Conclusion

At the completion of my blog, I am able to see how in studying one aspect of Danish culture I was able to gain an understanding of the Danish culture in whole. By examining different aspects of Danish culture through the scope of egalitarianism, I was able to realize that Danish culture had created and was created by egalitarianism. This cross-cultural engagement not only taught me about Danish culture but about culture in general. I could see that when I was in Denmark I had made my own judgments about the Danish culture based on what I know from my own culture and in doing so, I was not able to understand many parts of Danish culture. Before doing this blog, I did not understand why an entire society would support almost staggering taxes that take away and redistribute their wealth. Being from the United States where capitalism and making money are very important in our culture, it did not make sense to me that an entire nation would allow their government to take away so much of their wealth. This cross-cultural encounter made me realize how in suspending your own judgment, you open yourself to understanding another culture. Through cultural relativism, I was able to see that people are socialized into cultural norms and practices. Because they were raised with the idea of egalitarianism, Danes are able to understand that as a part of their culture, they are entitled to equal social benefits that everyone in their society works to support.

Cultural Homogeneity and the Welfare State

To help answer the questions from the last post, I looked again at the welfare system in Denmark and how it was supported and upheld by Danish society. In my research of Danish culture I noticed that Denmark would often be referred to as a welfare state, giving its citizens free heath care, education, unemployment benefits, etc., that all citizens and residents of Denmark could access. These benefits, however, require high taxes that spread wealth more evenly throughout the population. From the website of the Migration Information Source:

“These welfare structures entail both a significant amount of state intervention in the social domain and economic redistribution across social groups. The system is rooted in ideas of social egalitarianism, but also in the assumption that citizens earn their entitlements by contributing (through taxation) over a lifetime of active work to the maintenance and growth of the national wealth. Cultural belonging and political rights are thus intertwined, and "equality" is interpreted to mean two different things simultaneously: "cultural similarity" and "political sameness" (in regards to civic rights).”

Reading this, it became more clear to me why the students felt that immigrants were negatively impacting their country. In Danish culture and society, Danes feel that equal rights to the social benefits programs are a result of being part of the Danish culture and having a shared understanding of the assumption that they are supposed to contribute to the economic growth of their country. I started to see how It is assumed that in being part of the Danish culture, you should want to help the systems that give everyone equal access to social benefits and therefore, be deserving of these benefits. When immigrants of very different cultural backgrounds are not able to assimilate into homogenous Danish culture, they are seen as undeserving of the welfare system because they may not have the same understandings of the welfare system. Danes may begin to believe that in not having this understanding, the non-Western immigrant population will only live off the welfare system and not contribute to it, thus corrupting the egalitarianism of their society. Because of this, it can be seen how negative stereotypes of immigrants in Danish society are created on assumptions. The uneasiness of Danes of outsiders coming into their society shows the importance Danes place on maintaining the cultural homogeneity that in many ways is seen to support the egalitarianism in Danish society. I realized that the egalitarianism in Danish society both creates and is created by cultural norms and practices in Danish society.


Migration Information Source
2007 Denmark: Integrating Immigrants into a Homogenous Welfare State. Electronic document, http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?id=485

Danish Society and Immigration

Out of the many discussions with the Danish students during my trip, one of the most interesting and thought-provoking discussions was about immigration into Denmark and the sentiments that were expressed by the Danes regarding this issue. I was surprised to hear quite a few of the students say outright that they were not in support of immigration into their country, particularly from non-Western countries such as Turkey and Somalia. The students reasoned that the immigrants from these countries were only coming to Denmark to live off the welfare system and did not do anything to contribute to Danish society. I remembered that in another instance before this conversation had taken place, one of the students pointed out a group of Somalian women to me and told me that women like them sat at home all day and didn’t work, being supported by the Danish welfare system. Seeing this and hearing these statements did not sit well with me, having been brought up to reject any form of racism or judgment based on someone's background or appearance. However, for this assignment I am suspending my judgments and using cultural relativism to understand why the Danish students would say or think this coming from a relatively tolerant society.
To understand this issue, I researched the history of immigration into Denmark. Denmark has always had some type of flow of immigration into the country. However, most of these immigrants had mostly come from other Scandinavian or Western countries and had been assimilated into the culture after only a few generations. Most recently, people from Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and the former Yugoslavia have been making up the majority of the immigrant population in Denmark. Because these immigrants come from very different cultures with different norms and social practices from the Danish culture, it can be said that complete assimilation into Danish culture would be less likely to occur. Then the question must be asked: Why is it important in Danish society for immigrants to be able to assimilate into their culture? Why did the students think that because the immigrants are from different cultures that they would disrupt the welfare system and the egalitarianism of their society as a whole?

Migration Information Source
2007 Denmark: Integrating Immigrants into a Homogenous Welfare State. Electronic document, http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?id=485

The Danish Welfare System

One of the greatest differences that I could see between Danish society and US society was the importance of equal benefits to all citizens such as universal healthcare and welfare to whoever meets the requirements in Danish society. This is not the case in the United States where many people would not want to pay the exceptionally high taxes that support these systems. The Danish welfare system is egalitarian in that the principle behind the system is that all Danish citizens have access to social benefits regardless to their family situation, economic situation, or social background. This taxation and welfare system acts to spread the wealth of Danish society out more evenly. While it is the Danish government that regulates the taxation and maintains the welfare system, the Danish people largely support this system and are in favor of the social benefits that they can receive through the state, regardless of having to pay one of the highest personal income tax rates in Europe.
Learning this about Denmark, I started to wonder why a whole society would be in support of taxes that can take out, in some cases, more than half of a year’s income. Supporting such an extensive social benefits program and welfare system is definitely a compromise for many people. These more socialist policies both reflect and affect the egalitarian nature of Danish society. In Danish culture, equality in benefits among the Danish society is highly valued and people are willing to pay a price for social programs such as education and health care and for the welfare system. It can be said then that these policies have resulted the egalitarian nature of Danish society and its cultural ideals.


Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation
Welfare Society. Electronic document, http://www.workindenmark.dk/Welfare, accessed November 10, 2007.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
2007 The Welfare State as a Political Compromise. Electronic document, http://www.denmark.dk/en/menu/AboutDenmark/SocietyWelfare/ScandinavianWelfareModel/TheWelfareStateAsAPoliticalCompromise, accessed November 10, 2007.

Danish Sports Teams

Anthropology examines how sports are used to create social cohesion, create national identities, and to promote ideologies. While I do not actively participate in or follow many sports, after studying the topic in class, I started to think how sports could affect and reflect Danish culture. While in Denmark, I noticed that many of the students I met played in club sports and followed their national teams. Handball, football (soccer), and badminton were among the most popular sports played and watched. Many great sports stars are from Denmark and instill national pride in Danish citizens. This source of common pride in national sports promotes cultural unity and social cohesion. Danish people can find common ground in relating to each other through the national teams they support. Pride in the national sports teams encourages national pride and helps to create a cultural identity.
There is a great amount of pride in the Danish national handball teams. Handball, a fast-paced game commonly compared to basketball and water polo, was invented in Denmark. The women’s handball team is very popular and largely supported in Denmark, having won the Olympic gold medal three times in a row and numerous other championships around Europe. I noticed that the women’s handball team seemed to be just as popular and as widely supported as the men’s team, if not more so. This was surprising to me because in the US, professional men’s teams are generally more popular and more widely endorsed than professional women’s teams. In the Danish culture, it seems like men’s and women’s sports are of more equal value in their society. In this more egalitarian model, people supporting both men’s and women’s teams equally can be seen as giving equal importance to both men and women. This equal support can be seen as a reflection of Danish cultural ideas and something that also promotes egalitarianism.

Aarhus Universitet
2007 Spectator Sports. Electronic document, http://www.au.dk/en/is/living/sports.htm, accessed November 4, 2007.

Homes in Denmark, How Space is Used

When I first arrived in Denmark, I was completely surrounded by a new environment that I was very unfamiliar in. For me, the first thing I thought about after entering a new place was how different Denmark was visually and spatially. Throughout the whole trip, I continued to observe that the vast majority of houses (excluding the Queen’s summer home) were not huge and excessive like many of the houses in the United States, nor were they too small and uncomfortable to live in. There were no harsh divisions in wealth reflected through the residences in Denmark that I was so used to seeing. The use of space in Danish society reflects the egalitarian nature of Danish culture. For the most part, there were no major displays of wealth or success through the homes people lived in. This shows how space is being socially constructed. Space in this case is being shaped by cultural ideals that Danish society upholds.
The layout of the towns was also significant. In the neighborhood I stayed in, all of the homes were about the same size and were fairly close together, even though there were fields and other open space surrounding the neighborhood that the houses could have been put on. The neighborhoods appeared to be very homogenous-looking. The layout of the neighborhood and most of the neighborhoods in Denmark creates a very orderly environment where suburban living spaces share the same space as rural areas and farms. There were no distinct separations between the rural and the suburban. In hte center of many of the neighborhoods were playgrounds that could be used by neighborhood children. These two aspects reflect the value that Danish culture puts on a fair, level society.

Language and Culture

Sapir: “The fact of the matter is that the “real world” is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the habits of the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached” (Delany, 2004:137)

In studying a society, I feel it is very important to discuss the language of the people and how it relates to that society’s realities and understandings. The above quote is by Edward Sapir, an American linguist. He explains that each language spoken expresses different social realities. Each language has a different reality. From this reading, it can be seen that because language constitutes culture and vise versa, reality is created through language and culture.
In Denmark, people speak Danish as their first language and most people I encountered on my trip also spoke English. Danish students that I talked to were proud of their language and proud that very few of the world’s population can speak Danish. In this way, the Danish language was a glue that held people together in a society. It creates common ground that people can understand one another on. Because Danish society has its own language, it can be surmised that the Danish language creates a different reality in which Danish culture exists. In Danish and all other languages, there is expression of different social realities that constitute that particular culture. A good example of this would be the fact that the Danish language employs gender-neutral words and does not distinguish masculine or feminine words grammatically. Language reflects and is reflected by the importance of egalitarianism in Danish society. The Danish language creates a reality in which gender is not of as much importance and does not create a gender hierarchy. This is a very different social reality from the reality of American culture where there still is a distinct gender hierarchy that is reflected and perpetuated in gendered language. Learning about Danish language in connection with Danish culture made me realize how language can dictate common views that people accept as the norm. Language is one way in which the idea of egalitarianism is rooted in Danish culture.


Kwintessential Cross Cultural Solutions
Denmark – Language, Culture, Customs, and Etiquette. Electronic document, http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/denmark-country-profile.html, accessed October 22, 2007.

The Jante Law

When I found out I was going to be hosting a Danish student, I wanted to do some research on Denmark to get a glimpse of what life was like in Denmark and common social practices. I was worried about not being able to relate to the student I was hosting and I wanted to get more of an understanding of her culture. While doing this research, I found that most of the information on Denmark referred to the Danes as generally reserved, modest people. It came across as confusing to me that there was a societal norm towards being modest and having an egalitarian ideology. After further research, I came across something that could be described as a social code of conduct. The Jante Law, a concept created by Danish author Askel Sandemose in the 1930’s gives a message that no one should believe they are superior to anyone else. According to the Jante Law, everyone is equal and neither intelligence nor wealth will make you a better person. Equality in Danish culture is of such importance that personal success can be seen as an attempt to distinguish oneself from the rest of society and should be frowned upon. Although this moral code was derived from a book about a fictional village, most Danes prescribe to the behavior and social conduct that the Jante Law calls for. Why does Danish society generally follow this model of correct behavior in society? How did the Jante Law become embedded in Danish culture? I knew that only upon experiencing Danish culture and talking to Danish people would I be able to begin to understand this phenomenon.


Ladies International Network Kobenhavn
2007 Jante Law. Electronic document,
http://www.linkdenmark.com/info/jante_law.htm, accessed October 20, 2007.

What is an Egalitarian Society?

Before analyzing the different parts of Danish culture, it is important to see what an egalitarian society is and what makes Danish society considered to be egalitarian. The definition of egalitarian is relating to or believing in the principle that all people are equal and should have equal rights and opportunities. In an egalitarian society, differences in wealth, power, and status are seldom recognized. In American society, although we would like to think that everyone has equal ability to succeed, certain groups have power over others and are thus better equipped to succeed in society. For example, there is a gender hierarchy that is institutionalized in American society where women still on average earn less than men and are expected to balance work and family with little support. Conversely, in Danish society, women are highly respected in the workplace and generally receive equal pay and have access to promotion to senior positions. Women are entitled to at least four months maternity leave after giving birth and working mothers are able to arrange flexible hours to easier balance work and family life.
It is impossible to have a completely egalitarian society. From lecture, we learned that power relations will always exist within a continuum (Antonio Gramsci). Every society has some kind of hegemonic system where a group of people in power creates ideas that others willingly prescribe and consent to. Danish culture could be different in that the hegemonic ideology influences people to prescribe to an egalitarian viewpoint. Danes are encouraged to be modest and to be concerned about group needs. Egalitarianism can be seen in many aspects in Danish culture that I will discuss in later posts. By examining this one part of Danish culture, an understanding can be made of the whole culture. In Anthropology this is called a part-to-whole approach; studying a single aspect of a culture to make an inference into the inner logic of that culture. I hope to obtain a greater understanding of Danish culture by studying how egalitarianism influences Danish society.


Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation
Work. Electronic document, http://www.workindenmark.dk/Maternity_leave/0/4/0, accessed October 16, 2007.

Kwintessential Cross Cultural Solutions
Denmark – Language, Culture, Customs, and Etiquette. Electronic document, http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/denmark-country-profile.html, accessed October 16, 2007.

Introduction: My Trip to Denmark

Several years ago, I agreed to go on an exchange trip with my high school to Denmark, a small country located in Northern Europe, bordering Germany. Before this trip I had no perception of what Denmark and the Danish culture were like nor had I studied Denmark in school or met anyone from Denmark. Needless to say I was nervous about putting myself into a situation where I would be surrounded by a culture that I knew nothing about but assumed would be very different from my own. In the fall of 2004, I had an exchange student from a Danish business school stay with my family and then in the spring I traveled with my school group to Denmark and stayed both with my host family and then in a hostel in Copenhagen. During the trip I was completely immersed in Danish culture and was able to observe parts of Danish culture that make it unique. I was able to experience Danish rituals, traditions, social practices, heritage, food, and visual expressions, among other things. What I remember most clearly is how surprised and fascinated I was at how different Danish culture is from American culture despite both being developed Western countries.
By using techniques in anthropology to analyze Danish culture I want to come to a greater understanding of how parts of Danish society influence their culture. More specifically, I want to analyze why Danish society is generally considered egalitarian, and how this aspect reflects and influences Danish culture. I want to examine how egalitarianism affects social values, government, the ways in which people interact, and gender roles in Danish society. By looking at the importance of egalitarianism in Danish society, I hope to get a better understanding of Danish culture as a whole. My methods for analyzing Danish culture include participant observation, unstructured personal interviews with Danes, and researching the facets of Danish culture that I could not observe.