Keri Higginbotham

ASL 3310
01/16/2022
What is Culture?
Have you ever thought about something for so long you forget what it means?
Say a word so many times and it becomes foreign? When I think about culture and what it
means the definition that comes to mind is not one cited in the dictionary. To me culture
explains itself within labels, and gives rise to forethought stigmas.
"Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language,
marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table, how we greet
visitors, how we behave with loved ones and a million other things," Cristina De Rossi, an
anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London, told Live Science. I stated previously
that culture explains itself within labels. How I came to this conclusion is when talking with
others around me, there was some sort of label placed on the aspects of culture. Do we fall
under the “southern” label for living in Alabama, eating foods like collard greens and black eyed
peas? For some this is just what their culture states but for others not in that label, that meal
may seem very odd. Personally, I do not eat those foods. By doing a self analysis, I would not
place myself under the label of “southern” outside of where it is I reside. I would place myself
simply in American culture. Meaning I enjoy freedoms such as whom I can marry, what clothes I
can wear, what job I can hold, etc. There are many different labels and boxes I can place myself
into, and as I grow and learn these labels and boxes will change or expand. That in itself is one
of the many advantages of American culture.
With whatever culture a person identifies with, labels themselves as, comes plenty of
stigmas. If I were to tell someone from New York City that I was raised in Alabama, most likely
they would think negatively about me from the start. This is cultural bias. Negativity and hate
can be spread so easily that it takes one time to hear one bad story from the news, or read an
article that happened within a certain culture and thus the cultural bias is born. We have seen
this many times, most recently with Asian cultures and it is an unfortunate sad phenomenon.
Being open minded, I feel, would help lessen these biases and help transform it into acceptance
and understanding. The world is made up of different cultures because cultures encompass so
many aspects of life. Sharing experiences, stories, foods, clothes, and knowledge to strike
understanding is a wonderful thing.
Culture is the umbrella term for a group of people who share the same beliefs, foods,
language, clothes, and many other things. Culture is different in every part of the world and they
are all unique. If everyone was the exact same, the world would surely be boring. Though
cultural bias does exist, sharing these cultures will lead to more understanding. Being a part of
American culture I can enjoy many freedoms, which is a driving force in this culture. One aspect
of this culture is the use of labels identifying which groups one belongs to. This is my culture,
there are many like it, but this one is mine.

Reference:
https://www.livescience.com/21478-what-is-culture-definition-of-culture.html