Culture

Last week’s topic was about culture. Culture is a phenomenon. It is the full range of human learned behaviors. This knowledge is transmitted to succeeding generations. An iceberg is used to illustrate what culture is like. Some products of cultures include written languages, governments, buildings, art, music, games, cooking, body language and family structure. However, some products are more noticeable than others in societies. Things like arts, literature, music and dress are often the most apparent aspects of a particular culture. We then played a game called “Five Tricks.” The class was split up into different groups. Each group was then given a deck of cards. Each group had different rules for playing the game. The person who won in the round had to move up a group, while losers moved down a group. This ultimately led to people with different concepts of how the game is played to be mixed up. It forced people to adopt the rules of others or implement new rules. Needless to say, almost everyone in the room became confused…except me. For some reason, I didn’t catch on to what happened. I wouldn’t have known about that had someone not told me the point of the game. I guess I represented the culturally ignorant group of society. Some people became frustrated when other members couldn’t catch on to their rules for the game, while others had no problem conforming to other peoples’ concepts of how the game should’ve been played. These people clearly represented types of people in society. There are the narrow minded people who are not tolerant of other peoples’ differences, just as there are those people who are very inclusive, mindful and tolerant. Some people, because of a sociological influence, feel the need to dominate or be in power. After playing the game, it seemed to me that social influences can have a major impact on how groups function. If culture is simply learned behavior, does it apply to animals other than humans as well? That’s just a question I have. During the game, I found myself imitating the actions of the other players in order to fit in. I knew the rules, and I could have done what I wanted and stood out, but the pressure of the group made me desire to conform. If a group that small can have such influence over my actions, imagine what a whole society can do to someone. Earlier this evening, I went to an event that my resident assistant came up with. We played a board game that had to do with social justice. It really helped me see the privileges of other people. Privileges are unearned advantages. Like in the reading, being white has its privileges. Being an American citizen has its privileges. There are identities of mine that put me at a little bit of a disadvantage in certain situations, but I feel that my privileges outnumber those disadvantages. Even being able to go to college is an enormous privilege that will benefit me in the future.