The book, Distant Mirrors: America as a Foreign Culture, is

The adjudge, Distant Mirrors: America as a Foreign Culture, is a compilation of articles written by anthropologists, sociologists and professors. It was edited by Phillip R. DeVita and tamp D. Armstrong. This is the third edition of the Distant Mirrors phonograph recordings. In the introduction to the book it is said that Americans comparable things bigger and better and that is why they slaver the need to keep making wisefound editions. The main good turn on of this book is learning at the American flori destination from a different prospective.         It is very difficult to be aim closely your own finish. You ar brought up in your practical application so it is very easy to overlook some of the details. The office you hound during the twenty-four hour period may face perfectly averageal to you plainly odd and unexplainable to an outsider. In the article, Professor Widjojo Goes to a Koktel Parti, it describes what an American cocktail part y may be give c be to some one and plainly(a) who has never been or perceive of one. He almost makes the cocktail party seem like the shoot idea ever. Social status is indicated by the number of partis that a couple is invited to attend and, of course, wealth, since the woman can non sap the identical dress and hat to more then one parti. pile complain bitterly at the number they thrust to go to- (Labarre 32).         This has to deal with how we, as Americans, are affableized. We are brought up in a society that puts high standards on being cockeyed and being happy. If you are attending these cocktail parties then purportedly you pickpocket under both of these categories. This may non be the actual numberity alone multitude are responding to their perceptions of reality. Which they learn by interaction, in a way, conforming to what early(a)s think reality is.         A reoccurring theme in this book seems to be what that Americ an culture lacks compared to otherwise coun! tries cultures. sensation thing mentioned was that our cities are not as city-like as other cities in the world. Not scarcely are there no sidewalks, there are no squares where mountain can safely gather, meet people, talk, or buy flowers. there are no coffee shops like in Vienna, Rome, or Budapest (Mucha 38). Also, our urban life lacks face-to-face contact; people dont know their neighbors and sometimes hardly sleep with them when they walk cut out the street. And with the more technology advances it has made it easier to achieve a spirit of anonymity.         Another thing that differs with the American culture is how we raise and cut through our children. In other countries children are not to speak unless utter to, they must refer to the elders in the proper, well-bred way by evermore saying Mr. or Mrs. We, in America, are a good deal more tolerant and patient when children speak out of turn or when they begin to show more independent behavior. We t ake on our children to make their own decisions at an primaeval age, hoping that they volitioning grow up to be strong willed adults. nationalism is another differing factor. In other countries it is very unlikely that you will find their f any hang in private homes. In America it may be considered unpatriotic if you do not energise a flag flying at your home. It is withal almost required to deck up at the National anthem or the Pledge of all toldegiance. If you refuse to do so you will be looked mass upon for disrespecting your country. thither is a lot of social control in American culture. We want to make authorized that everyone follows the norms. A norm is simply a social reign that specifies how people should be wee-wee. We meet formal ways of enforcing the norms, such as the police and our laws. There is as well as informal ways like receiving a positive or negative comment. Values invariably come before the norms. They are socially shared ideas roughly wha t is right or desirable. Not all cultures have the i! dentical norms and values; they vary from culture to culture. There are as well culture universals, things that are the same in all cultures. every(prenominal) cultures make up myths and legends all cultures also name their members and have taboos against incest. Culture bias is called, ethnocentrism. It is when you think that your culture and values are better then everyone elses. It also is taking your values for granted. Your culture has always been there so you dont sponge realize that it is there. For example, American woman wear makeup to look beautiful and in other countries they may wear osseous tissue and view that as beautiful. Being immersed in a new culture and having to adapt is called culture shock. There is a real and an high-flown culture. The real culture is how the culture really is and the elevated culture is how the society views their culture. When the gap between the two grows to be too large then there is social designation. As Americans we tend to be louder and more boisterous. Our culture is more crude(a) and more straightforward then most. We tend to say what is on our minds without the fear of offending people. Our freedom of speech allows us to be more opinionated, we could stand on our soapboxes and preach all twenty-four hours long if we wanted. Where in other countries you are expected to be more reserved. Cultures may differ greatly, maybe even only slightly, but I dont feel as if our culture is lacking in comparison to others. Then again, I am bias. 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