Your heritage. It‘s even the lifestyle that your ancestors once had. It’s where you come from and where everything you know today stemmed from. It’s culture. Or is it tradition?
What is the difference between culture and tradition?
I'm not going to sit here and give you the technical definition and example of each. No, that’s not what I’m going to do. However, I will define and give you a few examples from the perspective of a 21-year-old college girl -- my perspective.
First off, culture is the knowledge and characteristics of a group of people. It’s the language, clothes, the food, religions, cuisine and the social habits. All these different components make up the culture. I see culture as your reputation and what your background brings to the table. There’s a cultural label that many foreigners give Americans: that we’re all ignorant and stupid. However, America is often referred to as a melting pot of different cultures. There are even different cultures across the 50 states. Take Texas, for example. We are all hospitable, Christian, and big on grilling and barbecue. In New York, there is a culture of everything being fast paced and the people being rude, as well as eating from various food trucks each day. In Hawaii they are big on seafood and eating things fresh. Every place has its culture.
With every culture, comes its traditions.
What are those?
I see traditions as a custom or belief that has been held throughout and passed on for generations. Although some of them are good and beneficial, others are illogical and just wrong. Many people know their traditions are wrong and that some are even degrading. In many American families, it’s tradition to be harder on the daughters than the sons. If the sons start becoming sexually active early, there isn’t much backlash. In fact, many are applauded for earning their “manhood.” However, daughters receive harsh repercussions.
The American hip-hop culture is becoming more and more misogynistic. It’s terrific and totally makes us women feel wonderful about ourselves. That sentence was complete sarcasm for those of you who didn’t pick up on that.
It’s becoming a tradition that single mothers are being honored on Father’s Day. Father’s Day and Mother’s Day are two different holidays in two different months for a reason. I’m not saying single mothers don’t do an excellent job raising their children; however, there are certain things in life that only fathers or a father figure can teach. A mother can’t thoroughly talk to her son about his penis. She can only go based off of her personal experience with it or what she has seen, read, or heard about from other males, and never from a personal perspective. People know that some of these traditions are wrong or don’t agree with them, but say and do absolutely nothing to stop or prevent it. Just because something is the norm, doesn’t mean it is right.
Why not?
Why are we so scared to venture from our norm/bubble/comfort zone? We are comfortable within our own bubble. We like being around what we are used to. We as human beings don’t like going against the grain because we don’t know what the outcome is going to be or we don’t want the flack from those around us. We get comfortable with our daily routine and the way things are traditionally done. We keep telling ourselves that someone else will come along the way and jump start what we want to do but are afraid to do. We are often so quick to point a finger rather than extend an open hand. We can identify a problem but want nothing to do with the solution. We have grown lazy and would rather watch something being done rather than actually do it.
Typical American; don’t you think?
Everyone has a culture that they identify with or one that they just love. The real question is:How traditional are you?
