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The term
cultural baggage refers to the tendency for one's
cultureCulture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
to pervade thinking, speech, and behavior without one being aware of this pervasion. Cultural baggage becomes a factor when a person from one culture encounters a person from another, and unconscious assumptions or behaviors can interfere with interaction.
The "baggage" imagery implies that cultural baggage is something that one carries at all times and that it can be burdensome, hindering
freedom of movementFreedom of movement, mobility rights or the right to travel is a human right concept that the constitutions of numerous states respect...
(i.e. hinders intercultural dialog).
Darret B. RutmanDarrett B. Rutman was a noted historian of early America. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1959. He was a distinguished scholar and served on the History faculties of the University of Minnesota, 1959–1968, the University of New Hampshire, 1968–1984, and the University of...
has used the term to describe early European settlers of
North AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
(
A Place in Time: Middlesex County, Virginia 1650-1750 by Darret B. Rutman, Anita H. Rutman, ISBN 0-393-30318-7).
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