WORLD CULTURE

"Culture: the totality of what is communicated by one generation of a people to another by means of language and example."

- Daniel Quinn, Beyond Civilization

I'm in the midst of reading this book right now, and this morning I was caught by this quote. It's an interesting thought to turn around in the head. I began to desire deducing what my culture is. What is it that was brought down through my parents generation into me? Quinn says that it is what survives via " language and example."

In terms of language, it's obvious that English is the language of my culture. Yet, more specifically, my parents spoke with a proper, educated type of English with California accents. Some people learn to speak in slang, or with mixed languages, or with accents from their region. I was brought up speaking an educated English without slang, which reflects my parent's backgrounds and thus mine as well.

I am sure I was taught just about all my fundamental life skills through example. I learned how to use a conventional oven, microwave, freezer, refrigerator, stove-top, and knife to prepare food. I also was taught how to think about what I eat, and to choose healthier options rather than what was simply available at the store. I was taught how to play various sports, and that I should stick with things. I learned that school was important, and drugs were bad. I learned a lot of social skills through my parents that make me who I am today.

And, I realize that a lot of kids grow up learning different skills from their parents. Some parents are not educated and teach their children to speak in slang that doesn't work in a professional atmosphere. Some children are taught to never question the foods they can buy at the liquor stores, which are unhealthy for them. The social skills people inhabit are handed down through their parents. When seeing this phenomenon through an anthropological lens it's not really a case of good parenting versus bad. That's more of a social opinion made later on an independent or collective level. In reality, the culture we inhabit from our parents is vastly different in America from town to town, city to city, and region to region. Some traits vary from family to family within any specific community. American culture is much more mixed up than other culture's which are more grounded by their centuries of history. Who we become via cultural skills, handed down from our parents' generation to ours, is just that - who we are and nothing more. I think we choose friends and lovers in conjunction with those traits, we have learned, which we value. Or maybe we are attracted to others who've learned more attractive or better traits.

Thus, cultures are in constant flux, especially in Western societies. There is no real set culture anymore. We try to preserve the cultural codes of other groups, but they aren't really surviving in the pure essences that we enjoy anymore. Nowadays our world culture is full of variety. The question is whether we will create a cohesive world culture, now that we are in affect a world culture. Can we polish it, with a collective set of values?