The culture and society paper has delivered numerous interesting
information throughout the duration of the previous semester. It extracted
several different topics that all belong under the subject of culture and
society. Through class contact, wider reading and previous assignments, this
paper has fairly broadened my knowledge with the help of bits of new
information every week. In this personal reflection, I will discuss two
conceptual themes dealt with in our group presentation and others, relate these
to my personal values and identity, and then apply these to a comparison of
different approaches.
Firstly, the term ‘tradition’ may be interpreted into multiple things,
but it is commonly referred to as ‘something from the past’ (Mohanadoss, 1997).
Our group chose the most relevant theme to each one of us and to the society we
live in today – maintaining traditions in modern society. Conceptually, this
particular theme gives the idea of how people compromise their tradition with
the modernised civilisation today. We looked at different factors that affect
maintaining traditions; some of which include diversity, migration, and
modernisation which are very evident nowadays. These factors are some of the
concepts relating to culture and society; like how diversity allows people to
have differences, especially in traditions, and this results to people having
to forget their own and instead adapt to new traditions that are followed by
the majority. Furthermore, I learned from the concepts discussed in this paper
that traditions may also influence culture and subsequently develop people’s
identities in some ways. Keeping traditions alive is one way to carry out the
behaviours being passed down to us and eventually become part of our way of
living which, in this case, is culture. Spending more time in a culture reveals
the manners and behaviours one has (Hall, 1976). Moreover, maintaining
traditions helps us in choosing how to live our lives and how society may
identify us as part of the contemporary community.
Personally, this theme means keeping my traditions helps me shape a part
of my own identity and especially develop my own values and beliefs as a member
of today’s society. Traditions keep us firm and focused on the most important
things including our families (Cohen, 2014). I believe that acknowledging our
own traditions helps us have a sense of belonging and is the basis of who we
are and what we do as a member of today’s modern society. New Zealand itself
has treasured its very significant traditions, such as Maori traditions. Since
migrating to this country, I have observed that the accustomed practice of
accepting foreigners and their cultures and traditions has contributed a lot to
the country’s vast multiculturalism. This theme made me think that I have kept
so much of my own traditions that I can share this with others and be
interested in their own way of traditions as well. For example, Auckland’s
diversity has welcomed festivals of different cultures and traditions for
everyone to experience and embrace its diversity (Tan, 2012). My beliefs and
values as a Filipino are still greatly influenced by maintaining traditions,
from family traditions to my own culture, even living in a modern society
surrounded by a variety of cultures.
Secondly, one of the themes that piqued my interest the most was popular
culture. This is one of the most relatable topics for myself and to the social
issues today. Popular culture or widely known as ‘pop culture’ is the different
forms of expression and identity that is followed by society (Delaney, 2007).
From a variety of fashion styles, food, music, and entertainment, popular
culture has become a huge part of the contemporary society today. Although
people either like or dislike a specific part of popular culture, it does not
last long enough. According to Danesi (2008), popularity is thought to be
unpredictable and short-lived. Every generation dwells with a variety of pop
culture and I believe that popular culture not only exists in a certain place
but in a global context. Culture is a norm learned while one grows up and
unconsciously follows it (Ryan, Ingram, & Musiol, 2010). Popular culture is
considered as culture shared by commonalities with great favour. Through
various media, people can change their perspectives of things such as their own
identities. They opt to follow what is seen online, on television, or even in
movies and therefore, change or build a new identity.
In terms of my values and beliefs, popular culture has contributed
greatly to how I live in the society today. As part of today’s youth, the
social norms are majorly adapted from what is considered ‘popular’ in the
modern society. Popular culture is a big part of my learning and growing
throughout the years. This has affected the values and beliefs I have, for
instance, having close family ties; but through the use of technology, I am
still able to communicate with my other relatives that live on the other side
of the world. As I grew up, technology as well as social media, have also grew
and developed and have both made positive and negative impacts in the society.
These are just few aspects of popular culture and even through these, I am able
to share a petty side of my personal identity to others. But no matter how
influential the society may be, uniqueness is always part of one’s identity
(Lawler, 2008).
The two themes I chose to discuss hugely interrelate with each other.
Maintaining traditions in modern society and popular culture somehow have a
connection as they both challenge the society today. Both the themes apply to
my own discipline of hospitality and my other choice, a sociological approach.
Hospitality has done a great job in maintaining its traditions, like
accommodating the guests and providing them with good service, in modern
society. It helps in converting strangers to more familiar faces and outsiders
to insiders (Lynch, Molz, Mcintosh, Lugosi, & Lashley 2011). Moreover, New
Zealand hospitality is a great example of including local valuable Maori
traditions that preserves its customs of having guests around. Hospitality
entails comfort that applies to the host and guests’ welfare (Lynch et al.,
2011). Popular culture is also playing a big role in hospitality nowadays –
different forms of social media help hospitality increase its recognition
around the world. Examples include promoting businesses in Facebook, Instagram
or anywhere online. Since introducing these forms of media to society, a lot of
hospitality businesses have gained more ways to advertise, receive reviews or
critiques, and attract more consumers from around the globe. In a sociological
perspective, maintaining traditions in the modern society is definitely a
challenge since change is constant in the society (Andersen, Taylor &
Logio, 2015). This theme affects the study of human behaviour as in such a
modernised civilisation, people tend to lose and gain traditions at the same
time. Sociology sees traditions in society as distinct from one another.
Sociology relates very much with popular culture within society, too. People
generally follow practices of human behaviour and societies continually develop
through time (Andersen, et al., 2015). Social relations currently depend on the
culture of communicating through works of different media introduced as
mainstream. To sum up, this paper and the symposium both broadened my understanding
of these different themes and most importantly, what culture and society really
is.
(1215 words)
REFERENCES
Andersen,
M. L., Taylor, H. F., & Logio, K. A. (2015). Sociology: The essentials. South Melbourne, Australia: Cengage
Learning.
Cohen,
D. (2014, May 12). Why we need to maintain family tradition. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daffnee-cohen/why-we-need-to-maintain-family-tradition_b_6279268.html
Danesi,
M. (2008). Popular culture: Introductory
perspectives. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Delaney,
T. (2007). Pop culture: An overview. Philosophy
Now. Retrieved from https://philosophynow.org/issues/64/Pop_Culture_An_Overview
Hall,
E. (1976). Beyond culture. New York:
Anchor Books.
Lawler, S. (2008). Identity: Sociological perspectives. Malden, Mass: Polity Press.
Lawler, S. (2008). Identity: Sociological perspectives. Malden, Mass: Polity Press.
Lynch,
P., Molz, J. G., Mcintosh, A., Lugosi, P., & Lashley, C. (2011). Theorizing
hospitality. Hospitality & Society. 1(1),
3-24. doi: 10.1386/hosp.1.1.3_2
Mohanadoss,
T. (1997). The role of tradition in modern society. A sociological discourse. The Journal of Social, Political and
Economic Studies, 22(4), 433-445.
Ryan,
M., Ingram, B., Musiol, H. (2010). Cultural
studies: A practical introduction. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Tan,
L. (2012, October 1). Embracing ethnic diversity: Melting-pot reality okay with
New Zealanders. The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved
from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10837572
