Delisle’s position as an outsider does not always result in unique and insightful observations. One need look no further than Delisle’s description of a wedding party to see that when his outsider curiosity combines with his personal biases the result is a skewed and one-sided interpretation of cultural practices. Despite the fact that he has otherwise maintained a respectful and often educational approach when describing unfamiliar cultural practices, here Delisle allows his own personal opinion to influence his perspective of the wedding party rituals. Delisle describes the gathering as a “strange party” because of the lack of women and states that it is the type of party he hopes never to be invited to (76). Though this observation reveals
Lisa Delpit’s book, “The Skin We Speak”, talked about language and culture, and how it relates to the classroom. How we speak gives people hits as to where we are from and what culture we are a part of. Unfortunately there are also negative stereotypes that come with certain language variations. There is an “unfounded belief that the language of low income groups in rural or urban industrial areas is somehow structurally “impoverished” or “simpler” than Standard English” (Delpit 71). The United States is made of people from various cultures and speak many different variations of languages. As teachers we must be aware of some of the prejudices we may have about language and culture.
Using the detail,“Dinner threw me deeper into despair,” conveys the painful feelings caused by her family at dinner (Paragraph 5). This detail indicates that Tan was continuingly losing hope that the night would get better. Tan reveals these agonizing feelings to make the reader feel compunctious. In making the reader feel sorry for her, Tan knows she can continue to misreport details in the passage without being questioned. The detail,“What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners,” emblematizes the dishonor Tan feels towards her relatives and cultural background (Paragraph 2). This detail implies that due to Tan’s attraction to Robert, she will detract her feelings of others to better her relationship with Robert. Tan used this detail to reveal that if Tan cannot better her relationship with Robert, she will become despondent. As a result of distorting details, the passage illustrates Tan’s dishonorable feelings towards her cultural
In Barre Toelken’s essay “Seeing with a Native Eye: How Many Sheep Will It Hold?”, the ways in which one culture perceives another and the criteria used to make judgements are explored. Toelken states “I think I can say something about how differently we see things, envision things, look at things, how dissimilarly different cultures try to process the world of reality” (10-11). In essence, Toelken is alluding to how different cultures will interpret their experiences and rituals according to their own set of beliefs and practices. This complicates situations in which the experiences or rituals are not comparable across cultural lines; someone will always be missing an aspect or a significant purpose if they do not try to “see it as much as possible with the ‘native eye’” (12). In other words, one must immerse themselves in the culture they are analyzing, while not comparing it to their own cultural experiences. One must consider all the cultural implications of that specific culture when wondering why things are done a certain way. Toelken provides
Jaclyn Geller’s “Undercover at the Bloomingdales’s Registry” explores the world of a bride to be and reflects on the experiences of a bride preparing for a new chapter in her life. Under the name Jackie, Geller steps inside the world of the soon-to-be married. Through these experiences and observations, Geller provides the reader with a glimpse at the different ways in which society encourages domesticity, companionship and romance upon women in a martial relationship.
In the paper “Body Rituals Among the Nacrima,” written by Horace Miner, we learn of the unique cultural practices of the Nacrima – a North American group. The group has complicated social institutions, hierarchies and cultural practices much like other societies in the world but the practices of this particular group are unique. However, once the reader critically analyzes the passage, they realize that Miner is actually describing the American culture and he does so from the lens of an outsider and demonstrates how strange societies are to an outsider looking in.
Living on the border of California towns, brides are not welcome in the white communities. “We settled on the edges of their towns, when they would let us” (22-3). It puts a pressure on their geographic location and adds difficulty to be recognized and transform into their culture. From the beginning of time, women have been treated inferior to their male counterparts and this is a key picture as the brides in search for acceptance. The phrase “… when they would let us…” proved that gender and race prejudices have power to move them around. The brides learned to revolve their lives to find acceptance by the general society by playing the correct gender role of submissiveness. “Most of us on the boat were accomplished, and were sure we would make good wives. We knew how to cook and sew. We knew how to serve tea and arrange flowers and sit quietly on our flat wide feet for hours… A girl must blend into a room; she must be present without appearing to exist” (6-7). The geographical factor is not the only thing that created a culture distance. Japanese identities were rejected from white culture. Without identity, their husband and their community will never accept them;
Mernissi constantly questions the elders in her life, her mother and aunts who all shut her down from asking questions. Some of her questions seem to hold little or no importance and that they are just those of a child. But with further examination, it is really the life in the harem that is being tested. Mernissi's life in the harem is mainly shaped by this frontier that no one was answering her questions about. “In a harem, you don’t necessarily ask questions to get answers. You ask questions just to understand what is happening to you” (Mernissi, 22). The education she received was all centered on knowing the hudud, the frontiers of harem life. This understanding of the hudud pays attention to the culture and cultural practices. In Mernissi's practices, discussion with her family, and composed thoughts of the hudud help her understand how the hudud is a sacred frontier that needs to be respected and obeyed. This concept illustrates the somewhat religious orientation on boundary lines and frontiers. It specifically, ...
There is one day out of the year when you see sights of couples everywhere: Valentine’s Day. You see individuals out in stores buying roses, large teddy bears and grabbing the last remaining chocolate candy boxes that are left on the shelves. But if you are imagining a man and a woman as the couple you’re visioning, you are in for a surprise. A man and a woman isn’t the only way to go through life as how a couple should look. In fact, it is estimated over 100,000 monogamous people in the Unites States are performing polygamy secretly with their partner’s full permission. These popular nonmonogamous relationships do not match to the cultural norm of a loving couple in love for life. One of the most difficult aspects of multiculturalism is the determination to adapt to some cultural groups’ needs involving certain traditional practices that might clash with the ideas of multiculturalism and self-governing civil rights. Normally, many of these exercises have religious roots, but these are not limited. Some important cases are certain rights of opening exercises: spiritual and religious. For most of the cases, a smaller group’s traditional exercises are against the norms of a typical society but also organize a substantial aspect of the way of life for that certain culture. Some samples of polygamy in Islam, female circumcision in Eastern Africa nations, or Ta-moko, as referred to as tattooing of the face, in the culture of Maori. The most crucial topic around these established practices in the multiculturalism debate is the idea of agreement. Yet, not all exercises are achieved with the agreement of the subjects. Some cultures and historic periods are seen to embrace polyamory, while other cul...
Traditions control how one talks and interacts with others in one’s environment. In Bengali society, a strict code of conduct is upheld, with dishonor and isolation as a penalty for straying. Family honor is a central part to Bengali culture, and can determine both the financial and social standing of a family. Usha’s family poses no different, each member wearing the traditional dress of their home country, and Usha’s parents diligently imposing those values on their daughter. Those traditions, the very thing her [Usha] life revolved around, were holding her back from her new life as an American. Her mother in particular held those traditions above her. For example, when Aparna makes Usha wear the traditional attire called “shalwar kameez” to Pranab Kaku and Deborah’s Thanksgiving event. Usha feels isolated from Deborah’s family [Americans] due to this saying, “I was furious with my mother for making a scene before we left the house and forcing me to wear a shalwar kameez. I knew they [Deborah’s siblings] assumed, from my clothing, that I had more in common with the other Bengalis than with them” (Lahiri ...
The article equips the reader with the tools needed to better understand other cultures, in terms of their own beliefs and rituals. Miner’s original approach does create a certain level of confusion that forces the reader to critically evaluate his purpose. “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner ultimately brings people together, by illuminating the eccentricities present in all
The author starts his book expounding on “Servanthood” where he discusses its burden and challenge, by sharing a story which involved he and his wife while on their honeymoon; she had prepared a breakfast of his preference, undoubtedly excited over cooking and serving their first meal as his wife, only to be offended and hurt with her husband’s response to the meal due to not understanding one another’s cultural history. Elmer uses this story to demonstrate the simplicity and difficulty of cross-cultural servanthood (p. 11-12). According to Elmer, there are numerous people...
This cultural event also had a religious meaning and ceremony that went along with it. Like traditional ways, the birthday girl has to attend a special Mass that includes her close friends a...
Mahin, Michael J. The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper: "An Intertextual Comparison of the "Conventional" Connotations of Marriage and Propriety." Domestic Goddesses (1999). Web. 29 June 2015.
Palma, G. D. (2014, April 08). Daily Life and Social Customs. Retrieved from Encyclopaedia Britann: www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic
Social prejudice and a human propensity for ethnocentrism cause observers of a culture other than their own to judge such practices and beliefs as peculiar, yet ‘many of our own practices are peculiar when viewed through the lenses of other cultures’ (Karp, 1990, p74-75, cited in Schultz &...