Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Intro and Culture is ordinary COMBO!

Hi! i know this is late but i'm doing a intro/ comment on the reading because in a sense many things about me probably have something to do with the culture that i grew up in.
My name is Ashley Barchik. I live on a farm in Fairmount Springs which is in NEPA near Benton. I like to think of myself as a creative person. I enjoy writing and art,etc... I went to Northwest Area and graduated in a class of 80 people. I knew almost everyone in my school and atleast knew everyone's families. On friday nights my friends and i would go to football games and to a local pizza place afterwards or have awesome woods parties during the summer and or warmer months(warmer months because tents and sleeping outside was often involved) .
I love the country and was born and bred a farmer's daughter. I have a connection with William's because of growing up on a farm community. I can see arms of industry pushing back the farming communities. My grandfather came from Poland and started farming...most of my family have at some point farmed. Speaking of families I have quite a big one totaling 12 aunts and uncles and 28 first cousins, not to mention all the second and third cousins and so forth....
I can see what Williams was saying in how culture is ordinary because culture is everywhere. Wherever there is a group of people, there is culture. I'm not sure that there can be culture with only one person...however I could be wrong. Since culture is everywhere it is an everyday ordinary thing, however in certain characteristics of cultures other than your own, the culture may become extraordinary. This is only because you aren't used to that certain culture. Therefore i believe that culture is only ordinary when it is your own or when a different culture is similar to your own. Cultures can become extraordinary only when viewed by an outside standpoint.
Your own culture even though ordinary may still be changed. To quote Williams, " A culture has two aspects: the known meaings and directions, which its members are trained to; the new observations and meanings, which are offered and tested." Your own culture therefore gives you the freedom to grow while at the same time giving you restrictions based on old traditions.
I know that where i grew up i ran barefoot through the fields, in high school threw dead animals in people's yards for kicks, used words like hannah( don't you think?), yous guys(you guys), dyou(do you), and would spend my evenings watching the setting sun over my pond. My culture to me is ordinary because i am familiar with it and grew up with it all my life. But my culture to some of you might be totally removed from your ordinary culture.
All in all i started out thinking that culture is ordinary but i can really only place that word "ordinary" on my own culture and those like it. To any different culture i think of that culture as something more...

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