Reflections on Culture

Reflections on Culture

African clothing is the traditional clothing worn by the peoples of Africa. African clothing and fashion is a diverse topic that is able to provide a look into different African cultures. Clothing varies from brightly colored textiles, to abstractly embroidered robes, to colorful beaded bracelets and necklaces. Since Africa is such a large and diverse continent, traditional clothing differs throughout each country. For example, many countries in West Africa have a "distinct regional dress styles that are the products of long-standing textile crafts in weaving, dyeing, and printing", but these traditions are still able to coexist with western styles. A large contrast in African fashion is between rural and urban societies. Urban societies typically are exposed more to trade and the changing world, while it takes more time for new western trends to get to rural areas. Culture is the beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects shared by a particular people, the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs and also both a bridge to our past and a guide to the future. Subculture refers to cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society’s population. Counter culture refers to cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society. There are five components of culture and they are as following: Material Culture/Technology, symbols, Language, values and Beliefs, Norms. What have you learned about the cultures of the people? I learned that we have different culture and we are unique but we have also similarities and the important thing or action we did is to respect everyone and also we must value our culture. 10 things I learned about culture 1. Honor your past; define your future 2. Net it out: Simple yet strategic 3. You can't fake it 4. Have a purpose-driven mission 5. Make symbolic changes big and small 6. Make it who you are 7. Communicate, communicate, communicate 8. Let technology accelerate the change 9. All oars in the water 10. Stay humble, stay the course How people different and alike? Whether two people are presented as similar or different may have a strong impact on the outcome of their comparison. In the present research, we examined the counterintuitive hypothesis that activating dissimilarity increases the perception of similarities between people, in other words increases perceived feature overlap, during the comparison process. We investigated this prediction by asking people to judge the perceived similarity between two faces with a suboptimally related or unrelated morph inserted in between (to influence joint categorization), and with similar or different facial expressions (to vary the salience of similar or different features). The results confirmed our expectations: In the similarity (joint categorization) condition, two faces that differed in expression were perceived as more dissimilar than faces with the same expression. More important for our prediction, in the dissimilarity condition two faces with different expressions were no longer perceived as more dissimilar than two faces with the same expression. We discuss implications of these findings for the mechanisms underlying comparisons between people. How different/similar are the Filipinos from the rest of the world? I'd say that one thing that separates the Philippines from Asia, is the majority of Pinoy peoples personalities and mannerisms. The Filipino people are extremely unique, not only in Asia, but within the world. They smile at you on the street. They embrace you as family when you visit them or even just carry on a conversation with them. They show positivity and love of life even during the darkest of hours. The Filipino mindset is one of love, and carries in it both traditional and religious values, and a forward looking and joyful outlook. To many Filipinos, “Life is a Party. And if you remember that, it's one that'll never truly end.” A great friend of mine, who happens to be a Filipino herself, told me this, during one of my darkest hours. She grew up in a deeply rooted Filipino family, and has been back to her homeland many times. And I've remembered those words she told me ever since. I think these words express perfectly how beautifully complex, yet simple at the same time, the Filipino people are. Just look at a history, book, and it's easy to see that the Pinoys have had their fair share of collective and individual pain and suffering. From colonization, to Japanese occupation. From wars waged against them, to monthly national disasters. These people know misery. Yet, I and many others see that through our experiences with many kinds of people from many ethnic backgrounds, the Filipinos are some of, if not the most friendly, positive, and helpful people there are. And that's just one of the reasons why the Philippines has my heart. :) “Life is a Party. And if you remember that, it's one that'll never truly end.” Man you will definitely be impressed with the Philippines, it is one of the most spectacular Asian countries and you won’t regret it. One of the few two dominant Catholic Christian states, the Philippines is the only Asian Latinos and thus they are definitely very close to Europe and Latin America! Does culture matter? Why? Culture is how we do our thing. It matters because it defines us. ... Our culture measures our quality of life, our vitality and the health of our society. Through our culture we develop a sense of belonging, personal and cognitive growth and the ability to empathize and relate to each other.