How are cultural patterns important to understanding?

Question

Intercultural communication

Answer 1

We killed a bunch of Native Americans bc we thought it was an uprising. It was just somekind of rain dance.

Answer 2

For one thing, it helps exand your horizons and see the limitations and overall contingency of the culture you were raised in. It might also be interesting to compare cultures to see commonalities as well as differences. I like to take the positives of each culture and leave behind the negatives into my own personal world view. Its debatable whether "intercultural communication" is possible in the absolute sense...look up "incommensurability" and the views of philosophers like Habermas, Rorty, Barthes, etc. Also cultural anthropology material.