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| My Niece's Crib This is a picture of my niece's crib. In my culture, parents and children usually do not co-sleep, which means that children grow up sleeping in their own rooms or sharing with siblings from a young age. This encourages more independence. |
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| My Dress In this picture, one of my nieces was trying on a dress which I wore to a dance in high school. Not only does this reflect the cultural norm of formal high school dances, but the anticipation of young girls to participate in those kinds of events. Because it is a cultural norm to wear expensive dresses to dances, people oftentimes judge those who do not. |
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| Birthday Celebration Because I have a sister, a nephew, and a niece with birthdays very close together, my family celebrated them all at the same time. We gathered together and ate cupcakes following one of our family dinners. We also sang "Happy Birthday" to them. All of these different events took place because we come from a culture which celebrates events like birthdays. This leads members of our culture to place high value on themselves and their life accomplishments. Birthdays in our culture are times where we celebrate someone for the fact that they exist, which helps us realize the value of each individual life. On a birthday, people in our culture treat you differently. They express their appreciation for you, try to do kind things for you, and also try to make you feel more valued. |
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| My Parent's House I live at home in Orem, Utah. I live in a suburban neighborhood, where the cultural norm is to live in a medium-sized house. We also do not live in a multi-generational home - the only people living here are my parents and their dependents. This encourages independence from extended family members. People often assume that, since we live in a culture where this lifestyle is common, other people will have a two-parent home with a few children. Anything outside of this cultural norm is seen as less ideal. |
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| Baptism Dress This picture comes from a shopping trip to buy my niece her baptism dress. It is a religious practice for children to be baptized when they turn eight, but the purchasing of a white dress for a girl to wear afterwards is a cultural one. It is considered abnormal for a girl to not have a baptism dress, or for the dress not to be white. The symbolism of purity is important in my culture, and it is assumed that all little girls will follow this cultural norm of wearing a baptism dress. In order to understand the symbolism of this dress, you need to know what it means for someone to be baptized into our church, that white symbolizes purity, and the cultural norm that involves representation of those practices and beliefs. |
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| Presents In my culture, we celebrate birthdays by giving people presents. In this case, the presents were books for my niece and nephew. Most gifts in my culture reflect the likes and personalities of the individuals receiving the gifts as well as the values of the larger culture. For example, in my family culture, we often give books because we value reading. We give books from genres or on topics that the specific person likes. To give a gift in our culture, you need to understand those larger values, as well as individualized interests. Gifts in other cultures might not follow the same pattern of promoting individuality and recreational activities. |
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| Shoes In many cultures, it is considered impolite to leave shoes on when you enter someone's home. While many people here have the same cultural practice, it is not something which every family observes. In my family, removing shoes is optional. In our larger culture, this means that we must pay attention to whether or not other people remove their shoes in their homes, or ask them explicitly. It is considered impolite not to remove shoes when it is a family's custom. |
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| Children It is an evidence of culture that my sister is currently raising her sixth child, although she is only in her early thirties. Many, though not all, of the people who share our religion marry young and have large families, as my sister did. People outside of our culture do not understand these choices and may think that she has missed out on a big part of life. They do not understand her choices in a religious or cultural context. My sister, and other members of our culture who make similar decisions, may be judged for her choices because of this. |
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| Technology Although my brother-in-law made a weird face when I was taking his picture, he was demonstrating a common cultural practice while I did so. It is not uncommon for people to be using laptops or other technology, even in social settings. This has become a cultural norm more recently with the influx of technological innovation. Even though having and using technology is very common in our culture, it does mean that we have to learn unspoken rules of politeness for their use. For example, it is considered impolite to be using technology while in a discussion with another person or in a more professional context. |
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| Toys The toys my nieces and nephews play with, and the fact that we find toys for them, is part of my culture. Children are allowed to play after dinner, and these specific toys were chosen because of cultural practices which led to their availability. Using these kinds of toys requires that children learn common words of things available in our culture, such as "train tracks", "cars", and "helicopters". |
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| Facetime My brother and his wife recently moved away for medical school, so we occasionally Facetime them during the evenings. It is a cultural practice to have an iPad and the family connections for my niece to be able to talk to them after Sunday dinner as she was doing in this picture. Being able to have this kind of contact with others means that we can have aspects of our culture in a more national, or even global, context. We can do this because of the level of privilege our culture has, especially in the United States. Because we are white, middle class, Christian people, for the most part, the United States has been built to support our culture. This allows us to feel comfortable in a variety of places, and technology is also set up to support us. |
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| Kids' Table When we eat dinner together as an extended family, the children are all required to eat at a certain table while the adults have more leeway in their decisions. While established for convenience of cleaning in my family, this rule is often a part of family events across cultures. Having a table for kids is often a convenience for being able to clean easily, but it has evolved to become a more standard practice. This separates adult and child conversation as well as behavior. Because of this different treatment, adults and children are more separated. We do not expect children to behave completely properly or quietly all the time, and encourage them to explore their worlds as children. We treat the children differently because of our cultural beliefs and practices. |
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| Scriptures Because our religion is a prominent part of our culture and our lives, my family has many copies of our scriptures on a bookshelf in our front room. These scriptures, as well as our religion, require that you have a more religious vocabulary. For example, we often talk about people from our scriptures such as "Nephi" or "Alma". We also talk about "Sacrament Meeting", "Relief Society", "Primary", "The Pride Cycle", and other religious terms. Someone not of our culture would be confused during many of our discussions, as these terms are integrated into our lives. |
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| Car Because we live in a suburban area, the cultural norm is to travel by car. Many people in our neighborhood, including us, commute to work or school. Having a car allows us to have access to the community around us. Our suburban community and culture does not have a large public transportation system, so not having a car makes it extremely difficult for community members to travel, even short distances. Not having a car in our culture is viewed as a major inconvenience, for oneself and for others. |
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| Picture of Christ It is a cultural practice to decorate our home with pictures, but the pictures we choose also stem from our culture. This picture of the Savior in a prominent place again emphasizes our religion and our commitment to it. This means that people entering our home can easily see many of the things we value. We expect the same from the pictures in other people's homes. However, if someone does not have the cultural capital to understand what a picture is showing, they would not experience a connection to the family in a home. |
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| The Temple This somewhat blurry picture of an LDS temple found in my home emphasizes, again, the importance of religion in my culture. I do not have a good picture of a temple in the landscape on my phone, but their presence has shaped the communities around them. Driving down the freeway towards Salt Lake County, you can see many different temples. Our cultural landscape is filled with religious buildings like our temples and churches. |
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| Sunday Dinner I have mentioned Sunday dinner a few times before. It is a large part of my culture. This picture shows the collection of dishes being prepared for my family to come over and eat soup for dinner. While we do not all live together, we meet together often. While other aspects of our culture emphasize individualism and independence, this is one cultural practice which encourages family togetherness and relationships. Being a member of a family in our culture means that you learn to value those traits, as well as the idea of a "nuclear family". |
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| Missionaries This is a gift which my brother gave to my parents shortly after returning from his LDS mission. It includes pins from all of my brothers who have served missions so far. It is definitely a cultural practice to display reminders of missions in public places. If you have not served a mission, it is common to feel left out or judged by other members of the culture. Not fitting the expected mold for a member of the Utah LDS or BYU LDS cultures means that you cannot participate in many common conversations about things like serving missions or family relationships. |
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| Family Pictures My parents have a wall covered in pictures of family in one of the hallways of our house. We have a large and growing family, and, like many other people, take family pictures together to display. Taking family pictures in our culture involves choosing a color scheme, finding a location, and finding a photographer. Family pictures are often displayed in prominent places. Because of that, there is cultural pressure to make them look good. |
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| Church Clothes This is a picture of an outfit which I wore to church. In Orem, Utah, it is common for female members of the LDS church to wear conservative dresses or skirts with shirts, while male members wear white shirts and ties. Other religions and other areas of the world have different cultural concepts of appropriate attire for church settings. If a person does not follow the cultural norms for type of dress in our churches, others will judge their attire and may think that they are not "good enough" or "righteous enough" to attend our church, simply because they do not fit in. |
