Micro -Cultures

Yeay! We get back again to cultures.  This time we will discuss more about micro-cultures.

Before we get there, I want to introduce you to large-scale cultures. It is a term for a big culture such as Indonesian cultures, US cultures, Australian Cultures, etc.

Inside large-scale cultures, there are micro-cultures.

Micro-cultures are

“An identifiable group of people who share a set of values, beliefs, and behaviors and who possess a common history and verbal and nonverbal symbol system that is similar to but systematically varies from the larger, often dominant cultural milieu”  (Neuliep, 2015, p. xvi).

To make it clearer, let’s divide it into several points:

1	An identifiable group	People have to recognize them as group to make it strong to be Micro-cultures
2	who share a set of values, beliefs, and behaviors	It fits to 3Ps Perspectives, Practices, Products.
3	who possess a common history	Having the same history (as a requirement)
4	verbal	Language (Including slang or jargon). They speak different language from the larger culture. For example: Spanish speaking Latinos in US.
5	nonverbal symbol system	a)      Clothing b)      Art or Music c)       Gestures
6	similar   to but systematically varies from the larger	·         Has a lot in common with larger culture ·         Also have certain key differences

Micro-cultures may have to do with:

Hobbies, family ties, profession, religion, or politics.

It is connected to

A PERSON IDENTITY

That’s why, students must understand that there are several different aspects of our identity. We call it as Multiple Identities.

 These multiple Identity can be inserted into Identity Wheel.
                         

This diagram will help us to define who we are.

The aspects can be changed into something else like age, nationality, etc.

Try to ask your students to draw their own identity wheel, and see the shocking results!

Wanna see mine???

Comment below to post your own identity wheel. :-D