Kerrigan Thompson
Think Question 2
11/17/2017
Professor Pappas
Think Question 2
What is culture? Culture can be defined in many ways. Due to this, it can be difficult to assign one definition to it. For many, culture can be described as the ‘social norms and behaviors’ of certain groups of people. Culture can be expressed in various forms, with the most common being through the following: language, food, religion, music and arts, and social habits. Throughout the world, culture encompasses all the different groups of people. Whether it’s the tandoori chicken of India, or the practice of Buddhism in china; culture surrounds us no matter where we travel. As a class, we have discussed many diverse forms of culture which I will be going over …show more content…
In Baraka, different prepossessing camera views allow one to see the true beauty of other countries. While doing this, one gathers a sense of perspective on universal forms of culture. Within the film, dancing is a key component when discovering and learning about the social behaviors of the featured countries. One dance in particular, Kakek (also known as the Monkey Chant) is performed in Bali, Indonesia, and is an important aspect of Balinese culture. In the dance, men of all ages sit together in a sort of disproportionate circle and chant, just like the title entails. They follow a leader that is usually in the front of the line, using hand gestures and swaying to their own beat of music. However, there is no ‘set’ beat to this dance. The leader calls out the commands where there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to the dance. The irregular beat does not take away from the dance’s unique beauty, and if anything, adds to it. The fact that the music is created from their own voices also makes it very fascinating to listen to and watch. Just like the people of Bali, dance can be an essential form of culture and history to any …show more content…
She explains that one cannot simply perform a dance if they don’t understand the ‘cultural knowledge.’ She says that in order to understand the culture, a person has to be immersed in it. Personally, I disagree with her. I understand that her method may be the most efficient way to learn, but it is definitely not the only way to learn. Like I mentioned before, a person can learn about a particular culture in many ways. These ways can be, but aren’t limited to, the following: reading books, talking to someone from that cultural background, watching a video, and researching it via the internet. However, Sklar’s main focus of culture is the dances within it. I agree that in order to execute the dances properly, one must be present and immersed in a certain learning environment. Adversely, I don’t believe that this environment has to be of a specific cultural background. I do not think that in order to learn a dance one has to be instructed by someone that comes from that dance’s
Think Question 2
11/17/2017
Professor Pappas
Think Question 2
What is culture? Culture can be defined in many ways. Due to this, it can be difficult to assign one definition to it. For many, culture can be described as the ‘social norms and behaviors’ of certain groups of people. Culture can be expressed in various forms, with the most common being through the following: language, food, religion, music and arts, and social habits. Throughout the world, culture encompasses all the different groups of people. Whether it’s the tandoori chicken of India, or the practice of Buddhism in china; culture surrounds us no matter where we travel. As a class, we have discussed many diverse forms of culture which I will be going over …show more content…
In Baraka, different prepossessing camera views allow one to see the true beauty of other countries. While doing this, one gathers a sense of perspective on universal forms of culture. Within the film, dancing is a key component when discovering and learning about the social behaviors of the featured countries. One dance in particular, Kakek (also known as the Monkey Chant) is performed in Bali, Indonesia, and is an important aspect of Balinese culture. In the dance, men of all ages sit together in a sort of disproportionate circle and chant, just like the title entails. They follow a leader that is usually in the front of the line, using hand gestures and swaying to their own beat of music. However, there is no ‘set’ beat to this dance. The leader calls out the commands where there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to the dance. The irregular beat does not take away from the dance’s unique beauty, and if anything, adds to it. The fact that the music is created from their own voices also makes it very fascinating to listen to and watch. Just like the people of Bali, dance can be an essential form of culture and history to any …show more content…
She explains that one cannot simply perform a dance if they don’t understand the ‘cultural knowledge.’ She says that in order to understand the culture, a person has to be immersed in it. Personally, I disagree with her. I understand that her method may be the most efficient way to learn, but it is definitely not the only way to learn. Like I mentioned before, a person can learn about a particular culture in many ways. These ways can be, but aren’t limited to, the following: reading books, talking to someone from that cultural background, watching a video, and researching it via the internet. However, Sklar’s main focus of culture is the dances within it. I agree that in order to execute the dances properly, one must be present and immersed in a certain learning environment. Adversely, I don’t believe that this environment has to be of a specific cultural background. I do not think that in order to learn a dance one has to be instructed by someone that comes from that dance’s