Essay On Cultural Diversity

Human culture is a very diverse element of humanity. It has a variety of different building blocks that create the full meaning of the term. It involves aspects such as food, customs, music, language, and art. Similar patterns of culture form groups of people with common beliefs and lifestyles known as societies or communities. Culture can vary based on location of the society and the history of how the culture arose. Culture is constantly changing in so many ways and controversy arises between these societies with different views. In Barbara Gallatin Anderson’s book, Around the World in 30 Years, and several of the case studies the class has discussed this year, these diverse cultures were closely analyzed and the problems that arose from

Its purpose is so much bigger than just its presence and ability to make the world a more unique place. Its necessary for the survival of humanity as a whole. “As a source of exchange, innovation and creativity, cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature (“Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity”)”. This means that diversity is needed for the continued exchange of ideas to allow the steady developments consistent with the world today. An example of this would be the people of the rainforests, such as the Tiriyo people of Suriname, that are slowly trickling away. These people have a vast knowledge of plants in the Amazon that are used for medical drugs today. There are still so many other plants whose uses have not been discovered yet. The continued destruction of the rainforests destroys these undiscovered plants as well. The people of rainforest have knowledge passed down for centuries that is slowly dying out with them and the decades of people to come will never have this knowledge (Murray, Topic 10). The world relies on constant innovation for its growing population and demands. Cultures around the world are the sources for this continued innovation. People living in different environments with different needs and varying backgrounds are all responsible for the different tools and inventions that are used today. Without these different cultures new tools and new

Some of the more noted subfields are linguistic anthropology, physical anthropology, and archaeology. Looking at the subject of study through all of these different subfields is part of the process of analyzing subjects with an holistic perspective. This means that one looks at the whole picture rather than just the individual parts. “It is the ways in which all these aspects are integrated, the elegant ways in which they influence one another, that exemplifies Anthropology’s holistic perspective (Peters-Golden).” One of the more interesting parts of the holistic approach to me would be the Archaeological side. I found it fascinating when the class discussed all of the information and history recovered from finding the remains of items such as pots and tools once used. So many conclusions can be drawn from the simplest of materials recovered and I think thats what amazes me the most about the subject. In conclusion, all of the aspects of Anthropology are vital to fulfill a holistic study of a subject. Studying societies as a whole allows for the diversity of people to be more clearly seen. As controversial as it can be, diversity of culture is not only what makes the world so colorful and interesting, but its also what drives development and