How Other Cultures Are Viewed

            Throughout the time I’ve spent in this course learning about culture and other courses that touch on similar topics, what I seem to have learned the most about is how as individuals we see and perceive other, very different cultures. What I have come to notice the most is how subjective our observations tend to be when looking at other cultures, we tend to be very ethnocentric in what we see. I somewhat feel as though when looking at other cultures we tend to learn about our own culture as well. For example when observing other cultures in their day to day practices we tend to compare their activities to a standard, and the standard is our own cultural practices. Our own cultural influences are of a very individualistic culture and thus it can be hard to understand why certain collective cultures do certain things, such as arranged marriages, and how the family, not the individual, usually decides access to education.

            I came across an article for another class, “The Body Ritual of the Nacirema,” this article was a satire about Americans. It was reported from a very objective bias, one who had no previous understanding of the culture would be able to understand the rituals of the Americans. When learning about other cultures I find it crazy how I could be part of a culture as small as my family and then a culture that is larger than our nation, and the individualistic culture.

            Being brought up in a culture that is individualistic, I learned rules and traits of the culture before I would have even understood what culture is. For example from a very young age I was always put into activities that would increase my talents and skills. By doing this I was improving myself in a very individualistic way, these skills would be seen as a way to set myself apart from others when looking for a job or trying out for a team. If I had been raised in a collectivist group I most likely would not have had access to these kinds of activities, I would have spent my time helping out my family and doing things for the collective goal. When we are born in to a society we instinctively become part of a preexisting culture.

           Culture is also learned from a young age via cultural learning. Many times humans can be caught imitating others as a form of learning. The advantage humans have over other animals with regards to imitating is whom they choose to imitate. For example humans are very good at seeing who has skills that are respected amongst others. When I was young this seemed to be the best, most effective way of learning. I would imitate others in my life when learning how to talk and learning the meaning of symbols in our culture.