Cultural Universal Characteristics Essay

An example of how cultural differences can be prominent in one’s community is in the way birthdays are celebrated. The American custom is to celebrate the first birthday, but Mexicans celebrate the third birthday. Since there is so much poverty in Mexico, the family believes that once a child reaches the age of three, they will be able to survive from then on. An example of a worldwide cultural difference, is the definition of beauty. In some countries the “beautiful” woman is fuller-figured, while in the United States the epitome of beauty is being thin.

So it may turn out that there are things that everyone values. Those values will be empirically universal” (22). He challenges the ethnographer who depicts other societies as different because he views certain values, like kindness, as “empirically universal.” Appiah further stresses the importance of the study of societies other than our own as he argues that, “cross-cultural analysis reveals that there really are basic mental traits that are universal” (96). Therefore, not only do humans share personality characteristics, but they also share mental traits.

A person’s culture can influence what they do on a day-to-day basis. This is most obvious in Texas, my home state. Our culture is very strong as we are always promoting companionship and friendliness to anyone and everyone.

Another characteristic of culture is that it must be shared. Culture is shared amongst the members of the society, which allows them to act in socially appropriate ways. This helps the members of a certain culture to coexist and not violate social norms. Every year in

Cultural characteristics vary across the globe. These ranges of characteristics shape people’s values and viewpoints, and give different meanings of things to the culture that is experiencing them (McLean, 2010). There are several divergent cultural characteristics that will have an effect on your life and how you experience and interact with the community around you. Below I will compare 3 pairs of them:

While his coworkers constructed his designs, what hobby did Bernini pursue? Answer Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Writing plays and designing stage sets Writing plays and designing stage sets

The human species is constantly evolving. One of the key factors behind why people from different cultures treat others differently – despite the fact that our genetic makeup is the same – is that we all come from different backgrounds and have adapted to our culture’s values and traditions. Culture, as defined in the textbook, is “the total of learned traditions of a group of people” (Stanford, Allen, & Anton, 2013, p. 4). Other factors that influence the way we treat people from different cultures is because of stereotypes. Stereotypes are "generalizations or assumptions that individuals make about the characteristics of all members

No individual can arrive at the threshold of his potentialities without a culture in which he participates. Conversely, no civilization has in it any element that the last analysis is not the contribution of an individual. Where else could any trait come from except from the behaviour of a man or a woman or a child? (253)

The Homo-Sapien species has existed for 60 to 120 thousand years. Only during the last ten thousand years have humans existed in civilizations, with a multitude of differing forms that underwent development patterns often as a result of interaction with foreign societies. Because humans have existed in a wide variety of structural contexts, it becomes exceedingly difficult to derive universal human attributes that can be used to produce a theorem of human nature. The difficulty lies in that the varying forms of human socialization and institutions profoundly influence the value systems of the societal occupants. Thus, humans operate and think differently in different societies.

People are diverse not only by visual and nonvisual diversity but can also differ by characteristics of relationships. Different characteristics of relationships include: Universalism versus Particularism, Individualism versus Collectivism, Neutral versus Emotional, Specific versus Diffuse and Achievement versus Ascription. These are several different ways cultures contradict with one another when it comes to handling situations. For example, a universalist considers all people to follow the guidelines with no exceptions. While a person who follows particularism will make exceptions based on the situation. Individualists put themselves before members of the group. On the other hand, collectivists value the group as a whole and put the group

Russia has many cultural characteristics that have shaped the country we know today. A nation 's culture can define its actions and make them more predictable as a state on the international level. Understanding a nation’s culture gives great insight into the motives and reasoning behind their aggression or acts of force. Factors such as geography, weather, political landscape, military, and key infrastructure provide a clear understanding of Russian culture and how it has shaped the nation over the past century.

Culture includes religion, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we greet visitors, how we behave with loved ones as well as how people behave when they are in the public places like at the customs baggage hall, culture consists in those patterns relative to behavior and the products of human action which may be inherited, that is, passed on from age to age without the involvement of the biological genes David Jehan (2014)

Everyone has her or his unique personality, history, and interest. Yet all people share a common human nature, which is intensely social: we are group animals. We use language and empathy, and practice collaboration and intergroup competition. But the unwritten rules of how we do these things differ from one human group to another. "Culture" is how we call these unwritten rules, moral standards about how to be a good member of the group, defining the group as a “moral circle”. This applies to groups based on national, religious, or ethnic boundaries, but also on occupation or academic discipline, on club membership, adored idol, or dress style. To get things done, we still need to cooperate with members of other groups carrying other cultures.

As a baby we aren’t born with culture. The people who are responsible for our socialization are our parents and others who we might associate with…teachers, friends, etc. As a very small child we learn about the culture we were born in as well as our gender roles. Depending on some cultures women for example are taught that they will be homemakers and do a large share of work. In my culture I learned my future role which would be a daughter, friend, sister, a wife in the future possibly, and then maybe a mother. This is also the time we learn what society expects of us; the norms per say. This is also the time in our lives that our personality forms. While our personality has much to do with our upbringing and genes it also is created by the culture we are in. “Research in geographical sciences has shown regional variation on a number of indicators—including public

Thus, the terms culture and society are somewhat interchangeable. Characteristics of culture: Culture is narrow. It prescribes that kinds of behavior considered acceptable in the society. The prescriptive characteristic of culture simplifies a consumer's decision-making process by limiting product choices to those, which are socially acceptable. These same characteristics create problems for those products not in tune with the consumer's cultural beliefs. Culture is socially shared. Culture cannot exist by itself. Members of a society must share it. Thus acting to reinforce culture's perspective nature. Culture is learned. Culture is not inherited genetically; it must be learned and acquired. Socialization or enculturation occurs when a person absorbs or learns the culture in which he or she is raised. Culture facilitates communication. One useful function provided by culture is to facilitate communication. Culture usually imposes common habits of though and feeling among people. Thus, within a given group culture makes it easier for people to communicate with one another. But culture may also block communication across groups because of a lack of shared common culture values. This is one reason why a standardized advertisement may have difficulty communicating with consumers in foreign countries. How marketing efforts interact with a culture determines the success or failure of a