The Difference between Personal and Community Culture - Term Paper Example

Definition of culture: Culture can be defined as the particular set of values, beliefs, norms, activities, social customs and traditions in a particular specific society and community. Culture can also be used to characterize any specific community. Usually when we talk about culture then a broad image of communal culture is created in our minds but contrary to this there is also a concept of personal culture. Personal culture is actually the individual values and attitudes which we adopt during our conversation with any other person. Though we termed it as a personal culture but in a general context the personal culture is also affected by community culture because this is a fact that the environment has its severe effects on any person. Main Body: Personal culture always shows the inner thinking of any person because in certain situations a person may dislike any custom or tradition of his community and he may not wants to adopt it. Just because of this slight difference in the personal opinions of the people there comes a difference between personal and community culture. Cultural values and norms affect our daily routine interactions and operations of everyday life. Culture of any community also plays an important role in shaping our perceptions regarding any behavior or anything happening in the society. Sometimes we may observe certain interesting rituals or we should say myths regarding different things. Some cultures may have beliefs regarding colors and numbers having luckiness and unluckiness for them. Such myths are strongly embedded in these cultures that people even do not want to go against them. In addition to these myths there are many other interesting things about different cultures. In short words we can say that cultures actually fill up colors in our lives. Though the importance of culture of any community or society is vital because of its influence on our daily lives but there are some factors which actually affect any culture and Government is at the top of list of those factors (Schlafly, 2008). Actually Government plays very important role in the implementation of cultural values with the help of their rules, regulations and laws which actually implement them forcibly. Other factors which influence our community cultures may also include media and institutions like schools and colleges etc. The effect of media can be easily analyzed on young age people especially teenagers because this age is a crucial time of anyone’s life period. The behavior actually shape up in this time period so it’s the responsibility of elders to provide such kind of environment which helps their children to promote their own cultural values rather to disturb them and betray from ethical path. There are many cultures present across the world. It is fact that alike individuals always have a bonding between them and they will always want to live together. Same is the case of our communities. Communities actually came into being when people having shared characteristics live together at a place. When these individuals started living at a same place then they will develop a culture having shared values and other obligations. All of these shared components will constitute a culture altogether. In the same way deaf culture is also a specific type of culture which is followed by deaf people community. They have their own norms, attitudes and behaviors according to their disabilities etc. in broader terms we can say that a deaf culture is a sub-culture of any community or social culture. This sub culture may develop further when there is a strong base in the form of sign language (Mathur & Napoli, 2011). Deaf community has their own rules and regulations involved in their culture. The persons who are not deaf by birth are usually termed as culturally hearing whereas the persons who are deaf by birth are classified in to the category of culturally deaf. Language is always a crucial part of any culture because everything seems to be incomplete without the use of language. Same is the case with deaf culture. They also have their own special language which is actually sign language. Sign language is an important part of deaf culture. All of their activities or we can say conservation is dependent on this sign language. The use of sign language is so much important for them because if any deaf individual is not used to it then it will affect the efficacy of the deaf culture. Therefore we can say that sign language is actually a cultural heritage or we can say the cultural identity. The sign language is actually the core element for the deaf culture (Benedict & Legg, 2011). Like any other culture the deaf culture also deals with ethics of interpersonal communications. They also have their own ethical rules for maintaining in-between distance of two persons, eye contact and facial expression (Mindess, 2006). The research studies show that capital ‘D’ is usually used to denote the deaf culture. If we apply the general definition of culture on the deaf culture then it can be defined as ‘Deaf people behave similarly, use the same language and have same beliefs. Deaf people are usually not fit according to other cultures and this will create a gap in the personality of that child. Most of the authors are of the opinion that just the use of specific sign language may dishearten the child but rather the children should learn some basics of other native language. Because just focusing on the use of sign language may shape the deaf child’s attitude in a negative way. They may consider the hearing people as the outsiders for them. Trying to hear is not an important issue for the deaf world rather the important point is what they perceive and then respond (Bragg, 2001). Deafness is unlike those cultures which are based on some ethnicity etc. Rather the deaf culture is based on a disability. Therefore the personalities of these cultural members should be developed in a way that they may not feel inferior in any case (Schlafly, 2008). Conclusion: It is understood that every culture has its own unique characteristics and thus differentiated from rest of the others. All the studies clearly showed that there is a lot of difference between normal hearing culture and a deaf culture. Due to this difference usually it is difficult for a deaf child to develop and even survive in a well hearing family. Though parents give all their best efforts to develop the personality of such disable children but the behavior of many other family members is discouraging and thus the deaf child may feel safe in a deaf community. Reference: Schlafly, P. (2008). How the Government Influences our Culture. Vol. 102, No. 1, pg 491-494. Mindess, A. (2006). Reading between the signs: Intercultural communication for sign language interpreters. Intercultural Press. Bragg, L. (Ed.). (2001). Deaf world: A historical reader and primary sourcebook. NYU Press. Benedict, B. S., Legg, J. (2011). Deaf Culture and Community. Communication Consideration A-Z, Hands and Voice. Mathur, G., Napoli, D. J. (2011). Deaf around the World, the Impact of Language. Oxford University Press. Read More