Can one culture’s achievements and success incite other cultures to new successes of their own?
According to the book, author David Shenk states that “Cultural differences matter enormously. … Every culture must strive to foster values that bring out the best in its people” (146). He also states that addresses a long gap in time between the Islamic and the European Renaissance to demonstrate his point that “cultural differences matter enormously”(146), and that a cultural difference between two different peoples could have a barrier-like effect on the sharing of ideas and the occurrence of Renaissances.
However, numerous times throughout his book David Shenk also reinforces the idea that “success begets success.”
Relating back to the biology theme of Interdependence in Nature, please take a position on this idea, that “great advances in agriculture, economics, law, … literature”(146) and other areas of cultural knowledge occur only within a culture and do not necessarily “diffuse” out of one group of people into another. Relating back to our Ecology unit, you could mention how “culture” is passed down from one generation to another (exclusive to only a specific family).
Make sure to address the fact that America is
a multi-cultural and multi-racial country, possible evidence of cultural
diffusion.
(Tina Ding: yuning.tina.ding@gmail.com)
In today’s day and age, the world is becoming smaller. More cultural diffusion is occurring across the globe than ever before. With the onset of mass immigration, emigration, outsourcing, communication, and access, peoples all over the world are able to spread their culture and influence.
ReplyDeleteShenk states, “spurring individual achievement must also be the duty of society” (146). Cultures instill values that they believe will make their people succeed to a greater extent. For example, people from East Asia place a heavy importance on group collectivism, reputation, honor, morals, and conservatism. On the other hand, Western cultures display liberalism, individualism,and radicalism (Graf). Despite these basic cultural differences, much diffusion has occurred through people, trade, and technology.
When one culture has established an efficient method to accomplish an activity, they tend to share it with other cultures for the greater good. Reinforcing the idea that “success begets success”, many of the practices that we, in America, follow trace their origins across the globe. For example, the Iroquois method of “Three Sisters Farming” has shown to preserve soil fertility over longer periods of time. Although connected to legend, Iroquois grew corn, beans, and squash together to maximize harvest. The corn provides a pole for the bean to grow. The bean is involved in nitrogen fixing, while the squash provides soil nutrition. American farmers have begun to implement this method, hoping to see an improvement (Formiga).
Relating to Biology, certain groups of animals establish certain types of behavior regarding mating, mate choosing, alarming, and foraging. These behaviors are monitored and regulated through social learning and are distinct to a certain group. For example, vervet monkeys can, “produce a complex set of alarm calls.” They learn from an early age to associate different types of alarms (barks, chutters, coughs...) with different animals (leopard, snake, eagle...). This culture and social behavior is taught to young vervet monkeys by the elders, which in turn teach their young. (Campbell 1141). To maximize their chances of survival and reproductive success, the vervet monkey culture established these behaviors as, “the values that bring out the best in its people” (146).
http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html
http://rgraf.hubpages.com/hub/10-Major-Cultural-Differences---China-and-the-United-States
- Rohan Dasika (rohandasika@gmail.com)
One culture’s achievements and success are certainly able to incite successes in other cultures. An example of this is the creation of rock and roll music. Rock and roll was a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music and emerged in the 1950’s as popular music among young teenagers (http://www.esto.es/rock/english/history.htm). Rock and roll allowed the prosperity of many African American singers and musicians, as well as the very well-known Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley, a white singer, was popular among young teenage girls at the time, and bridged the gap between ‘black’ and ‘white’ music. Although rock and roll was derived from African American music, a singer outside of that race mastered the skill and prospered from the newly created genre of music.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, “great advances in agriculture, economics, law,…literature”(p.146) and other areas of cultural knowledge often occurred within a culture because of the regional limits that were placed on it. For example, Native Americans’ knowledge of herbs and remedies helped in relieving pains and illnesses in their tribes before specific FDA-approved medicines were created, and as Rohan says, once a culture finds an efficient method to accomplish an activity, they would share it. This may be true when there were other people with them, but only the Native Americans had knowledge of these plants simply because they were the only ones living in North America at that time. Stories such as how there came to be only one sun in the sky (as well as herbal remedies) only passed from generation to generation through the tribesmen or by European conquistadors/explorers that came to America and took over. This is similar to the Chinese as well, as they celebrate holidays unknown to other cultures such as the Moon Festival, which started from the overthrow of the Mongols. Because of the political situation in China at that time, a new holiday was formed that would only affect this certain region of people, therefore this holiday/tradition would be refined to this certain group of people.
However, many of these cultures are mixing today due to the existence of America. America is literally a ‘melting pot’ of numerous ethnic and religious groups arriving for several different reasons; from search of gold to search of a safe haven to practice certain religions, avoiding the exploitation of a certain group of people, or in search for better opportunities. Relating back to interdependence in nature, many of us have more knowledge of other cultures do to our basic living with others of different ethnic and religious groups. There are also many ‘mixed’ children of different races, broadening their knowledge of different cultures as a result of being born from two parents of different backgrounds. Being a multi-cultural country speeds up the process of cultural diffusion, whether through word of mouth (friend to friend) or by the process of reproduction
Tracy Lai (tracymlai@hotmail.com)