Thursday, December 08, 2011

Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium: Culture

When talking about culture, we often think about traveling to foreign countries. We usually think of the term "culture shock". Indeed, it sometimes can be a shock to be immersed in different culture from our own. But I believe that we can experience culture shock within our own country.

I really do believe that there are many "sub-cultures" within our American culture. We have citizens who are from all different heritages. Each heritage influences that people greatly. But there are other cultures such as the culture within each religion. I've even seen different cultures within different states.

One of the interesting things is that even though my husband and I grew up in two different states, we actually grew up in similar cultures. Maybe television is the great equalizer within our country. My husband and I grew up watching the same shows, and hearing the same news reports. We reference the same commercials, famous movie quotes, and books. We grew up in a similar time culture. The one difference was that he was not raised LDS, but joined our church when he was about 15. So his younger years were enveloped in a much different culture than were mine.

I actually believe that most predjudices come because people are ignorant about the cultures of others. It is misunderstanding that causes us to have feelings of predjudice of, and resistance to others. The more we come to understand a culture, the more likely we are to embrace it and accept those we are products of it.

If you would like to see what the other consortium members have to say about culture, please check out their links below.

5 comments:

Vid said...

I think a few prejudices come when people *do* know about another culture, and thus know that it is inferior.

Grannymar said...

Our little house contained three generations & cultures in the one family. Folk in Northern Ireland liked to pigeon-hole everyone, but we were quite a conundrum for them, not fitting in any of the boxes. Jack was born in the North East of England (UK), I came from Dublin in the Republic of Ireland and Elly was born in Northern Ireland (UK). Our accents were all very different, in fact when Elly first went to school, I spent half the afternoons trying to understand what she was saying!

Rummuser said...

The so called cultural differences come about because of not only ignorance but also because of arrogance in one's own being the best. This reflects in many ways notably in the so called post modern societies/cultures, where it is popular to call it tolerance. If I sit at your table during your meals and you tolerate me, is that not being arrogant/condescending? I strive to respect other cultures and value systems and am more or less on a crusade to change the paradigm from tolerance to respect. I invite you to join me.

padmum said...

I think understanding another person's culture comes from asking questions. In my blogs I do tend to write about the festivals and beliefs that I was brought up on and practice even today. Some people may say that I am narrowing down my readership. I think I ma recording many of these customs and aspects of culture, often very subtle that may just disappear.

True that people tend to be snooty about being 'cultured'. Each person has their own database of behaviour and traditions. When we respect that then life and relationships become easier. In fact that is one of the reasons for marriages to break down, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

I agree with Padmum that understanding aids cultural tolerance - though I also agree with Vid to the extent that clarity does not always bring appreciation.
It brings to mind cultural relativism when anything is tolerated because it is part of another's culture. I'd go some way along that road, but there are absolutes of unacceptability that transcend culture.
(I'm late on this week's topic - but I've finally got to it.)