What It Means To Be Human Essay

Different societies exist throughout the world and within these societies each society develops culture that works best for them. Within these cultures they pass all their acquired knowledge and traditions down from generation to generation. Nevertheless, each culture has their own way of life, own marriage beliefs, their own values and feelings on life and religious beliefs. Cultures tend to have their own way to run their government, and ways to keep their economy up to their standards. Most importantly in cultural anthropology it is imperative to value culture relativism. This is the view in which no culture is superior to other

Some may ask what it means to be a part of a specific culture. It may be believed that it merely means to share the same qualities of race, language, and social beliefs. What is not really known are the rise of expectations to fill, repressed wants and needs, or even the binding religious beliefs. A person must begin to recognize the holdings a culture may have on them and how it affects their free will as an individual.

There are cultural differences within all the communities that make up the world, we are constantly surrounded and reminded of these other cultures. In this paper cultural differences will be discussed from the film “Why Did I Get Married?” which is an African-American movie about the hardships one goes through in marriage, friendships, and trust. This paper is going to give specific examples of Hall’s perspective of culture on the screen and Hofstede’s five dimensions that are reflected in a particular pattern. Examples of both verbal and non verbal intercultural communication and how they relate to particular intercultural

Anthropology is a combination of the words “Anthropos” and “Logos”. It simply means the study of human. Since the human beings have both biological and cultural characteristics, anthropology extensively studies including both aspects. However, culture is the most important thing in anthropology. The culture of a particular organization, group, or country consists of the habits of the people in it and the way they generally behave. The particular traits and characteristics are held in common within that environment and are passed on generationally. Based on the culture of the community, group, or country, we can deeply research and understand their life style. The best method that is used

What does it mean to be human? It is a question that has occupied the minds of many people for hundreds, if not thousands of years. In the documentary, ‘The Human Experience’, two brothers and their friends travel around the world to come up with an answer, through working with the homeless, communities plagued with AIDS and leprosy, as well as children with disabilities. By the end of the documentary, they emerge with a newfound understanding and appreciation of the human condition, and discover what it truly means to be human. For their first experience, Cliff and Jeff took to the streets of New York and lived like homeless men during the coldest week of winter.

There are many different meanings to being human. Being human means being a mundane that tries to make sense of its spiritual existence. We are not human, we are simply being human. If we were not to be born as humans, we may have been born as animals. In Book I of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle introduces his argument by distinguishing between two types of ends which human beings strive for. He states, “For the end is sometimes an activity, sometimes a product beyond the activity; and when there is an end beyond the action, the product is by nature better than the activity” (1).

Culture itself is a complex topic with multiple definitions ranging from the organic to the mechanical, the natural to the manufactured. In a world composed of different groups, we see many variations of culture. Cultural universals are traits, patterns, and elements that transcend specific groups and can be applied to all known cultures (Macionis 2014). This idea implies that mankind and its multiple cultures are interconnected by patterns of fulfilling human needs that occur on a global scale. Specific examples of cultural universals extend from medicine to the family unit. Though anthropologists and sociologists have found support for the existence of cultural universals, the idea of these universal aspects of culture still draw criticism from critical and postmodern scholars and by individuals who ascertain cultural universals are in a natural state of opposition with cultural relativism.

A connection I saw through this was the difference between a normal map of our countries and contents to this one. The differences were very clear and made me wonder. As a noticed this I saw that the smaller countries that were not as populated were in the shape and same spot as Africa. The larger countries that I am used to seeing in the same spot shifted to different parts of the map. Unlike, a normal map China, Indonesia, Russia, India, and the United States had a star next to them to show that these were some of the more settled areas. Well, I saw a ton of differences as I explained I also saw some similarities such as all the countries were labeled and there were still blue to represent the bodies of water that remain around them.

Everyone has a different way of life, whether it be by the way you talk, dress, or eat. Or maybe how you dance, sing, and perform. These aspects of everyday life is called culture. Everybody in the world has a culture, but not all cultures are the same from person to person. In the book, The Miles Between, a group of teens, who attend a boarding school, have a different way of life than I do. Even though there is many differences between our cultures, there are still some similarities peeping through all the differences.

What does it mean to be human? Is it in a curve of a mother’s back, a single bead of sweat tracing the contours of her face as she hums to sooth her tiny child on her back? Is it the fires of a furnace, as a star-like metal is poured into a elongated mold? Is it in the halls of lecture halls, as she scribbles out the code to space travel to an audience of enthused students? There are so many ways to classify ‘humanity’, be it by the biological material, or the compassion of one to another, or simply by our ‘superior intellect.’ However, a fruit--a banana--shares more of our genetic information that nearly any other organism. Other animals have been proven to show compassion--elephants staying behind to help their

Cultural Anthropology is the culture change and difference in society. The idea of Cultural Anthropology is to understand cultural traits, language, environment, and historical background. Some aspects of Cultural Anthropology include foods relationships, actions taken, insight, style and approach on how humans were able to live or exist (also known as adaptive mechanism). (O’Neil, 2002-2012). Through research studies, Anthropologist are able to establish a better perspective of society as a

Since its creation, America has always been a country that stands out from the rest. Whether it is the fact that it was one of the first “newly created” nations or the fact that we have grown into such a dominant world power, there has always been something that makes America truly exceptional. No matter which way you choose to look at things, it is hard to argue that America is not fundamentally different from many other nations and countries around the world. Even with the ups and downs that have plagued America’s history, today we remain a country unlike many others.

My fascination with anthropology began in third grade when the chimerical creatures and superhuman gods of Greek Myths sparked my curiosity in global cultures. Eventually, I noticed how the stories correlated with other religious tales from around the world. Through the years, classes in geography, world history, foreign languages, biology and religion further stimulated my interest in how different societies developed, sometimes with similar characteristics. In addition, experiences such as serving as a student ambassador in Japan, painting homes in an impoverished neighborhood of West Virginia, tutoring inner city middle school children and performing English and Spanish translation for recent Hispanic/Latino immigrants have given me a personal look at how lives differ within particular cultures and communities.

Humans are an interesting species because of the strong need humans have to fully understand what it truly means to be human. Many fields such as history, psychology, and sociology all offer a perspective in the study of humanity, but there are distinguishable from anthropology. Anthropology differs from other humanities fields due to its holistic nature, comparative research methods, and the strong emphasis on fieldwork and participant interaction. Anthropology is the study of people throughout the world, their evolutionary history, how they behave, adapt to different environments, communicate and socialize with one another. In order for anthropologists to examine the full scope of human life, they employ the four field approach that embodies the holistic nature of the field.

The concept of culture is something that defines many aspects of one’s life. From physical objects to different ways of thinking, culture adds significance to human life and makes groups of people distinct from one another. Culture is essentially a group of people who come together with similar interests and points of view. According to the Center for Advanced Language Acquisition of the University of Minnesota, “culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization.” From a more sociological perspective, culture is a way in which people come together in order to fulfill their needs. These shared patterns and ideas identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.” Culture is one of the things that sets the United States apart from the rest of the world. Not that the rest of the world is not cultural, but the circumstance here is different. Many people of different cultural backroads come to this country in search of a better life. As a consequence, the United States has become a place where many cultures merge together like a colossal pot soup.