Caroline Boucher 5/9/13 Principles of Sociology Culture What makes you, an individual with distinct behaviors, beliefs, and

ideas about how to live and yet at the same time is also held by thousands of other people? The answer to that is your culture. We all know we act differently because when somebody does something that is different we get angry and annoyed inside. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of different cultures that exist on our planet today. Some have faded away and some have become bigger. People are adapting new ways and beliefs and some are holding on firm to the point of viciousness. Culture is the one thing that wakes up with people everyday and guides them through the various interactions and situations presented to them. There are a million different ways to word and define culture. It can refer to the cumulative collection and deposit of knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values, attitudes, religions, roles, and concept of possessions that a group of people accepts without even thinking about. It is a way of life that is passed down from one generation to the next. Culture is a form of symbolic communication that is deliberately preserved through artifacts, symbols, objects and language. Culture in its broadest sense is a cultivated and life-long process that is the total sum of a person's socially learned behavior. While human societies and cultures are not the same thing, they are inextricably connected because culture is created and transmitted to others in a society. Cultures are not the product of lone

individuals. They are the continuously evolving products of people interacting with each other. There are two versions on how sociologists and anthropologists define human behavior, nature or nurture. The debate centers on the relative influences that genetic inheritance and environmental factors have on human development. Some suggest that certain things are inborn, or that they simply occur naturally regardless of environmental influences because it was conditioned to be; this is something over which they have no control. Human beings are passive creatures and do whatever their culture tells them to do. Others believe that the mind begins as a blank slate and everything that we are and all of our knowledge is determined by our experience Human beings can choose they way of life they prefer. No matter which way humans truly learn behavior; a time will come when one culture or individual views their own way of life as superior to that of others. This belief is called ethnocentrism and is solely judging another culture by the values and standards relative to their own. This way of thinking can be overt or subtle and will often cause pride, vanity, arrogance, and haughtiness. This mindset will then lead to the inability to truly understand different cultures and the sad realities of racism, sexism and discrimination. It is easier said than done, but the progression of cultural awareness and the ability to stand back from oneself and become aware of surrounding cultural beliefs and values is hindering the cooperative outlook of attaining more world peace. There is no book of instructions on increasing selfawareness but by simply discussing and celebrating diversity with one another we all gain more understanding and respect for the unique opportunities we can have!