First Blog (What is Culture?)

I chose to take a Cultural Studies class because I can't help but think about why we do what we do as a society. Last semester I enrolled in an Anthropology class and enjoyed the way I was challenged to take a non-bias approach to interrupting the actions and symbols of a culture. Cultural Studies seems to be a more direct approach to looking at how out interactions, traditions, popular beliefs, etcetera, shape our society's culture. 

I'm interested in how and when habits, taboos, attitudes, traditions in our society originated. I like stepping back and attempting to look at my own and other cultures from an outside perspective. Similar to the crew of Star Trek (geek alert!) landing on another planet and encountering another civilization's culture and trying to understand why they act the way they do...how is their behavior is shaped by their environment, their past, their leadership, their diet, their physical bodies, their gods, their ignorance, their discoveries? No doubt all of these influences plus many, many more shape a society's cultures form generation to generation.

I believe culture also refers to how our relationships with each other, i.e. society, determine in part the path a civilization heads down. I'm becoming more and more interested in history as I get older and it seems looking at the culture of a particular era really helps shed light on why certain events took place. It's also interesting to see what parts of our nation's culture is highlighted and which parts downplayed in history textbooks and literature that examine our past. 

I look forward to studying culture in this class and was pleasantly surprised that the "theory Toolbox" starts off with lyrics from a 'Gang of Four' song!