The Influence Of Culture In South America

I was born and raised in Cameroon, a country in West Africa. My parents and culture in which I grew up have been very relevant in shaping who I am today. I was attracted to America first because of freedom and opportunity which are lacking in my native country. Secondly, America is a country of multicultural diversity. This makes it a home to millions of people from around the world who want to experience the American Dream. Whether this is possible or not, the answer depends on individual cases and the choices they make after arriving in America. For the past ten years, I have been living here. I have realized that America exhibits a very influential popular culture including entertainment, fashion, and food. This culture affects everyone in the society in one way or the other, but strongly reflects the values of teenagers and young adults. My American experience has been that of mixed blessings including the immigration issues, assimilation, maintaining a family unit as well as the benefits of opportunities for a career and freedom of speech.

I found it very interesting that, as it mentioned in the beginning of the chapter, Latin American culture is so closely tied with European and African culture. However, I can see why since Spanish colonies, Portugal, and other places interacted with Latin America even so far as to leave an influence on their language, and black slaves were brought to parts of Latin America to be imported. One musical feature that the Europeans helped to incorporate into Latin America music is the singing with their languages. In fact, we learned in the reading that the Quichua language incorporated some Spanish into it. Most of the Latin American songs that I’ve heard are sung in Spanish, although this isn’t to say that what I’ve heard is best representative

What is anthropology? This is a question that can be answered in numerous ways, but we are going to define it as simple as possible. If we break the word down into its two components it means the study of human beings. “Anthropo” means human beings or human kind and “logy” or “logia” is Greek for the study or knowledge of something. When we put it all together, it is the study of human beings which can be very broad. Anthropology can be broken down into four subfields: physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

Anthropology is something we should value because it allows us as human beings to learn about our origins and also to understand the cultures in the world outside of our own. Anthropology uses many techniques to learn and study such cultures that we do not understand. Ethnography is the gathering and interpretation of information based on intensive firsthand study of a participation culture -or- the written report of this study.

Anthropology is holistic. Humans are social beings more than anything, but with underlying psychological, biological and cultural connotations. The field of anthropology encompasses everything and anything having to do with humankind throughout history. Anthropology attempts to answer the tough questions about the human condition. What influences our actions? How has our species changed? Why do we look down on other cultures or societies? The questions are endless. It is the anthropologists’ job to try and answer them with unbiased subjectivity in order to come analytical conclusions about us as humans. (Kottak 14). To understand humans and the complexity of our cultures anthropology uses knowledge not only from the social and biological sciences, but also the physical sciences and humanities. In order to cover such a wide base of human history and interaction, anthropology itself has been split up into four different subsets that allow us to delve deeper into the understanding of the human condition. What is common throughout all the subsets is the application of knowledge in an effort to solve human problems. Throughout history though, the problems we have faced as humans have not always been the same. In fact they often change from generation to generation. For anthropology to keep up with these changes it’s had to

Bolivia is a small but diverse country in both architecture and culture due to foreign

In Latin American countries, they have a very unique culture. With their holidays, music, celebrations, and art, the countries in Latin America never cease to bring joy in people’s lives. Latin American culture is vastly different than other cultures in many ways. In Latin America, the languages of Spanish and Portuguese are dominant and most people speak them. However there are people who speak other languages as well. Latin America includes nineteen countries and several territories. There are a variety of different ethnicities in Latin America including Mexicans, Europeans, and Asians. Education inside the Latin American culture still struggles. Only a little more than half of kids ages 13-17 advance into secondary school. Because of this, the crime and violence rates in Latin America are at an all time high. These countries have been rated as one of the most dangerous regions in the world because of how high the rates of crime and violence are.

The most essential part of American culture is their devotion to individualism. Americans are in encouraged at an early age to be independent and develop their own goals in life. They are not motivated to depend too much on other on others such as teachers, friends, and parents. Closing related to the emphasis on individualism is the concept of privacy. American enjoy and value spending time alone because they need a moment alone to think about things. Americans uphold the ideal that “all men are created equal” as stated in the Declaration of Independence. They have a deep faith that all people are created equal. This incorporates men of all ethnic and cultural group as well as women. Their perception of equality guide Americans intimate in their general behavior and their relationships with other people. They believe that formality is seen as “un-American” and shows arrogance and superiority. The notion of time is viewed as something that can’t be used for granted. Time is valuable meaning the accomplishment of a goal depends on productive use of time. Change as well as time is seen as a positive thing, meaning that progress, improvement, and growth is taking place. Overall, Americans are really free spirited, enjoy having quality time to by themselves, and known to embrace their

3. Why is anthropology significant to society? - It is important for us as human beings to understand our origins and also to understand the cultures in the world outside of our own.

Anthropology is a word derived from the Greek words anthropos and logia. The word anthropos means human, and the word logia, in basic terms, means the study of. Therefore an anthropologist is a person who studies humans. Anthropologists study humans to gain and spread knowledge for the greater good of humanity, so we as a people can understand one another. To study anthropology as an anthropologist involves extensive research. Furthermore, to gather any credible research a person must follow a set guideline, especially when using and gathering research from another person. This guideline is in place to protect one's personal freedom because many cases involving human research have been unethical, unmoral, and unjust.

I come from a place that is heavily influenced by Mexican and American culture mostly due to living in a border town with Mexico. My mother is more in touch with her Mexican culture, while my dad is more influenced by a Tejano/American culture. They both have been great influencers in the person I am today. Growing up in my house all I spoke was Spanish mostly due to my grandmother only knowing that language, I eventually learned English as I entered school. I remember spending my weekends watching shows and movies like ‘El Chavo del Ocho’, ‘La Nina de la Mochila Azul’, and ‘Rebelde’ or listening to the songs my mom put by Mana, Juan Gabriel, and Vicente Fernandez. I took a liking to school from a young age, I found learning fun and friends

Anthropology is defined, in the most basic terms, as the study of other cultures. This field can subsequently be divided into more specific sects, and contain more precise defining characteristics, but this definition is essentially all that is needed. Anthropology is a science that attempts to look at other cultures and draw conclusions to questions that are raised while studying. An anthropologist is someone who accepts what is presented before them and is driven by an urge to understand each presentation as thoroughly as possible. Once the concept of anthropology is accepted, one must identify the means of reaching the goal of this field. In the sect of social anthropology, this vehicle is known as

American society was founded and has grown upon societal customs which have become the norm. You can go back as far as the witch hunts, where conformity was so ridged that any deviations outside of society’s norms could literally result in death. Take a giant leap into slavery, where it was considered quite normal to own another human being and treat them as property. If a slave were to rebel from the accepted norm of inferior regime punishment could be as extreme as loss of life. Jump forward to severe American racism, where people of different cultures were not free to enjoy the most basic American freedoms. No matter your ethnical background, if you felt the restrictions unethical you ran the risk of severe ridicule. America has been built upon a strict set of norms, which take a revolution to overcome. I feel that America is one of the strongest countries because of its ability to overcome the perceived cultural limitations. More recently, the cultural

Anthropology is the social sciences discipline that looks to understand humanity. In this discipline there are subdivisions such as cultural anthropology and primatology, and the beauty of anthropology is that you can more than you think, link some of your life event to some anthropological context.

Politically we are confronted with a host of issues ranging from matters pertaining to local taxation, planning, and zoning to regional (if not global) terrorism and other manifestations of conflict. The study of geography allows us to participate and enjoy our planet. Geography gives us a sense of reference to where we live and where we may be going in relationship to where we have been. Its appreciation of the world we live in. Anthropology is the study of human kind and culture, everybody wants to know where and how humans came to be. Some examples we can apply anthropology in our daily lives would be in relating to our families, friends, co-workers, in understanding work dynamics, in understanding and communicating with teens,, and in proposing new ideas, and plans. Its unique contribution to studying the bonds of human social relations been the distinctive concept of culture.