Cultural diversity is the result of the different
technology, language and values. There are rules and ways by which these
cultures are studied. The different cultures are mostly used to find the
similarities whether it is in their norms or life style. The different norms
with in a culture can sometimes create sub cultures.
A
culture is composed of the material, which are the objects that allow people to
interact and the non material that are the concepts or values that the individuals
share. The components of culture in the other hand are the different
interactions. Technology is the
tools used that require skill, which require the information to be passed down.
Language is the medium with which
the information is passed down. Values are the important ideas and concepts
that are used and passed down to generations. The norms are a combination of
different ideas and taboos that the individuals should not break in a society.
The Folkways are the inner circle
concepts that are considered acceptable but if broken there is no harsh
punishment. Mores are the accepted
behaviors that are not to be broken unless the individual wishes to be looked
down by others. Laws are the
severely punished taboos broken by any individual in a formalized mores way.
To
examine a culture there are three areas of important consideration. The cultural traits that consists of their beliefs, acts and
their tools. The culture complex that is the combination of beliefs, acts, and
objects. The last important part is the cultural patters that consists of the
combination of cultural complexes. When
the culture is studied to their core ideas it is possible to compare the
cultures and find the cultural universal that are tools acts and beliefs shared
in all cultures. This can be important because in societies far apart have
similar beliefs an tradition but they don’t have that type of connection with
neighbor societies. The Arapesh are
focalized in unity, but the mundugumor are
very separate when it comes to the same sex.
The parents of the arapesh are very united to their children, but the
mundugurmor are very distant from their same sex children. That is way it is
important to understand that even if the two societies are in the same area it
does not mean they will be very similar in all aspects.
When
comparing cultures it is often found that many individuals will share ethnocentrism that consists in the belief that the culture one belongs is superior to the rest of the
cultures, in at least one occasion everyone has felt this. Some times to change
this feeling when studying a different culture one has to use cultural
relativism that consists that other cultures should not judge other cultures
with their standards but instead the studied culture standards. Counter cultures are formed when a subculture, a small group that has a
slight variation in the opinion from the main culture, rebels against an idea from the main stream.
The
diversity in a culture is formed by the different subculture that allows change
and advances in life stills. Even though a culture or subcultures have
different standards of life does not mean they are superior or inferior to the
main and to your culture. Just as Whorf’s hypothesis of language molding the
minds of their people and making them pensive the world differently, the
diversity of cultures allow us to see a different ways to see the world.
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