The Split Horn Analysis

Thesis: one’s personal culture and sense of tradition will always be a strong part of the self, regardless of external factors which can have a profound influence on one’s life.

In order to understand any culture, it is essential to acknowledge the importance of taking a holistic view. This approach, which gained recognition and validation in the twentieth century, stresses the importance of accounting for all of the components of a culture. The concept requires an understanding of each subsystem, which dictates certain aspects of the culture being studied. With this theory as basis for her approach, Myerhoff is faced with the difficult task of piecing together the many parts contributing to the formation of the culture at the Center, while simultaneously recognizing the distinctions between the acting subsystems. Sometimes it seems that realizing what leads to specific cultural constructs would be extremely difficult; this is especially the case with traits that have become so naturalized that only an outsider would recognize them as distinct and significant. That said, it is obvious that there are advantages to studying a completely exotic culture, as the majority of anthropologists do; however, Myerhoff chose to do her fieldwork in a culture that is centered

In this documentary, The Split Horn Life of a Hmong Shaman in America focuses on the religious containment of the Hmong people. Their rich history goes back to the time in a village in North East Asia where they believed that the Shaman were the great healers for the sick. The Hmong were living a peaceful life until the Vietnam war broke out and destroyed their village. Many of the Hmong villagers fled their beloved homeland in order to seek refuge form the war. Many were fortunate enough to find shelter in Thailand where they stayed for the majority of the conflict. Some were even lucky enough to get a sponsorship to America. As they slowly came to America the Hmong were worried that they might lose their religious roots to the American customs.

The classic definition for culture was proposed by Tylor (1871/1958) and still commonly cited: Culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, custom, and many other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (p. 1). This definition focuses on attributes that are acquired through growing up or living in a particular society, rather than through biological inheritance (Kottak, 2002). In Giger and Davidhizar’s (1991) Model for transcultural care, culture was defined as a patterned behavioral response that develops over time as a result of imprinting the mind through social and religious structures and intellectual and artistic manifestations.

People have different culture backgrounds which are very special to them. Usually families’ tradition and thoughts are affected by their cultural backgrounds. Environment is one of the most important factors in a human’s development. When the term "environment" is used, it refers to factors such as family and cultural tie. In today's society, each individual is living his or her life in different a way than others.' Individual’s life choice is generally controlled, learned, influenced, and raised by the cultural background. “Two kinds’ by Amy Tan and “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich reveal how family is important and precious in culture.

The diversity of culture is an incredible notion. It is unfathomable how the anatomy of the human race is so similar, yet so different in the behaviors and ideas that take place. The two primary cultures I am focusing on throughout this essay are the differentiation between popular culture, and indigenous culture. I will also make the point of folk culture, and how it has slowly transformed itself from its self sufficiency, to relying more on the ways of popular culture.

The chapter continued to discuss how people experience other cultures when they are removed from their area to a different place. This occurs in the form of culture shock people experience new traditions that are unfamiliar to them when the come to a place that is home to another culture. Human development may also include joining the ideas of various cultures and forming it into a new concept. It puts heavy emphasis on learning other cultures in an unbiased form in order to compare and make observations. This chapter also studies of culture have been able to advance over time and how change is an essential aspect of

In our society today, culture is not what it used to be hundreds of years ago. There is no more “pure” culture. Our culture today is enriched with many different traditions and customs that are being shared and adopted. Due to emigration and immigration, a variety of diverse customs, beliefs, and knowledge moved with every exiting and entering human being. Thus, changing and shaping the culture of many. Throughout the world, the beliefs and religious views of culture are dissimilar around the world. By taking the time to read, listen and learn about certain people’s culture, there will be knowledge and understanding that will be gained.

The Split Horn, narrated by a young Shaman’s daughter, illustrates the journey of a Hmong Shaman; a healer and spiritual leader, Paja, and his family moving from their motherland, Laos, to Appleton, Wisconsin. Along with numerous difficulties they face trying to keep and practice their family's ancient traditions in an unfamiliar environment. His daughter, Chai Thao, gives us an insight into what the family goes through as several of her siblings completely lose correspondence with their family’s long-established customs. However, as Paja’s children embrace and grow to learn the American culture, including: computer games, TV and Christianity, his concerns and worries for his family’s integration also increases. As the leader of the group, Paja must attend to the needs of friends and family with elaborate rituals that connect the natural and spirit worlds together. With that being said, Paja Thao, spirals into depression because of both his family and because he is unable to perform his rituals and heal his people. Ultimately, towards the end of the movie, after several obstacles he had faced, with the help of one of his relatives who performed a ceremony for Paja and his wife, he is able to heal himself and continue performing his rituals on others which further helps restore his strength and reunite his family members. Therefore, the filmmaker's thesis is that families who relocate from their homeland to the Western culture experience various

The findings of the interviews are identified in the table below (information including but not limited to what is listed). These families of different cultures ascribed their health traditions to different things. The African American family states that their health traditions are passed down by elders (grandparents), of both sexes. The Mexican American family ascribes their traditions to the women of the family, stating that it is a female responsibility to pass down traditions regarding heath. The Caucasian American family states that they received their knowledge of health from what is or has been proved by science, and usually each mother of the household is responsible for the health of the family.

Triandis ( 1972 in Pedersen 1994) focused on the culture ‘in our heads’ , which is composed of the shared experiences and knowledge of a self-perpetuating and continuous human group, which is part and parcel of the personal reality. Triandis, Bontemplo, Leung & Hui (1990 cited in Pedersen 1994) distinguished between demographic, cultural and personal constructs. Cultural constructs they identified as being shared by group of people, who live in the same geographical location at the same time, speak the same dialect and shared the same norms, roles, values and ways to describe experience. Demographic constructs deal with the same topics, but when shared by a particular demographic group within a culture, such as men and women, young and old. Personal constructs belong to another category of individual differences and cannot be meaningfully interpreted with references to the cultural and demographic membership. Each of the three constructs are closely related with the others, but they should be examined independently. Counselling in this case should take into account cultural and demographic differences, but work on a personal level. Contrary to this view stands Hofstede( 1986, 1992 cited in Pedersen 1996) who described three factors or dimensions that constitute and influence culture. The first concept is individualism-collectivism- a person experiences himself as a self-contained unique entity, striving to attain his or her own goals and to realize his or her

Sindelar suggests that there is a phenomenon known as the Split-Feather Syndrome, in which “social, psychological, and emotional disabilities — among expatriated Indian people, i.e., those who were placed and raised in non-Indian homes” (2004). The Split-Feather Syndrome may be due to the extremities in culture difference between Indian and other cultures. For instance, the ideologies of child-rearing, family bonding,

Culture is a pattern of behavior and values shared by an ethnic group. Cultural heritage is a set of traditions within the culture that is hand down from the older generation to the younger generation within the family. These traditions influence the family’s decisions in relation to their diet, education, daily living activities, religious beliefs and practices and also health and illness beliefs. In this paper, the author will focus on the usefulness of applying a heritage assessment in evaluating the needs of a person as a whole. Three different cultures including authors will be discussed about the health maintenance, health promotion, and health restoration. The author will also evaluate health traditions which

To sum up the points, it can be perceived that in order to understand the concept of personal cultural diversity, the different aspects of one’s lifestyle must be examined and determined in order to point out individual differences in a particular group or society. This is because each individual has different genetic make-up,

Before referring to the impact of culture on families, I will say that culture is known as knowledge, art, beliefs, law, morals, customs and all habits and skills acquired by man not only in the family but also to be part of a society as a member that is. It is also defined as a set of ideas, behaviors, symbols and social practices learned from generation to generation through life in society. The family is defined as a group of people linked by blood, marriage, or adoption; usually centered on a married couple, their dependents, and relatives. Although there have also been non-traditional families made up of people who are not linked by blood or marriage and are now found more frequently in many regions of the world.