Summary Of Barbara Ehrenreich's Cultural Baggage

In Barbara Ehrenreich’s essay, Cultural Baggage, she talks about the topic of ethnic heritage as the author in the paper is replying to a friend that’s asking her what her background is. Barbara states that her reason for writing her essay is to make readers conscious that having no ethnic background is in fact an ethnic background. She takes on an uncommon view of herself as most people pride themselves in stating where they came from and the traditions of the culture they abide by, rather than feeling embarrassed to claim their background. Perhaps Barbara is trying to get us to understand that a family that doesn’t cling to their culture and abide by its standards can be just as successful as those that do ,and also that being different isn’t always a bad thing.

In “What is Cultural Identity” by Elsie Trumbull and Maria Pacheco it states that “we can imagine culture as invisible webs of composed values, beliefs, ideas about appropriate behavior, and socially constructed truths”, according to this statement culture is embedded into us and effects the way people see everything. It’s hard for people to see their culture, in addition this evidence says “Most of the time our cultures are invisible to us yet they are the context within which we operate and make sense of the world.” Therefore culture has an effect on everyone.

Cultural myths forcefully affect the decisions we make in our lives. They give us different views on life. For example, Cultural myths help us answer questions like: What direction should I take to be successful in my career? Who should I marry or should I stay single? They help us deal with these questions because our answer lay within our families.

A person’s beliefs and morals are made up by culture and remain throughout your entire life. Culture is what made you the person you are today and also determines who or what you choose to associate yourself with. My identity would not exist if it were not for my own culture and the values I have carried from it along the years. The morals I have today exist

Passing traditions on is a practice that is important to many cultures and it effectively connects generations of people through experiences and stories. A quote from the book that demonstrates the theme, shows a character 's viewpoint of passing traditions on. “‘These are the beliefs of our Ojibway people. We sustain the beliefs, and the beliefs sustain us.

Culture is highly influential on an individual, until it isn’t. Similar to the latest trends or crazes of society, culture only affects the perspectives of people until something new is introduced. In reality, that might include an individual straying away from the values of their family in order to create their own sense of culture, which causes their family to not influence their perspectives anymore. In literature, such as the novel Bless Me, Ultima, and the short stories of “Everyday Use,” “Occupation: Conductorette,” and “Going to Japan,” this theme of culture only influencing a character for a limited amount of time still persists. The culture of an individual influences their perspective on the others and the world, but only until the

There are many positive reasons to embrace traditions and there is a need to introduce and enforce rules for social conformity to ensure that society can function without undue chaos. However, taken to their extremes, blind acceptance of traditions and strict social conformity can lead to the persecution and destruction of fellow human beings. In part, strict allegiance to traditions and requiring social compliance in conforming to one type of thinking can result in a “cult-like” mentality. This mentality continues if there is no opportunity to allow for creative and independent thinking. The end result is a narrow-minded perspective that can hold down others who express other opinions or live in an opposing manner.

Without the knowledge of what culture is and does, we as a society would be lost. In the essay, “An Indian Father’s Plea” by Robert Lake, the author takes to explain to his audience that your culture can greatly impact your perspective of others. For example, when the teacher Wind-Wolf a slow learner, the father writes a letter explaining why wind-wolf is not, but in fact the opposite. The author said “If you ask him how many months there are in a year he will probably tell you 13. He will respond this way not because he does not know how to count, but because he was taught by our traditional people.”

She found it difficult accepting that she originated from the, “pagan,” lands. After she wrote this piece of evidence, she realizes that anyone can be accepted into any faith. These two women have a difficult effort in accepting aspects of their faith. They come to the realization that they follow their faith but many people can contradict their

She choose to continue to put it in use; this example shows how our past can influence our decision making. From all the points addressed, some may argue that it is solely our experiences outside of family that explain who we are, and our home life does not affect us, but gives us information and teaches us how to think. But it is all of our experiences, including what each person’s family taught them, that are our cultures, and our cultures are how we see things around us. To restate, our cultures are based of how we are raised and our culture grows and develops as have more experiences.

We have all encountered social conformity in life, whether it has been consciously or unconsciously, by accepting the dominant culture’s expectation of us. What people say and how they behave are vastly influenced by others.” She touches on

Due to the constant contact between various people of the nation, there is some kind adaptation of one kind of culture from other. The impact of such contribution of culture is known as the culture legacies. Each national history and culture unfolds in its own particular way. Sometimes it could be the explanation for people’s previously inexplicable behaviors. In Chapter six of Outliers, Gladwell claims that cultural legacies “play such a role in directing attitudes and behaviors that we cannot make sense of our world without them”(175).

Our culture helps to define who people are and is an extremely important part in people’s lives. Not all cultures are the same and most people grow up in different cultures. We can see this between Reuven and Danny. In Reuven and Danny’s culture, there are many differences and similarities in their religion, the dynamics of their family, and the customs and traditions they practice. First, religion is a major part of who we are and in Danny and Reuven’s cultures we can see similarities and differences.

I have grown up in Florida which is a diverse area which makes my personal culture contain numerous influences. Both my maternal and paternal sides of my family are pure Italian Americans. There is not much known about my great grandparents but they are believed to be peasants who migrated from Sicily into United States in the 1800’s. Traditions, influenced by beliefs, rituals and values are passed down or inherited by one generation to another (Inglehart & Baker, 2000). Many Italian Americans try to carry on traditions and cultures that their grandparents and parents had.

Writers like Alasdair MacIntyre, Bernard Williams and Philippa Foot have abandoned “the project of rationally justifying a single norm of flourishing life for and to all human beings.” They deny that ethics can have trans-cultural norms