Unity in Diversity

Brandy Day
Shadavaram
Reading 0310.101
Summary 2
6/14/2012

Unity in Diversity

A system of social status, marriage, body adornments, dancing, myths and legends, cooking , inheritance rules, puberty customs, and religious rituals, these are examples of cultural universals. Anything that is part of everyday society that all cultures have but do differently is called cultural universal. Adaptation is a major role of culture because it provides people with a means of form structure modified to fit a changed environment. For example, in many tropical societies, women cannot have intercourse with a man until her child is at least two years of age. She must not chance getting pregnant because she can only breast feed one child at a time. In the tropical societies protein us scarce, and only if she was to stop breast feeding the child before it was two the child would be prone to Kwashiorkor disease. Look at different cultures and not judging their customs, such as, not good or bad, right or wrong. This is known to be culture relativity. The thinking of one’s own group ways is superior to others, or judging other groups as inferior to one’s own is called ethnocentrism. They believe that the way of life only goes by their beliefs and values. When certain things are exercised in a culture on a regular basis it becomes value of that culture. For example Tangus play a game called taketak, the game isn’t based on who wins or loses because they believe it causes ill-will. Guidelines to behave in certain situation and circumstance are called norms. For example There was a plane crash with survivors and some dead, the survivors where stuck for days without help or food supply. They had to consume parts for the dead’s body in order to survive, if not have done so the survivor’s would have died.