Cultures And Values Of Culture, Culture And Culture

Raymond Williams (Hutchison, 2011) said “culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language” (p. 247). When I thought of culture, I used to picture food, festivities, clothes and country. Just like the nurse, I thought that if learned about one culture, I understood everybody in that culture. But as I started expanding my knowledge the meaning of culture started becoming harder to define. Different subjects seemed to have different definitions of what culture is. The idea expanded until it was not just a check list but “a set of common understandings, manifest in act and artifact. It is in two places at once: inside somebody’s head as understandings and in the external environment as act and artifact” (Hutchison, 2011, p. 246). The definition above explains why social workers need to learn cultural humility. It clarifies that because culture is both behavior and act, it is interpreted differently by different people. In other words, two people can be from the same exact place and still have different cultures.

Culture is one of the most relevant elements that can define not only a society but also a country’s cumulative beliefs and system. Often noted as the origins of a country, culture is definitive in the sense that it harbors all the elements that can provide justification on the traditions and norms set by the society for its members. More often than not, the society members follow norms in order to create a harmonious community, and the beliefs and the traditions serve as the poles or grounding rules for each member to follow. Culture is very dynamic in the way that it can change over a variety of foreign influences but what is permanent about it is that original elements about it often lingers with the influences, therefore making it multi-faceted and broad. More importantly, culture serves as an individual and unique trait each society has, and therefore sets it apart from other countries and other societies.

Any discussion of Russia must begin with its single most striking feature—its sheer vastness. During World War II, a German general noted how his troops "were depressed by the monotony of the landscape and the immensity

2. Russia has a long history of invasions, uprisings, external influences, and revolutions which have caused its borders to expand and contract over time.1 Heroes of mythic proportion such as Alexander Nevsky earned their fame by defending the homeland in these times of strife. Nevsky, in particular, inspired in the Russian people a strong sense of Slavic nationalism that persists to this day.2 Throughout Russia’s many fluctuations, however, some factors never changed. For the vast majority of its existence, Russia has been viewed as a global power. It was not until the fall of the Soviet Union that Russia lost its global eminence. Another constant has been the need for access to warm-water ports on the Baltic and Black Seas. Russia has fought many campaigns to push its borders to these waters.1 These campaigns along with expansion eastward to the Pacific have left modern day Russia with an important legacy – access to

Russia has been an American “hot spot” since the middle of the First World War when the Bolshevik Revolution ended Russian support for the Allied Powers. Russia is a perennial superpower. Culturally, famous literary figures include Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Nabakov. Musically, Russia introduced the world to Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, and the world-renowned Bolshoi Ballet. The Kremlin Palace, commiserate to the Forbidden City in China, is a mile and a half long with heights reaching over 60 feet. In comparison, the Empire State Building is only 1250 feet high. In addition to pure massiveness, the Russians can also construct beautifully unique buildings, like Saint Basil’s Cathedral (pictured here).

To this day Russia remains to be one of the bigger threats to our military with about 1.5 million personnel in their armed forces combined. This number includes ground forces, navel force, air force and ada forces. They remain one of the stronger forces due to their allotments to their ministry of defense with over 19 billion yearly in maintenance and salary of their forces. The country covers more than 17 million square kilometers with 10 percent of that being swamp lands and 45 percent being Forrest. Still with unemployment rates right around 8 percent Russia remains self-sufficient from a fuel and energy standpoint with their production of coal, natural gas, oil fuels. Coal makes up more than 18 percent of their main electric needs for their country. Transportation in the country continue to be a ever growing thing with over 900 thousand kilometers of roadways, eighty thousand kilometers of railways and over twenty five hundred airports in the country. With many religions as expected with such a big country the predominate on considers themselves as Russian orthodox which makes up about 75 percent, 19 percent consider themselves to be Muslim and 7 percent fall under other.

It would be in order to first examine the connotation and exact meaning of culture. Sociologists differ wide in their perceptions in explanting culture and its inter-related concepts. The best definition from the military view point is given by Leslie A. White, who quotes famous sociologists Frank Boas and Melville J. Herskovits. He writes “culture may be defined (as per Boas), as the totality of the mental and physical reactions and activities that characterise the behaviour of individuals composing a social group….”. He further quotes Herskovits and says, “When culture is closely analysed, we find but a series of patterned reactions that characterise the behaviour of the individuals who constitute a given group. Another writer Sapir quoted by Leslie white classified culture as the mass of typical reactions.’ Culture is best summarised as a way of life of the people. It is manmade part of environment. Cultures includes beliefs, ideas, religion, art, customs and other habits which the people acquire while living in a society. Another very important aspect of culture is that it is ever changing by learning and transmitting from one generation to other through a

Culture can be defined as behavioral norms, meanings, and the values used by members of a particular society as its reference point for the construction of their view of the world and ascertain their identity in their way. Traditions, language, values, religious beliefs are all part of culture. There is lots of need to understand the cultural manifestation

Culture has many definitions, but is mostly defined as a set of beliefs, behaviors, customs, and ways of life that are shared and accepted by people in a society, moreover, culture is learned. Culture has an impact on how we communicate, therefore, the way we interact and communicate with others is influenced by our particular culture in which we live.

As we become immersed in our own culture, it can be challenging to grasp the difference in cultural pattern taxonomies orientations of other cultures. Cultural pattern taxonomies has been defined in the textbook, Communication between Cultures, “as the dominant beliefs and values of a culture.” Cultural value orientation varies among cultures and ultimately affects the way we communicate interpersonally.

The country’s Greek Orthodox roots are seen in the architecture of the buildings. The ornate buildings help draw tourist to visit Russia. Russia is still arguing with Japan over several islands and the two countries have not signed a peace treaty officially ending World War II. Russia’s communist history has had the biggest impact on modern Russia. The economy is still recovering from communism and trying to modernize after years of lack of competition. The government still owns energy and defense companies, which are some of the largest and most important businesses in the country. The relationships with other countries are still affected by the distrust from the Cold War years. Russia’s leaders are fighting to get the Ukraine back and reassemble at least some of the former Soviet

It massive forests and frozen tundra’s have picturesque views that would astound anyone. The country has a land surface area of 6,592,735 square miles, making the largest country by land comparably to the world. Since Russia is the biggest country in the world, it has every landscape imaginable. From Lake Baikal, the biggest lake in Europe, to the Ryn desert, and the cold Siberian forests. Russia has it all when it comes to land geography. The northern part of Russia concealed with the Arctic Ocean, which is froze for the majority of the year. To the west the only way Russia has access to the Atlantic Ocean is through the Black Sea, and then through the Mediterranean Sea. Another way to access the Atlantic Ocean is through the Baltic Sea or through the Barents Sea, which is only operable in the summer, since in the winter everything over the 60-degree latitude line turns into ice. Even though Russia can access the Atlantic Ocean through the sea when you look at a map, there is two more non-geographic obstacles. The first one is that countries that are around the sea, for example, Turkey, and Denmark, which are part of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), can deny or make it hard for Russia to use those routes. NATO’s purpose is to pledge the liberty and safety of its members through military and political methods. In other words, if one NATO country takes a conflict with a non-member of NATO, then all

Ecstacy.MDA. Nutmeg. A ubiquitous spice that can be found in kitchens worldwide, nutmeg has been harnessed in cooking, rituals, and a multitude of different ways across multiple cultures for millennia (Baxamusa, 2011). Its most common use in near day-to-day cooking is something that is not given a lot of thought to, but with Drug culture becoming increasingly prevalent in younger demographics, nutmeg has become a cheap and easily sourced alternative (Shafer, 2010). Through analysis of its chemical components, its structures and properties, in comparison to other illicit drugs such as MDMA (Ecstasy) and MDA (3, 4-Methylenedioxyamphetamine), credence can be given to the relationship between its popularity rise in youth culture, and its

Culture can be defined in many ways due to the fact that everyone can have their own distinct and traditional beliefs and values. “ Culture is fluid, it is not a static entity which one takes out of the box on occasion. It is with us daily” (Cultural Handout). Someone’s culture is set as the characteristics of the group practices in language, religion, types of food, social traits and habits, and the distinct arts and music. There are a variety of different cultures for example, Western Culture, Eastern Culture, Latin Culture, Middle Eastern Culture, and African Culture. All of these different cultures have their own ideas, values, and individualism, laws that are implied, civil rights, and even technology. In our, “ Culture Handout” culture is defined as the tool of the mind, “ it is an individual’s way seeing and interacting within the world. It encompasses one’s values systems, beliefs, and perceptions of the world around them. Race, socio-economic class gender, sexual orientation, ability, geographic location, age, religion language, etc. all impact the formation of culture, but these various context are not culture” (Cultural Handout).

Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior. It includes ideas, values, and artifacts of groups of people (Schaefer, 2006). Understanding culture can be tricky, ever ask “why do people act the way they do?”, “what made me do that”, “what was I thinking?” Physical abilities, educational background, and social background of how I was raised are important aspects of my life. The environment in which I was raised is very important aspect of my life.