The way people from different cultures and backgrounds behave at times and in some situations puzzle me...And quite often - if questions are asked, or worse.. an opinion is expressed already, the standard answer or excuse is limited to either "if you do not understand we have to explain it better..(or explain it again)"or..."if only you knew more about it you would feel differently"..And my journey will be to try and find out...
Sometimes...when we act in the way we are brought up with, we CAN explain "the why" over and over again but mostly we can not..And what if...after being explained.. and after "knowing a lot about "it".. whatever "it" is I would still - with all knowledge at hand.."disagree"??
I learned to look at cultural aspects ages ago.. but a good example would be the rare human societies where "canabalism".. is just part of the culture..I might be explained.. I might learn lots about where it came from..as far as culture is concerned BUT I still "disagree" and my "acceptance"of this phenomena as "just and aspect of a certain culture".. is not likely to occur...
This seems pretty clear but what about less clear "signs of culture".."are we - when somewhere else.."better off "accepting" that things are the way they are due to it or can we still "fully disagree"..
It's an open "journey" to find out...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Excellent post!
Knowledge of other cultures is necessary to understand that a particular type of behaviour is not'aberrant' but 'learnt'. You need not 'agree' with that behaviour. The option is yours. Similarly your behaviour might seem strange to others from a different culture and though you might not expect them to 'agree' with it, you sure would not want them to look down upon you. 'knowledge' of other cultures is meant to assist you in not being 'ethnocentric'. Basically 'live and let live'.
Or as you rightly put it... an open journey to find out!
Post a Comment