The Boundaries Of Culture

During the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies, and Premier Joseph Stalin unlocked Soviet borders to an influx of American film, music, print resources, and tourists. This American culture, especially the scores of Jazz records and recordings, grew incredibly popular. Jazz orchestras sprung up across Moscow and the Soviet bloc, and these groups longed for the opportunity to play American scores in their own styles. Music became a common vehicle conveying the culture of the West within the USSR. Following the war, however, Stalin and his Generals became apprehensive about the damaging effect that substantial exposure to Western culture could have on the Party and on the Communist ideology. Soon thereafter,

Does other people’s cultures affect how you view the world? Some people stray way from their culture and people view them differently. Culture really affects how people live and how other people view things and how they think about other people. “Where Cultures Collide”, “Everyday Use” and “What is Cultural identity”. All cultures affect how people view the world. It shows you how culture is very important.

Our entire world is perceived in the lens of culture and influences our construction of reality. The social and cultural construction of our reality is built around our social heritage. Some of the terms I found to be rather interesting were language, cultural shock, social norms, social status, and social roles in correlation to socialization.

In the realm of Christianity there are several denominations where their doctrinal beliefs and traditions are followed religiously. Through the story of the “Traditions of the Elders” in Mark 7, this paper focuses on the origin of culture and the false perception it gives that is was created by God. Although culture religious traditions can have association with God, culture and religious traditions are not are not from God and can prevent people from doing what God wants

Culture has many different meanings. Culture can be referred to as knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, religion, and many more. My cultural heritage is Italian and Ukrainian. My dad’s side is Italian. My mother’s side Ukrainian. Both families came to America from overseas. Both families came through Ellis Island in New York City. My father was born here in the states, while my mother was born in Ukraine. My Italian side viewed women as the stay at home mother who cared for the house and family while the father worked. My Italian grandfather did construction untill he passed at age 85. He did concrete and block work. He worked with his bare hands, old school style. My grandpa would finish the concrete on his hands and knees. In today’s generation both typically are in the work force trying to provide for their families. Back then women wouldn’t attend college to further their education and the men would typically get thrown into a blue collar job. Now that generations have changed women are getting more respect in the work force. Typically then a women would never be caught doing construction work, now you see women all of the time swinging a flag and operating machinery. Religiously I was raised by the way of the old Italian Catholic. The whole family would dress for church every Sunday. My grandmother doing my hair just right and put me in an outfit fitting for church. We are so hit or miss with church in our family. With the fast pace world we live in, it is hard to a

Tóhaŋni waŋžíla iyápi iyóhi šni! In Lakota translation means “one language is never enough.” Language can be viewed as a verbal expression of culture. It is used to support and carry culture and cultural ties. Language provides us with many of the categories we use for expression of our thoughts, so it is natural to assume that our thinking is influenced by the language. The principles and levies in the country we grow up in shape the way we think to a certain extent. Culture is indistinguishable allied to language. Without language, culture cannot be completely assimilated nor cannot be efficiently expressed and transmitted. Both language and culture are unified that it is difficult to define the limitations of language and culture, and whether language influences culture or vice-versa. Exploring the relationship between language and culture, we can generally agree that language and culture are meticulously related.

When we think about culture, we think about where we come from and our families and our ancestors and so forth. So when we say what is culture, the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits. It varies from person to person. Culture can however be broken into two small parts which consist of material culture and nonmaterial culture. The non material aspect of it consists things such as attitudes, beliefs, ideas, norms, and values that influence behavior and way of communicating and material culture is basically what the word itself means items that are materialistic abided by our ancestors like paintings (art), artifacts, hand gestures and jewelry. Similarly our identity is what makes us, who we are, how we present ourselves, our social class and gives us our so called “location” in this world of social indifferences. When you merge culture and identity, it comes down to being where culture is our identity or feeling that runs through our veins where we as humans feel the social belonging or loyalty to a group and usually tends to relate to a human’s self conception and self perception.

The reading, in its entirety, explains the concept of culture and its influence on communication within both, a particular community and the world at large. It also mentions the three interconnected layers of culture, i.e., the outer layer, the middle layer and the core. The first two layers consist of symbols and ideals shared by a group, whereas the core layer includes adaptive culture or the ways of things because of human evolution. The implication is that culture is not something that is inherent in human behavior. It was built by continuous interaction and has been handed down to the newcomers in the society. This does not mean that people within a culture have identical sets of symbols, ideals or behavior, but there may be some similar behavior within that group of individuals. It could result in stereotyping which is an exaggerated form of the predicted behavior of a particular social group. Since all of humanity faces the same day-to-day problems, the behaviors or solutions to those problems among various cultures mainly depends on the different perceptions of the meaning of life. In other words, all cultures face the same obstacles but their solution varies. Therefore, to a certain extent, cultures can be blended to reunite values.

One of the most influential and central concepts of anthropology is the nature and concept of culture. The concept and idea of culture dominated 20th century thought, and can be used as an explanation as well as an object of fascination for many anthropologists today. While there are various theories and approaches to culture and the interpretation of it, I would solely like to examine the Cultural Relativist approach, and the Boasian thinkers associated with this particular approach. I would also like to examine how the current time period in which the cultural relativist approach emerged truly conflicts with the dominant politics. In specifics, I would like to examine Franz Boas himself, but most notably Ruth Benedict, and the paradoxes that have occurred within the period after her publications.

In every walk of life we are faced with individuals who present to us in a unique way, that we may not fully understand or comprehend who they truly believe they are. We are faced with people who come from diverse cultural backgrounds that ne may unintentionally stereotype at times. The word culture has for many centuries’ been defined and redefined with no consensus on the actual meaning of the word. But there are ideologies that all definition’s share that are: culture is a set of values and beliefs that are passed down from generation that individuals choose to identify with to mark themselves on a social state of being among others. A group of author describes the term as a “dynamic, fluid, ever-changing and complex force in the lives of individuals, groups, and communities (Huff, R., Kline., M. V., Peterson, D. V., a.d.). Due to the forever changing dynamics of this ideology is why scholars have had difficulties agreeing on one specific definition. The definition of culture becomes critically-intricate when the idea of health promotions, health education, and the use of communication as an intervention to health disparities is introduced into these unique cultures.

Before Mead, detailed immersive field work was not a common practice, and at the time the book was published the idea of living with native people was fairly ground breaking. Mead’s fieldwork was done entirely in the Samoan language, because few, if any at all of the natives spoke English. I believe this to be the best way to study a culture. Total emersion into another society’s culture and traditions would be the only way to truly grasp the concepts with in a culture. Although difficult as it might be, living with, practicing, and observing a cultures daily activities is the only way to get a true representation of the culture and its traditions. This will allow an anthropologist, as it did Mead, to use of cross-cultural comparison to highlight issues within other societies. As a person who left Ethiopia at the age of twenty three to live in Germany for two years and then live in multiple places within the United States I feel like I have been doing field work for the last seven years. I have been total immersed in a culture other than my own since that time and have been studying and observing these cultures to find a way to adapt and fit into my surroundings. Just as Mead was living in a society that didn’t speak her native language this has been an obstacle I have had to overcome and work diligently at to adapt to. I know firsthand some of the difficulties that come with communicating and learning in a different language and how simple mistakes in language can sometimes

What defines culture? According to dictionary.reference.com culture is the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group. The quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits etc. (“Culture” Dictionary.reference.com/browse/culture). People refer to culture as a way of life of a group of people. In the early 16th century, the word culture came about with a suggestion to cultivating land or “tilling” land. People for the most part take their culture, or way of life, very seriously. Researching the culture of another country is essential in order to learn and understand appropriate behavior in a country that may

Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1962) identify over 150 scientific definitions of the concept of culture. Indeed, many authors have tried to define culture and this is why there are so many definitions and that a unique one is hard to find. First of all, Kroeber and Kluckholn (1952) assume that culture is a suite of patterns, implicit and explicit, “of and for behaviour acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artefacts” (p.47). Later, Hofstede adds that culture is “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another” (Hofstede, 1991, p.51). This definition is the most widely accepted one amongst practitioners. For Winthrop (1991), culture is the distinctive models of thoughts, actions and values that composed members of a society or a social group. In other words,

When walking through the Chinatown, people can easily see the red decorations like Chinese knots and paper-cut for window decoration. When meandering on the street during Spring Festival, the Lion Dances are also performed in front of some shopping center attractively. All these things make us feel the strong Chinese cultural atmosphere. Although being thousands miles away from China, Chinese culture is still preserved well in Singapore. To preserve and pass on the excellent concepts, customs and culture achievements, along with holding the distinguished Chinese characteristics and finally making Chinese culture be an indispensable part in the Singapore culture , many things have been done and

Who am I? What is the different cultures I have been allured to and what is my culture? How did I grow up? These are questions we are acquired to answer when meeting someone. Learning about me is engrossing. I have been through different cultures that has shaped me into one unique person. Culture is defined as the “integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behavior that depends upon man’s capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. It is also the customary beliefs, social forms and material traits of a racial, religious or social group”, (Merriam-Webster)