2.6: Family Culture

Another key point in studying the family is to understand that all families share some cultural traits in common, but all also have their own family culture uniqueness. Culture is the shared values, norms, symbols, language, objects, and way of life that is passed on from one generation to the next. Culture is what we learn from our parents, family, friends, peers, and schools. It is shared, not biologically determined. Most families in a society have similar family cultural traits. But, when a couple marries they learn that the success of their marriage is often based on how well they merge their unique family cultures into a new version of a culture that is their own.

Even though family cultures tend to be universal and desirable, we often judge other cultures as being good, bad, or evil, with our own culture typically being judged good. Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge others based on our own experiences. In this perspective, our culture is right, while cultures which differ from our own are wrong. Another more valuable and helpful perspective about differing cultures is the perspective called cultural relativism, the tendency to look for the cultural context in which differences in cultures occur. If you've eaten a meal with your friend's family you have probably noticed a difference in subtle things like the food that is served and how it is prepared. You may have noticed that that family communicates in different ways from your own. You might also notice that their values of fun and relaxation also vary from your own. To dismiss your friend's family as being wrong because they aren't exactly like yours is being ethnocentric. Cultural relativists like all the ice-cream flavors, if you will. They respect and appreciate cultural differences even if only from the spectators' point of view.