Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I was very specific in whom I chose to speak to in regards to culture and diversity.  I really wanted to try to see if through specific selection, I would get different definitions.  I found that each of the people I had a conversation with about culture and diversity has similar definitions. 

The first person I chose was my mother, Teresa.  I wanted to see if and how her definition was the same or different than mine.  I found that her definition is very text book.  She refers to how culture can constantly change over time and how it can be a learned behavior from one’s surroundings.  This is similar to that of what we have learned through our text readings.  I do not feel that anything was omitted through her definition. 

The second person I chose was Joy.  Joy is a co-worker of mine who I believed in some ways would be culturally different from me due to our races.  Joy is African American, but was born and raised in the United States.  Joy’s definition of culture and diversity was not far off from how I defined both. 

With that said, I reached further into my contacts and selected an international contact from Peru, Odaer.  Odaer’s definition of culture and diversity was intriguing.  Although very similar in definition, she shared a more in-depth conversation with me and provided examples and pictures of how the community in which she lives preserves  ancestral knowledge, and as the knowledge is transmitted and this ensures the identity of cultures in Iso people against the threat of Westernization.  I found our conversation very interesting and it helped to paint a picture of her definition. 

Teresa – Roosevelt, MN

Culture constantly changes and sometimes exists in one’s mind.
It is a learned behavior as in traditions that have been passed on through
family members, ancestral backgrounds or perceptions that are shared
by universal traits. Culture is also through our own identities that set us
apart from others as in foods, language and experience.

Diversity involves the acceptance and respect that all individuals
and acknowledging our individual differences.

Joy - W. St. Paul, MN

Diversity- I define diversity as the integration of races and cultures to provide a variety of perspectives.

Culture- I define culture as racial, social and family economics that influence a person’s individual perspective.

Odaer  - Moyobamba-Peru

The culture as a general concept is any manifestation what man has created in its historical development in all corners of our planet

Diverse development emerges from there that from these various forms and manifestations of how they express themselves 

Children learn to weave through guidance of elders.

Gastronomy in Amazonian peoples.