Ferraro’s critical reflection on culture affirms the critical role that culture plays in the society. Reading the reflection generated new learning for me in respect to understanding that culture is acquired and that no culture is inferior to the other. I learnt that it is possible for one culture to “kill” the other as it happened in Australia where domination of Aboriginal culture by that of the Europeans deprived them social and economic advancement (Edwards, 1998). The extinction of one culture deprives the world of cultural diversity and could have detrimental consequences to the environment.
The reflection on culture helped me understand the three elements of culture (have, think and do) in light of indigenous cultures. I now understand that no one was born “cultured” and that culture is transmitted through a process of interacting and learning, and it is not acquired through genetic processes (Ferraro, 2010).
I have also learnt that neglect and prejudice against the culture of another group of people can cause deep-rooted animosity between communities going by the Aborigines and the Europeans of Australia case. It took hundreds of years for the aborigines and their indigenous culture to finally get recognition in Australia (Maddock, 1986). It is therefore, necessary for people to learn and accommodate cultures they find “strange” to them. This is especially so for business leaders who are bound to me moved from one culture to another in the course of their careers.
I learnt that each culture has one or two items that they truly value and on which they anchor their livelihoods. In the case of the Aborigines, it is their land and their use of colors and dreaming (Edwards, 1998). The understanding of the most pivotal aspects of each culture is therefore, an excellent platform to learn the more intricate details of a new culture.
References
Case Study. Bozzola’s Critical Reflection on Culture
Edwards, W. 1998. Traditional Aboriginal Society, University of South Australia, Hong Kong.
Ferraro, G. 2010, ‘Cultural dimensions and value orientations’, in Ferraro (ed.), Why culture matters, 6th ed., Pearson, Sydney.
Hiatt, L. R. 1996, Arguments about Aborigines: Australia and the Evolution of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Maddock, K. 1986. The Australian Aborigines: a portrait of their society, Penguin Books, Melbourne.
