Reflection Number Four

I have always known that culture was, in a sense, an indefinable term. I always knew that though indefinable, it encompasses many aspects that people identify with and use to define themselves. Though after reading the passage, “Culture: What is it?” I gained new insight on what culture is and how it is seen by many and defined as. To begin with, I was unaware that the term culture had undergone so many changes in definition over the years. I learned that as a new era would dawn onto society, culture would change to fit the movement taking place during that time frame, [i.e. the Victorian era]. A second thing I learned, which I found rather interesting, was that culture is something that spans and encompasses all areas of human belief, actions, and practices. I never knew that it encompasses how people respond to situations and that it helps to dictate ones etiquette.

A third aspects about culture I was able to gain some insight on was that distinctions in “high culture” and the terms that parallel themselves with it. To begin with, I was not perfectly knowledge able of the exact definition of high culture; for I always assumed that it referred to an individual being able to broaden their horizon and learn new elements of others culture. Through reading, “Culture: What it is?” I was able to learn that not only did “high culture” refer to physically entities that many view as being better that that of others. I was also able to learn that the terms “ high cusine” and “high couture” were terms that aligned themselves with “high culture”; for they all dealt with some physically entity, some human object, that was seen as being of better quality when compared to others.

Parallel to the newly gained insights from “Culture: What it is?” I was also able to gain some knowledge from the article “Transformation: Creating Context, Part 2”. This article is one that went to show the incorporation of culture with the already established concept of transformation. Though this article gave me a lot of new information on culture and the rule it has in an individual’s transformation, one segment of information seems to stand out above the rest. Before reading this article, I was never aware that intercultural competence was the way in which people assimilate to other cultures. I was unaware that it described the way an individual can join or be in the mix with other cultures and function if not act as that other culture. As I read this article I found it rather fascinating to learn about the way people can function when in an area with many cultures or just another, that is not their own.

Overall I enjoyed both articles for they not only went to teach me about the two terms individually, but I was able to see the connection between the two; for it is that connection that determines how people act and identify themselves and with other around them.