Posted by Judy Weiser, Administrator and yet you do have the proof ... this fascinates me, yes... However one thing that might be a key difference (at least moreso in the past, perhaps) between the US and Canada/UK is the proportion of non-Caucasian people in each -- maybe there is some sort of cultural differences that were not vectored for??? For example, although the "race question" is possibly no longer appropriate to ask, I'm nevertheless wondering about whether the data that was collected asked about whether respondents were from visible and/or ethnic minorities, as well??? I know that this might (or might not?) make a large significant difference, in that most of the minority populations I have worked with in U.S. and then Canada, seem to me to have a stronger value for extended family and emphasis on relationships more than personal property (check some of the comparisons done by Ziller in is work re: photo-taking by kids in Florida and Mexico, for example). I don't want to make too much of this but.... just the simple question about whether cultural backgrounds of respondents were "controlled for" in some way so that the stats would be more parallel in findings??? And, being that most of my therapy work for many years was with Aboriginal Canadians (called "Native Americans" in the U.S.), I know that there is often a frustration about questionnaires that ask "Caucasian, African-American, *or* Hispanic" only but leave out their own on the list)... and of course, even what I wrote above is helpful re: a possible answer -- it immediately is useless in that it does not do much at all for explaining the Australian stats... I think that, for me at least, I'd need to know if the data you are referring to, also asked about cultural groups of origin, amount of time the person has been IN those countries (forever or one generation or ??)... now if all this was done and the data is STILL what you say, then I'm even more puzzled!! .... and also, I am curious what you yourself think the answer is (what is the "null hypothesis" you plan to check?) -- as well as telling us why you are so curious about this (i.e., what difference will this "difference that makes a difference" make to you, once you know it?). Do you have a theory that you hope to check out? One thought is that perhaps the TAKING of pictures is directly resulting from the choices/reasons of what will be done with these photos afterwards (i.e., if there's no tradition of photo-KEEPING, then why take them...???). That might be worth factoring in, in new questions you ask... and ditto re: who are these being taken FOR (and WHY) -- and then perhaps working backwards from those investigations -- i.e., questions such as "If no-one besides you were ever going to see this photograph, would you still be taking it?" I could, perhaps, hypothesize wildly about reasons that come to mind (as an "outside observer" of these groups of people), but I find it hard to generalize about "Americans" or "Canadians" in general, much less about any of their particular behaviors... Perhaps some of Zaltman's methods could be very useful here!!! One person whose work you might find useful (possibly) is: Robert Ziller -- his work re: photo-taking across cultures -- he's more of an academic than I am and perhaps has some ideas to share... Also check Jay Ruby's publications about "death photography" across cultures... Although it's not directly what you are discussing here, there might be some serendipitous insights... Also perhaps see if there are any stats re: similar population research from those "scrap-booking" companies that have become so popular over recent years... They have major conferences and gatherings where you might be able to do some additional surveys -- and I'm sure marketers have long been interested in this phenomenon... As for "theory-based interpretation", well... I'm interested in general, but I'm not primarily an academic (I don't do research per se, as I'm not "funded" or "grant-supported", and so I focus more on being a Private Scholar and consulting from within my own particular knowledge areas (which are, however, quite broad; for example, I have B.A.'s in both Anthropology and Sociology, along with my Psych degree and Counseling Masters). All these, have greatly informed my writing and theorizing about the emotional contents and purposes of personal photo-taking/viewing...) Final comment??? All I can say is... "hmmm.... interesting!" -- and then wondering what you will be doing with these answers, once you get them??? re: "What is so fascinating is that cross-cultural theorists often put down research among these four countries as not really being "cross cultural" because they are so "similar" in culture" -- I have two thoughts about this above: a) having been born in the U.S. and lived my first 28 years there (in Texas and New York, speaking of cultural differences inside one single country!) and then moving to Vancouver Canada and now living here since 1973 -- and having taught and lectured in England several times, ..... I can assure you that no, these are NOT similar in culture -- in many ways!! But more importantly, the population of each country is not a single distinct "culture" itself (able to be generalized about as if it is only one thing), but rather made up of two parts at least: groups of people from distinct sub-cultures of their own, and possibly more importantly, that those groups are always interconnected and cross-influenced by each other rather than living in distinct entities that supposedly have impermeable boundaries... Finally, I'm glad you asked about all this -- hopefully others will answer and continue the stimulating dialogue!! HOWEVER.... I won't be able to keep typing such long replies (my time is very very busy; usually I don't write long messages or send long e-mails), so while I'd be glad to continue these discussions, this would need to be by phone instead... And so I cannot promise to put much more onto this thread, sorry! thanks for making me think so hard -- I enjoyed it! Judy
on 5/20/2007, 6:10 pm, in reply to "Re: Cultural differences in picture taking behavior"
207.216.241.253
Wow, well yes, I do believe you now, since you added all this additional information that is provable fact -- although I must say that, personally, I still find it difficult to accept such big generalizations about countries of people that are made up of so many kinds of people in each one!....
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