Culture
has many definitions, which can be generalized to "Learned patterns of
behavior and attitudes shared by a group of people" (Martin &
Nakayama, 2013, p. 88). In the social
science perspective, culture is a set of patterns of perceptions that we have
to learn. In the interpretive approach,
culture includes contextual symbolic meanings-a behavior or attitude is only
truly cultural if it holds symbolic meaning to those who practice it. In the critical perspective, culture can be a
source of contested meanings.
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| Catholic baptisms, for example, are very different from Baptist baptisms. |
While
analyzing my own various cultural identities, I kept thinking of my identity as
a Baptist and how rare it is to find another Baptist as I move around UNL. With the above definitions of culture in
mind, I have chosen Catholic UNL students as my cultural group of study. The Catholic belief system is almost directly
opposite my own belief system, despite both being denominations of Christianity—that
alone fits it into the critical definition of culture, as the beliefs between
religious definitions have historically caused a lot of tension. In the interpretive approach, Catholic
students form a culture of people who place significant meaning on several
rituals, such as attending mass or praying before a meal. Finally, Catholic students (and Catholics in
general) have to learn the belief system from others in order to understand and
claim “Catholic” as a cultural identity.
In order
to study this cultural group, I plan to approach the HuskerCatholic group that
headquarters out of the Newman Center St. Thomas Aquinas Church on campus. I will attend mass at St. Thomas in order to
witness some important Catholic rituals in practice by the group. If possible, I may attend a community event
hosted by HuskerCatholic. I also intend
to interview student Catholics in order to get a one-on-one perspective of how
individuals practice this cultural identity.
My goal is to learn more about Catholicism in an effort to expand my
understanding of my own religious identity.
I am largely uneducated about the finer details of Catholicism, and I
think learning more will prove to be a benefit to me in the long run.
Works Cited
Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K.
(2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.) New
York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Newman Center. HuskerCatholic,
n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.
A Catholic Baptism [Photograph]. Retrieved September 26, 2013, from:
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-7-catholic-sacraments-definition-history-quiz.html
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-7-catholic-sacraments-definition-history-quiz.html
