Richard Yan October 14, 2010

Cultural Diversity
When going through our life, surrounded by the things that are familiar to us and that we take for granted, it is important to realize that we live in a world filled with different cultures. These cultures most often will not follow the same traditions and dont share the same ideas as us. While many aspects of cultures can be considered to be universals, it does not necessarily mean all cultures will do them the same way. A simple way to analyze the magnitude of cultural diversity in this world is to look at familiar and recognizable domestic universals. Among these are the ideas of marriage, gender roles and the raising of a child. In American culture, people are able to freely marry whomever they want. Most of the time, it is under motives such as love and comfort with the partner. However, for some other culture, free marriage is a rare occurrence. Many other cultures in the world practice arranged marriages, where ones family chooses the wife or husband for their son or daughter. An example of marriage practices that may seem strange to us can be seen in the nation of Kirgizstan. In this culture, families practice the tradition of bride kidnapping. Instead of arranging a marriage, the people of Kirgizstan take a more forceful approach; by kidnapping the young girls who they feel would be a worthy bride for their son. While marriage in America is usually long lasting, this isnt always the case with other cultures. An example of this is mutaa marriages in Iraq. Their idea is that since husbands often die in war, leaving their

wives alone and unable to take care of her, the women would marry temporary husbands. The husband would give the women money to support them, and in return, the women give the husbands companionship and pleasure. This goes on for a set amount of time until the husband leaves. With this system, a woman can effectively avoid financial troubles. Also, while people in America marry for love, other cultures often marry for completely different reasons. For example, the people of the Arapesh culture arrange marriages for the sole purpose of increasing the size of their family. While its true that the concept of marriage is universal to most societies, but different cultures in the world may have radically different ideas and approaches to marriage. The roles of men and women in a society can also vary from culture to culture. In America, men are often the workers, who make money to support the family while the women take care of the kids. Sometimes husbands and their wives may share the duties as well. However, not all cultures follow these same patterns. A simple example can be found in the culture of the Baka. In a video documentary on this society, the husband is shown to spend more time with the children while the wife works in the garden or forest for most of the day. A more dramatic example of differences in gender roles is the Mundungamors. The members of this society are a people of violence. People of the same gender often show strong disdain towards each other. Fathers fight with sons, mothers fight with daughters, sisters fight with sisters and brothers fight with brothers. The Mundungamor practice a system known as the rope, in which inheritance is passed down to the child of the opposite gender. Mothers pass their possessions down to their sons, who pass it to their daughters and

so forth. Fathers pass to their daughters and their daughters pass to their sons and so forth. This shows the dramatic differences that different cultures can have when it comes to gender roles and harmony. A final cultural universal that shows variation among different cultures is parenting. One can effectively understand how different cultures vary in the ways they raise their kids by looking at two previously mentioned cultures: the Arapesh and the Mundungamor. The Arapesh raise their children in a positive environment where the family tends to their babys every need. They teach their children good morals and positive interaction with others. As a strong contrast, children born in the Mundungamor society grow up in a harshly negative environment. Mothers will often neglect their babys needs, going as far as hanging them in a basket from a tree branch when theyre doing work. Children are trained to tolerate pain and violence. Theyre taught to treat their peers as possible enemies, which fills them with hate and distrust. The surprising thing is that these two strongly contrasting cultures live in very close vicinity of each other. Although many culture same universal concepts and ideas, they often vary in their execution of these aspects. By analyzing simple domestic aspects of cultures, such as marriage, gender roles and parenting, one can gain insight on the magnitude of variation between different cultures. Although some behaviors may seem unusual and morally wrong from our point of view, we must be careful and practice cultural relativism and view cultures from the perspective of the people in them. All aspects of a society exist because they are necessary for the society to survive in it present state.