1.4 Family Culture

In studying families, it’s important to recognize that while all families share some cultural characteristics, each family also has its own unique cultural identity. Culture encompasses shared values, norms, symbols, language, objects, and way of life passed down from generation to generation. It’s what we learn from our parents, family, friends, peers, and schools, and it’s shared rather than biologically determined. Most families within a society exhibit similar cultural traits, but when a couple marries, the success of their marriage often depends on how well they integrate their distinct family cultures into a new, unified culture of their own.

Despite the universality and desirability of family cultures, we tend to evaluate other cultures as either good, bad, or evil, with our own culture usually being deemed as good. This tendency is known as ethnocentrism, where we judge others based on our own experiences, believing our culture to be superior. However, a more constructive perspective is cultural relativism, which involves seeking to understand the cultural context in which differences arise. For instance, when dining with a friend’s family, you might notice variations in the food served, communication styles, and values of leisure. Dismissing your friend’s family as wrong simply because they differ from your own is ethnocentric. Cultural relativists, on the other hand, embrace and appreciate cultural diversity, recognizing that each culture has its own value and significance.