A culture is defined as the way of life of a group of people. Their behaviors towards one another, their beliefs, and the values that lie in the community are accepted and passed to generations through communication or imitation. Cultural heritage is an expression of ways of living. Cultureunifies one group but separates it from other groups with dissimilar practices and beliefs.
More often than not, we tell each other apart and make assumptions about each other based on appearances or traditions. These differences are not a result of being different but because humans live in different worlds, which leads to each acquiring its way of life “All people are the same; it’s only their habits that are different. -Confucius. The statement suggests that despite what people think or feel, all people are the same, and so, therefore, different cultures should not cause a rift or build up a threat. The core principle that we all need to learn is that most human values are the same and are only expressed differently. The aforementioned is not a ticket that means that people should not be compassionate towards people from a different culture. Instead, it encourages people to not only engage and discuss their differences but to embrace them regardless of race, culture, or ethnicity
This paper reflects on the culture of a particular tribe and the evaluation of the ethnic group to effectively interact with the people of other different cultures that surround the ethnic tribe. We also look at how the interaction benefits the society at large in terms of socioeconomic activities between the various groups and even amongst themselves. The tribe I take a close look at is the Guarani tribe living in South America, mainly in the countryside of Paraguay. However, many of these people are in Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia, and I have roots in these indigenous tribes (McQuaid & Landier, 2018).
Having both parents in the family sets us up as a fundamental cultural unit in any society in a family of six. Thereby, we had to experience the culture foremost and be a traditional family that valued their culture. Any child needed to obey and respect their parents. These were always directly stated repeatedly. With these, it came naturally to obey our elders and anyone above our age. The main messages implicitly communicated were the voice volumes or body language when attending to certain people. These traits were usually very boldly expressed, and when a member of the family went against these norms was harshly corrected to follow the rules. There was no cancelation except when people grew up, and then certain things started changing.
The mother was the primary influence of the culture in the family; because she had the most time with the children. I happened to have grown in the neighborhoods of Asuncion. The neighbors were the Ache tribe, hunters, and gatherers (Henderson et al., 2018). I remember someday when I had a few friends whom we could go around to hunt in the rain forest for some wild meat, and it was an exhilarating experience for a person from a different tribe. I felt welcomed by the group. In such cases, there is no sense of power to lead the hunting group for the first time; we had to be shown how to escape dangerous terrains and wild animals such as snakes in the jungle. Those were the first experience of feeling different.
Our family felt very different and were always inclined on the future as to schools and having a business that could sell and provide income towards the family’s survival as we did not depend on hunting. The process of my cultural development was implicitly learned or communicated to me as early as childhood having my culture unexamined and being just a south American by birth. I did not care for such and then had to search my own culture to ensure that I had a belonging, and then with these, I had to search for my people, which is my second stage of cultural identity development. I had a lot of questions about my beliefs and compared them with those of others while I was growing in school, which resulted in my identity achievement in my culture. I then realized my ethnic background with all information I could require and accepted fully and also allowed it to play some of my future roles such as marriage and how to raise children, how to deal with discrimination and stereotypes, and as well as approach negative perceptions of different people from different groups in the society in future. I admire the value of my community. You have to respect your elders because they have the most experience and with the least is where you have to punish your kid for misbehaving, a characteristic I disgusted very early on. I have no particular feeling of being white since most whites feel they are the most civilized and with a superior race than the other different races when it comes to color.
Personally, my cultural identity has given me a sense of power over most areas of my personal life. For example, when it comes to my family, I have a reputation that my family respects. A few times when it comes to class identity is when all things go wrong, and the feeling of not being able to fit in is quite normal; however, in other areas, the sense seems to be negligible as the sense of power is insignificant. From this conclusion, when it comes to future matters with professional practicing, the relation to members of other ethnic groups will be less stressful. I am sure that the experience with the different people will be respectful and these will breed good relationships.
Effects of Culture
Culture influences not only where we live but also the professions we choose. Their culture influenced the majority of the individuals on their decision to become health professionals. Most of the minors had an inferiority complex that made them believe that pursuing the career would at least remove or upgrade their life standards that could compare them with others. The majority of these individuals were faced with harsh political alienation that made them feel alienated from society. In return, they couldn’t receive much support from governments or their governments that made them feel that way
Barriers such as communication, language, and accents made it difficult for them to cope with the new environment and the people in their practices. The difference in racial factors led to most of these barriers in language. Financial barriers that couldn’t allow them to sustain themselves well while on their precentorship programs. The color difference that led to racial abuse and being perceived as different made them not fit in their new environment as much as they would have liked (Erigha, 2021). Some managing to maneuver these barriers by learning the English language and mastering the familiar accents by attending lessons made them fit in the new society and operate the same as others. Financial difficulties made the professionals try some extra jobs around to sustain themselves well. The racial abuse was rampant that was not easy to a certain just made them feel bad about it and could neither do anything (Carter et al., 2017). Racial abuse is a rampant case that always found a way to arise since language barriers are still prevalent in the areas of work amongst other members of other ethnical groups and the less likely of people from the same racial tribe to behave in a zero professional way.
A competent cultural professional is someone who competes with individuals of other cultures. Most of them felt culturally competent because these will make them very employable, increasing their reputation. Someone willing to join or wish to join the profession of health work is highly encouraged to pursue the career and the only attribute to uphold is hard work and determination above all.
