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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
Chapter 4
History and Intercultural Communication
Learning Objectives
After studying the material in this chapter, students should be able to accomplish the following
objectives:
1. Identify six different types of history.
2. Define “the grand narrative.”
3. Explain the relationship between history, power, and intercultural communication.
4. Describe the role of narratives in constructing history.
5. Describe the relationship between history and identity.
6. Identify seven types of hidden histories.
7. Identify four antecedents that influence intercultural contact.
8. Explain the contact hypothesis.
9. Identify eight contact conditions that influence positive attitude change.
10. Describe a dialectic perspective in negotiating personal histories.
Key Terms
• Absent history
• Altered history
• Apartheid
• Colonial histories
• Concentration camps
• Contact hypothesis
• Cultural-group histories
• Diaspora
• Diasporic histories
• Ethnic histories
• Family histories
• Gender histories
• Grand narrative
• Hidden histories
• Intellectual histories
• Modernist identity
• National history
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
• Political histories
• Racial histories
• Sexual orientation history
• Social histories
Detailed Chapter Outline
Introduction
• The history that people now know and their views of that history are very much influenced
by their culture.
• When people of different cultural backgrounds encounter one another, the differences
among them can become hidden barriers to communication.
• Instructors have found, in the classes they teach, that European American students often
want to deemphasize history.
• On a larger scale, one can see how history influences intercultural interaction in many
different contexts.
ways.
I. From History to Histories
• Many different kinds of history influence an individual’s understanding of who people
are—as individuals, as family members, as members of cultural groups, and as citizens of a
nation.
history affects communication.
• Some people restrict their notion of history to documented events.
• Although people cannot read every book written, they do have greater access to written
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
history.
o When these types of history focus on political events, it is referred to as political
histories.
o Written histories that focus on the development of ideas are often called
o To consider such absent histories requires that people think in more complex ways
about the past and the ways it influences the present and the future.
• Altered history is another way that influences how people see themselves and others.
o In altered history, the past is changed to fit particular worldviews and interests.
o In this sense, history is not a series of facts to be memorized, but a place where the
past can be used for present interests and goals.
B. Family Histories
• Family histories occur at the same time as other histories but on a more personal level.
o They often are not written down but are passed along orally from one generation
to the next.
• Some people do not know which countries or cities their families emigrated from or
what tribes they belonged to or where they lived in the United States.
the family histories identify each family’s participation in these events.
C. National Histories
• The history of any nation is important to the people of that nation.
• People typically learn national history in school.
• U.S. citizens are expected to recognize the great events and the so-called great people
(mostly men of European ancestry) who were influential in the development of the
nation.
o They are told stories, verging on myths, that give life to these events and figures.
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
o Although people may not fit into the national narrative, they are expected to be
familiar with this particular telling of U.S. history so they can understand the
many references used in communication.
o Yet U.S. students seldom learn much about the histories of other nations and
cultures unless they study the languages of those countries.
D. Cultural-Group Histories
• Although people may share a single national history, each cultural group within the
nation may have its own history.
• Ignorance of the histories of other groups makes intercultural communication more
difficult and more susceptible to misunderstandings.
II. History, Power, and Intercultural Communication
• Power is a central dynamic in the writing of history.
• It influences the content of the history that people know and the way it is delivered.
o Power dictates what is taught and what is silenced, what is available, and what is
erased.
A. The Power of Texts
• History is extremely important in understanding identity.
countries at various times in history.
o Some languages have been forbidden, making the writing of texts difficult if not
impossible.
• The relative availability of political texts and the ways that they reflect powerful
inequities are reinscribed in the process of writing history.
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
• History writing requires documentation and texts and, of course, is limited by what is
available.
• Once texts are written, they are available for teaching and learning about the past.
• But the seeming unity of the past, the linear nature of history, is merely the reflection of
a modernist identity, grounded in the Western tradition.
B. The Power of Other Histories
• It may be difficult for readers to envision, but at one time a unified story of
humankind—the grand narrative—dominated how people thought of the past, present,
and future.
• The grand narrative refers to the overarching, all-encompassing story of a nation or
(HIV) and bird flu, and other events that challenge what people know and what
has changed, the master narrative no longer seems as believable to many.
• In her work on the constructions of white identity in South Africa, communication
scholar Melissa Steyn (2001) notes how the grand narrative in South Africa served
white interests and led to the establishment of apartheid.
1948.
• In place of the grand narrative are revised and restored histories that previously were
suppressed, hidden, or erased.
• Recovering various histories is necessary to rethinking what some cultural identities
mean.
o It also helps people rethink the dominant cultural identity.
C. Power in Intercultural Interactions
• Power is also the legacy, the remnants of the history that leaves cultural groups in
particular positions.
o People are not equal in their intercultural encounters, nor can they ever be equal.
o Long histories of imperialism, colonialism, exploitation, wars, genocide, and more
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
leave cultural groups out of balance when they communicate.
• Regardless of whether people choose to recognize the foundations for many of their
differences, these inequalities influence how they think about others and how they
interact with them.
o They also influence how people think about themselves—their identities.
o These are important aspects of intercultural communication.
III. History and Identity
• The development of cultural identity is influenced largely by history.
o This section of the chapter looks at some of the ways in which cultural identities are
constructed through understanding the past.
A. Histories as Stories
• Faced with the many levels or types of history, one might wonder how people make
sense of them in their everyday lives.
o Although it might be tempting to ignore them all and merely pretend to be
narrans because it underscores the importance of narratives in people’s lives.
• Histories are stories that people use to make sense of who they are and who they think
others are.
• It is important to recognize that a strong element in cultural attitudes encourages people
to forget history at times.
• The paradox is that people cannot escape history even if they fail to recognize it or try to
suppress it.
B. Nonmainstream Histories
• People from nonmainstream cultural groups often struggle to retain their histories.
o They are not the histories that everyone learns about in school, yet these histories
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
are vital to understanding how others perceive them and why.
• Sometimes these nonmainstream histories are hidden histories, as they offer different
views on the grand narrative and, therefore, have been suppressed or marginalized in
people’s understanding of the past.
• Feminist scholars have long insisted that much of the history of women has been
obliterated, marginalized, or erased. Historian Mei Nakano (1990).
o Although there is much interest in women’s history among contemporary
scholars, documenting such gender histories is difficult because of the traditional
restrictions on women’s access to public forums, public documents, and public
o The suppression of history reflects attempts to construct specific understandings
of the past.
o If people do not or cannot listen to the voices of others, they miss the significance
of historical lessons.
o The late Guy Hocquenghem (Hocquenghem & Blasius, 1980), a gay French
number of years (see Table 4-1).
▪ Psychologist C. A. Tripp’s book The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln
once again raised the possibility that the former president’s sexual history
included men.
▪ While people may never know whatever really happened, the concern over
• A massive migration, often caused by war or famine or persecution that results in the
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
dispersal of a unified group is called a diaspora.
o The chronicles of these events are diasporic histories.
o Diasporic migrations often cause people to cling more strongly to symbols and
practices that reflect their group’s identity.
people have left their homelands to colonize other territories.
o It is important to recognize these colonial histories so one can better understand
the dynamics of intercultural communication today.
o Historically, three of the most important colonizers were Britain, France, and
Spain.
Niger, Mali, Chad, and the Central African Republic, among other places.
▪ Spanish is spoken in most of the Western Hemisphere, from Mexico to
Chile and Argentina, and including Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, and
Panama.
o The primary languages that people speak are not freely chosen by them.
confronting that past.
• Although individuals often overlook the importance of socioeconomic class as a factor
in history, the fact is that economic and class issues prompted many people to emigrate
to the United States.
o It is not always the socioeconomically disadvantaged who emigrate.
o These factors also influence the interactions and politics of different groups
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
• In the past, as well as today, religion is an important historical force that has shaped the
planet.
o Religious conflicts have led to wars, such as the Christian Crusades nearly a
thousand years ago.
conflict.
IV. Intercultural Communication and History
• One way to understand specific relationships between communication and history is to
examine the attitudes and notions that individuals bring to an interaction; these are the
A. Antecedents of Contact
• Individuals may be able to negotiate some aspects of history in interaction, but it is
important to recognize that they bring their personal histories to each intercultural
interaction.
o These personal histories involve one’s prior experience and attitudes.
• Social psychologist Richard Brislin (1981) has identified four elements of personal
B. The Contact Hypothesis
• The contact hypothesis is the notion that better communication between groups of
people is facilitated simply by bringing them together and allowing them to interact.
o Although history does not seem to support this notion, many public policies and
programs in the United States and abroad are based on this hypothesis.
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
• Gordon Allport (1979) and Yehudi Amir (1969), two noted psychologists, have tried to
1996).
o These are particularly relevant in light of increasing diversity in U.S. society in
general and the workforce in particular.
o The eight conditions are as follows:
▪ Group members should be of equal status, both within and outside the
situation and occur in a variety of contexts with a variety of individuals
from all groups.
▪ Programs should maximize cooperation within groups and minimize
competition.
▪ Programs should equalize numbers of group members.
o They can then try to evaluate the role that history plays for those with whom
people interact.
• Second, one should understand the role that histories play in one’s identity and in what
one brings to the interaction.
o Sometimes it is unwise to ask people where they are “really from.”
o Between privilege and disadvantage
o Between the personal and the social
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
▪ Both of these dialectics affect one’s view of the past, present, and future.
• Embedded in individuals’ backgrounds are dialectical tensions between privilege and
disadvantage and the ways in which those factors were established in the past and the
present.
o Then there is the dialectical tension between seeing oneselves as unique persons
and as members of particular social classes.
• Who people think we are today is very much influenced by how they view the past, how
they live, and what culture they believe to be their own.
Discussion Questions
1. How do the various histories of the United States influence our communication with
people from other countries?
2. How have you benefited from or been disenfranchised in the telling of certain histories?
How do you take responsibility for the histories from which you benefit?
3. What factors in your experience have led to the development of positive feelings about
your own cultural heritage and background? What factors have led to negative feelings, if
any?
4. When can contact between members of two cultures improve their attitudes toward each
other and facilitate communication between them?
5. How do histories influence the process of identity formation?
6. What is the significance of the shift from history to histories? How does this shift help us
understand intercultural communication?
7. How do the differing viewpoints on history affect communication?
8. Where are you from, and what does that mean to you? What does it mean to be a mid-
westerner, a southerner, a Californian, or a New Yorker?
9. Why do regional identities exist in the United States? What do they mean?
10. Think about your family’s history. In what ways has your family history been influenced
by your family’s membership in certain cultural groups but not in others?
11. How does your family history tie into the larger story of U.S. history?
12. Is it possible to escape from the history of your family? Why would someone want to do
so?
13. What historical events have been ignored in the national history of the United States?
14. What historical forces led you to speak one language and not others?
15. What are some examples of political histories, intellectual histories, and social histories?
16. What are some examples of “hidden” histories, and why are they hidden?
17. Do you agree with the phrase “Everybody loves Americans”? Why, or why not?
18. How might the lack of historical awareness affect communication? Provide an example.
19. Why might it be unwise to ask people where they are really from?
20. What makes diasporic histories different from other types of histories? What are some
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examples of hidden histories, and why are they hidden?
21. Why do some people in the United States prefer not to talk about history? What views of
social reality and intercultural communication does this attitude encourage?
Classroom Exercises and Chapter Activities
1. Defining History Exercise: Ask students what the term “history” means to them. Have
them explain their answers. (In a culturally diverse class, students will probably give a
2. Family or Local History Assignment: The goal of this assignment is to help students
become more familiar with their personal family history or the history of their community.
Have students interview an elderly family member (at least 70 years old) or member of
their community (preferably someone who has spent the majority of his or her life in the
States?
• Of the information you gained, what was the most interesting or meaningful to you?
3. Negotiating History Exercise: This exercise is designed to encourage students to
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
students identify each of the parties involved, and then have the students produce different
historical accounts of the same event based on the perspectives of the various participants.
Research may include referring to videos or magazine articles concerning the events, but it
4. Variation to Negotiating History Exercise: Pick a recent event with an intercultural focus
5. History Assignment: This assignment is designed to encourage students to learn about
someone whose culture is different from their own by reading about that person’s life.
6. Ethnicity and Communication Assignment: This assignment is intended to encourage
students to think about their ethnic origins and the level to which this affects their
communication. It may be beneficial as a required entry in a larger journal project. One can
ask students to research their family tree to understand their ethnic origins. They should
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
think this influences the way they communicate with you?
7. Guest Lecture Exercise: Invite people who are comfortable discussing hidden historical
8. Guest Lecture Exercise Variation: After the students have listened to the guests’ lectures
about their non-mainstream histories, have them write a one- to two-page essay or journal
entry on their reaction to one of the guest lecturer’s stories. The essay or journal should
9. Holocaust History Project: Use the recordings or writings of American Jews that can be
found on the Holocaust History Project website (http://www.holocaust-history.org/), and
have students discus the effect of such histories on how events are remembered.
Suggested Videos
1. Awakenings (Distributed by PBS Video, Alexandria, VA, 1986, 60 minutes)
2. Eyes on the Prize II (Distributed by PBS Video, Alexandria, VA, 1986)
3. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Distributed by MPI
Home Video)
4. Reexamining U.S. History from a Multicultural Perspective (Distributed by Insight Media,
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Chapter 4: History and Intercultural Communication
© 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any
manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
This series of three videos offers a multicultural look at U.S. history from the pre-European
era to the present. This reexamination presents a perspective on U.S. society that enables
students to gain a more accurate understanding of the nation’s past.
5. Multi-cultural Influences on the Founding Fathers (Distributed by Insight Media, New
6. Into the West (2005)
This film shows stories of the 19th century American West. The story in the film unfolds