How You Can Understand What Makes Different Cultures Tick

What makes diverse cultures so different?

Do you remember the reunion of the identical triplets?

You can read about that trio in “A Brief Exploration to Help You Understand Culture Better.” 

For twenty years, three genetically identical individuals had grown in different cultures. As a result, they developed very different ways of speaking, relating, eating, and dressing. If we probe deeper, they probably also differed in their views of God, the world, and life.  

If we are around people from different cultures, we soon realize that they see the world in ways that are strange to us.

This post will introduce you to:

• Three different dominant cultures, and
• What makes them different.

Three primary colors

To shake up our presumptions, let me ask you a question.  

“Which primary color is better—red, blue, or yellow?”

You probably will answer something like: “How could one color be better than another? They’re just different.”

That answer should reveal that cultures, like colors, are different, but one is not better than another. Of course, there are aspects of any culture that are good and other aspects that are abhorrent—we’ll get to that.

Let’s identify the three types of dominant cultures.

Müller model

Several years ago, I came across The Messenger, the Message, and the Community by Roland Müller.[1] He proposes that the source of our planet’s various cultures and worldviews originated in Eden and can be discerned from Genesis 3.

After Adam and Eve had transgressed God’s command, we identify three fundamental results of sin: guilt, shame, and fear. 

Guilt: 

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked … (Genesis 3:7).

Shame:         

… they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden (3:8)

Fear:

[Adam] answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” (3:10)

Müller confirms that (148): 

When man sinned, three great conditions came upon mankind. By sinning, man broke God’s law and consequently was in a position of guilt. By sinning man also broke God’s relationship and consequently was in a position of shame. Finally, when man sinned he broke God’s trust and was from that point, in a position of fear.

Those who travel throughout the world will encounter different cultures. Can we locate where these cultures are generally located?

Locating these cultures

On an artist’s palette, one color usually predominates even when mixed with others. So, with cultures, one usually predominates even though other aspects of others are present. For instance, historically, guilt-based culture has been predominant in Western Europe, even though there are lesser elements of shame and fear-based. One aspect of such a culture is the high value placed on the rule of law.

Müller has identified large geographic areas where each type of culture is more dominant. He writes (146): 

Many nations (Northern Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand) have worldviews that have dominant (but not exclusive) guilt-based characteristics. On the other hand, much of the 10-40 window is made up of what are called shame-based worldviews. Most of the primal religions and cultures of the world (such as tribes in the jungles of Africa, Asia, and South America) have dominant but not exclusive fear-based characteristics. 

Referring to our hypothetical triplets, the young man from the western United States represents a culture that is primarily guilt-based; the young man from northwestern Afghanistan represents a predominantly shame-based culture; and the native of the remote Amazonian jungle represents a culture that is chiefly fear-based.  

These elements of guilt, fear, and shame are inherent burdens that cultures seek to counter and overcome. According to Müller, the reciprocal or remedy for each of these results of sin is:

• righteousness for guilt;
• honor for shame; and
• power for fear.  

Let’s examine some examples of how cultures attempt to compensate for sin without God.

Cultural attempts to compensate for sin

Here is an example from each dominant culture to illustrate how they deal with sin apart from God.

1.         Shame-Honor: 

We are appalled when a Muslim woman who has been raped becomes the focus of family or community shame. On occasion, this shame is dealt with by killing the victimized woman—an act that is euphemistically called “honor killing.” In some distorted way, this killing is an attempt to reclaim honor—but, of course, it is not the honor God provides in Jesus Christ. 

2.         Fear-Power: 

Social units in the Amazon jungle are typically dominated by fear—fear of evil “spirits,” superstitions, and the unknown. In Western societies, gangs exhibit aspects of a fear culture. Where fear prevails, the antidote is perceived to be power. This often means aligning with or appeasing a powerful and influential person or gaining more power personally. This may be done by joining a gang or by making an offering to a shaman—but, of course, this is not the power of God found in Jesus Christ. 

3.         Guilt-Righteousness: 

Similarly, those in Western European-type cultures have distorted ways of “justifying” their actions—declaring their actions as “righteous”—to deal with guilt. Thus, while we are shocked at a victimized woman being executed in a shame-based culture, we can “justify” the killing of an unborn child. Although we decry ecological damage elsewhere, we can “justify” our extravagant consumption of natural resources. These attempts at justification are nothing other than “self-righteousness”—they are not the righteousness of God found in Jesus Christ.  

In the next post, we will introduce how the good news of Jesus Christ provides the remedy for sin for those in each of these cultures.

Let me know what you think. You can reach me using this link.

FORWARD TO the next post in this series

BACK TO Who Is This God of All Cultures?

Notes: 
[1] Roland Müller, The Messenger, the Message, the Community (CanBooks, 2006). There are more recent editions of this book. We also recommend Jayson Georges, The 3D Gospel: Ministry in Guilt, Shame, and Fear Cultures (Timē Press, 2017).

Photo credit: markchadwickart on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-ND