Culture

Learning Activity 2—Contexts of Development: Culture

The culture I have grown up in has influenced my development one hundred percent. I have learned everything from my family, friends, and even strangers. Growing up I watched everyone around me and learned what I liked and disliked such as clothes, shoes, food, and even my favorite color. My religion is different than most of my friends and how I act as a wife and mother is different than how other cultures would be with their family. I learned my beliefs from my grandparents, and got my attitude from my mother. My family was always very traditional, and so I picked that up and do the same thing with my son and husband. Every day culture is changing and so is everyone else.

I believe I would be a completely different person if I would have been raised in a different culture other than my own. I would most likely dress different, have different traditions, my beliefs wouldn’t be the same, and the way I looked at life would be completely different also. Every culture is different in their own way, yet some points they are the same.

Between cultures, there are a lot of things that are the same and quite a few that are different. For instance I dress in jeans and a t-shirt when I leave my house, but in some cultures females have to always wear a dress, or a Hijab worn by a Muslim woman after puberty that covers their face and chest. I am free to wear what I please, but a Muslim woman must wear a Hijab in the presence of a man that is not close family. In the Muslim religion they pray five times a day as to some cultures don’t even pray daily.

In some cultures the parents will set up an arranged marriage for their child as to my culture I got to choose who I wanted to marry and have a child with. Muslims and Christians believe there is only one God, but worship him in different ways. In America for the longest time in marriage it was one man and one woman, but for Muslims a Muslim man can marry up to four woman...