Essay on Basic Cultural Norms

Culture is defined as the traditions, customs, norms, beliefs, values and thought patterning passed down from generation to generation (Jandt 2010). The world consists of many different cultures. In this Ethnographic Interview, I was given the opportunity to explore and learn more about a culture different from my own. Through observation I’ve have seen how people of different cultures differ from mines. For example, the type of foods a person

James P. Spradley (1979) described the insider approach to understanding culture as "a quiet revolution" among the social sciences (p. iii). Cultural anthropologists, however, have long emphasized the importance of the ethnographic method, an approach to understanding a different culture through participation, observation, the use of key informants, and interviews. Cultural anthropologists have employed the ethnographic method in an attempt to surmount several formidable cultural questions: How can one understand another's culture? How can culture be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed? What aspects of a culture make it unique and which connect it to other cultures? If

Commonly, culture is considered large and extravagant events and holidays, such as Diwali, a wedding, or the Fourth of July. Each event and holiday have specific traits and rituals that occur to distinguish the event from everyday life, but culture isn’t exclusive to lavish events such as these and include everyday activities such as watching a football game and listening to a speech. Every belief, behavior, and symbolic system that a person shares with another is an example of culture. Authors Anne Fadiman and Joshua Reno explores the different aspects of culture and ethnography in their two books, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, and Waste Away: Working and

As we begin to go on an excursion through literature, it is important to understand the concept of what an ethnography is. Ethnography is known to be a descriptive type of work that analyzes culture and customs of individual people. James Clifford has implemented this work into his studies and has influenced many others to do the same. I saw through the books I have read, ethnography makes these books become vivacious for a reader.

The USA is a very diverse nation with many different groups of people, and that being said it is a wonder our nation is able to coexist despite many cultures being integrated within our population. Several things that came to mind while researching this topic were; ,“What kind of social norms do other cultures have?”, “ How would I have turned out if I would have been born in that country with a different culture?”, and “ What do people from a different context think about the way I communicate?”. We oftentimes disregard a very crucial entity that is essential to any civilization, and that is the way the populous communicates with each other. Foreigners oftentimes struggle to adapt living in a new country because they have to overcome many endeavors, and have to deal with the initial culture shock. Aside from learning a new language they have to learn certain social cues that were not used in their native countries, and most of the time they will have to learn the social cues on their own. Even if you learn the language prior to your arrival you will still find it difficult to have a conversation with a local. There are two distinct ways to communicate, and it is oftentimes influenced by the culture an individual is born in. There are cultures that are considered to be high context, and their counterparts would be those who grew up in cultures considered to be low context. An individual’s upbringing greatly influences how well they would be able to adapt to communicating

According to Polit and Beck (2017), ethnography studies "involve the description and interpretation of cultural behavior, and seek to understand their world view" (p. 468). The strengths of ethnographic

They hold us together as a culture, while separating us as unique individuals at the same time. Folkways, which are based more on custom and etiquette are the most broken of all norms. This can be explained because worst case scenario our only reprimand may be someone staring or talking about us. Mores, while a little more serious than folkways, still don’t have a very serious punishment, just maybe a little more than weird looks, double takes and bad mouthing. Mores are usually based on social morals, which can sometimes make people get a little uneasy, but not much more than that. Laws are the most serious or formal norms, with standard punishment respective to the type of law that is broken. The norm

Social norms have always played a major role in today's society. A social norm is how we consider behaviors to be appropriate. However, norms are the rules and guidelines regarding what kinds of behavior are acceptable (Mills 1959). Social norms are essentially the means by which any given society may construct and organize itself. They are the ways in which a society defines what tends to be acceptable and unacceptable when it comes to an individual. Different views change over time whether it is through history or an individual themselves who tends to age. Sometimes staying up to date with society and keeping up with the new trends can be unhealthy and have an effect on individuals and the public. The social norm I choose to break was walking into a public men's restroom at a restaurant while out with friends. I choose this social norm because it shows the men's reactions and behaviors once I entered their restroom. However, their behaviors showed how society acts toward certain situations in certain places and what roles are played during the process.

In the American society, there are many social norms relating to gender. There are certain expectations that both males and females must follow to be socially accepted. These norms and expectations are enforce in children’s lives at a young age. I know for me personally, when I was younger in a family full of boys, I would always hang out with them. In doing so, I would play with nerf guns and wrestler actions figure, what society considers a boy toy. My parents would always tell me that I needed to act more “like a girl.” As I got older, I realized that what my parents told me was stereotypical and that there are no such thing as what is appropriate for a male or female. Today as more and more things are becoming unisex, which means that it

During this cultural observation, the anthropological concepts that will be examined will be: culture, society, language and communication and finally kinship. For the purpose of the observation, the concepts are defined as: culture is ideas and behaviors that are learned and transmitted and are not a genetic means of adaptation. Along with the understanding that society is the learned behavior patterns and thought that help a group adapt to its surroundings (Park 2015, p.G2). Language and communication being defined as the human communication by means of shared symbols in the form of sounds or representations of sounds (Park 2015, p.271). Last of the

The significance of this triad is that these are the three major parts of the “conformity” culture of the 1950s. The first part was the idea of women's “place.” This was the idea that a proper woman’s place in society was in the home. The ideal woman was married at a young age, primarily tended to her husband and children, and hosted parties and events for the other women.This was a reaction to women working in World War II and a fear that this departure of domesticity would continue. The second part of the “conformity” culture was a very strong sense of community. People searched for this because of the constant mobility required on workers by many corporations. Whereas before people were likely to be born, get married, and die, all in the

The term "normal" is flawed in most of the situations it is used in. To say something is normal is to diminish what others may deem normal in their own minds. For some, it may be normal to go to bed at 8 at night, while for others it may be normal to go to bed at midnight. In these instances, the term norms should be referred to instead. It can be the norm of the U.S. to sleep later in the evening but the norm for somewhere else to go to sleep earlier. In the case of sexual behaviour, there is no "normal." That is implying that those who do not follow a specific behaviour are abnormal.

Each generation has their own cultural based on what their attitudes, values and beliefs are based on society rules and norms. Socialization through media forms tend to be different, and how adolescents perceive, and respond to the norms. Flynn (2015) states “Broad socialization allows for the existence and performance of individual difference, self-expression and independence” (Flynn, 2015). These adolescents are able to problem solve by independent thinkers that can make their own choices on what cultural norms they find acceptable. The culture norms through era of music such as rap shows that binge drinking, and smoking marijuana are rite of passage for adolescent (McMahon, 2015). However, adolescents are more cognitively aware when receiving

It is 9:00 PM on a Sunday night. Televisions all across America tune into MTV. Millions of viewers will now spend the next thirty minutes watching a television program titled 'Jackass'. While watching this program, the viewers will observe everything from people eating hard boiled eggs in an attempt to purposely vomit, to a man testing out various self defense devices on himself. Next week viewers will tune into the same program to see the same kinds of stunts performed. The reason that America watches these kinds of programs, and the participants in them perform these stunts, are because 'norms' are being broken. A norm is something that is generally accepted by a society as the right thing to do, or the way things are supposed

Ethnocentrism, as defined by the OSU Department of Anthropology, is “an attitude that is centered on one’s own culture, values, and ways of acting and thinking …[and] may lead to unfair criticism of other cultures” (Rosenburger 8). Ethnocentrism is a natural response for people who experience or become immersed in a culture where values, customs, and shared practices are different from their own. It is the difficulty or inability to understand other ways of acting, thinking, or feeling; when one cannot process the understanding of others attitudes within a cultural context. Each culture has values – important beliefs and moral natures that underlie the influences of the interaction through history and current social, ethnic, or regional groups. Some may even participate in various cultures at one time or over time. Cultures may, and often, have underlying conflicts within them and will almost always change as time goes on and new generations form. Every culture is unique. They have symbols or material items that hold special value to the culture that often hold a deeper meaning that is only embodied by those who are a part of the culture (Rosenburger 7,8). Ethnocentrism also plays a large role in the studies of cultural Anthropology.