I asked 3 people to define culture and diversity
My Mother
Culture: The unique practices of people making them different from another group.
Diversity: Melting pot of peoples, whose ideas and cultures are different from one another.
My Father
Culture: The norms and practices of a group of people.
Diversity: Involving people of different races, nationality and people.
My Partner
Your surrounding community that influences your thoughts and beliefs.
The things about you that make you stand out from the normal culture but allow you to be a part of it.
My definition of culture
I have come to understand through my recent course work and reflection.
Culture is the unconscious rules that guide us (each individual human) in everything we do. It is our way of being in the world and is derived from all the interactions of our life.
Diversity: All the individuals of the world because no two people are the same.
When I consider the various definitions of culture and diversity from the people I asked, I have noticed that all the definitions of culture appear go beyond just surface culture. No one has chosen to define culture through food, music, or holidays specifically. My parents both considered both culture and diversity as it relates to groups not individuals. My partner's definitions both include reference to individuals not groups.
I believe the largest omission in all the definitions is the depth of where culture comes from. That is not just our family or community or race or ethnicity or religion or sexual orientation or our hobbies or economic status or education or our abilities or our geographic home or our customs or our job but all that and more that create our culture. It is so broad it is almost impossible to describe.
In the last three weeks I have spent an enormous amount of time thinking about culture and diversity. I have arrived at a fairly comprehensive definition of both with the help of the experts we have heard speak and material we have read. I am sure that my definitions still have room to grow. What I have come to discover is that in order to understand culture and diversity you must dedicate time to really reflect and think about it from your personal perspective and beyond.
Have the definitions that you got changed the way that you view culture or diversity?
ReplyDeleteHi Betsey, I find it quite interesting that no one in your family define culture as being in a group and not as food or holidays etc. This goes to show that most of us only know a broad definition of culture. It is great that we are taking this course because we can all give others a clear understanding of what culture really means. I enjoyed reading your post and I look forward to reading more of them and getting to know you more through them.
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