Experiencing a Different Culture, a Blended Culture, and Your Own Culture
Experiencing a Different Culture, a Blended Culture, and Your Own Culture
Many of us have interacted with other cultures—either through class discussions, work experience, or assimilation. Others often see us as representatives of America, even if we, ourselves, do not. In this unit, we will consider what it means to be “American,” along with how we perceive other cultures.
In their essays, Amparo B. Ojeda and Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel analyze the American values of independence and individuality. Stephen Chapman, Piers Hernu, and Elizabeth W. and Robert A. Fernea, on the other hand, encourage readers to view cultural practices from multi-faceted perspectives.
Let us begin with Amparo B. Ojeda’s essay, “Growing up American: Doing the Right Thing.” Born and raised in the Philippines, Amparo B. Ojeda was raised in a culture where children did not interrupt adults or refer to them by their first names.
In America, however, things are different. Inspired by egalitarianism and independence, American parents, Amparo observes, allow their children to enter adult conversations and choose their own food (even if they do not finish everything on their plates). Americans, she hypothesizes, foster independence at the expense of strongly held Filipino values, like respecting elders and authority. In addition, Ojeda suggests, Americans value egalitarianism. As a result, their children address adults by their first names, rather than with formal titles, like children in the Philippines do.
Raising her daughter in the United States, Ojeda struggled with how “American” she wanted to raise her. Throughout her daughter’s childhood, she found herself “straddling between two cultures.” Many of the American mothers she knew, for example, allowed their children to walk to school alone and drive during their teenage years. Ojeda’s hesitancy to allow her own daughter to engage in such activities caused some American parents to view Ojeda as controlling and reprimanding. “Because of the American emphasis on self-reliance and independence,” she writers, “relationships between the children and the (Asian) Filipino mother are often perceived as overprotective.”
In her essay “Individualism as an American Cultural Value,” Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel expresses a similar sentiment. Upon arriving in America she realized that the perfunctory American greeting “How are you?” is not meant to be answered at length, if at all. Certainly, according to Natadecha-Sponsel, Americans do not really expect others to listen to the answers. “We became very disappointed when we have had enough experience in the United States to learn that we have bored, amused, or even frightened many of our American acquaintances by taking the greeting ‘How are you?’ so literally.” She explains that when asked that question in Thailand, a detailed explanation is in order.
Natadecha-Sponsel believes that Americans offer this superficial response because they value privacy, an extension of individualism. Throughout her essay, Natadecha-Sponsel comments extensively on the American value of privacy and cites her initial surprise after experiencing a surface openness and friendliness of college graduate school classmates, which was limited to the life of the class.
In addition to valuing privacy, Americans, Natadecha-Sponsel notes, value independence. When children are growing up, she observes, they are “taught to become progressively independent, both emotionally and economically, from their family.” Many American households, she explains, provide separate bedrooms for each child. Thai children, on the other hand, are strongly bonded within an extended family and separate bedrooms for each child are not given until the child graduates high school or a vacancy is provided when an older sibling moves out to get married. Natadecha-Sponsel further exemplifies her point with an anecdote about an American baby who fell during an attempt to walk at a college-sponsored camp. In this case, Natadecha-Sponsel explains, all Asian students, male and female, ran to help, but the parents urged them to leave the baby alone. The American predilection to let a child “cry it out” may be another example of what she sees as the early teaching of independence, part of the American value system.
For Natadecha-Sponsel, Americans’ value of independence colors much of what they do, from the way food is eaten (not shared) to the way even the wealthy urge their children to work while in school, and the need to bribe American children to help around the house. As Natadecha-Sponsel explains, much of this emphasis on independence contrasts with Thai culture, tradition, and values. According to Natadecha-Sponsel, in Thailand, children of school age do not work unless needed to help maintain a home, however, after graduating they are expected to help support aging parents (this is in contrast to the American family she describes who hire a nurse to care for an aging grandmother, despite the fact that both the daughter and adult granddaughter live close by).
While Ojeda and Natadecha-Sponsel’s essays communicate American values through outsiders’ perspectives, the unit’s other essays encourage Americans to view cultural practices through a perspective other than their own.
Growing up in America, many of us heard of the “horrors” that occurred in other countries. In the Mid-East, for example, we were told that authorities cut off people’s hands for stealing.
In his essay, “The Prisoner’s Dilemma,” Stephen Chapman argues that America’s legal consequences, particularly its prison system, may not be less barbaric than Mid-Eastern ones.
While criminals in the Mid-East suffer public floggings, whippings, and amputations, American prisoners confront overcrowded, “unsanitary” cells “and poor or inadequate medical care.” One Tennessee prison, for example, had the capacity to house 806 inmates but housed 2300 instead. According to Chapman, the American prison system houses petty criminals, like George Jackson who was incarcerated for twelve years for committing a $70 armed robbery, with felons. This, he suggests, makes it difficult for criminals to “reform.” “Would you rather,” Chapman asks, “be subjected to a few minutes of intense pain and considerable public humiliation, or to be locked away for two or three years in a prison cell crowded with ill-tempered sociopaths?”
In contrast to the American and the Mid-Eastern prison systems, Piers Hernu’s “Norway’s Ideal Prison,” discusses Bastoy, an open prison where inmates swim, hike, and relax in saunas.
Many Americans believe that one of the prison’s main purposes is to deter. Spending time on an island where prisoners are, more or less, free (though they work from 2:30-8:30 and drinking, violence and drugs lead to solitary confinement) does not seem like an effective strategy. Bastoy, however, is based on psychological, sociological, and ecological principles. Its prison governor is trained in the Gestalt school, which emphasizes personal responsibility.
Perhaps this is part of Bastoy’s effectiveness. While Americans, like the British, would probably argue for harsher punishments, Bastoy has the lowest recidivism rate in Europe. “For the first time in my life,” a Bastoy inmate explains, “I feel motivated and I believe in myself—and I really believe I can break my circle of crime.”
Finally, let’s discuss Elizabeth W. and Robert A. Fernea’s “A Look Behind the Veil.” The Western world often considers the veil an instrument of female oppression. According to the French ethnologist Germaine Tillion “The feminine veil has become a symbol; that of the slavery of one portion of humanity.”
But, as the Iraqi feminist Basima Bezirgan explains, “Compared to the real issues that are involved between men and women in the Middle East today, the veil is unimportant.”
To a large extent, the veil represents Middle Eastern gender dynamics. Many believe that it protects women from covetous eyes—and protecting women in Mid-Eastern society is about more than ensuring their safety. “A man’s honor,” the Ferneas explain “Is a public matter, involving bravery, hospitality, and piety . . . the honor of a woman ‘ard is a private matter, involving only one thing, her sexual chastity.” In Middle Eastern culture honor is not a personal matter. Unlike America, which prioritizes the individual (as Ojeda and Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel explain) Middle Eastern culture emphasizes the group. A dishonored individual dishonors his/her family.
In order to fully understand the role the veil plays in Mid-Eastern society, we need to understand how Mid-Easterners’ perception of gender differs from Westerners’ perspectives of it. While Western society has, for the past few decades, been trying to equalize genders, “In Middle Eastern societies,” the Ferneas explains, “feminine and masculine continue to be strong polarities of identification.”
Whether you identify as American or not, this unit’s readings have hopefully encouraged you to view cultures through non-American perspectives. Experiencing a Different Culture, a Blended Culture, and Your Own Culture
In this unit, students will analyze cultures from an outsider’s perspective.
Unit 6 Learning Outcomes
Through this unit, students will be able to:
- define the terms “xenophobia” and “blended culture”.
- recognize the cultural diversity of the United States as well as comment on whether there is a national culture and value system.
- examine and analyze the challenges of assimilating to another culture while maintaining/honoring one’s culture of origin.
- assess xenophobia and the challenges of examining other cultures and value systems.
- compare their own definitions of personal culture and moral, philosophical, and esthetic values.
Activities
READINGS
Read from the textbook:
Hirschberg, Stuart and Hirschberg, Terry. One World, Many Cultures. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2018.
Amparo B. Ojeda’s “Growing up American: Doing the Right Thing” (p. 234)
Stephen Chapman’s “The Prisoner’s Dilemma” (pg. 256)
Piers Hernu’s “Norway’s Ideal Prison” (pg. 264)
Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel “Individualism as an American Cultural Value” (pg. 272)
Elizabeth W. and Robert A. Fernea’s “A Look Behind the Veil” (pg. 280)
Read Unit 6 LectureAmerica is often referred to as “the melting pot.,” a metaphor for assimilation. Define assimilation and explain the benefits and challenges of assimilating into another culture? Respond in a 600-word essay, using MLA format, text readings, and two outside sources to support your points.
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