The Core Values Of Different Cultures

With a world of 7.3 billion people, it is easy to imagine the billions of different cultures that we have all evolved from. No one culture is the same as another which is what Kohls touches on in his piece The Values Americans Live By. The thirteen values that seem to be the “core” values of Americans are completely opposite compared to the “core” values of other cultures. On one hand, Americans value things like materialism and change while other culture’s value things like spiritualism and tradition (Kohls 1984). Although different cultures can have different values, there are some important values that all different cultures can have in common; like family. From interviewing two different people from different cultures, I have come to the

One value that I found that they both share is the family. At first I just settled with the idea that they both valued family in their culture, but then I thought about it more. It is true that they both value family, but how do they value family? What importance or role does it play in their life? These questions made me realize, that yes they both value family, but they value them differently because of the cultures they come from. With this in mind, I have decided to further my research and answer questions that have come up after looking further into my interviews. My main questions I am researching are, what does “family” mean to different people of different cultures, and what importance does it have in their

In order to answer my question, I decided to look at where my two interviewees views on family stem from, and then compare how they have changed based on being exposed to American values of family at the same time. First, I found an article on the Hmong culture and their history that talked a lot about how they value family and community. My first interviewee who is Hmong, talked about how everything stems from family and you want to uphold the family reputation. I found in my article, that this is true and more. The article states,” The individual is seen as a product of all the generations of the family, and the welfare of the family and community has priority over individual wants or needs” (Tatman 204: 224). In their culture, family and community is considered the most important dynamic within their culture; there is never a time where you become an individual. For example, when you get married instead of it being seen as you individuating, it is seen as an extension and addition of the family (Tatman 204: 224). Overall for the Hmong culture, you base everything you do in your life off of what is best for the family. On the other hand, I found research on German culture and how the value of family plays a role in their culture that is very different from the Hmong culture. In the German culture, you will find that they either an