Date of Award:

5-1953

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Sociology and Anthropology

Department name when degree awarded

Social Science

Committee Chair(s)

Therel R. Black

Committee

Therel R. Black

Abstract

Man is a social animal. Without participating in social activities and enjoying the social privileges, man cannot live but physically. He has something in common with the rest of the human race and a particular interest in his own community which imposes on and shares with him the same cultural pattern. The different cultures have a universal cultural pattern common to mankind, (32, p. 129), but in the same time there are many traits which prohibit the different groups from understanding each other, not because of languages, but because of the existence of the cultural barriers. To cross the barriers of cultural islands and the cultural lags, or to be able to narrow the margin of the differences in cultural determination, for the purpose of achieving acquaintance and understanding, the world needs an effective communication system. "The process of communication is the web of signals, expectations, and understanding that makes living together possible.....". (7, p. 2)

Communication for world community is not only a political, economical, or cultural exchange. It should manage to keep peoples peacefully disposed toward each other whatever their governments want to do. (7, p. 4). There are many ways of communications. We have the world organizations, the political presentations, the commercial agencies, the tourists, the transportation agencies, the radios and presses, the arts, and the exchange of students.

Robert C. Angell, a professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan, said:

It seems to me that the basic need is to communicate the way of life of different people to one another so as to achieve three objectives: First, an appreciation of the human qualities underlying cultural differences; second, an understanding of the central values of other cultures; and third, a realization that the different value system of the world's people are each compatible with the universal human qualities even when not compatible with each other. (15, p. 152)

The strongest link with other lands is the exchange of students. Those people are in the stage of learning and acquiring. The information they get in the classes with the observations and the experiences outside the classes or the campus ferment in their minds. These campus ambassadors who represent the cultures and ideas of their countries have a double task of giving and taking. They give by setting themselves as examples of their people and they take, from the school they attend, what strikes them the most. These ambassadors carry a portfolio but without politics, a portfolio full of ideas, knowledge, understanding, and admiration; and it is up to the college, to the local students, and to the community to provide them with the best.

The European intellectuals used to say about France that "Every intellectual has two consciences: his own and France." This shows how much France has affected the foreign students.

Checksum

559e92d35ca83a38783c98ba3579e7b0

Share

COinS