Finding Our Way Analysis

Finding Our Way: The Importance of Culture One influential writer of the 20th century, Octavio Paz, once stated, “Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life” (162). All cultures around the world teach us that different ways of understanding and interacting with our environment exist and that no one way is superior than the other. Cultural diversity in society exposes people to different ways of thinking and makes the world a more exciting place to live. When judging groups of people within another culture based on our own standards and beliefs, that culture is misunderstood and the meaningful purposes behind their rituals are lost. Culture is not solely made up of the beliefs …show more content…
The major loss of languages around the world has been one unfortunate occurrence dealing with culture, and many languages are at the point of extinction. Linguists and anthropologists have observed that half of the languages over the world have been lost or are soon to be completely forgotten. “Of the 7,000 languages spoken today, fully half are not being taught to children” (3). As more universal languages thrive and are commonly taught to growing populations in a certain area, other less prominent languages are kept active by only a fifth of one percent of the world population. “Fully 80 percent of the world’s population communicates with one of just eighty-three languages” (5). In China, the last active hieroglyphic language of this world, Dongba, has been kept alive by Naxi shaman (166). In these examples of fading languages, Davis shows the destruction of cultures around the world has rapidly increased. “It is neither change nor technology that threatens the integrity of culture. It is power, the crude face of domination” (167). Culture does not merely fade away if a certain group feels they have failed to conform to the advancement and modernness of the world, but some may feel compelled by external forces to become less of their own culture and more of another. Different cultures clearly view the world in different lights, and their contrast in perspectives also adds to the value of cultural diversity. “White people … see with their eyes, but the Barasana see with their minds” (114). Along with this quote, Davis explains his thoughts that the Barasana culture could possibly be a surviving group of the world that once existed long ago. “In the West,” author Stephen Hugh-Jones states, “time is like gold. You save it, you lose it, you waste it, or you don’t have enough of it. In the Barasana language there is no word for time” (79). Families of varying cultures raise