Material culture and intercultural communication

Artifacts, i.e., the material side of culture, and their relevance: for int ercultural interactions rarely caught the attention of interculturalists. T his may be partly due to the scholarly traditions of the involved disciplin es (except for cultural anthropology), partly to the popular but false beli ef that "the language of things is universal". Experience shows that materi al culture plays an important role both in the macro-contexts of peoples an d on the micro-level of intercultural interactions, Integrating material cu lture studies can increase the understanding of the problems in development aid, technology transfer, marketing, or personal intercultural interaction s. Artifacts are products of complex transaction and communication processe s and of cultural knowledge and experience. Once they are produced, they us ually initiate and influence many more communicative processes. In intercul tural interactions, they can gain relevance (1) as themes of intercultural communication, and they are always present (2) as contexts of such interact ions. Intercultural communication is (3) carried out increasingly by means of technical objects (telephone, fax, PC), just as the (4) international tr ansmission (or communication) of things is at the very heart of the global economy. Even if people in different cultures can buy the same global produ cts, (5) their use of them and their relationships to them, will be as diff erent as the meanings given to them. (6) People turn things into signs, the y communicate through objects in ways that are laid out by their culture; a nd finally, (7) understanding another culture also means decoding the messa ges built into its objects. Therefore, intercultural learning and competenc e should also include the ability to use the things of culture as indicator s to norms, values, and basic assumptions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.