Culture and Society
The culture that I am identifying is Rwandan culture as I am Rwandan. The main things that makes me part of this culture is that I speak Kinyarwanda, and this help me to interact with people from my culture. According to Knoji (2015), language is taken as one main component of every culture. Another thing that makes me part of this culture is that I believe that a girl should not sit down while a family house is not well cleaned. In Rwandan culture it is known that a girl should not wait for her brothers to clear the house. She should be the one to do all domestic activities of the whole family. Another thing that makes me part of my culture is the use of different culture materials. One of those materials is gourd which is use to keep milk and make butter. Another material is “icyansi” which is made in wood. It is also used to keep milk. Basket handcraft also makes me part of this culture as it is used to keep food like
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Some of them are tight on greeting, gestures, gender issues and eye contact. According to Culture Cross ( 2014), one of those norms is a strong energetic handshake as a greeting between two Rwandans. This is a sign of respect. When a man fails to do so, it means that he does not respect others. When it is the case of a family or a friend, for women, a hug is made. Another norm is that Rwandans avoid telling the truth if they think that it will affect negatively the person they are speaking to. Another norm is that, when two people in Rwandan culture are discussing, a space or distance in between is kept. What is more is that indirect are eye contact is mainly used. A very continuous eye contact is taken as an aggressive. To point on people is not formal because this is reserved for dog. In Rwandan culture, friendship is mostly valued because every Rwandan is expected to great every person he or she finds in the cross (Culture Cross,
(SP 1 The Haitian People feel very strongly about greetings, Men shake hands on meeting and departing, men and women kiss on the cheek when greeting, women kiss each other on the cheek. An older person might be called “aunt” or “uncle” as sign of respect even if they not related. B. (SP 2) - The tradition of hospitality is clear in how they treat guests or go out of their way to help strangers find an address or something else they need. (Transition: I’ve told you about our customs, now I’ll tell you how cuisine play an important part of customs.)
In Ethiopia, they greet with a firm handshake with direct eye contact (Ethiopian). This is also used when meeting new people in the United States under formal circumstances. Another social custom they share is gift giving. In both countries, gifts are given to celebrate special events. In both cultures, those with money are respected and held at hight estem and education is valued.
Every day we use our culture. Whether it be to argue claims, express opinions, or make decisions, culture plays a part in each area. Culture is who we are, one’s identity, its extent is enormous over our views and actions. A person grows up surrounded with culture at a young age. This can affect how they learn and what they learn.
Ferrante (2011:60) maintains that a culture cannot exist without society, a group of people who constantly interact with one another, share and perpetuate and create culture. Scholars use the word culture to emphasize differences. The word culture brings a clear understanding that the culture of American people and South Africans are totally different. Thus it will be a culture shock for Americans to come live in South Africa. The way in which people use the world culture give a clear suggestion that they often think of culture as having certain boundaries as an explanation of differences and misunderstanding that people may have.
Each culture has their own expectations, reactions and expectations. For example, in certain cultures speaking to loudly isn’t appropriate but in other cultures speaking to quietly isn’t appropriate as well. Some gestures that cultures do isn’t appropriate to other cultures. Kissing women on the cheeks is common but is unacceptable to many other cultures. Another gesture is handshaking, it may seem like a common thing to do when you meet someone or even greet someone.
Most American people conserve eye contact while communicating, and also they are expertise in showing enthusiasm and compassion. When greeting in social situations women pat each other on the right forearm or on the shoulder, rather than shake hands where as men shake hands until they know someone well, at which time they progress to a more traditional hug and back slapping. conversation take place in close physical distance when stepping back may be regarded as unfriendly. generally, people refrain to use first names
Critical Reflection In this assignment, I am going to define cultural awareness and cultural intelligence, and will also discuss how they relate to each other. Cultural awareness is the foundation of communication; it involves the ability to standing back from over selves and becoming aware of cultural values, beliefs and perceptions (Brislin.2006). Being aware of own cultural includes the goals and boundaries of a cultural; it also includes religion, language and relationships. On the other hand cultural intelligence has various meanings (Brislin.2006).
Culture is the way of life. Culture is generally the beliefs, behaviors, practices, and artifacts a social group shares with each other through commonality. This is rather interchanged with “society” which is difference because society talks about the people who share a common territory or definable region and culture. Culture will not exists without a society, and neither would society exists without culture. Culture consists of two types: material culture, the tangible objects that may be used as symbols to cultural ideas or belongings to society, and nonmaterial culture, the ideas and attitudes of a society, of which both types are linked to each other.
According to the Dictionary, Sociology is defined as the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society. This means that people are willing to study social problems throughout the world and the society that they live in. In my life, I deal with my social class, Gender, Race, Religion, and the time I was born. Because of who I am, I definitely have been a part of a different upbringing and lifestyle that many sociologist may find interesting.
Culture is a belief system commonly shared in the society. Every human in a society share a common value and behavior distinct from other people, depending on where one was raised. That being said, I like to compare and contrast three divergent characteristics and describe which one I hail from. Individualist versus collectivist Individualistic culture is a culture where people cherish liberty and privacy and often trust their personal ability to emerge victorious and successful in their endeavors. Whereas, in a collectivist culture, people emphasizes the collective need of the society in general.
The film Lost in Translation follows two Americans visiting Tokyo during important transitional periods in their lives. Charlotte is a recent college graduate trying to figure out her career while also moving on from the honeymoon phase of her new marriage. Bob Harris is essentially going through a mid-life crisis as he sorts through life post-movie stardom and struggles to maintain a relationship with his overbearing wife. The two find each other in the hotel bar as a result of their inability to sleep and form a connection based on their mutual isolation in both their relationships and the city of Tokyo. The film touches on the importance of communication as well as what it is like to be a foreigner alone in a vastly different culture.
In Portugal, as a sign of greeting men and women kiss each other on the cheeks. Men shake hands. When the closer friends who are happy to see each other get together, they accompany vigorous handshake greeting by slapping each other on the shoulder or back. When people say goodbye to each other the same ritual is repeated, though a handshake and a pat on the shoulder can be less vigorous. Now we can see the tendency of spreading of these rules and traditions of the family and friendship over business establishment.
The Rwandans have had a long-standing tradition of interethnic conflicts, that reached its peak in 1994 with the Rwandan genocide. To understand the reasons for this genocide, as well as the lasting effects it has had on the interethnic relations of the Rwandans, the background on how these relations began must first be analyzed. It was reported in 1991, three years before the genocide, that there were approximately 7.7 million people living in Rwanda (Longman, 2009). There are three major ethnic groups within this population, and the 1991 census reports of the 7.7 million people, 90% were Hutu, 9% were Tutsi, and 1% were Twa (Longman, 2009). This is important to note, as the largest conflict was between the Hutu and the Tutsi.
Growing up with an african family was interesting to say the least, my mother and father always cooking, Liberian films, music, and stories. I loved the stories of my culture no matter how ridiculous they were. With stories ranging from snake holy water, to police refusing to work unless you bribed them, and my mother 's long running physic scam, I was always intrigued. My mother and i being the fabulous people that we are were watching, a fashion week live stream, when she yelled chofee ku, which if you don’t know means robber. And she was right, what we saw was horrifying.
2.3 Sociological perspective: Macionis (), analyzed that sociology is efficient study of human society. Society refers to public who live in a defined region and share a way of existence. Sociology’s analysis of society is a special point of view called a sociological perspective. To define the sociological perspective there is an additional way to define that is considering the general in the particular. It tells that that sociologist look for common pattern in particular human’s behavior.