Ethnicity is an identity that reflects the cultural experiences and feelings of a particular group. An ethnic group may have common ancestry; memories of a shared historical past; a distinctive shared culture; a collective name; and a sense of solidarity and an association with a specific territory. The concept of ethnicity acknowledges that individuals may have a primary culture that is distinctive to a particular ethnic group, but does not exclude the possibility that individuals within that group have the capacity to learn cultural behaviors of other groups.
3. What is meant by the comment, "Culture is like water for the fish?"
The following quote by writer Aime Cesair best illustrates what is meant by the comment, "Culture is like water for fish." According to Cesair, "Culture is everything. Culture is the way we dress, the way we carry our heads, the way we walk, the way we tie our ties -- it is not only the fact of writing books or building houses." So, just as culture is necessary for survival of the fish, culture is the foundation for human life.
Culture, as a body of learned behaviors common to a given human society, serves as a template with predictable form and content to shape behavior and consciousness within a human society from generation to generation. Therefore, culture resides in all learned behavior and in some shaping template or consciousness prior to behavior as well. This isn't far different from water shaping the behavior of fish. The water dictates everything the fish does: what it eats, where it goes, and how it moves. Just like fish, many qualities of human life are transmitted genetically such as the desire for food. but, desire...
If one facet of culture is impacted on, so too are other facets. Both fish and humans have adaption processes necessary to ensure survival. As mankind has developed language and warfare to respond to threats presented by environmental changes, the fish have developed their own ways to cope with pollution or die.
Works Cited
Question #1
Culture bumps. Retrieved March 3, 2005 from Web site: http://www.mfwi.org/mfwi/Reading_Quizes/culturebumpsr.htm
Working with international students. Retrieved March 3, 2005 from Web site: http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:lsEBdhNa2IQJ:www.csbsju.edu/selt/PD_Events/International_students/SELTPresentation.ppt+%22culture+bump%22&hl=en
Questions #2
Linda Waimarie Nikora, (1995). Race, Culture and Ethnicity: Organisation of Maori social groups - a working paper. Psychology Department, University of Waikato, Hamilton. Retrieved March 3, 2005 from Web site: http://psychology.waikato.ac.nz/mpru/pubs/paps-sums/nikora1995.htm
Question #3 baseline definition of culture. Retrieved March 3, 2005 from Web site: http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vcwsu/commons/topics/culture/culture-definition.html
Linda Waimarie Nikora, (1995). Race, Culture and Ethnicity: Organisation of Maori social groups - a working paper. Psychology Department, University of Waikato, Hamilton. Retrieved March 3, 2005 from Web site: http://psychology.waikato.ac.nz/mpru/pubs/paps-sums/nikora1995.htm
