Society, defined as a group of
people with common territory, interaction, and culture. (Sparknotes, 2015). Coming
into Culture and Society, I did not have much knowledge about culture and
society, however throughout the semester I have learnt so much and what
revolves around culture and society through individual and group work,
reflecting and discussing what culture and society means to myself and other
people. Culture and Society has allowed me to reflect on what my culture means
to me and also the role it plays in society. Being a New Zealand born Samoan,
it has allowed me look into my cultural values and compare the different kind
of Samoan culture for those who live back at home to my life living in a modern
society. It also has helped me gain knowledge about other peoples’ culture and
identity through interactions and observations. This reflection I will be
talking about two themes: maintaining traditions in modern society and Human
rights.
Throughout the semester, the paper allowed
me to think of things that are not a part of our everyday thinking especially
thoughts on how I maintain my traditions through modern society, because this
theme was part of a group assignment, it allowed me to reflect on how I maintain
my traditions living in a modern society today. Growing up in New Zealand where
there is so much diversity and freedom that it is sometimes taken for granted,
this paper has allowed me realize that because of our living standards we are
so much more fortunate than other countries. During the semester, we had a
group assignment where my group looked at maintaining traditions in modern
society. My group solely wanted to focus on how to maintain tradition in modern
society through social media. I found focusing directly on social media to
maintain traditions difficult to research and understand because although it is
a part of modern society today, I didn’t find it a strong reason for maintaining
traditions in modern society. Therefore for myself, my mindset was not fully
focused during this group assignment because of this as well as personal
reasons also. I am a person that does enjoys individual work so I did miss
majority of the group meetings, however I did my own individual research and
put my own thoughts and research into the presentation. I looked at the
negative and positive outcomes social media helps with maintaining traditions
in modern society. A positive outcome that comes with social medial helping
maintain traditions was that it allowed us to keep in contact with our loved
ones at home with updates on families and cultural events as well as issues
that arise back in the homelands. A negative outcome with social media is that
because it is a part of modern society, people on social media are more focused
on modern society rather than traditions. Normative
culture must respect established forms and prescribed practices. (Ryan,
2010). Although maintaining traditions in modern society is already as
difficult as it is especially for those who are born outside of their home
countries, Ryan (2010) shows that modern society still allows people to
maintain their traditions and cultural values. Researching about how to
maintain traditions in modern society has allowed me to reflect on the
importance of it as it shows identity in a person, and through social media
becoming a big source of communication with those back at home, it allows
people to have a sense of traditions while living in a modern society. In the
end, traditions and modern society together co-exist in the world today.
Another theme that has stood out
for me throughout the whole semester will be human rights. Looking into human
rights has allowed me to reflect on my rights as a person as well as looking
into the history where human rights did not apply to everyone. Being a Samoan, I
reflected on the history of New Zealand during the Dawn Raids period where
those who were Pacific Islander or looked Pacific Islander were surprised at
dawn by law enforcements invading homes and privacy of pacific islanders in
search of illegal immigrants or ‘over stayers’ as some would call it. The poor
treatment of Pacific Islanders overrules some of the human rights that are
stated for example The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, states that no
one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home…….
Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference
or attacks. However this human right act was overlooked by the people of law
themselves when they decided to invade the homes of those they believed were
illegal immigrants. This period allowed me to reflect on the human rights that
I have as a person where this is not acceptable at all in today’s society. It
allowed me to be thankful for the society that I live in today where there is a
sense of equality and no discrimination when I walk on the streets, where I am
able to sleep peacefully without having to awoken in the early hours of the
morning due to law enforcements invading the privacy of my family. Human rights
plays a huge role in society today and has improved over the years especially
to indigenous people all over the world.
In conclusion, maintaining
traditions in a modern society can be difficult especially with the changes
with new technology and modern society becoming more digital nowadays and
especially in the future, however traditions are still being maintained through
modern society as it adapts to the changes that come with modern society for
example technology and social media where it allows us to keep in contact with
families all over the world therefore I believe that traditions will always be
maintained in modern society because they can co-exist with each other. Human
rights have not always applied to everyone in the past and that can be seen in
the history of most countries, however with today’s society, human rights is slowly
but surely applying to everyone and in every country as people become more
aware of their rights as a person. Culture and Society has given me a lot
interest in learning more about my own culture as well as the cultures of
others especially living in such a multi-cultural country. Culture, is something
that can be taken for granted especially in our daily lives. However, this
paper has allowed me to think about the major role it plays in society today.
Enrolling in this paper has been a great learning experience and it has become
a major part of my daily through observations and conversations with families
and friends. One thing I will be taking away from this paper is how important
culture and society is in this world.
References
Ryan, M. (2010). Cultural studies: A practical
introduction. Wiley, Hoboken,
ISBN9781444320657
SparkNotes Editors. (2006). SparkNote on society and culture.
Retrieved June 15, 2015, from http://www.sparknotes.com/sociology/society-and-culture/section1.rhtml
The universal declaration of human rights. (2015, June 15).
Retrieved June 15, 2015 from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
What
are human rights? (2015,
June 15). Retrieved June 15, 2015 from http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/WhatareHumanRights.aspx
