Culture is the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, language and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. I am from the Dominican Republic and everybody knows that our native language is Spanish but “most Dominicans” use their “own vocabulary” in another words we make up our own words. And I think that’s what makes my culture unique. Our gastronomy plays a big part in our culture food is very importat to us that's why before we eat we thank God for giving us the food, we have a variety of food and flavors but the one that can identify my culture is (Mangu)-mashed plantains, we eat it with fried cheese or salami.
Mangu
how a Dominican table looks like at lunch time.
Non material culture: when I was in high school I had a classmate named Fanta, she is African and she was always wearing a wrap or (piece of fabric on her head): covering her ears, hair and neck. I always wanted to know why she was wearing it all the time, because there were more African girls and they did not used this head wrap. One day I was in class and I made the wrong decision to take off her head wrap she started crying and the professor called the principal. It went from something I thought was nothing to something very serious, I started to panic and I tried to calm the girl down but she looked embarrassed and angry at the same time. The principal told me to come out of the classroom and go to his office. The social worker was there too and she told me that I was suspended for a week because of what I did. I was impressed by how not knowing about someone else’s culture can get into a big conflict or a misunderstood situation. After my suspension I notice that the reason why she had the head wrap was because she was still a virgin. In her religion she had to wear it until she marries and when I took it off she felt disrespected and ashamed.
Symbol: is a representation of a culture, institution, historical event, a sound, an image etc. There is two Dominican symbols that we share with different cultures these are: Merengue and Bachata our national dance, you have to dance each of them in a different way and if you are Dominican and you don’t know how to dance, in my country the people will tell you that you are not Dominican just because you don’t know how to dance Merengue or Bachata. These two genres have been shared by many other Latin countries.
Material Culture: A memorial environment. One example is the Memorial 911-zone cero. Is a material culture, because it’s a historical event that was designed to honor the heroes that died on September 11.
Values of culture: As individuals we all have a different personality, which is what makes us unique. I have nothing against same sex marriage. People like to discriminate a lot and even though in our society people say that a marriage is between a man and a woman but we have freedom of expression and you can do whatever you want to. If people who are against same sex marriage change their mind there will a lot of people happy and feeling free and comfortable with whom they really are.
Folkways of Culture:
A cross: main symbol for catholic religion, Representing Christ crucifixion. While for other cultures it means death, pain, sin, offence, witchcraft etc. The cross is a folkway of culture because for different cultures it has different meanings.
