As defined by our text books, culture is a the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together form people’s way of life (66). A societal group is distinguished from another by cultural difference such as languages, traditions, beliefs, values, technology, and many more. As we all knows, people are not born with culture; they have to learn it. Our culture is learned from the society we live in, starting from birth all the way to present day. Perhaps it would be easier to show you culture in action through examples from field notes I had taken at a Mariano’s on Chicago Avenue. The setting was about 7 pm and my observations were taken from a café near the entrance of the store. I chose this time in hopes to catch
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The ceiling in the store was high and the shelves seemed to reach above 6 feet. They sectioned all of the aisles by number and most of the items are grouped together by where you would keep them in the house, except for two specific aisles which are named Taste of the World. These two aisles consisted of condiments and specific food from a variety of different countries. I could not help but ask myself why these items were not integrated into the rest of the aisles? Is it for convenience or is it simply because our culture as Americans does not consider these items as American? What is the answer you might be wondering? Well, the answer is not as black and white; it could go both ways really. This is part of a category called material culture and as it is written in the text book it is, “it is the physical things created by members of a society” (67). These specific items represent parts of certain culture. For foreign born customers it may seem like a convenience to have all of their most of their groceries set in one place. On the other hand, to an American these aisles may seem like a place we might go to get “Mexican rice” or “Chinese food”, where we do not quite see these items integrated into American material …show more content…
It is the fact that culture can be passed from down from culture to culture, the term that coincides with this idea is ‘cultural transmission’. “Mommy can we get some ice cream?” said a boy about 5 or 6. “Maybe we’ll get a tub to take home once we have dinner.” They walked away from the ice cream section and moved down the role of deli-varieties; meats, prepared dinners, breads, on the spot grilling, etc. They stop at the prepared food section looking for something to eat. “Jake… JAKE, NO!” She turned to find Jake sticking his hands in the complimentary cheese bin without using a toothpick. I chuckled to myself. The mom was as embarrassed as ever but did not exhibit and ounce of anger towards her son. She exclaimed to him, “you can’t just stick your fingers in there; other people might want to have some too. Would you want someone else to put their paws all over the cheese and then you go and eat it?” “No” replied Jake with sad eyes as if guilt had overcome his happiness. He spent the rest of his walk next to his mom, holding the side of the cart. The mother in this case scolded her son for putting his hands in a jar that other people put their hands in too. In her culture it is not acceptable to do so. In turn, he learned that was accepted or right and that it should not happen again. The mother transmitted her culture onto her son and expects him to follow
The ceiling in the store was high and the shelves seemed to reach above 6 feet. They sectioned all of the aisles by number and most of the items are grouped together by where you would keep them in the house, except for two specific aisles which are named Taste of the World. These two aisles consisted of condiments and specific food from a variety of different countries. I could not help but ask myself why these items were not integrated into the rest of the aisles? Is it for convenience or is it simply because our culture as Americans does not consider these items as American? What is the answer you might be wondering? Well, the answer is not as black and white; it could go both ways really. This is part of a category called material culture and as it is written in the text book it is, “it is the physical things created by members of a society” (67). These specific items represent parts of certain culture. For foreign born customers it may seem like a convenience to have all of their most of their groceries set in one place. On the other hand, to an American these aisles may seem like a place we might go to get “Mexican rice” or “Chinese food”, where we do not quite see these items integrated into American material …show more content…
It is the fact that culture can be passed from down from culture to culture, the term that coincides with this idea is ‘cultural transmission’. “Mommy can we get some ice cream?” said a boy about 5 or 6. “Maybe we’ll get a tub to take home once we have dinner.” They walked away from the ice cream section and moved down the role of deli-varieties; meats, prepared dinners, breads, on the spot grilling, etc. They stop at the prepared food section looking for something to eat. “Jake… JAKE, NO!” She turned to find Jake sticking his hands in the complimentary cheese bin without using a toothpick. I chuckled to myself. The mom was as embarrassed as ever but did not exhibit and ounce of anger towards her son. She exclaimed to him, “you can’t just stick your fingers in there; other people might want to have some too. Would you want someone else to put their paws all over the cheese and then you go and eat it?” “No” replied Jake with sad eyes as if guilt had overcome his happiness. He spent the rest of his walk next to his mom, holding the side of the cart. The mother in this case scolded her son for putting his hands in a jar that other people put their hands in too. In her culture it is not acceptable to do so. In turn, he learned that was accepted or right and that it should not happen again. The mother transmitted her culture onto her son and expects him to follow