There are various meanings to the word culture. For some people, culture means the appreciation of good art, food, literature, music, and many more. For biologist, it could mean a colony of microorganism plated in a Petri dish, test tube, or other possible storage with agar as the microorganism’s source of nutrient. For anthropologists and other behavioural scientists, culture is not just an act of appreciation or a colony of some microorganism; it comprises of a full range of learned human behaviour patterns. However, culture is not only for intangible things such as beliefs, norms, thoughts, and values but also for tangible things such as physical objects or artifacts. For something to be considered a culture, it has to be learned and acquired, shared and transmitted, social, ideational, gratifies human needs, adaptive, tends towards integration, and cumulative. What are norms and why are they important? Norms guide the behaviour of a …show more content…
How do you cope with these trying situations? Yes, of course there are moments where I find some cultural norms which my personal values contradict. In the example above, it is culturally appropriate for the natives in Baguio to eat dog meat; however, it contradicts my personal values. Even though it contradicts my personal values, it doesn’t mean I have the right to disrespect, insult or degrade them. I can just not eat dog meat when I’m in Baguio or politely declined when I’m offered some of it. Some cultural norms can be really different from what a certain person grew up with and it can contradict with that person’s personal values, but it doesn’t mean that that person can just ignore or disrespect other cultural norms and think that theirs is the only one that matters. Respect begets respect. In order to be respected of what you think is appropriate or not for you, you should start by respecting what others think is appropriate or not for