CULTURE TREE 🌳🌎

Culture tree from class

Alternative culture tree

Deep culture

Intense emotional impact on trust

This level is made up of tacit knowledge and unconscious assumptions that govern our worldview. It also contains the cosmology that guides ethics, spirituality, health, and theories of group harmony.

Teacher Lauren Midgette says: "My deep culture is complicated. First, I may be white assumed, but I identify as multiracial; my roots are a combination coming from different trees, making a web of sometimes contradictory beliefs and norms. I grew up in America in a racially segregated town, and so much of what I learned growing up was based on Eurocentric values and the myth of meritocracy. On the other hand, my grandmother was a Japanese American woman who moved here shortly after World War II to wed my grandfather, a Baptist from rural North Carolina."

Shallow culture

High emotional impact on trust

This level is made up of the unspoken rules around everyday social interactions and norms such as: attitudes towards elders, concepts of time, rules about eye contact, or touching.

Surface culture

Low emotional impact on trust

This level is made up of observable and concrete elements of culture (things you can see)

Teacher Lauren Midgette says: "On the surface level, my leaves are quite unassuming. I am currently wearing jeans with comfortable sneakers, and my shirt says “Don’t Erase History” with books, one I bought this past summer at the Human Rights Campaign store. As far as the eye can see, I am a white woman, probably an educator, and most likely work for equity and social justice. There are many things my “leaves” communicate to people, some of which are correct and some not so."