Looking in Depth. On Culture.

Essay by riz95695A+, September 2002

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Looking in Depth

There are hundreds and thousands of cultures around the world. It is interesting to see similarities among people from different countries, different cultures, different religions, and different backgrounds. Many different cultures may exist in one country. For example in Pakistan, there are only four states, but many different cultures. There are Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, and many more. But when we come to see the similarities in those culture and what we can learn about ourselves it is shocking.

So far we have looked into three different cultures in this class. First we looked at the article of Laura Bohannan, "Shakespeare In the Bush. We looked at the Tiv culture and what do we learned from them. It is interesting to find about ourselves when experience a different culture. Especially a culture that is not in the same country but far away from our own. When Laura Bohannan told the story of Shakespeare to the Tiv culture, they basically tore the story apart.

Asking her questions that she had no answer to and making predictions about the story. Laura Bohannan protested that human nature is pretty much the same the whole world over, but she was shocked when she found out that in their culture there is no idea of after-life and especially a ghost who can walk and talk. In the article, the idea of elders knowing more was also very convincing. This is true in most cultures. When Laura was unable to answer some of the questions the Tiv elders said go back and ask your elders about it. In a Pakistani culture we believe that as well. Whenever something is not right or we do not understand what to do in a situation, we ask our elders. The reason that elders know is...