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/
