Cultural Differences, the Effects of Location
I live in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The air is thick and humid all year long, and the weather varies enormously throughout the year. This means that the clothes I wear changes all the time. Nothing is very consistent and that means that my habits and feelings are always changing.
Things grow like crazy here. You can throw some seeds into the ground and expect something to grow eventually without having to worry about anything. It sure is a worry free place, full of life and things are comfortable. |
The Hopi reservation is located in dry, hot Arizona. This is over 2000 miles away from I live, so it's to be expected that things are really different. Traditionally, the Hopi have embraced the struggle of growing plants in the dusty dirt of Arizona, but it is a major part of their culture. They have purposefully chosen to remain in this seemingly uncomfortable place, because it has become part of who they are religiously.
I can't even imagine living somewhere like this, but the Hopi chose to live this way. This is makes us very different kinds of people. It's true that their culture would be dramatically different if they did not have to pray for rain and depend on the toughest strain of corn for survival. |
Religion
Considering the fact that I was raised in a religious, Christian, environment, I do have some things in common with the Hopi culture, but I am not religious anymore. However, the place I live in is a very religious area, the bible belt. All of my family is involved with some type of church, except for me, so I know what it is like to be raised by being taught creation myths as if they were historical fact. My family considers their creation myths to be so important that they really do see them as factual.
When I was growing up, religion had a really strong cultural effect on me. I was restricted from watching certain television shows, reading certain books, and wearing certain clothes. In almost a similar way, the Hopi culture is one in which people also are restricted from having certain attitudes. However, in the Hopi culture it is much less of a restriction, but just a preferred way of doing things. The Hopi culture is all about trying to hold on to the way that things have been, but in my situation, as a young college student, I am trying to search for new ways to do things, and trying to change the environment I was raised in. These are two very different situations. |
Language
Today Hopi Indians speak English, for the most part, but they also have a native language that some speak. I also speak English and most of the people I interact with speak English. However, I live in a two- apartment house with a few people from Pakistan, and English is not their first language. I also interact with a lot of people who have really broken English regularly, because Bowling Green has an international center, bringing people from all over. This is something that is really different about my experience with language and someone who lives on the Hopi reservation.
Social Organization
For the Hopi Indians today, old traditions, like the ones I have mentioned in this project, still exist for many. Those traditions are quite different, socially, than the habits I have. My social group is a combination of the people I work with at the Coffee shop I work at, the fellow artists I communicate with, and the people I see at band concerts and shows. You could consider my social identity to fall into the "hipster" category, because of the stereotypical habits that I have. My social structure is seemingly loose, but it is really a complicated combination of creative people and food workers. There are not any restrictions on who can date who or what kind of opportunities someone has socially.
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