What is Culture? Do I Have One?

  Source: Personal observations
  Relation: Conformity and Conflict by James Spradley and David W. McCurdy


  Culture. As defined in the book Conformity and Conflict, it is the "learned and shared knowledge that people use to generate behavior and interpret experience" (CC p.3). Personally I see culture as how we as groups of people behave within our environment. I consider myself a part of many different cultures: student life at HSU, a passionate member of the Christian faith, a native Californian who grew up in Atlanta... and the list goes on. Being part of so many different cultures allows me to have a broader view of my current life situation. I can appreciate the freedom and the beauty that comes with going to school in such a nature rich community that seems removed from the busy city life, yet the normalcy of having family close all the time has put me into a sort of culture shock. When we are removed from our usual environment and placed into a foreign one, college for example, we become temporarily reserved and anxious until we learn to accept our new surroundings.
   The aspects of my explicit culture have been defined by all the different towns I have lived in, the people I have known, and most importantly the values I have grown up learning, and now share myself. My choices of clothing, the way in which I speak, the way I deal with relationships, all have been learned from my array of cultural backgrounds.
   So to answer the initial question, yes. I do have a very unique culture and cultural background, as every person does. It is important to keep in mind when defining culture, that geographical locations are important but they are not the greatest influence. It is the people and their behaviors that carry the most influence upon who you become.




Finally, I would like to leave you with a little treat. A quote from one of my favorite authors of all time, Mr. Oscar Wilde:

"Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others... Ethics, like natural selection, make existence possible. Aesthetics, like sexual selection, make life lively and wonderful, fill it with new forms, and give it progress, and variety and change".

Think about it ;)
Emmy