Aspect of own culture from an outsider’s perspective-1
An epic description of culture is crucial as it allows an outsider to learn more of the cultural aspects without necessarily integrating into the cultural norms and practices. Gender is an important aspect of society as it stipulates the roles men and women carry out in the cultural setup. The gender roles were so important since they could help the Americans to move from the traditional beliefs on roles stipulated to boys and girls and devise a new method of looking at things that would help the society make remarkable improvements in development. The American society has developed a differentiated manner at which the culture handles the issue of gender roles that has remained a big challenge among many cultural societies. The norm and beliefs accord boys and girls in society demarcated duties that would ensure both contribute and react positively with society. The reactions and contributions made it possible for the American society to move to the higher levels of development as every individual could know the responsibility the society has accorded them to help the nation realize its development and growth agenda.
In American society, men and women are easily identified with their dress cords as men wear long trousers while women put on skirts for identity. The effects of culture are seen in domestic life. Women have the role of handling the house activities and taking care of the children. At the same time, men involve in masculine tasks like war and many other energies needed jobs in society (Johansson-Dahre, 2017). Women are humble, passive, highly emotional, and dependable than men in American society. An American Culture has greatly influenced how men and women credit themselves. Girls consider themselves vulnerable, promiscuous, and with low capabilities compared to boys in the cultural society. The puts more men in the positions of leadership in society while women are left behind to operate on the domestic issues in the Community. Women are having little chance of making decisions on the critical issues affecting domestic life and the entire national challenges in the Community. The United States has achieved elevated boys to higher levels of human development, leaving women as commentators of the lucrative benefits enjoyed by men in American society. The act has enabled women to remain low in development matters in the US society compared to their men counterparts.
Describe an aspect of another culture from an emic (insider’s) perspective
Besides, my long time stays in Africa equipped me with several cultural knowledge of the African people on how they approach gender roles. The African way of life does not recognize the freedom of women in society but rather gives much consideration to men. Women are expected to become subordinate human beings portraying the good qualities of a wife to men in the cultural environment. The African women are expected to remain silent on critical occasions since they are considered to have no reasonable contribution to the circumstances of the society compared to their male counterparts, who have more chances of freedom in the African society. The culture has left women to handle domestic chaos like gathering firewood, washing utensils, cooking, and catering to the children in society. Men are considered potential in accessing education and employment opportunities to take care of their women in domestic life.
African culture has given women few opportunities of serving the nation through different posts in leadership. Girls are not capable of leading anything in the national Government. All the potential leadership positions are left for their men counterparts in the society leading to political inequality within the African nations. Men make the potential decisions, and women are obliged to follow without any question posted to challenge the move in the African gubernatorial seats and the national government setups (Lee et al., 2018). Women are not invited in the budget allocation strategies, hence making them unsure of the financial provisions the Government has set aside for their potential Women Groups that help them elevate to higher levels of human development. Women are left behind on issues to do with land allocation in the African culture. Girls are not allowed to talk about land in the African communities as such issues are left in the hands of men who speak and acquire their ancestral lands (El Banna et al., 2018). Women are believed to have matrimonial land homes their husbands will give them. On the other hand, men enjoy the ancestral lands that are always accorded to them by their ancestors to keep and give to their grandchildren in African societies. Finally, the African culture has given boys high chances to socialize with the environment I a more improved way than the women in the Communities.
Apply cultural relativism in order to examine misconceptions about the culture that may occur due to ethnocentrism.
Cultural relativism is important since it allows different societies to be treated equally without negative judgment based on their identity or practices. Cultural relativism has helped many societies to appreciate the existence of many cultures. Relativism identifies clearly that every geographic location has unique elements making societies possess exclusive cultures. There are numerous misconceptions about cultures that have been streamlined through the cultural relativism that spring because of cultural ethnocentrism. Accepting different cultural practices and norms plays a vital role globally (Rayan & Fawaz, 2018). The societies, through relativism, have recognized and appreciated the misconception of the same belief across the globe. Cultural relativism has enabled different societies to accept that every cultural group has its own unique belief that is informed by its way of life in the geographical space they are occupying.
Over the years, cultural relativism has helped societies to kill the misconceptions that all people have the same level of experiences in society. Relativism accepts the fact that different civilizations have their own experiences that are incognizant with how they face their challenges and problems in different societies. After accepting the existence different experiences, the societies develop the willingness of learning from all diverse civilizations across the globe to have more knowledge and experiences of all the cultures. Through cultural relativism, the misconception of the same symbol in all the civilizations is killed as all people now realize that every society has different symbols that unite them that are opposed to other cultures. Furthermore, it helped the societies appreciate different approaches taken by the civilizations in addressing the issues around gender roles in their communities.
Cultural relativism is important as it has achieved killing the misconception that all societies should have the common behavior among all the world societies. Relativism is cognizant that every society has different behaviors that help them fit their environment. Different behaviors help people in their cultural settings survive well and have an ease of interacting safely with their surrounding factors. Cultural relativism has made it easy for different societies to accept many moral values across diverse cultures (Young et al., 2017). The ethical standard has proven unique among different people globally, hence calling visitors from other civilizations to learn the good moral values enjoyed by different communities. Cultural relativism has also assisted a lot in killing the misconception of the same attitude and customs across the diverse society. Through relativism, people come to agree that attitudes are formed differently in different environment setups. Every Community has its angle of looking at life unique from other communities but works for them.
Through the applications of Cultural relativism, the high-level cultural ethnocentrism has reduced drastically among the societies. The drastic fall of ethnocentrism is important to the development of different cultures as many people come from outside civilizations to learn the different values existing in a certain society. Through migration of people in the societies for the mission of learning cultures assist more in adding knowledge to the current society visited. Cultural relativism has increased the sharing of different ideas from other nations through members who visit the society to learn as they also give their inputs on the tricky issues in the Community. Through cultural relativism, many societies have interacted in many circumstances like marriages. Intermarriages occur because societies appreciate the culture of other civilizations hence ale and willing to live with women and men from different cultures. Through cultural relativism, many treaties are entered by the different nations who have understood and appreciated the way of life other in the world.
References
El Banna, A., Papadopoulos, N., Murphy, S. A., Rod, M., & Rojas-Méndez, J. I. (2018). Ethnic identity, consumer ethnocentrism, and purchase intentions among bi-cultural ethnic consumers: “Divided loyalties” or “dual allegiance”?. Journal of Business Research, 82, 310-319.
Johansson-Dahre, U. (2017). Searching for a middle ground: anthropologists and the debate on the universalism and the cultural relativism of human rights. The International Journal of Human Rights, 21(5), 611-628.
Lee, J., Crawford, A., Weber, M. R., & Dennison, D. (2018). Antecedents of cultural intelligence among American hospitality students: Moderating effect of ethnocentrism. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 30(3), 167-183.
Rayan, A., & Fawaz, M. (2018). Cultural misconceptions and public stigma against mental illness among Lebanese university students. Perspectives in psychiatric care, 54(2), 258-265.
Young, C. A., Haffejee, B., & Corsun, D. L. (2017). The relationship between ethnocentrism and cultural intelligence. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 58, 31-41.