Monday, March 19, 2012
Week 7 - Post 1
I completely agree with Ruth Benedict’s idea that we are “creatures of our culture” and that our habits, beliefs, and impossibilities are shaped by our culture. Benedict claims that from the moment we are born, we are exposed to a certain culture. We grow up learning to talk and communicate in a specific way that we are exposed to. Although, I do believe that the older we get, the more choice we have to decide weather to continue that behavior, culture, and way of communication or not. One example that comes to my mind is the movie Blindside, which is about a poor boy who grows up in a terrible, run-down environment. The other boys who live in the same environment end up getting into drugs and violence, but the main character gets the chance to change his culture and in the end, his communication skills. That example shows how we can break through the limits of our cultures. Although some guidance and help may be necessary, it is definitely possible to change our culture.
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Kylie Jones,
ReplyDeleteVery well put! I had lots of the same feelings about being " creatures of our culture." Although the concept appears pretty straight forward, it's not that black and white. In your argument you say that it starts out simple but changes as we grow and mature. The example you use from the movie was great because he had a choice to make and decided to change his culture for the better. The text seems to argue the opposite, that we are who our parents or environment makes us. By this logic those who lived in the same house and same neighborhood all their lives are more stable than those who moved around for various reasons? I find that hard to believe and prove....
-JPP
I understand your point and agree with your post. I specifically enjoyed the specificity on culture and the connection with communication, language. I wrote my posting and used a few examples of habits and practices, but your example of language is dead-on. If we look at one country and split it into different sections by the language they speak, you can see the cultural differences. I watched a movie of the Algerian War, and the French were the people who were treated better because they spoke the government’s side language, and the Algerian guerrillas spoke Arabic. Culturally they were different, but they lived in the same area.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post this week about Ruth Benedict’s idea. I agree with it also and do believe that we are “creatures of our culture”. The things we do are shaped by our culture and we learn them growing up and seeing how things are done around us. I like how you mentioned that as we get older we can decide to continue our behavior like our cultures or not. That is a great point and it is very true. I also liked the example that you used about in term of the movie the Blindside. It is a great correlation about getting a chance to change how things are for a person and how he change his culture. Great post and I agree with everything you mentioned.
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