...Determining what culture is and what culture means to us is probably one of the hardest things to do. One of the reasons for that each of us belongs to one culture or another. We don’t have a person that isn’t included in a culture, therefore, there isn’t an outside perspective. Culture does mean a lot to us though, and what it is viewed as varies from person to person. The most challenging part of culture is trying to piece together what your own culture is; something we don’t realize as often but plays a significant role in our everyday life. I guess when I’d have to define what culture is to me, the answer would be simple. The first thing that comes to mind is that people from the same culture have extreme similarities in how they live their everyday life. They usually speak the same language, eat a common diet, and have a similar routine. American culture to me is obviously a combination of many cultures around the world but with a little twist. A person I spoke to mentioned that it’s impossible for culture to be one entity in itself because of the all the influences surrounding us. One thing that does set us about, I feel, is that in America we live better than in many other countries in the world, in regards to rights and modernization. To others, American culture means accepting people and bringing them in to add a piece of their culture to ours. To me that plays a huge role in American culture as compared to others. Another person I interviewed mentioned how...
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...readings on culture: Cross Cultural Management: An international Journal. What is Culture? Culture is a term that can have various meanings, for example Kroeber and Kluchohn compiled 164 definitions of culture. Some of the more prevalent definitions relating to our topic are below. Banks, J.A., Banks, & McGee, C. A. (1989). Multicultural education. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. "Most social scientists today view culture as consisting primarily of the symbolic, ideational, and intangible aspects of human societies. The essence of a culture is not its artifacts, tools, or other tangible cultural elements but how the members of the group interpret, use, and perceive them. It is the values, symbols, interpretations, and perspectives that distinguish one people from another in modernized societies; it is not material objects and other tangible aspects of human societies. People within a culture usually interpret the meaning of symbols, artifacts, and behaviors in the same or in similar ways." Damen, L. (1987). Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension on the Language Classroom. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. "Culture: learned and shared human patterns or models for living; day- to-day living patterns. these patterns and models pervade all aspects of human social interaction. Culture is mankind's primary adaptive mechanism" (p. 367). Hofstede, G. (1984). National cultures and corporate cultures. In L.A. Samovar & R.E. Porter (Eds.), Communication Between Cultures. Belmont...
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...Culture is a form of human knowledge, beliefs, behaviors, values, and practices that are unique to a group of people. Examples of cultural groups may consist of individuals of the same ethnicity, nationality, generation, economic class, ability and disability, political or religious involvement, and language. The environment in which a person lives also has an effect on how culture makes a person. The culture and makeup of an individual varies from one person to another. For example, to successfully live or do business in another country, it is necessary to think like the people of that country. A person must be open to the fact that their assumptions about how things are done in that particular country are most likely not what they think personally. Culture affects our everyday lives and our involvement in how we communicate and deal with relationships. A person’s cultural background provides insight on how we shape our perceptions, acknowledgments, judgments, and ideas of ourselves and others. Cultures are more than just differences in a person’s language, dress, and food customs. Art is a creative outlet for a person to express their creativity by appealing to senses or emotions. Art can be in the form of paintings, crafts, and music. These are also an interpretation of how people’s beliefs, attitudes, and values were at the given time in history. Style is personal. Style is a series of events, ideas, impressions, feeling or perceptions. It is a descriptive word that...
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...Brazil. Understanding the cultures of other people is an important aspect of everyone’s lives, as a country of immigrants, the United states has an amazing opportunity to learn from the experiences of the people who are different from us that isn’t taken advantage of enough. Learning about aspects of other people’s mother land is interesting, and can even help change someone’s views on their own society. Brazil is a very important country with and exciting, and rich history that when studied carefully can have an impact on many people’s opinions of the country today. From artwork, literature, music and much more, it is apparent the Brazilian people had more impact on our culture than their bikini lines. “Culture makes people understand each...
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...The Culture of Argentina is a country largely influenced by Spanish, Italian and other European cultures. There is at least 40 different languages spoken in Argentina, but Spanish is the most dominant. Some of the languages are extinct or in danger because it is only spoken by elders whose decedents don’t speak the language. The economy of Argentina is a high income economy; it is the 2nd largest in South America following Brazil. Argentina is one of the world’s major agriculture producers. It is a top producer of beef, citrus fruit, grapes, maize, sorghum, soybeans, honey, squash, sunflowers seeds, wheat, and yerba mate. This added up to 9% of GDP in 2010 and around one fifth of all exporters. Argentina for most of its history and current...
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...What exactly does culture mean? Is it something material you can touch? Or is it something immaterial, such as values and beliefs? Or is it our customs and traditions, our festivals and celebrations? While anthropologists have vacillated between material and nonmaterial definitions of culture, today most would agree with a more inclusive definition of culture: the thoughts, behaviors, languages, customs, the things we produce and the methods we use to produce them. It is this, the human ability to create and transmit culture, that differentiates us as humans from the rest of the animal world. The essential feature of culture, that it is learned and transmitted from one generation to the next, rests on the human capacity to think symbolically. Language, perhaps the most important feature, is a symbolic form of communication. The word table, for example, is nothing other than a symbol for the actual thing, a table. Language is a form of communication. Without language, culture could not be transmitted, people could not learn from one another across generations, and there would be no cultural continuity. Simply because culture is transmitted through symbols whose meanings remain more or less constant doesn't mean that cultures are static and don't change. On the contrary, cultures are never truly static. Which of us does not remember a grandparent comparing life today with the one s/he grew up in? The changes that took place between his/her lifetime and ours represent subtle...
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...Often times in literature, a character is separated from the rest of society whether it be because of race, religion, gender, or social status. Authors do this in order to point out the flaws of the culture or society that the character lives in. This is what occurs in the novel The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. The main character, sometimes referred to as the Captain, is that character in the book. Being half French and half Vietnamese has constantly made the Captain an outsider no matter where he went. As a result of this alienation, it is shown that both Vietnamese and Western cultures can never be one hundred percent accepting towards bastards, or people of mixed descent. All throughout the novel, the captain has always alluded to...
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...What Dominates Children in American Culture? American culture is dominated by the media which is causing children to become lazy, violent, and less stimulated mentally. Children are influenced by everything that touches their lives. So it’s no surprise that the media plays a major role in molding children. In The Twilight of American Culture, Morris Berman believes that Americans are affected by the decline in the schools systems and are less motivated to read challenging books for stimulating their brain, instead they choose to spend hours watching television and playing video games. Since parents tend to use the television to babysit their children, instead of spending time to get them active, is causing children to become lazy. Obesity is on the rise in American among children. Since children are constantly watching television they are no longer getting adequate exercise. Although television and video games are not one hundred percent responsible for causing children to become aggressive, it still plays a role in forming their aggression. Some children can already have aggression problems, however by watching the violence portrayed in video games and television, they become more willing to express that aggression out on others. Watching too much television can also cause children to become less mentally stimulated. Children would rather receive information instantly instead of taking the time to develop their own view by reading. Berman explains that because...
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...The United States were still under the Great Depression when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor killing more than two thousand people. Japan was at war with China before the bombing. The United States didn’t agree with the Japanese fierce behavior with China. The United States wouldn’t supply Japan with raw materials, such as oil. How did World War II impact the American culture? World War II started in September 1st in 1939 Britain, France, Russia and others were the Allies and Nazi Germany Italy and Japan were the Axis, the United States stayed neutral. On December 7th in 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service had sixty planes carrying about on hundred men who surprisingly bombed the military base at Pearl Harbor on the grounds of Honolulu,...
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...Does ones culture affect the way people see them? The world is filled with many people with different cultures. It should not change the way people see them, but it does. Texts such as “Where Worlds Collide”, “An Indians Fathers Plea”, and “What is Cultural Identity”, defend the idea that people see society and other races based on their background or culture. In Trumbull and Pacheco’s novel “What is Cultural Identity”, the text defends how culture is viewed by others. “This system of understanding includes values, beliefs, notions about acceptable and unacceptable behavior, and other socially constructed ideas that members of the society are taught true” (Trumbull and Pacheco 9). The last part of this quote is saying how people are telling others ideas or beliefs, and those people are believing and changing their culturally ways. Garcia, who originally made this quote, is an Anthropologist from Boston. Additionally each scholar in the text defends the way culture is seen by others. “Cultural identity is a broader term: people from multiple ethnic backgrounds may identify as belonging to the same culture” (Trumbull and Pacheco 9). Not everyone wants to stay to their culture. Most cultures goes to where majority culture is located. In Robert Lake’s novel “An Indian Fathers Plea”, the novel backs up the way culture is recognized by others. “He said...
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...Indians, West Africans, and Europeans came together in North America setting in motion the process in which America would become an independent nation. Life in North America can be divided into three periods: Paleo-Indians, the Archaic, and the pre-Columbian. The first peoples to settle were Paleo-Indians. It is believed they came to America to find food. During the Archaic Era the peoples of America began to grow crops. This allowed them to settle in areas and not have the need to always follow herd animals for food. Population growth was a result this era. Since there were to many peoples in a given area, some left the whole and started new tribes. Tribes that settled near waters caught fish to trade with tribes that tracked and caught animals....
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...1. Anthropologists say that "culture is learned and shared." What do they mean by this, and how does this occur? -Cultures are socially learned which means that we either grew up with it or was just passed on to us from generation to generation. Most people learn from their cultures and pass it on to other people that are interested to learn different ways of our values, ideas, rules and behaviors. In every culture, people have different standards, understanding and religion and that's why this makes people different. -Culture is an adaptive mechanism which can be learned in time. Babies are born and naturally learn their mother's language and other cultural traits. For example, other countries might have similar word phrases or even words...
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...Being Hispanic means coming from a background of rich culture, the rich Spanish language, the variety of music, art and especially food and most important the word famila. The strong family bond and the important role of being together throughout a person’s life is what being Hispanic means. Being Hispanic means coming from a household of authentic Mexican food and not this so called Tex-Mex. Even though I dislike a few authentic Mexican foods myself I do like some popular recipes. I’m considered more of an American in my household since I eat more American food then Mexican, but when the traditional food is made there isn’t a chance for American. Every Hispanic household has its so called “challenges”, but I would rather call them opportunities. Being a Hispanic means that your parents want it better for you. My childhood consisted of emotional memories...
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...the natural world. Hence, a crucial component of traditional Native American healing is viewing the mind, body, and spirit of an individual as being interconnected with the environment. This cultural outlook regards patients as a sum of these three components, embodying this premise and therefore when administering medical treatment, natives typically would only use “natural remedies” in healing physical complications and spiritual ailments. However, in modern contemporary Native American culture, the acceptance of Western medical practices and beliefs is widely apparent. However, a common issue that continues to plague native peoples is the distrust of surrounding cultures, viewing certain practices as unsafe, unnatural, and non-traditional. Such wariness stems from historical grievances against Western healthcare institutions and past experiences derived from years of mistreatment....
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...In what ways has Australian culture become Americanised and what are the different influences? Today’s Australian culture has been slowly over the last few decades become more and more Americanised in its ways. Australian culture has been influenced repeatedly by the American culture, which has seeped its way into Australia as the world has become smaller because of advantages in technology. Australia has been influenced greatly by the Media, language and sport, which America offers to people in Australia. The three main areas of media in Australia are literature music and television. All three of these areas have slowly been Americanised since after World War Two ended. With travel becoming more common and easier during the 20th century...
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