Essay on My Family's Cultural Traditions: Exploring Our Ethnic and Cultural Backgrounds

My idea before the start of the class was that culture usually is all about family. I had the belief that culture is the cultural traditions and belief system of a family which are celebrated and the special occasions and holidays which occur in the year. My culture is all about having respect for one another. There are several cultural traditions which my family has. Some of the myths that are from my family are from my cultural and ethnic backgrounds. I knew that culture refers to the trait of a particular group of individuals defined by everything like religion, lifestyle, or language. Different individuals in various societies usually have different culture, although they might have similar characteristics. Culture entails the identity of a specific group of individuals who live in a particular location; they have a unique sketch of life about what the culture dictates they should follow on different occasions. Many people define culture as shared and learned human models or patterns for living. The designs and models for a living usually permeate all the aspects of the social interactions by humans.

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After reading the chapters, my idea of what culture entails has changed in that I found out that culture is social, given that it is not regarded as an individual phenomenon. I realized that given that culture is the product of the society, it usually originated and grew via social interaction. Learning is ordinarily differentiable to people through compassion hence for distinguishes culture; it is necessary to compare it other cultures (Kottak 8). The chapters changed my understanding of culture as they emphasized that culture may be thought of as being the normative order that operates through the social and operational influence, which constrains and collectively guides the behaviors of individuals. I also learned that culture is usually regarded as a continuous process. Culture typically encompasses growing whole which usually includes in itself the attainments made in the present and the past and generally makes provision for the future success of humankind.

The role of anthropologists changed my way of thinking about culture and anthropology by learning new traits of culture. The main characteristics associated with culture are that culture is adaptive, varies, continuous, shared, and learned. People first learn culture from their elders which are then shared to the next generation in the community (Kottak 11). The kind of culture that is learned by people usually entails all elements of interaction by human and therefore it is a common thing to have the younger generation first learning the culture from the elders in the society.

The culture that is learned by people in the society typically includes all the elements of human interaction which encompasses the adoptive mechanism of humankind. The primary way that is used for transferring culture is the language (Kottak 13). The language covers a type of social communication typically, and the knowledge of culture is then transferred through public speaking, informal conversation, and group discussion. Culture usually is adaptive even when changes occur in culture, although it is a slow process, and it is mainly adaptive to all the individuals associated with the culture. Whenever changes occur in culture, people usually become used to it. Culture varies typically, given that all aspects of culture such as dressing, way of speaking, eating, and living differs from one society to another. Culture is something that is shared among groups of individuals. Therefore, culture is not the thing which a person possesses it individually.

Works Cited

Kottak, Conrad Phillip. Cultural anthropology: Appreciating cultural diversity. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2011.