Culture- the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of particular social, ethnic, or age group. (Dictionary.com)
Culture - the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. (Oxford Dictionary)
Culture- learned patterns of behavior and attitudes shared by a group of people. (textbook)
Culture - beliefs, customs and morals that are unique or shared by different groups across the globe (my own definition)
Now matter what your definition of culture may be, it all makes sense, culture itself is as diverse as its definitions. Not one culture is the same or matches another culture. The cultural group I chose to do my Cultural Reporter project on was Native Americans. The would fit under the definition of culture because it deals with a specific group, place or society. This group or society also would fit under another definition because of their beliefs, customs or their arts. I choose this groups for a few reasons, one because I have some Native American ancestry in my blood and also because I feel like people in the Midwest are particularly more educated on them as a society or group of people. I also choose this because I honesty wanted to learn more about their culture. My video reflects my eagerness to learn about them as people and as a society as a whole. I interviewed two friend who also have Native American ancestry and it was eye opening to hear of their experiences growing up in a basically all white society. My identity fit in with some of the things they said (my interviewers) but in general my identity was fully connected to the Native Americans. I knew that some of these things were part of my ancestors but maybe because I grew up in an all white society, I didn't look like the stereotypical Native American, that I lost some of the touch I could have potentially had to this society.
I guess my main concept was just the overall idea of Identity and how my interviewers, myself and those of you who will be reading this post and watching my video will identify with Native Americans. Of course many other things unfolded during the entire process including the addition of new ideas like code switching, other identities of my interviewers, history of they Native American culture to name a few. Identity though was a big and major idea throughout my project. It began with simply identifying my group as Native Americans and grew from there. I also attended two events that were strictly Native American based. One was an art gallery and there other was a museum exhibit. The art gallery was more of comical spin on the stereotypical Native American culture and the museum exhibit was more of a blast from the past with all the artifacts, pictures and information. Both gave me insight on how my chosen cultural group was often perceived and gave me a better understand of where my chosen group came from historically. I had recorded both of my interviews with pen and paper, as both my interviewees felt uncomfortable being video taped. Here they are.
One of my major themes was identify as mentioned above. Several of the questioned that I asked in the interview included identity. Like, for example " Do you identify yourself to others and to yourself as Native American?" or "Is it important to you to identify yourself as Native American?" My interviewees had varying answers for both of these questions, which was interesting. I defined them in my powerpoint/video and you'll see it more clear once you watch it but I believe the answers varied because of how my two friends I interviewed grew up. They grew up vastly different, one looked like your stereotypical Native American and other one did not, maybe that's the reason for difference in the answers for identity.
Another them that I identified was family, or family histories. It seemed important to include some questions about their families to help better my understanding for their answers as well as to help set up a background from which their reasoning or information may have come from. Family is important right, we all know that and we all know that our family is extremely important and can influence our future decisions. I asked them a few questions but not a lot, they included; "Does your family do cultural things that other families might not do?" and again the answers were vastly different. More than likely because like everything else about my friends, their families were different too.
The third theme I was able to identify was their specific educational learning of different cultural groups including (you guessed it) Native Americans. Here it was interesting both of my friends had many similarities to the questions that I asked them. For example one of my questions was "Being from the Midwest, do you feel more connected to your heritage?" Both answered yes. Maybe it was because both of my friends were from the Midwest, even though different parts? Maybe it was because of what they learned in school about Native Americans throughout history, was more centered into the education here in the Midwest? Whatever the reason, both girls had described during their interviews how they felt more connected to their heritage with being Native American because they felt like they learned more about them here, since they are living in the Midwest. Interesting thought.
Midwest Map (Friend 1 in South Dakota and Friend 2 from Nebraska)
To sum up, I interviewed two of my friends who were both of Native American Ancestry. They had vastly different answers for nearly all of the questions that I asked them (I asked them both the same 15 questions) They both opened up about their opinions, thoughts, ideas and past experiences on a variety of different subjects. They both also had eye opening answers for me which I hope you'll see more clearly and understand better when I upload my video. I also attended two different events for this project in the hopes of learning more about the Native American Culture for myself and to help me understand the potential answers my interviewers would give me, a little better. I attended an art exhibit at the Great Plains Art Museum , which was a comical spin on the old West. It depicted Native Americans in the way that probably many Americans view them, and like many of the movies, media and music we see view them. I also attend a museum exhibit at Morrill Hall. It was full of Native American artifacts from beaded pieces of clothing to pow-wow gear to their tools. Both were extremely helpful in helping me understand my chosen group a little more and learning more about them culturally. Finally I put it all together in a powerpoint/video which I will post. It hopefully will explain everything in a little more detail and bring to life all the information I have presented to you thus far.
Here is a link to the University's Video from their Youtube Channel (sorry I couldn't download it to help you guys see it a little easier but I hope you'll take the time to watch it!) (I do not own this video, all rights are owned by the University)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZInZgmJERBw&feature=youtu.be
Works Cited
"Culture." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
"Culture." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
"Definition of Culture in English:." Culture: Definition of Culture in Oxford Dictionary (American English) (US). N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
"First Peoples of the Plains Exhibit." YouTube. YouTube, 08 Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
Martin, Judith N., and Thomas K. Nakayama. Intercultural Communication in Contexts. Boston, Mass: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Print.
"UNL State Museum Exhibit | First Peoples of the Plains." UNL State Museum Exhibit | First Peoples of the Plains. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
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