The Concept Of Culture In Kluckhohn's What Is Culture

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Taleen Alawadi In his essay, “What is Culture?”, Kluckhohn explains the differences and similarities amongst world’s peoples. To support his explanation of the differences and similarities he provides the concept of culture. It is difficult to give this concept a precise definition because the word “culture” is a broad term. Kluckhohn allows the reader to understand the concept of culture by providing examples of cultural differences along with some anthropological evidence to support his views. When reading this piece I began to recognize the influence of cultural differences when Kluckhohn asked, “Why do so many Chinese dislike milk, and milk products? Why during World War II did Japanese soldiers die willingly in a Banzai charge that seemed …show more content…

Kluckhohn incorporates his knowledge as a former professor of anthropology when he states, “to be human is to be cultured”. I agree with his statement, not only because he has credibility on the subject, but because he supports this statement with multiple examples. The first example he provides is a comparison of an American woman’s view, and a Koryak woman’s view on the subject of a man having more than one wife. This tremendously helped put the concept of culture into perspective because he examines two incredibly different opinions. First being that of the American woman who thinks it is “unnatural” to share her husband with other women, and the second being the Koryak woman believed it to be selfish that a woman would want to restrict her husband to one mate without the desire for feminine companionship in her …show more content…

The first example concerning the American male who was raised in China, accurately portrays the correlation between culture and biological inheritance in a real life circumstance. Although the male was American by blood, his facial expressions, mode of thought, and body language were all from Chinese decent. I know this to be true because genetically I am a full Jordanian. Both my father and mother were born in Jordan, but I was born in America. Because I was raised around an American lifestyle, when I visit my family in Jordan they mock my gestures and expressions because it is different than what they are accustomed to. Even though I look Jordanian, when I am in Jordan people can recognize that I don’t belong

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