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World Culture Ancient Chinese Contributions Sample Essay & Outline

Ancient Chinese culture was a culture that can be looked at as successful. This conclusion can be made basing on the many inventions that the country has made over the past centuries. Inventions made by China not only contribute to the Chinese civilization but also in the world’s civilization. Therefore, the world is indebted of the high inventions that China has made. China’s inventions have a wide scope. They range from literature, science and technology. Some of China’s inventions include hot air balloons, paper making, map, compass, glazed pottery, silk, wheelbarrow and printing. These inventions have a high impact in the current economic status. The essay will focus on the four major inventions made by the ancient Chinese culture (Laufer, 2009).

The wheelbarrow is one of the major inventions made by the Chinese ancient culture. Farming, gardening and construction work, are some areas using wheelbarrow. In construction work, the wheelbarrow is used for moving bricks while in farming; it is used for carrying mulch. Its uses result from its feature of allowing the weight its contents to be distributed evenly between the wheel and its handles.

This application enables the user of the wheelbarrow to transport heavy materials while applying minimal energy (Laufer, 2009). This invention plays a critical role in farms and instruction sites that do not have electronic tools to transport materials required in the site. Unlike the current use of the wheelbarrow, initially it was used to transport things from one place to another that could not be easily transported by one person. This Chinese culture has a high influence in farming activities among many other uses in the present day (Coetsem, 1980).

Invention of paper money in the 9th century AD had a high impact in the nature of transaction that was being carried out between the Chinese. Before the invention, Chinese used gold, silver and silk. This was specifically for large sums. In addition, daily transaction that did not require large sums of money used bronze. Invention of paper money resulted from the invention of papermaking. As with many Chinese, paper making had a high influence in their activities, as they could be easily send letters to other people living in other regions far away from each other (Laufer, 2009). Invention of papermaking improved communication since many people could send letters easily. Paper money used by the Chinese in the ancient years had a high influence in their daily activities. This is an invention that has a high impact in the current society. Offices and schools use paper work.

A compass is another invention made by the ancient Chinese culture. This tool was used to fulfill some religious purposes. Determination whether a building under construction was facing the right direction was done using a compass. This is an invention that I believe to have a high impact in the day to day life. In the current word, it is used for navigation over the sea and using airplanes. The compass has been advanced to meet the current use. Incorporation of a compass as an electronic device adjusts it to the current uses. However, the idea of compass originated from Chinese culture. The map was another invention related to the compass. The map was used together with the compass in navigation where sailors from China to Arabia would use the tool to locate their position and as well the route to Arabia (Coetsem, 1980).

Toothbrush is another invention made by the ancient Chinese culture. The ancient toothbrush comprised of bristles that were the stiff. It was made of hairs taken from the back of a hog’s neck. It was later attached to a handle made of bones or bamboo (Coetsem, 1980). This early toothbrush was used highly in different continents since its applications spread over different geographical areas. The bristle toothbrush used resembles the type used today. This is an invention that I consider relevant in the today society. Another invention by the ancient Chinese culture was silk. Ancient Chinese had mastered a technique of silk weaving and engaged in the activity where they exchanged silk with equal amounts of gold with other people from the West.

Toothbrush and paper making are two inventions made by the ancient Chinese culture that I believe to have a high impact in my day to day life. These are two inventions that I use daily. I use paper work in school in writing my assignments and as well need the toothbrush to keep my teeth clean. Paper printing and record keeping uses papers. Money making also uses papers. There is an extensive use of papers in the current society. As a result, paper making is an invention by ancient Chinese culture that has a high influence in my life (Coetsem, 1980).

Concluding the research paper, it is clear that ancient Chinese culture has a high influence in the modern world. Their inventions play a major role and are used extensively by many people. The uses of Chinese innovations occupy a large portion of the daily activities of many people.

References

Laufer, B. (2009). Sino-iranica. S.l.: Bibliolife, Llc.
Coetsem, F. ., & Waugh, L. R. (1980). Contributions to historical linguistics: Issues and materials. Leiden.

Culture Differences between U.S and China Sample Essay & Outline

Chinese and Americans have significant cultural differences. These differences manifest themselves in many different ways, and one feels it when he or she visits America if he or she is Chinese or when an American visits China. “The culture shock is outrageous, there seems to be an existence of a major rift between these two major cultures. The lack of understanding of these two different cultures has cost several tensions across military quarters as well as tourists visiting either China or America. In this discussion several cultural aspects such as individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance will be contrasted and deeply analyzed. The volatile situations that might arise as a result of these cultures will also be looked at in detail.

Culture Contrast 1-Collectivism/individualism

Chinese go to great lengths to ensure that the decisions they make are through consensus and that every participating member can agree. Therefore, the Chinese culture can be described as a collective society because everybody belongs to a certain group. These groups are important as they represent one’s culture and heritage. Chinese instead of presenting and asserting their privacy and separateness as independent individuals, they often tend to interact as members of the group. They present themselves as a group, village, tribe or a neighborhood.

Individual behavior is determined by group norms and in general the Chinese often display a high need when it comes to wanting social approval. Shaming is the primary instrument that the Chinese society enforces conformity. Therefore, the Chinese are subjected to immense society pressures as they have to live up to the society standards. This is in contrast to the American community which lifts up individualistic tendencies. The American society tends to hold individual goals and values close to heart as compared to group goals. Americans often see each other as being loosely linked, and they often value personal goals over those of the group. The American culture has a diverse population that is characterized with an emphasis on personal achievements, a rational assessment on the beneficial and detrimental aspects of relationships with other persons. The decisions made by Americans often tend to be individualistic as they focus on how the decision will affect them individually.

Culture Contrast 2-Power distance

Power distance is the extent to which few members of a society are conversant and expect that power is distributed equally unequally. Chinese tend to accept that inequality is a fact and that one cannot be able to change. The Chinese have a culture that has a high power distance; this is because they believe that the power and authority over people are facts of life. Consciously as well as unconsciously these cultures often teach their people that members are not equal in the world and that everybody has his or her rightful place in the world. “Leaders in the Chinese culture are often expected to resolve disputes as well as decide on all the difficult decisions.

The subordinates will comply to their leader’s decision rather than challenge him or her. They do not try to arrive at their solutions when they are dealing with conflict. Therefore, the Chinese culture seldom challenges the leader’s power. However, in low power distance countries, there is often an increased preference when it comes to consultation and subordinates. The subordinates often contradict their bosses. The America culture falls under low power distance culture; this is because the parties often openly work towards the resolving of any dispute stating with their points of view. The leaders in this low power distance culture often encourage independent thoughts as well as contributions to problem solving, and they often expect to be challenged.

Culture Contrast 3-Uncertainty avoidance

“Uncertainty avoidance deals with the society’s tolerance towards both uncertainties as well as ambiguity. It shows to which level a culture programs its individuals to feel either comfortable or uncomfortable when it comes to an unstructured situation. “Uncertainty avoidance cultures in most cases try to minimize the possibility of such situations by having strict laws, as well as rules. “Low uncertainty avoidance cultures tend to tolerate ambiguous situations and are comfortable in situations that are uncertain Chinese people in many cases try to avoid uncertainty and risk in all their daily activities. In China, saving face is imperative, and most people are often reluctant to intentionally mislead others. The American culture has low uncertainty avoidance as compared to the Chinese culture. They are open to change, and they can cope easily with ambiguous situations. The American culture because of having low uncertainty avoidance has more relaxed personal as well as professional interactions. The American culture tolerates deviance from a group and acceptance the defectors as compared to the Chinese culture. Innovation and change in the American culture is not only accepted by the populace, but it is also encouraged.

Volatile Situation

The collision of a US spy plane with a fighter jet from China in the South China sea can be described as a volatile situation. The collision exacerbated both military and political tensions between the two countries. The American spy Jet was monitoring military communications in China and the two military Chinese Jets were monitoring it. The difference in the two cultures did not help the situation. This is because the in the negotiations there were several cultural rifts that made it impossible for the two sides to effectively negotiate.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there exist a lot of significant differences between the American and Chinese Cultures. These differences occur in the sphere of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and collective/individualistic tendencies. There is a need for these two cultures to tolerate each other and accept that indeed they should learn how to live with each other despite the cultural difference that exist between them. Failure to do this will raise the already escalating volatile situation between Chinese and American cultures. The acceptance of these different cultures and the attempt to learn these cultures will be of the essence, and it will ultimately improve the Chinese-United States of America relations.

Social and Cultural Aspects In The Contemporary World Sample Essay & Outline

In my research, I will be writing about culture as a social construct that is built in within a particular community setup. Culture contains everything that the community ranging from the rites of passage(birth, circumcision, baptism and marriage) the religious view of the community, social function such as to how the death are buried,. In the cultural set-up also is the description of the means of live hood of the given society in terms of the social-economic activities that they engage in. Thus. Culture is a strong and binding factor in the community without which the society is like a rudderless ship that is swayed in any sense of direction.

THESIS STATEMENT

Over the years, textbooks have limited discussion s of culture to race or ethnicity, when is it that a larger discussion is required to understand the precedents of health and health behaviors. Culture is not just race or ethnicity; it also includes religion, age, gender, family values, the region of the country in which one is raised, and the many other features. Understanding the dynamic interplay of the cultural forces acting on us can greatly enhance how we face the world and how we optimize our way of life.

Members of a social group can adopt the definition of culture in terms of the elements it contains which include the values, beliefs, and knowledge that re learned and shared. The concept culture has many different meanings globally. If one make a reference to culture in japan , for example, a Japanese person could think at the first impression of a flower arranging or a tea ceremony rather than the aspects culture in the Americas who normally associate with the word. Going to Paris, culture could refer to art, history or food. Since culture is used in reference to many different things concerning life, it is no wonder that it gives rise to so much confusions and ambiguity. In many cases, the people globally use the term culture, race, nationality and ethnicity interchangeably as though they were all denoting the same concept. They are not and as I write the research, the terminology culture will come out so distinctly.

The term is used to describe activities r behaviors with close reference to the heritage or tradition of a grouping, describing the norms and rules, the learning besides solving, defining the organization of a group else the origin of a group. Culture thus can be used in reference to the general features, food accompanied by clothing, housing as well as technology, economy along with transportation, individuals also family based activities, community also government, welfare, religious activities, and science together with sex not forgetting the life cycle. In this sense, we can use culture in our description and explanation of a wide range of activities, behaviors and events, structures in our lives. It is used in a variety of ways as it touches on many of the aspects of life. Indeed, culture in the truest and broadest sense, cannot be swallowed in a single gulp in any sort of program.

As per David M & Linda J. (2012), culture originates from three main areas ecology, resources and the people. In light to the ecological epoch, individual live in groups which exist in specified ecologies and the kinds of area in which these people thrive influence so much, on the how they live. Climate is the main aspect of the ecology that so much affects the people. Since many people live in different parts of the world, New York also Korea possess the most miserable winters and harsh summers. In the other regions of the world, for instance, South and Southeastern parts of Asia experience a hot weather throughout the year, whereas the others have mild climates annually such as the San Francisco or Seattle. The above ecological differences give rise to different ways of living that in turn produce a wide variety of cultures. In the some note, the groups that live near the equator will definitely exhibit a very different lifestyle from the groups that are living in the temperate or artic zones, with seasonal changes and extremely cold weather.

Research shows that it is not just only about temperature, which affects cultural ways. Of living , more specifically it’s the deviation from temperate climate that appears to influence cultures .Humans need to regulate their body temperatures and have a an easier time doing so in the temperate climates, which happens to be around 22oC. Much colder or hotter climates make life much more difficult and demanding, and these harsher climates require people to do more to adjust and adapt. Harsher climates also create greater risks of food shortage and food spoilage, stricter diets, more health problems, infectious and parasitic diseases tend to be more frequent in hotter climates. Demanding climates require some predefined clothing, housing also working schedules, special establishments in producing, transportation, trade and storage of foods, special care and cure facilities, and so forth. People in hotter climates tend to organize their activities within the reach of shelter, shade as well as temperature changes that occur during the part of Spanish culture is shut down shops and offices in the mid afternoon, during the hottest time of the day, and then reopen later, pushing Back the working hours. There it is uncommon for people to be having dinner outside at 11:00 P.M or even midnight. People who live nearer the poles could organize their lives around available sunlight.in a more psychological terms, more demanding cold or hot climates arouse a chain of need shared by all inhabitants of the residential area.

Another ecological factor that influences culture is population density. Some geographical regions have too many people occupying a very small space, this mean that they have a very high population density, like New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and the Mexico City. Other region has just a few people living in large area, low population density just like in Alaska as well as the Northern Island of Hokkaido in Japan. Thus the population density is not just about the number of people in a specified area but rather is a ratio of the number of people in relation to the amount of arable land in that area- that is the amount of land which food can grow to sustain the people in that area.

Leaving aside population density and the climate as the influencing factor of cultural practices, more factors that influence cultural practice around the globe include the evolution of human beings( Bahrensmeyer,2006, qtd) a has the incidence and prevalence of infectious diseases in the different regions of the world( Murray & b=Schaller, 2010 qtd). Not unless we speak of the very beginning of the human life, most human group have been known to live in a region with previous culture, thus, their previous culture will have had an impact on the kind of culture they now practice. These are particularly trues for immigrants, they make movements onto a land that had already existing culture thus they must deal with the process of accumulation. All the above ecological factors are likely to influence society’s attitudes, views, also conducts, and eventually their culture.

A second factor, which influences the creation of culture, is the resources available in the immediate kind of environment. The resources could be natural, such as the presence of art absence of water or land to farm to grow various sorts of vegetation or raise the various animals. Aural resources could encourage teamwork and community spirit among the various members and the interrelationships with other groups that possess abundant resources to survive. These needs will in turn foster certain psychological characteristics and attributes that complement teamwork, community spirit interdependency. In a land with ample resources, but, a society could have less desire for such morals and insolences, and the qualities would be less significant in their cultural setup.

Maybe the main type of resource which has an impact in culture nowadays is money, that itself me a human cultural creation. Affluence, which refers to the amount of money available to a person or group, can have a major impact on culture. Abundant money can help in the buffering of the consequences of a lack of resources and harsh climates, which in turn have an interesting psychological consequence. People and groups with more money can afford to be less in harmony with other because cooperation is not an essential for survival. People and groups with less money, however, need to cooperate in order to survive.

Thus the combination of climate, population density, density, and resources are likely some of the most important factors that contribute to a culture. For instance, in the United States, there country possess the most sophisticated technology and the most money any country has ever had and so in the US people live in a s similar way almost everywhere in the country. Even then, each part of the country has a local economy that comes from the geographical, climatic, also available resources in the region. It is hard to grow corn on the north slope of Alaska. There is timber or fishing industry in Death Valley. Moreover, there are not many gold or coalmines in Florida. Human being makes a living from what can be found around them. Harsh climates and scarce resources tend to push cultures towards valuing the idea of hospitality and helping ones family and neighbours.in very dissimilar places like the Middle East and northern Greenland we find similar emphases on hospitality and helping, which is not very much emphasized in in many other areas, and these arise from geographical as well as climatically conditions. People who live in places with high population density and low resources need cooperation in order to survive.

The third and last factor that influences culture so greatly is the people themselves. I will begin with one other ten determinate s under this which is Group living. This is the first characteristic of people that contributes to creation of culture. It is because humans are social animals, and have always lived in groups.in fact; from history, I am learnt that many hundreds of thousands of years ago that living in groups was better than living alone. Man the same way as woman alone will experience trouble in survival against the attacks of wild animals, fending for himself also catering for their children, and meeting all the other tasks of living. At times also, human beings need the companionship of others. Groups are also vital as they allow for possible division of labor such that a whole group accomplishes a given task in an efficient way than it could have been by a single person. This is a functional and adaptive for all members of the group’s .In fact, most of the other animals are social and they live in groupings. But, human being can be considers as a uniquely cultural animal since people need other people to survive, and groups of people crate cultures, or ways of living, to meet these needs. The advantage of course, is that division of labor allows for accomplishments of more tasks, so that the survival rates increase. However, there is a downside also; the disadvantage of living in-group is that fact that tare is potential for social conflict and chaos. Should the members of the group be uncoordinated and just do their own thing without consideration of the others, conflict and dis-organization will occur.

Next, there are needs and motives. This lead to creation of cultures because humans have basic needs that are ultimately related to reproductive success. These include physical needs-the need to eat, drink and sleep, deal with waste, and reproduce if they are to survive. In addition, they include safety and security needs-the need for hygiene, shelter, and warmth. These needs are universal to all people of all cultures. Survival is related to the degrees to which people can adapt to their environment and to the contexts to which they live, and our basic needs are associated with social motives, which include the motive to achieve and the motive to affiliate with others. Over history, people must have solved a host of distinct social problems in order to adapt and thus achieve reproductive success. The social problems include negotiating complex status orders, coming up with successful work besides social groups, attracting matters, fighting off potential rivals as they compete for food and sexual partners; the giving of birth and raising children; also battling nature. In fact, we need to do these things in our everyday lives currently as well. Therefore, all people and groupings possess a universal problem to adapt to their environment to in order to address these needs and motives, and must create solutions to these universal problems. These solutions can be very specific to each group since the contexts in which each group lives – the physical surroundings, social indicators, and kinds besides sizes of such families and communities –are different.

The third and last factor in this category is the universal psychological tool kits. This incorporates the concerns that are evolved inside the human brain. Human cultures are co-evolved with the cognitive capabilities that evolved with the human brain. Fortunately, nature and evolution endowed human beings with a universal psychological toolkit with which to address the needs. This toolkit includes several tools – or more precisely, capacities besides cognitive aptitudes- that help people to adapt to their environments to address these basic needs and social motives. For instance, language forms one of our toolkits. Humans, unlike other animals have the unique ability to symbolize their physical and metaphysical world, to create sounds representing such symbols (Morphemes) ,to crate rules connecting those symbols to meaning (syntax and grammar) and to put these all together in sentences. In addition, since the use of papyrus to develop paper, humans develop writing systems, so that we can reduces the oral expressions to word s on paper. Another tool in my toolkit involves host of cognitive abilities that allow for complex social perception, commemoration, also hypothetical thinking. For example, one of the most important thinking abilities man have that other animals apparently do not have is the ability to believe that other people are intentional agents, that is, that they have wishes ,desires, an intentions to act and behave. We know that other people have their own intentions. In addition, we know that they know we have intentions.

The fact that language is used an s vehicle through which members communicate with each other, and that it enables the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes, makes it a key variable in the understanding of culture. Through review of literature from diverse disciplines such as developmental psychology, socio-linguistics, as cognitive anthropology, it is possible to discern at least the reed broad interrelated systems of culture that have psychological implications for developing person. These are the value system, the symbol system and the language systems, which are explained here below.

The value systems are made up, of interrelated concepts that govern the day-to-day lives of a social group. These include values that define principles attitudes and perceived obligations of a group as wells as the norms that set the standards and expectations for their behaviors. Third is in line with Gordon’s(1998) judgmental dimension of culture or Berry’s(1976) group habit of mind what many a people generally regard as right, proper and natural. Beliefs are often implicitly understood and reflect a tacit consensus of assumptions about individuals and groups and their local within the society.

Belief reflects a mind set that remains deeply entrenched in the psyche of a people despite the passage of time. The term is at times used interchangeably with world view or ethos according to Mite(17970), includes concepts such as understanding, attitude, and perception that influxes the way people think ,act and speak in various situations in life .Collectively, we refer to these interrelated concepts as a value system, since it is likely that these concepts have their greatest impact as cluster rather than a single entity .These intangible ,yet powerful attributes of a culture provide a structure ,direction, and regulation for behavior. Through these functions, limits as well as opportunities are established for individual and group behavior, thereby enabling or constructing the course of human development.

There is also a symbol system that describes the technologies such as linguistic, pictorial, numerical and gestural that enables the development and ultimately the expression of cognition within any given culture. It is using a symbol system that the chi acquires knowledge, the differentiation and elaboration of which enable him or her to make connections to events, objects, and persons within his or her environment. Some culture use more than one symbol system as it is uncommon that task demands reflect different permutations in content representation. For instance, a task may require the processing of knowledge through a dual modality of content, vocabulary-auditory, visual-spatailization, auditory-spatialiaztion, and pictorial auditory, kinesthetic auditory. Of course, even more complex permutations of these dual modalities represented in some tasks. A symbol system, like a value –system, plays an enabling role or constraining role in the human development in that it inhibits or makes available options for learning. What is learned a how learning proceeds depends in part, on the symbol systems in which the task content is represented.

The final element that constitutes culture is language system. It describes a number of ways in which a culture systematically communicates ideas, feelings, and thoughts using sounds, gestures, or signals with commonly understood meanings. The language system shares with the symbol system the modality of communicating environmental stimuli. However, unlike the symbol system, the emphasis here is in the sociolinguistic conversations of a cultural group for organizing social interaction between an adult or peer collaborations.

On the social platform, philosophies’ teachings have an engagement to various societies worldwide. Philosophy has a role that it plays in the formation of today’s citizens. This nature of education stimulates the development of a permanent capacity for questioning and critical thinking with respect to the various types of knowledge and inter-subjective dynamics governing contemporary societies. It is generally considered that the critical capacity ought to be applied to the broader global processes affecting our societies. Philosophical teachings interlock quite naturally with the place granted to philosophy in cultural and social dynamics. It seems, however that there is risk that philosophy might be reduced to an immediate cultural and political engagement that opposes a given social-economic configuration.

Sharon-Ann & Armour-Thomas (2001) argue that through philosophy, theoretical structures are extrapolated as they underlie cultural objects, and it draws vitality from measuring itself from measuring itself against the concrete problems of peoples’ lives and societies. An education for citizenship, as provided by philosophy, helps one to face situations that involve a hierarchy of values. An awareness of the nature of our choice, the capacity to model our actions on a moral law, therefore to exert in a single moment human responsibility and citizenship, can only result from education that is centres on teaching of philosophy. Such an education is geared, in all levels, towards helping individuals in the understanding the complexity of experience of experience. Though this kind of education, we are also able to critically consider established opinions be it ours or those of others, alongside cruising the motivations and intentions behind them and their effects.

Philosophical education is a fundamental communication mechanism as it is precisely by virtue of its critical range that we learn how to see in another world of view not the expression of a particular and foreign subjectivity, but rather in a shared human interaction, with whom it is possible to have productive exhales and dialogue. Learning Aristotle’s’ doctrine of the four causes relies on more than just historical scholarships or being a devotee of the past. Such training teaches us how to detect the compound meanings behind human action, by putting the individual in a position to judge actions not only in relation to the effects they have on his or her individual experience, but also ,and especially in the context of a vaster inter-subjective dynamics, where each of us is only one among many. Philosophical teachings find us its raison d’eter in its freedom from the subjected of particular objectives and therefore, in its capacity to open one’s perspectives to the viewpoint of others and to transform a collision between inward looking objectives than an open and rational interaction.

Second, it is trues to say that philosophy is a guardian of rationality. The critical thinking contained therein plays an integral role in the democratic organization of the contemporary societies. It too reflects the function that may accord philosophy- a guardian of rationality. This is a vital aspect, as a call for rational thinking is often a defensive reflex on the part of those who fear that cultural identities are threatened by a rationality that is based purely on western values or knowledge structures. However in a world which is characterized by rising irrational ism- by movements that oppose the or de emphasize the importance of rationality- and by the multiplication of partisan identity, this role can be played if one breaks with any sectarian or cultural concept of rationality, and with any vision of a dogmatic universal rationality. Philosophical rationality can never take the from an imposition or generalization of particular cultural context by progressively letting go the particular understandings ,at both the individual, and the cultural levels, in order to enable free interaction with others.

It liberates experience from the concrete finalities that renders other finalities incomprehensible and distant. With this intention, philosophical teaching cannot postulate new substantial entities any more than it can replace an immediate determination of data by a metaphysical determination. A philosophical education’s liberating power, however lies in its capacity to carry out the shift from the particular to the general. Several research professors are in agreement that learning the skills of rational thinking through which philosophical education teaches us to elaborate on our individual experience, can prove invaluable in addressing individual interests, egoism and partisan identities. Efforts to promote the teaching should thus be centered on its facet. The universality of reason- which actually is the major direction of philosophical teaching and will never be synonymous with the disguised ethnocentrism, and is presented more as the possibility for fertile and capable encounters within a plurality of cultural systems and value systems.

The formal teaching of philosophy brings out its diversity through the scaling down of the formal reason to bear the multiplicity of cultures and knowledge systems. All philosophy is impregnated with the values of culture and from which it emerges and develops. The examples of ethno-philosophy in Africa, thoughts on Neo-Confucianism in China East and East Asia ,the dialect between religion and secularity in the west and the relationship between philosophical rationality and Indian values that is often mentioned by philosophers from the Indian subcontinent all illustrate the cultural significance of philosophical enquiry. They too contribute in the explaining the presence of philosophy in various academic and cultural arenas. Nowadays, cultural studies centres are also places of philosophical research just as much as the departments of philosophy. This broadening also affects desire, shared by many philosophers, for the kind of cross-discipline involvement that is playing an increasingly part in the organization of research and academic teaching.

From the above discussions, a clear thing that comes out is the fact that culture can be summarize as a unique meaning and informative system. They are shared by a group of people and transmitted across generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and wellbeing, and derive meaning from life, Of course, human cultures exist first to enable us to meet basic needs of survival. Human cultures help us to meet others, to procreate and produce offspring, to put food on the table, to provide shelter from the elements, and to care for our daily biological essential needs.

However, human culture is more than this. It allows for complex social network and relationships. It allows us to pursue happiness.it allows us to be creative in music, art, and drama.it allows the Olympic Games or us to seek recreation and to engage in sports and organize competition, whether in the local community Little League. It allows us to search the sea and space. It allows us to create mathematics, an achievement no other species can claim, as well as an educational system. It allows us to go to the moon, to create a research laboratory on Antarctica, and send probes to mars and Jupiter. Unfortunately, it also allows us to have wars, create weapons of mass destruction, and create terrorists.

Human culture does all these by creating and maintaining complex social systems, institutionalizing and improving cultural practices, creating beliefs about the world, and communicating then meaning systems to other humans and subsequent generations. It is the product of evolution of the human mind, increased brain size, and complex cognitive abilities, in response to the specific ecologies in which groups live and resources available to them to live. People live in groups, and the groups crate cultures to help them meet their needs. Culture results from the interaction between universal biological needs and functions, universal social problems created to address those needs, and the context to which the people live.

Culture is a solution to the problems of individuals’ adaptations to their contexts to address their social motives and biological needs. As adaptation responses to the environment, cultures help to select behaviors, attitudes, values, and opinions that may optimize the tapping of resources to meet survival needs. Out of all the myriad behaviors possible in the human repertoire, cultures help to focus people’s behavior and attention on a few limited alternatives in order to maximize their effectiveness, given their resources and their environment.

On the other hand, there is a wide jump between the society and culture. Although many people rarely make the distinction between the terms society and culture, the distinction is large. Society is a system of interrelationships among people.it is used to refer to the fact that relationships among individuals exist and in human societies, individuals have multiple interrelationships with other groups, and the groups themselves have interrelationships with other groups .Thus human societies are complex. Nonhuman animals are also social and have societies. Culture, however, is different. It refers to the meanings and information that are associated with social networks. Family, for instance, is a social group that exists in both the human and non-human animal world. Nevertheless, human cultures give the concept of family its own unique meaning, and individuals draw specific information from these meanings. Moreover, different human cultures assign different meanings to this social group. Thus, despite the fact that nonhuman animals possess social groups like the human beings, they do not have human cultures associated with these groups.

There are varieties of human groups that have culture. To begin with, we have culture and nationality. Nationality refers to a person’s country of origin, and countries have their own cultures. This is because countries are associated with each of the factors that influence culture. For instance, countries are defined by specified boundaries that describe their ecology and natural resources. Countries also have their own unique socio-cultural history, language, government and economic base, all of which are culture. Additionally various countries also have differences in in all levels of aggregate personality traits, which also affect culture.

The second grouping is that that exists in cultures and ethnicity. Ethnicity is used in reference to people of a nation or tribe and is usually used to denote racial, national or cultural origins. In the Americas, for instance the ethnic groups include the African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, Hispanics and Latinos, and Native Americans. The term thus is used to refer to groups that are characterized by a common nationality, geographic origin, Culture or language. Ethnicity as a label has no explanatory value, although information concerning ethnic differences on a broad range of psychological phenomena can be useful, such sort of information by itself does not explain the nature of the relationship between ethnicity and psychology

CONCLUSION

Culture is more important now than it has ever been. The 2012 presidential race often evoked cultural dimensions – both religion and race. World politics is rife with the clashing of cultural factions. Such factions include the Shias and Shiites in the Middle East; Hindus and Muslims in India; races and tribal genocide in Africa. Through this all, the disparities of between different cultural groups- especially the rich and the poor- relate to significance health disparities. These cultural differences are crucial to acknowledge and thus deserve an in-depth research to dig out why the differences are seen across the globe. Thus, we often discount the importance of c culture, maybe since we rarely acknowledge its many dimensions. (Regan G 2013)

Reference

Regan G. (2013).Health Psychology: A cultural Approach. Cengage learning.
David M & Linda J. (2012).Culture and Psychology. Cengage Learning.
Sharon-ann G &  Armour-Thomas E. (2001).Assessment and Culture: Psychological Tests with Minority Populations. Academic Press.

Sweetness and Light by Matthew Arnold Sample Essay & Outline

1. Arnold believes on culture

Often, people have diversified understanding and perception over culture. In some instances, people look down on the culture with the belief that it is a distinguishing factor from lower social classes. However, Arnold Matthew has a different attitude and belief over culture. Arnold reinstates that the culture ought to have a basis on curiosity. Culture curiosity implies that it offers learners both a liberal and intelligent eagerness of the environment, characterized by different points of views due to culture diversified and as well beliefs towards life. In the argument, Matthew believes that the culture offers grounds for understanding the differing aspects of serious people in the society (Arnold 13).

In addition to the eagerness about things as developed by Arnold, culture curiosity aids individuals while developing a desire for their sake after perceiving the things in the society. It is an aspect that contributes to the pleasure of seeing things as culture presents them, which in turn contributes to the originality (Stocking 16). The desire of viewing things as they are is an essential aspect of culture as it contributes to the balance and regulation of mind. Attainment of the balance and regulation originates from fruitful efforts of people while pursuing different aspects of culture. Matthew has a strong attitude that leads to a scientific passion for culture.

Beyond his belief of the culture as a scientific passion, Arnold postulates that the culture is a study of perfection. Thus, its understanding moves by the force of pure knowledge. Similarly, it gets an accelerating force from the moral and social passion of having good deeds. The belief developed by Arnold highlights that the culture develops grounds for rendering an intelligent to the society while being more intelligent. In other words, Matthew perceives a culture as a source of intelligence and moral good. In a society, embracing the developed understanding of culture leads to a balanced society that makes these good deeds prevail in the society (Arnold 58).

2. Reasons why Arnold cared about culture

During the Victorian age, Matthew Arnold was a literary figure. As a poet, religious thinker and educationalist, Matthew had the vast opportunities of experiencing different cultures. In addition, while serving as an inspector in schools Arnold had time of meeting different classes while examining their behaviors and habits. While in his career, his experience geared him to care about culture (Stocking 58).
Prior to his pursue; researchers did not have a comprehensive understanding of culture. Often people had strong attachments to culture due to their curiosity on culture. Ignorance and vanity were the engines that led to both social and class distinction between people. They viewed culture as the separating badge. Apparently, the attitude used by people on culture contributed to the controversial attitude in a society and perception of culture. The various attitudes developed on culture in a society led to his strong care for the contravening issue (Arnold 33).

On an English context, there is a bad sense of culture use. Normally, ‘culture’ applies in disapproving senses. With the underlying ambiguity, Arnold has a strong urge of developing culture real perception rather than the controversial approaches developed by different researches on culture. The motive behind the great interests of culture by the author lies on the desire of arguing the excellence of people based on their culture. Often, culture is a strong determinant on the cohesiveness of people in the society. Its impacts originate from member’s perception (Arnold 44). These impacts geared the author to strong care on the underlying ambiguities on an English society.

3. Stake of British civilization

The view of culture as a study of perfection, which develops to becoming more intelligent rather than gaining something, often is a state of mind. It is an inward harmonious perfection. It is in contrast with the versified outward set of circumstances. The approach of culture as an intelligence source plays an essential role in the modern society. Its influences significantly influenced the process of British civilization. The degree of civilization on both mechanical and external scopes constantly relied on culture. The mechanical character of civilization, often considered as the basis of modern civilization, indicates an eminent degree of contribution.

British stake of civilization relied on the inward conditions developed by culture. The idea of perfection, characterized by the general expansion of the human family, is in contrast with the sense of individualism. Arnold believes that aspects such as hatred challenge the process of civilization. Harmonious expansion of humanity differs with personal interests of flexibility and view of the situation from a single point of view. Matthew highlights that the culture, which strongly influences the cooperation of people, has a rough task of achieving the civilization in the society (Arnold 26).

Freedom, unlike machinery, has a vital role during the process of civilization. According to the author, everyone in England ought to do what he or she want. However, culture does not make people don what they want. Nevertheless, it draws near the sense of the beautiful, graceful and ensuring that people like its attitude (Arnold 77). While considering aspects of greatness such as machinery and coal, they may diminish. Thus, it implies that national greatness will end. However, on a culture’s perspective, greatness refers to the inward condition that excites love and admiration. Consequently, culture offers the basis of British greatness.

Reference

Arnold, Matthew, and Jane Garnett. Culture and Anarchy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.
Arnold, Matthew. Culture and Anarchy and Celtic Literature. Newcastle: CSP Classic Texts, 2009. Print.
Stocking, George W. "Matthew Arnold, E. B. Tylor, and the Uses of Invention¹." American Anthropologist. 65.4 (1963): 783-799. Print.

Impact of Technology on Cultural Diversity Essay

Cultural diversity in a business environment occurs when the workforce includes people from different ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic status, gender, learning abilities, sexual orientation and religious exposition (Washington, 2014). Technology is quite extensive. The paper focuses on the positive and negative impacts of technology on cultural differences.

Positive Impact of Technology on Cultural Differences

Through the internet, technology has enabled people of all ethnic backgrounds to interact and share ideas. In a similar way, technology enhances communication in a business environment consisting of people from different ethnicity. For instance, if a company has branches in different countries managers and employees can interact through video conferencing and emailing (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010). As the workers continue to interact and work together, the cultural differences are broken.

The internet is a rich resource where a person can research on any topic of his/her interest. In the same respect, understanding why people do things the way they do is the key to breaking cultural differences. In an organization where employees are from different cultural backgrounds, it is possible for the employees to learn about the cultures of their workmates without having to ask them. Understanding other people’s culture is the first step towards coexistence (Washington, 2014).

Negative Impact of Technology on Cultural Differences

Technology can still impact negatively on an organization by increasing the gap between different cultures. For instance, working with computerized systems reduces the interactions between the employees as they attend to their daily responsibilities. This separates them further especially if the organization does not put emphasis on team building (Washington, 2014).

While the internet is a platform for people from different ethnic backgrounds to meet and interact, it interferes with the sociability of the employees. People might interact very effectively on social media but fail to coexist in real life (Borman, Ilgen & Klimoski, 2004). It is important to note that in most cases, people put on fake personalities on social media. An organization that overuses the internet for communication and interactions is likely to have a wider gap between people from different ethnic groups.

References
Borman, W. C., Ilgen, D. R., & Klimoski, R. J. (Eds.). (2004). Handbook of psychology, Vol. 12. Industrial and organizational psychology. Hoboken, NJ:
Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (3rd Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. • Book Excerpts:
Washington,T.B.(2014). What technology promotes culture?.