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Values acquired through culture
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Values across culture
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Differences in Cultures Cultures are a complicated characteristic to understand. Living in the United States all of my life I never truly understood other cultures. When I would see people from other cultures come into my work or see them at school I thought they were bizarre. Last summer I went overseas to England, Ireland, and Wales. There I observed that the customs overseas are very different. One facet I noticed was their alcohol consumption. In the United States the law says you have to be twenty one or older to consume alcohol. In Europe the legal drinking age is suppose to be eighteen, but I found that as long as you have money and can see over the bar you are able to purchase alcohol. I assumed that since they are able to drink sooner, they would have more alcoholics then the United States, but this is not the case. Under serious thought I came to the conclusion that since it is their culture to be able to drink at younger ages they learn to not abuse it. After visiting Europe and seeing the differences between our cultures and theirs, I decided I wanted to lea...
Binge drinking and alcoholism have been a long-time concern in American society. While the government and schools have made great efforts to tackle the alcohol problems by enacting laws and providing education, the situation of dysfunctional alcohol consumption hasn’t been sufficiently improved. In the essay “Drinking Games,” author Malcolm Gladwell proves to the readers that besides the biological attributes of a drinker, the culture that the drinker lives in also influences his or her drinking behaviors. By talking about cultural impact, he focuses on cultural customs of drinking reflected in drinking places. He specifically examines how changing the drinking places changes people’s drinking behaviors by presenting the alcohol myopia theory.
Pittman, David J. and Helene Raskin White, eds. Society, Culture, and Drinking Patterns Reexamined. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, 1991.
According to “Perils of Prohibition: Why We Should Lower the Drinking Age to 18” author Elizabeth M Whelan article which she argues that now a days in society prohibiting the sale of alcohol beverages to young adults specially teens creates a bad atmosphere full of alcohol abuse. She supports this article by explaining two points: First, American teens, rather than European teens, don 't train well to know how to drink in moderation, and second, compare her daughter 's problem with her own when she was a college student, to see their differences during that time of age.
Sopher, Christopher. “How We Get Hammered: The European vs. U.S. Drinking Age.” thenextgreatgeneration.com. 28 July 2010. Print.
In some cultures, there are situations that involves drinking. These include: birthday parties, New Year’s festivities, graduations, weddings receptions, Fourth of July, Christmas and Mardi Gras. In these holidays, people usually drink in excess to have a good time and celebrate. Different countries specialize in different types of alcohol, such as: the Italian have really good wine, Mexico is known for beer and tequila, Ireland is famous for beer and whiskey, Japan has their own beverage called Sake, and the United States is known for beer, wine, and whiskey. In these cultures, drinking alcohol is an acceptable type of celebration that teenagers even participate in. Not all alcohol consumed is in celebration. Therefore, “the top 20 percent of drinkers consume approximately 30 percent of all alcohol drunk over a 12-month period” (Grant 290).
Hanson, David J. "History of Alcohol and Drinking around the World." WWW2 Webserver. Web. .
Alcohol is a large part of American culture. All over the United States drinking is not only acceptable but a social norm from teenagers to adults. This is not only the case in the U.S., but all over the world, where some drinking ages are 18 and 19 years of age. In America specifically, alcohol has been around for centuries and is a large part of many social gatherings. Although this is the case now, in the early 1900’s during the prohibition period, all alcohol was banned and deemed illegal to possess. Even though illegal, the task was just too heavy and alcohol was too much a common practice for most Americans. As time went on the prohibition period ended and the laws were revoked, making it legal again to possess alcohol. The drinking related problems that were around during prohibition pale in comparison to the problems alcohol has caused since then.
Over many years a higher proportion of women who drink in Ireland is higher than any other European country, 77% compared to 68%. Men drink more often than women, 45% of men drink 2-3 times more than the average female in Ireland. In the memoir it shows drinking at the age of 16, alcohol is the world’s leading risk factor for death among males aged 15-59, according to the World Health Organization ( Alcohol Action). Men are advised to drink no more than 21 standard beers a week, that is equal to 10 pints of normal beer. In Ireland the price of Alcohol is 50% more affordable than it was in 1996, which makes it easier to for the Irish people to consume alcohol. The average age of first alcohol use for children born in 1990 was 14, ten years before in 1980 it was 16. A specific survey of drinking among European 15 and 16 year olds more Irish girls, (44%) than boys (42%) reported binge-drinking has become a problem to young teens (Alcohol
This same culture also advertizes alcohol as fun and pleasurable through movies and commercials. This kind of culture clash between the negative effects of addiction, and the implied positive effects of alcohol through marketing, can cause both adolescents and adults to misinterpret society’s stance on addiction. It is no wonder that our society has behavioral problems with young adults when the culture that we live in sends mixed messages about its stance on addiction (Zastrow, 2010). To study this effect on our culture we need to look at all approaches to the problem.
In life we sometimes experience cultural differences. In The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan shows how mother daughter relationships are affected by these cultural differences. Therefore each of the mothers and daughters has a different view on their Chinese culture.
The Role of Culture in Shaping us as Individuals Culture has a big impact on how we all fit in as individuals in today’s society, and since this assignment is about that I decided to include some of my own experiences to illustrate my point of view and compare it with those of my classmates and some of the readings. My family and I moved to United States in 1998 from Albania. My parents believed that I and my sister would get a better education here and also it would be useful and interesting to learn another language and its culture.
Every culture has several similarities and differences that impact the way they do things. Several of these cultures have distinct traits and traditions that make them differently from other cultures. I believe these differences make each culture different and unique. The two cultures that I have chosen to compare and contrast with each other is Kenya and India. In this paper I will discuss the similarities and differences in each of the culture’s families in context, marital relationships, and families and aging. These are important aspects of these cultures and to examine them will give me a better knowledge of both of these cultures.
The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition defines Culture as the “shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.” (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition)
Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society. Through culture, people and groups define themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society. Thus, culture includes many societal aspects: language, customs, values, norms, mores, rules, tools, technologies, products, organizations, and institutions. Sociologists define society as the people who interact in such a way as to share a common culture. The term society can also have a geographic meaning and refer to people who share a common culture in a particular location. For example, people living in arctic climates developed different cultures from those living in desert cultures.Culture and society are intricately related. A culture consists of the “objects” of a society, whereas a society consists of the people who share a common culture.
The term “culture” refers to the complex accumulation of knowledge, folklore, language, rules, rituals, habits, lifestyles, attitudes, beliefs, and customs that link and provide a general identity to a group of people. Cultures take a long time to develop. There are many things that establish identity give meaning to life, define what one becomes, and how one should behave.