AFL1501 Assignment 4

AFL1501 Assignment 4 AFL1501 - Language Through An African Lens The definition of Culture Perhaps defining a term culture is not as easy as one should think. Culture is not just one specific term, but rather a combination of characteristics, knowledge and customs of a particular group of people. Furthermore, a culture includes language, religion, choice and preparation of a type of cuisine as well as artistic skill, preferences and music. In short culture as a whole is basically a description of who we are and where we come from. According to the Centre for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), from the University of Minnesota, culture can be defined as “shared patterns of behaviours and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by socialization”. I share this view. It would be easy to think that a person is just born into a culture and the rules and practices of his or her culture is naturally imprinted in the persons, DNA, but it is not possible at all. This module as well as my interactions with fellow students taught me that your culture is something that you inherit from your ancestors, but can just as easily be forgotten if your parents don’t follow the customs. You won’t suddenly wake up one day and be a Zulu, you have to learn to be a Zulu first. The word “culture” derives from the Latin word “colere”, which means to cultivate and nurture. According to Dr Cristina De Rossi, an Anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London, the word shares its etymology with a number of other words related to actively fostering growth. Therefore one grows into a culture. You are taught the rules and customs. You grow to love the food and play the games because that is what you see others do around you. The same goes with the acquisition of a language. A child learns to speak the language he hears most often first. Second and third languages can be learned as well, but the person will always relate to his first language more. I have studied multiple scholars and authors work on their views of culture and the origin thereof. According to the Natural History Museum of London, the African continent plays an essential part in all cultures over the world. They believe that Human life originated on the African continent and the different people migrated to other areas of the world around 60 000 years ago. This conclusion was made by several Researchers who studied human genomes from various cultures to trace their DNA to common ancestors. Fossil records also factor into some of these theories. But if all cultures origin from Africa, should there not be some similarities? Yes there must be and yes there are. I can easily compare tons of cultures from all over the world and the similarities will be easy to see, but it will take forever and not be relevant to my discussion.