors of members of already disempowered subgroups should be controlled and adjusted to resemble norms of thedominant group.
单选题
Which statement is NOT true according to this passage?