Perceptions of Different Cultures - Essay Example

Perceptions of Different Cultures Every community has its own social and cultural peculiarities that are socially sharedin the communities and endure attitudes which individuals show in an ostentatious manner toward one another without any need to refer to sociable rules or norms. This common knowledge creates trust from immediate apprehension of each other’s feelings and beliefs that are associated with security, discretion and absence of danger and risk. Huston explains the difference in her culture and that of the Kazakh culture and though there are differences that that lead to confusion and conflict, knowing the difference in culture and religion gave her more experience in knowledge and personal development that molded her social being. This paper tries to explain how perceptions of different cultures in both social and religion focusing on the Kazakhstan’s culture and how in particularly this culture and Huston’s seem to have a fundamental different focus in social situations. Each culture tends to endeavor for self-reliance and have self-concepts delineated in terms of their own aspirations and achievements. Globalization and civilization has made each community more aware of itself, its image, its reputation and its attitude towards its culture and the risk of trust or distrust in other people’s cultures. Some communicative behavior is comprehensive, others specific to a given society just as much as words that only have a much significant in a specific language. Different cultures have distinctive ways of assigning intention to common behaviors within informal verbal exchange such as the use of gaze and head –gestures (Saunders 118). Like in the Kazakhs culture they believe that the most powerful healer received the power from a tattoo that was not colored but it was a sign that she is one of the community healers while others believe tattoos are meant for beauty and body decorations. In the Kazakhs feast Molian stares at Huston in a long unsmiling gaze to say that she was welcomed while she expected a jovial facial expression to show that she is accepted and welcomed in the feast (Zaleski 101). The perceptions of the two cultures on the facial expressions vary in the sense that they have different concepts of the informal verbal communication. There are distinct opinions of the gender roles and cultures differ in setting the accepted roles of both females and males. More civilized cultures believe in gender equality and have the attitude that both male and female have the same capability of doing any given task. there is a clear picture of how the Kazakhs culture views the idea of gender equality and they still believe there are certain roles that should only be done by men thus they don’t approve that there can be equal states for both male and female . When the car breaks down on their way, Alina is unconcerned of what happened and says that Ivan will just think and fix the problem while on the other hand Huston has a different opinion and thinks that she can be of good help in trying to fix the problem (Zaleski 92). These acts as an important example that shows the disparity of ideas where the Kazakhs culture does not advocate nor promote gender equality and they still believe that there are separate roles for each gender. It is clear that there is a vast number of spirits as it is in different cultures that believe in good and bad spirits as well as those who believe in only one supreme god. There are communities where people believe in darkness powers that bring harm and bad things to them. The cultures mostly rely on witch crafts and magicians who give them protection through charms, spiritual prayers and instructions that should be followed to stop the evil spirits that come to destroy or bring problems to them. On the other hand there are those who believe in only one god and justify that it is only the creator who can protect you. Huston and Alina seem to differ in this because Alina wants her to buy a charm that will protect his son so that he may not attract a lot of evil and he should also do some prayers in the right way else they became defenseless. This is a traditional belief that exists in many communities around the world and they have the opposition power from those who believe in one god and live knowing of the non-existence of any other powerful being. There is also diversity in the cultural feasts that have different meaning and used for various celebrations in different communities. Kazakhs culture and tradition the preparation of the feasts are done and involves everyone in the society without considerations of if you are rich or poor. There tables are packed with drinks and commonly vodka, fermented mares milk and an infinite flow of hot tea (Pang & Cheng 111). People also differ in the importance of certain eating habits such as one believing that eating meat is unhealthy and lead to many health problems while others believe that eating them gives more strength to the body. The cultural diversity that exists today is not evident in tribal societies where cultural ceremonies mark the important passage of life (Brym & Lie 38). These ceremonies are based on birth, wedlock, heroic and conventional occasions of a given community with unique styles of holding the festivities. A stranger is treated with different impression in different cultures that exist. Majority of us view a stranger as someone who is unaccustomed to our culture or someone with inferior motives that will disturb our peace. In other cultures, they are respected people that are seen as a natural talent that is granted to them. The Kazakhs believed that a stranger should be given a warm reception of guests into ones home welcome because he/she is a wonderful gift to them. They also believe that a stranger should be honored because he can be god in impersonate and could have come to bring excellent news. a stranger is expected to leave blessings to the host and pray for the well-being of the society as a way of appreciation (Zaleski 103). In order to fully comprehend the diversity of the cultures we look at the means of treatment people use while they are sick. Different cultures have their own ways of seeking medication of their unhealthy bodies and animals where most Americans believe that the right way is to first go for a checkup with a well learned doctor. Other communities still believe in the traditional doctors who learn their skills from their fore fathers as an inheritance. This is one of the problems that are experienced in cross cultural perceptions since it becomes hard for one party to follow the new traditions like it was to Huston when she was forced to drink an antibiotic prepared from the mixture of milk, honey and cognac. These differences in belief creates a better foundation of the attainable cultures of disparate communities that have incorporeal beliefs that show there intuition of culture. The spiritual body of traditions is great and can be greater if taken together with many other cultures to form a more civilized and consolidated nation (Nysanbayev & Morkuniene 203). A greater diversity of culture is attainable from which to choose as most communities are undergoing rapid cultural diversification. The chosen culture should ensure that it promotes an act of sharing, personal evolvement and civilization growth rather than choosing on cultures that cause a lot of bewilderment and conflict. We have seen the uniqueness and major differences in our cultures that shape us in different ways separate to each other. In conclusion we can comfortably conclude that different cultures view and perceive things differently apparently due to how their culture molded the manner that they regard the world. Works Cited Brym, Robert J. and Lie, John. Sociology: Pop Culture to Social Structure: Research Update, 3rd ed.:Pop Culture to Social Structure Belmont: Cengage learning, 2012.Print Nysanbayev, Abdumalik and Morkuniene Jurate. kazakhstan: cultural inheritance and social transformation. Washington,dc: CRVP, 2004.Print Pang, Guek-Cheng and Cheng Pang Guek. kazakhstan. Tarytown: marshall cavendish, 2001.Print Saunders, Robert. The Many Faces Of Sacha Baron Cohen: Politics, Parody, And The Battle Over Borat. lanham: rowman &littlefield, 2009.Print Zaleski, Philip. The best spiritual writing. London: Penguin Books, 2010.Print Read More