Reflective Writing I

Initially, I thought terms like “culture” and “society” were extremely abstract and broad concepts, and hard to define. Now they are still broad concepts but I have a better understanding of them.

“Culture” might seem to be abstract at first because, in my opinion, we are not aware of it. One definition of culture given by Ryan (2010) is “the practices in which we engage” (p. ix). Thus, we actually practice our culture every day but do it unconsciously. However, still, culture is hard to discover because we are so used to it that we take it for granted. Only when we are in a different culture will we notice our own culture (Ryan, 2010). As I observed, many photos tagged #CLSYmyculture are about what people do, the traditions, values and beliefs, and their multicultural backgrounds. What caught my attention is that people having multicultural backgrounds all express their appreciation of different cultures and the importance of their home countries’ cultures to them after they have experienced different cultures. They are also determined to pass on those cultures, which is a huge blessing to humans. However, the contents of the photos including mine could be much deeper such as describing thought patterns, the unconscious part of culture proposed in Edward T. Hall’s Cultural Iceberg Model (as cited in Constant Foreigner, 2010). The lack of photos like this might indicate we are still not well aware of our thought patterns because they are hard to discover if we do not “actively participate” in another culture (Constant Foreigner, 2010).

When I was choosing my photo for identity, I tried to show my uniqueness. However, the identity I finally chose to show is a photo of my mother and me. I identify myself as my mother’s daughter. To me, this is not unique enough because almost every girl would identify herself as her mother’s daughter. Later I realized what makes me unique is the combination of different forms of identity that are “additive”, “interactive”, and “mutually constitutive” (Lawler, 2008, p.3). This interesting combination shapes who I am now.

Many people posted photos about their family history or historical events on human rights. I found one thought-provoking post by Andy Hipkiss (2016). He writes, “This is why it is more important when I was born than where.” Personally, I see both “when” and “where” we were born important. However, he emphasizes “when” because in his case, music and art were used in a different way during Thatcher’s power. This implies subcultures might exist in different generations. Things are employed differently at different times. That is probably one of the factors in the formation of generation gaps.

Many people, including me, show their support toward certain human right or share protests where people stand up for their own rights. Kaleeya (2016), however, raises a question about who has these rights. Why does New Zealand government cater to the demand of immigrants without taking care of its people’s rights? Conflicts among human rights are also noted by Professor McGregor (2016) in the video. She asks what we should do if two kinds of human rights collide. I believe everyone should have the rights stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). However, how to realize it satisfactorily is what we should keep improving.

References

AUT Culture & Society S2 2016. (2016). Photo board posts [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from https://plus.google.com/communities/115070865568199414987/stream/86bb61c3-b812-4429-8b60-49999ea0d827

Corfield, P. J. (2008). All people are living histories – which is why History matters. Making History. Retrieved from http://www.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/resources/articles/why_history_matters.html

Hall, Edward T. (1976). Cultural Iceberg Model. In Constant Foreigner (2010), Edward T. Hall’s Cultural Iceberg Model. Retrieved from www.constantforeigner.com

Hipkiss, Andy. (2016, July 22). Personal culture [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from https://plus.google.com/111555950457483636511/posts/cm8WUefxWRF

Lawler, S. (2008). Introduction: identity as a question. In Identity: Sociological perspectives. Malden, MA: Polity, pp. 1-9.

Matai, Kaleeya. (2016, August 15). Human rights [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from https://plus.google.com/114076530247763621267/posts/enJPFBmErLq

McGregor, Judi. (2016, March 13). Human Rights [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOINWcHoI4s

Ryan, M. (2010). Preface. In Cultural studies: A practical introduction. Hoboken: Wiley, pp. viii-xii.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (1948). Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/