Exploring Cultures: Adapting in a Global WorldChapter 5: Culture, Customs, and Traditions
Jump to section 1: Introduction.Jump to section 2: Critical Thinking and Cultural Comparison.Jump to section 3: Traditions, Customs, and Beliefs.Jump to section 4: “Gate A-4”.Jump to section 5: Kneidler.Jump to section 6: “Fish Cheeks”.Jump to section 7: Connecting Through Customs.Jump to section 8: Chapter in Review.
CHAPTER 5 Culture, Customs, and Traditions
Introduction
In late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. The city was flooded, parts of it were flattened, and the people who had managed to escape were refugees, scattered around the Southeast and beyond. After a month, New Orleans had just begun to reopen to its own people. That was the situation in early October when members of the Black Men of Labor benevolent society stepped out into the street to lead the first post-Katrina jazz funeral procession for famous New Orleans chef Austin Leslie (Anderson, 2005). Over a decade has passed and some of Katrina’s effects still echo in New Orleans, but the second lines are back in full force. The video below shows one example from the 2016 funeral of 90–year-old New Orleans resident Mercedes Stevenson.
POINT TO REMEMBERTraditions like funerals, weddings, and holidays help to strengthen and maintain cultural ties.
The funeral traditions of African American communities in New Orleans are an example of a cultural practice so strong and firmly entrenched that it was one of the first ways a shattered population came back together again. Traditions like funerals, weddings, and holidays help to strengthen and maintain cultural ties, and humans have come up with a spectacular variety of traditions around the country and around the world.
Traditions and Culture
In this chapter we’ll be looking at cultural traditions, customs, and beliefs, exploring diverse cultures through photography and short stories. We will:
· Learn how comparing and contrasting can help you analyze artifacts.
· Engage with stories by Naomi Shihab Nye, Frankie Wallach, and Amy Tan.
· Dxamine the ways people connect through customs like food and clothing.
Let’s start by learning more about a part of critical thinking you’ll need for your second assignment: identifying similarities and differences, also known as comparing and contrasting.
Critical Thinking and Cultural Comparison
Throughout this course, you’ve been engaging with artifacts as a way of expanding your cultural lens and broadening your perspective. At the same time, you’ve been honing your critical thinking skill by following a step-by-step process to analyze each artifact. We’ll be practicing another facet of critical thinking: comparing and contrasting artifacts and cultures, which involves careful consideration of how two things are alike and different. We’ll also review some strategies that can be helpful as you think critically and learn more about values that are different from your own.
Similarities and Differences
When you compare two artifacts, you’re trying to identify how they’re alike and how they’re different. Comparison is a valuable tool to have in your critical thinking toolbox. It can help you make decisions, like what phone to buy or which daycare to choose for your child. It will also help you in school, since many assignments will ask you to compare and contrast things like concepts, events, or strategies. For your second assignment in this course, you will identify similarities and differences between two of the stories you’ve read.
Comparison is a valuable tool, whether choosing which type of peanut butter to purchase or selecting a new school to attend.
When you need to compare and contrast two things, start by deciding on a few specific elements to look at. For something like buying a phone, you might decide to compare cost, data storage, and size. For an assignment asking you to compare two stories, you might decide to compare characters, plot, cultural values, and relevant plot details (for example, the stories in Chapter 4, you would note what decisions the characters made). Focusing your comparison on specific aspects will help you make sure you’re comparing two of the same type of thing–comparing two decisions to see how they differ, for example, instead of trying to compare a decision and a cultural custom. This also helps the task of comparison feel less overwhelming.
Once you’ve decided what to compare and contrast, take notes. A simple chart is a great way to visualize similarities and differences. A chart will also give you a reference as you make your decision, write your essay, or answer your assignment questions.
Critical Thinking Habits
The main way you’re developing your critical thinking skill in this course is by using a step-by-step process to analyze artifacts. As we just discussed, sometimes your artifact analysis will involve aspects of critical thinking like comparing and contrasting. Whatever form it takes, critical thinking can help you see the perspective of others; it can help you understand your own culture, and other cultures, more deeply.
In many ways, critical thinking is a process of staying curious about the world around you. It helps you discover what you don’t know and figure out what questions you need to ask, which is a valuable part of learning. As you continue to learn about diverse cultural perspectives, here are a few habits or strategies that will help you remember to think critically and stay open to new ideas:
· Ask questions: Don’t just accept what you think you know. Ask yourself how you know it. There’s always more to learn.
· Question assumptions: As you explore your own cultural lens, you’ll identify your own core assumptions. Question your assumptions and be on the lookout for other people’s. Make sure your assumptions are supported by facts and line up with your values.
· Examine other points of view: As you learn more about other cultures, it can help to try to see the world through the eyes of someone whose experiences, beliefs, and values are different from your own.
· Gather information: Look for information from reputable sources. When you’re learning more about a new culture, listen to voices from the culture itself. Stay open to information that might contradict your own assumptions. Explore authors or ideas you find interesting.
Remember, critical thinking is a skill that enhances every aspect of your life. At work, it can help you prioritize projects and identify innovative solutions to problems. At home, it can help you figure out the pros and cons for important decisions (or even less important ones, like which shoes to wear). And at school, critical thinking helps with everything from time management to the analytical habits that will help you write effective papers.
In the next section, we’ll practice some of these critical thinking habits as we look at beliefs, customs, and traditions in different cultures.
Traditions, Customs, and Beliefs
In this chapter, we’re focusing on traditions, customs, and beliefs. These are three important—and closely related—aspects of culture. Traditions keep families and communities connected. Customs provide shared ways of behaving, working, and even celebrating milestones. And our core beliefs structure how we see the world around us and connect closely with our cultural values. Let’s look at each aspect more closely.
Traditions
Traditions are ways of thinking and doing things that are passed down through generations—and in this more general sense, the category of traditions includes both customs and beliefs. When we think of specific traditions, though, we might think of annual holidays, or about how a family or a culture celebrates milestones like weddings or funerals.
Dyeing eggs to celebrate Easter is an example of a tradition.
Traditions are ways of thinking and doing things that are passed down through generations—and in this more general sense, the category of traditions includes both customs and beliefs. When we think of specific traditions, though, we might think of annual holidays, or about how a family or a culture celebrates milestones like weddings or funerals.
Think about what traditions are important to you. They might be holiday traditions that many others in your culture celebrate, like Easter, Passover, or Eid al-Fitr. They might be smaller family traditions, like getting ice cream cones every year on the last day of school. Whether they’re big or small, traditions are an important aspect of a culture. By looking closely at traditions, we can often identify key cultural values.
Customs
Waving when you see someone you know, celebrating your birthday by blowing out candles on a cake, including a cover letter with your résumé when you apply for a job—these are all customs that are specific to particular cultures. Customs are ways of behaving that are expected of people in a society.
Waving to greet someone is an example of a custom specific to certain cultures.
Customs, at least in the sense we’re talking about here, aren’t laws. But each culture has accepted ways of doing things, and customs can be some of the most immediately apparent differences between two cultures. Even eating, one of the most basic human activities, is full of customs. The utensils you use to pick up food, whether food is served communally or individually, and whether a particular person must begin eating first are just a few of the cultural customs in play during a meal. The food itself—what it is and how it’s cooked—is also an important cultural custom, and one we’ll be returning to later in this chapter.
Beliefs
Chances are, you hold some beliefs that help you make sense of the world you live in. These might be religious beliefs, involving the role of divine power in the universe. They might be beliefs involving laws of the natural world—when you let go of a pencil, it’s going to fall to the ground every single time. You probably hold many different beliefs, ranging from superstitions to political ideals.
You may have been raised to believe that people should help others by volunteering.
Some beliefs come from family. You may have been raised to believe that people should help others who are in need, for example, and that might be a belief that you still hold as an adult. Education and personal experiences then shape and change the beliefs you grew up with. For example, although you may have grown up believing that children should always follow their parents’ authority, when you have children of your own and read about parenting strategies, your beliefs about child-rearing may change.
Connecting with Cultures
Why is it important to learn about cultural beliefs, customs, and traditions? For one thing, they can provide a window into cultural values. Elaborate graduation celebrations, for example, might signal a culture that values education. Wearing specific items of clothing due to religious beliefs might signal a culture that values spiritual devotion.
Learning more about the cultural values and traditions of people around you is another way of widening your cultural lens. When you know more about customs, you may feel more comfortable around people whose behavior seems unfamiliar or strange to you. And knowing that each culture—including your own!—has particular customs can help build empathy for people who are navigating a culture with customs that are different. As the workplace and the wider world become more globally connected, we have the opportunity to engage with people of different cultural backgrounds. If you stay open to learning new things, you’ll see cultural similarities and differences as an opportunity to build new connections with the people around you.
In the next section, you’ll read some background information about your first artifact of the chapter—a narrative or story poem titled “Gate A-4.” When you get to the story, see if you can identify any traditions, customs, or beliefs displayed by the main characters.
“Gate A-4”
Preview “Gate A-4”
Your first story this is in the form of a narrative poem. Written in 2008, the poem describes the experiences of two women who are both waiting for the same delayed flight from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to El Paso, Texas. Cultural differences play a role in the poem, but so do cultural connections. Remember, your first step for engaging with a new story is to preview it. Start by reading some background about the author.
Story Background
“Gate A-4” was written by Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952), an award-winning Arab-American poet, essayist, and educator. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and divided her time growing up between Texas and Palestine. She has undertaken cultural missions to the Middle East and Asia on behalf of the United States Information Agency to encourage international unity through the arts. Currently she lives in San Antonio, Texas, and teaches creative writing at Texas State University (Barclay Agency, n.d.).
Now that you’ve previewed the text and started building your notes, it’s time to read “Gate A-4.” Remember, these artifacts feature cultural customs and traditions, so keep an eye out for the role they play in the story.
Now that you’ve previewed Naomi Shihab Nye’s narrative poem, it’s time to read. As you read, remember to look for the topic of customs and traditions. What customs or traditions can you identify in the story? How do they help the characters connect with one another?
Read “Gate A-4”
Tips for Reading: Just as you did with the stories from Chapter 4, take a moment to focus your attention before you start reading. Find your quiet place or put your headphones on, and try to minimize distractions. As you read, notice how the poem makes you feel.
Before you continue, read “Gate A-4” by Naomi Shihab Nye in the courseroom. Return to this chapter after you have studied this artifact.
Mamool is a traditional Middle Eastern pastry or cookie that can be made with dates, figs, pistachios, walnuts, and occasionally almonds.
Summarize the Story
Now that you’ve finished “Gate A-4,” pause for a moment to think about what you read. Notice how you’re feeling. Look back at the highlights and notes you made while you were reading. Then build your summary by answering the questions below.
Now that you’ve summarized the story, your next step is to interpret its meaning and consider your connections with it. Questions on the next page will walk you through the rest of your analysis.
Analyze “Gate A-4”
Once you’ve noted what happens in the story, it’s time to dig deeper with the Interpret and Connect steps. Start by interpreting: What theme or main idea can you identify in the story? What do you think the author meant to communicate—is this story meant to teach a lesson or change your mind about something? What details in the story back up your interpretation?
Interpret It
When you interpret the story, you’re thinking about its meaning, and also thinking about how the author’s choices about elements like plot or symbolism help to communicate that meaning to readers. Remember that it’s important to back up your interpretation with evidence from the story, just as you did when you interpreted art and music.
Connect with the Story
Now it’s time to connect with the story. Think about the customs and traditions in the story, and what cultural values you could identify. Then consider how they connect—or don’t connect—with your own. Finally, reflect on how your cultural perspective influenced your response to the story.
Next, we’re going to watch a short film that will help us think more closely about a key aspect of culture: food.
Kneidler
Preview Kneidler
Our next story is a short film featuring a grandmother and granddaughter sharing cultural traditions through food.
Before we find out more about the film, let’s pause to consider food as an element of culture. Earlier in the chapter we described a few of the many cultural customs present in a single meal, from how the food is served to how it gets picked up. All cultures have unique foodways, a term which includes the types of food eaten, the methods of food preparation, and even the table manners expected when food is served. Studying foodways can often provide insight into cultural values, and foodways—like other customs and traditions—can be used to strengthen community relationships and mark important events.
Film Background
The Grandmas Project is a web series that invites young filmmakers to create an eight-minute film featuring their own grandmother cooking or explaining a significant recipe (Grandmas Project, n.d.). The Grandmas Project is the brainchild of French filmmaker Jonas Pariente. Pariente came up with the idea after filming each of his grandmothers as a way of preserving “both the diversity and the unity found within my two different heritages” (My Beautiful Europe, 2018). Frankie Wallach is the filmmaker and actress credited with this entry, Kneidler, from 2017. Wallach is from France, and her grandmother Julia is a Polish Holocaust survivor (Grandmas Project, n.d.).
In Kneidler, you will meet 93-year-old Julia Wallach and her granddaughter, Frankie (who is 23 and, as you just read, the creator of this film). Kneidler, also known as matzo balls, are a traditional Jewish recipe often made for the Passover holiday (Marks, 1999). The dish has symbolic value for the Jewish community due to its use of matzo meal, or crumbs from unleavened bread—an important part of Passover beliefs and traditions. As you watch the film, try to identify particular customs and traditions that Julia and Frankie share. What role do foodways and other family traditions play in the episode? Consider how alike or different your culture’s foodways are from the ones shown in Kneidler.
Tips for Viewing:Just as you did with the short film, take a moment to focus yourself. Find your quiet place or put your headphones on. When you watch the video, expand it to the full-screen view if possible. As you watch, notice how the film makes you feel. Jot down notes to help you remember your thoughts and impressions about the story.
This film is in French with English subtitles. Click the gear symbol at the bottom of the player to open settings on the YouTube player, then choose English from the subtitle/CC options.
Before you continue, view Kneidler in the courseroom. Return to this chapter after you have studied this artifact.
Watch Kneidler
By Frankie Wallach
Now that you’ve watched Kneidler, it may help to read a little more context about a key detail of the film. Julia Wallach is a survivor of the Holocaust, which took place in Europe during World War II. The Holocaust resulted from the efforts of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis to systematically imprison and kill populations they believed were racially inferior (Taylor, 2011). These efforts focused particularly on Jews, and included dehumanizing propaganda campaigns, laws that deprived Jews of property and basic rights, imprisonment in concentration camps, and mass executions. Historians estimate that the Nazis killed nearly 6 million Jews before their defeat in 1945 (Taylor, 2011). When Julia Wallach refers to peeling potatoes in “the camps,” she is remembering her time in concentration camps; the number that she shows Frankie on her arm was tattooed there by the Nazis to identify her.
Summarize the Story
Pause now for a moment to think about the film you just watched. Notice how you’re feeling. Look back at any notes you made during the film.
Analyze Kneidler
Now it’s time for the Interpret and Connect steps. Start by interpreting: What theme or main idea can you identify in the film? What do you think the writer and director meant to communicate—is this film meant to teach a lesson or change your mind about something? What details in the story back up your interpretation?
Interpret the Meaning
Remember, when you interpret the story, you’re thinking about its meaning, and also about how the author’s choices about elements like plot or symbolism help to communicate that meaning to readers. Remember that it’s important to back up your interpretation with evidence from the story, just as you did when you interpreted art and music.
Connect with the Story
Now it’s time to connect with the film and the story it tells. Think about the values you can identify in the characters’ actions or decisions. Then consider how they connect—or don’t connect—with your own. Finally, reflect on how your cultural perspective influenced your response to the film.
“Fish Cheeks”
Preview “Fish Cheeks”
Now it’s time to read a short story in which cultural foodways play a key role: Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks.” Take a moment first to preview it by reading some background information about the author and the story.
Story Background
“Fish Cheeks” is a 1987 personal essay by Amy Tan (b. 1952), an acclaimed Chinese American writer. After college, Tan initially worked as a technical writer, but quickly found success as a novelist. Her novels and writing often focus on the immigrant experience of Chinese American families, particularly children of immigrants facing generational and cultural conflicts, and they are popular in many cultures around the world. She often focuses on the inner lives of multigenerational women–mothers and daughters and their conflicted interactions. “Fish Cheeks” was originally published in Seventeen magazine in 1987 (Tikkanen, 2020).
Now you’re ready to read the final story of this chapter. Remember, this chapter’s topic is customs and traditions. As you read, notice how the narrator’s family customs and traditions affect her point of view. Consider how this is similar to—or different from—the role of customs and traditions in the other stories you’ve read or watched.
Tips For Reading: Read and summarize your next story, “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan. You can find the link to this short story in the courseroom. Return to this chapter when you’re done.
Summarize the Story
You’ve just read Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks.” Pause for a moment to think about the story. Notice how you’re feeling. Look back at the highlights and notes you made while you were reading.
Your next step is to interpret its meaning and consider your connections with it. Questions on the next page will walk you through the rest of your analysis.
Analyze “Fish Cheeks”
Now it’s time for the Interpret and Connect steps. Start by interpreting: What theme or main idea can you identify in the story? What do you think the author meant to communicate–is this story meant to teach a lesson or change your mind about something? What details in the story back up your interpretation?
Interpret the Meaning
Remember, when you interpret the story, you’re thinking about its meaning, and also thinking about how the author’s choices about elements like plot or symbolism help to communicate that meaning to readers. Remember that it’s important to back up your interpretation with evidence from the story, just as you did when you interpreted art and music.
Before you continue, read “Fish Cheeks” in the courseroom. Return to this chapter after you have studied this artifact.
Connect with the Story
Now it’s time to connect with the story. Think about the values you can identify in the character’s actions or decisions. Then consider how they connect—or don’t connect—with your own. Finally, reflect on how your cultural perspective influenced your response to the story.
Connecting Through Customs
In this chapter, you’ve engaged with stories that feature people connecting through customs and traditions they share. In “Gate A-4,” for example, the narrator is able to connect with the older woman through shared language, and also through cultural practices that remind her of her own family, like carrying a plant on a journey. All three stories this chapter involved food, so let’s take a moment to note the role played by foodways—that is, a culture’s eating habits and cooking practices—in the stories.
Food as Connection
As we just discussed, the two main characters in Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Gate A-4” connect in a few different ways. As they wait for the delayed flight toward the poem’s end, though, food helps to connect them with the other women at gate A-4. They share traditional Palestinian cookies, and in doing so they connect with one another despite their differences. Everyone is covered in powdered sugar by the time they board their flight!
In Kneidler, traditions of food and cooking again help to strengthen bonds, this time between two generations in the same family. As Julia Wallach shows her granddaughter Frankie how to make chicken soup, she also shares stories of her life, including her time in a concentration camp. This helps to ensure that both the recipes and the stories carry on in their family and in their culture.
In “Fish Cheeks,” Chinese American foodways serve as a mark of difference as well as connection. The family’s foodways—both the food itself and the accepted way of eating it—make the narrator feel different from their Christmas Eve guests. But the strength of those foodways is part of how her family maintains its cultural identity.
Foodways, of course, are just one of many customs and traditions that help connect and strengthen cultures. We’ve seen others in the stories we’ve read so far, even in the previous chapter—think of the funeral practices in “The Man to Send Rain Clouds,” or of how unusual it was in “Olikoye” for the narrator to want to give her child a name from a different ethnic group.
Clothing is also often an important cultural custom and tradition. Let’s look next at clothing as a way of expressing cultural beliefs, customs, and traditions.
Tips For Reading: Once again, take a moment to focus your attention before you start reading. Find your quiet place or put your headphones on, and try to minimize distractions. As you read, notice how the story makes you feel.
Clothing as Culture
Like food, clothing is something that serves a physical need—we need to stay warm and protect our skin, just as we need to fuel our bodies with food and water. But clothing is also part of cultural customs and traditions, and an indicator of belonging to a particular group. It plays a role in many religious traditions, such as the vestments worn by Roman Catholic priests or the hijab worn by many Muslim women. And while people all around the world now often wear jeans and t-shirts, most cultures still have traditional dress that helps them maintain and transmit a cultural identity. The narrator of “Gate A-4,” for example, feels immediately connected to the old woman because she’s dressed in the same way as her Palestinian grandmother. And in “Fish Cheeks,” Amy Tan vividly remembers wanting the miniskirt that would help her fit in with her peers.
Mixing Cultures
One of the beauties of our diverse and increasingly global world is being able to engage with many cultures, not just our own. We can listen to music made in Mali on our way to pickup takeout Thai noodles, which we can eat while we watch a TV show made in Ireland. We can wear jewelry or sandals that have their origins in cultures other than our own. And, as we’re doing in this course, we can engage with the artifacts of different cultures as a way of trying to understand our fellow humans better.
Even while we’re exploring other cultures, though, it’s important to avoid cultural appropriation. This may be a term you’re already familiar with. It’s been a hot-button issue in recent years–for example, in cases where white recording artists have profited from dance moves created by Black performers (Berlatsky, 2015). Other cases involve chefs opening restaurants or publishing recipes without giving credit to the cultural traditions those foods come from (Cheung, 2015).
Essentially, cultural appropriation involves taking aspects of someone else’s culture and claiming them as your own. One way to avoid it is to remember what you’ve learned in school: Cite your sources! When you borrow from other cultures, acknowledge the traditions that produced what you borrow. It’s also critically important to remember that one culture’s sacred object or religious signifier, whether it’s a Native American headdress or a Sikh turban, shouldn’t be used by someone who isn’t a part of that tradition–and most definitely shouldn’t be worn as a costume (Avins, 2015).
Respect is the key as you engage with other cultures. Whether you’re in the workplace, at school, or out exploring the world, remember to respect the people you meet–along with their customs, beliefs, and traditions.
Chapter 5 in Review
In this chapter you explored beliefs, customs, and traditions—all vitally important parts of any culture. Our beliefs help us make sense of the world and guide us in our interactions with it. Our traditions help us stay connected to the generations before and after us. And our customs provide shared actions and ways of behaving that help us communicate with one another. When we learn more about these aspects of cultures other than our own, we open ourselves to a broader understanding of the world.
Here’s a roundup of what you learned:
· Read about beliefs, customs, and traditions.
· Developed your problem solving skill by considering the importance of comparing and contrasting as part of critical thinking.
· Engaged with stories featuring beliefs, traditions, and customs from diverse cultures.
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