My view of Culture

Culture is what all human beings are. Culture is what defines us, shape us, and teach us. Before reading the assigned readings for the week, for me culture was something really simple, no more than only “people’s customs”. However, now I know that is not like that. Culture is not as simple as saying “people’s customs”, it is much more complex and deep than that. Culture is not easy to define and it is a very complex concept. Culture is still a nebulous research topic for anthropologists.

As I have learned through my readings, culture is a set of customs, traditions, beliefs, knowledge, ceremonies, food, cloth, likes, and dislikes of a group of people who little by little creates what is called culture. These things are passed on generation by generation to descendants. As time passes, descendants learn their culture and at the end these become part of their life style. Moreover, that life style is labeled as their culture, and at the same time culture characterizes and differences them from other groups of people, which makes them, in a sense, unique. In addition to all these things, culture also is what tells people what is wrong and what is right. For people, their culture becomes the lens through which they see the world. The way people understand the world and how they react before it depends on their culture. Most people believe (including myself before reading these articles) that folklore artifact, flags, clothing, musical instruments, religious objects, etc. is culture. But, culture really is the meaning behind those objects, which is given by people. Depending on what people believe according to their “culture” they give different meanings to things that could mean completely the opposite to other people. In the world there are many cultures, ones that are not even known by most people. There are isolated cultures, which are very unique in its way to see the world and that has traditions that any other has. Every culture has its own way of seen the world and based on that they give meaning to objects and artifacts.

Now that I have read all these articles and chapters I totally see differently everything around me. I now understand more clearly the concept of culture and how it is created. Since I am an international student studying in the United States, I am constantly experiencing culture issues and shocks. Now that I understand the meaning of culture and everything around it more clearly, I now see myself differently as a person and (most important for my life now), as a foreign student. I now know how to manage my cultural issues and understand more how Americans see me. And at the same I now know how to see other people. When I go back to the Dominican Republic I would now understand how to see foreign people there. It may be that the way I see things now is not completely the correct one, but it has helped me in my personal life. In the last few days, the lens with which I see culture has change. I now have become a more analytical person when it comes to culture matters.