There was a time when I used to wonder what kind of magnetic pull cultural heritage and traditions possessed, enchantingly drawing people to it – not that my wonder originated from a dislike of it, but rather from a sense of being wholly unacquainted with that pull. Not being assimilated with the unique facets of my own culture, for an awfully long period of my life, I failed to feel an authentic attraction to it or value it in any way. I was later to unearth a metamorphic answer to my questioning thoughts: to experience and celebrate our customs and traditions is the one and only means of comprehending the richness and significance of our culture – an answer that came to me on a summer trip to visit my aunt in India. Really, could there be a more fitting or stimulating way to appreciate my hereditary culture and traditions than a whole day of boundlessly exploring my effervescent and ancient hometown of Delhi?
It is hard to forget the atmosphere of the city on my extraordinary day out. It was a swelteringly hot day in mid-July despite the day being young when we left my aunt’s house on a rickety rickshaw, bound for the lively main street of Old Delhi. Swerving inches around pedestrians, the jolly rickshaw driver took us through streets that were like gypsy ribbons with colorfully clad women jostling one another and a sharp stench of dog urine emanated from the street corners. The place was so boisterously loud – bicycle bells ringing, car drivers honking, cows mooing – that I could barely hear my uncle’s words from the rickshaw parallel to ours – yet, it was astonishingly invigorating. Upon disembarking from our brisk ride, we walked past the bustling toy stalls and flashy ethnic fabric markets and treated ourselves to splutte...
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...that I learnt from my aunt were just as significant for me, because she educated me on more than just architectural history and kurti design details – she epitomized how to look past the streets strewn with garbage, the polluted air and the ever-present crowd, and relish the sheer energy of the traditional environment around me. It was as if the puzzle pieces finally fit in and my visit to my aunt’s was able to fill in the cultural void I had always experienced.
Hundreds of definitions of culture exist, each one longer than the other, but I am positive now that a true understanding of culture arises from inquisitively experiencing it. For long, I had been a tree without roots – until, my culture came flowing in my life like a brook, teaching me lessons that carved my judgments and perception, departing by replenishing my roots and cultivating itself inside of me.
Heritage is one of the most important factors that represents where a person came from. In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, this short story represents not only the symbolism in heritage, but also separates the difference between what heritage really means and what it may be portrayed as. Dee is a well-educated African-American woman who is embarrassed by her mother and sister who are not as knowledgeable as her. On the other hand, Mama and Maggie understand their heritage and embrace it, while Dee believes her heritage is the African culture. In “Everyday Use,” there is symbolism in the quilts, the handicrafts, and the change in Dee’s name and new appearance.
...irected, I take a drink from the drinking fountain while some others who were also observing the site hesitated or even refused to drink from it. I could taste the metallic tinge of the fountain water, but the heat of the sun made it nonetheless a refreshing drink. This can be connected to taste because I found the drinking fountain to be remarkable based on my cultural background and identities, which is my culturally specific taste. Others who visited the fountain that do not share this “experiences relating to one’s class, cultural background, education, and other aspects of identity.” (Cartwright 56) might find it hard to appreciate the drinking fountain in the manner I did. Nonetheless, viewers do have the right to experience, interpret, and use this cultural representation differently by being situated in a set of actual and relational social practices.
In the Hawaiian culture, “Ohana” is a significant phrase referring to the bondage of family. There are many heritages across the world that have their own way of communicating that affection and showing their love to their own heritage. Hispanic heritage, for example, have the delicious food while other cultures have different focuses. Through heritage, communities find their niches in society to form an American Heritage. Though heritage exists through communities sharing a common culture, heritage definitely coincides with family and reigning stability within their niche. In the poem “Heritage” by Linda Hogan and the image “Mother Daughter Posing as Ourselves” by Elaine O’Neil, showing affection is one of the most prominent ways to communicate
Culture often means an appreciation of the finer things in life; however, culture brings members of a society together. We have a sense of belonging because we share similar beliefs, values, and attitudes about what’s right and wrong. As a result, culture changes as people adapt to their surroundings. According to Bishop Donald, “let it begin with me and my children and grandchildren” (211). Among other things, culture influences what you eat; how you were raised and will raise your own children? If, when, and whom you will marry; how you make and spend money. Truth is culture is adaptive and always changing over time because
The patterns of living that the world witnesses today are greatly influenced by history. This is because of the fact that history plays an immense role in forming one’s future; the abundant interactions socially, economically, politically, result in repercussions that can hardly be unraveled. However, this does not in anyway mean that one cannot trace today’s state of affairs back to its roots. Tracing today’s occurrences back to their origin is possible due to the fact that the agents’ (nations) origins are known.
In the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, two sisters portray their contrasting family views on what they perceive to be heritage. The idea that a quilt is a part of a family's history is what the narrator is trying to point out. They aren't just parts of cloth put together to make a blanket. The quilt represents their ancestors' lives and tells a story with each individual stitch.
An inescapable ignorance dominates the way we define "culture". It is all too easy to define culture when a group of people feel as though they are part of the same culture. A bias arises when defining this term, because we consider ourselves to be "cultured". We define culture with our own definitions, and we judge it through our own prejudiced eyes. To accurately define culture, we must take ourselves out of the cultural boundaries we have been accustomed to. Of course, this is impossible. Accordingly, defining the essence of culture is something I cannot attempt to do.
The United States is a country with a diverse existing population today; this country is known as a melting pot of different cultures, each one unique in its own respect. Culture; differentiate one societal group from another by identification beliefs, behaviors, language, traditions, Art, fashion styles, food, religion, politics, and economic systems. Through lifelong, ever changing processes of learning, creativity, and sharing culture shapes our patterns of behavior as well thinking. The Culture’s significance is so intense that it touches almost every aspect of who and what we are. Culture becomes the telescope through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us. Trying to define the perplexing term of culture with varying component of distinguishable characteristics is difficult to restrict. Presenly, culture is viewed as consisting primarily of the symbolic, untouched and conception aspects of human societies.
Cultures are infinitely complex. Culture, as Spradley (1979) defines it, is "the acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experiences and generate social behavior" (p. 5). Spradley's emphasizes that culture involves the use of knowledge. While some aspects of culture can be neatly arranged into categories and quantified with numbers and statistics, much of culture is encoded in schema, or ways of thinking (Levinson & Ember, 1996, p. 418). In order to accurately understand a culture, one must apply the correct schema and make inferences which parallel those made my natives. Spradley suggests that culture is not merely a cognitive map of beliefs and behaviors that can be objectively charted; rather, it is a set of map-making skills through which cultural behaviors, customs, language, and artifacts must be plotted (p. 7). This definition of culture offers insight into ...
Culture can be defined as “A pattern of basic assumptions invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore to be taught to the new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems”. Schein (1988)
Culture has a big impact on how we all fit in as individuals in today’s society, and since this assignment is about that I decided to include some of my own experiences to illustrate my point of view and compare it with those of my classmates and some of the readings.
My heritage culture is what has shaped me into who I am today. I am a Caucasian female who is twenty-three years old. I am a granddaughter, daughter, sister, and friend. I am a Christian, and more specifically a Baptist. I attend Musella Baptist Church in Musella, Georgia. My ethnicity is a blend of Cherokee and English. Along with my family and who I am particular experiences have opened my eyes to the other cultures’ practices. Additionally, witnessing the diverse cultures has allowed me to become a more accepting of others’ differences. Through my own family’s culture, beliefs, and experiences I have become more aware of the diversity that surrounds me.
Culture is a concept that classifies shared values, beliefs, traditions, and principles among members of a specific group. It is important to understand one’s own culture as well as other cultures in order to become culturally aware. A way to become more culturally aware is to research one’s own cultural background. Through researching my origins, identifying my past encounters with other’s beliefs, biases, and behaviors, and placing myself into the shoes of another culture, I am more aware of the influence my culture and other cultures have had on me.
Cultural studies closely concentrate on how a certain phenomenon connects to matters of ideology, race, social class and/or gender. Cultural studies expresses concern with everyday life practices and the meaning behind everything. One of the main aims within Cultural Studies is to go deeper with what is known to be natural to society and strong beliefs to society; there will be examples of everyday life practices such as the things we’ve naturally known because society has created meaning to it such as trees, PMS and the biological determinism society once believed to be natural, these examples will show how and why it is important to critically interrogate these practices.
“Each piece of the past tells something of what we were or what we are. By enlarging our ties with past generations, we commit ourselves to future generations and we dignify the present.”