How to Understand Culture

The interesting idea in this blog post is the idea of one's culture having an influence on their concept of time. Language has an effect on the way one perceives time and it also involves the culture they are used to. Some visually think of chronological time as moving from left to right, others from right to left, others from west to east, and others up and down. Why is this important to understand? We must realize that there are myriad reasons why we perceive things differently from one another. In this case, the extent to which you perceive time is dependent on your culture.

As another example, in English class, we were discussing the ways to best immerse oneself in a culture in order to fully understand and appreciate it. A general concesus was made that the best way to fully understand a culture is to be a part of it; to go out and experience it hands-on. While I also believe in that this form of immersion is the best, the class also agreed that traveling is not always the cheapest or most realistic option. We discussed one of our readings about how even museums might not be an effective way of understanding a culture because of the subjectiveness of the museum setup, despite the whole purpose of its existence. Who chooses the artifacts, the paintings, writes the signs, and chooses the pictures? And in that sense, museums influence the way that we perceive not only specific cultures, but also our understanding of history.

In another piece which we read, "The Museum Experience", the idea of a schema came up. Not only is our thinking about museums (and as a result culture, historical events, and the perception of time) affected by the people who create museums, but also by our own expectations. Even before we enter a museum we have our own pre-conceived notions based on the experiences we've heard from other visitors, adverstisements on the radio, the concept of the museum and how generally interested we are in the topic (because I think sometimes we choose what we want to understand), and many others.

It seems as if understanding a culture is a difficult phrase to define in itself. So, my question is: how do we know when we have fully "understood" a culture? If there are many factors which contribute to our understanding, when is the tipping point when we can jump up and down and say something like, "I get it! I fully understand how to be American." I mean, I don't think I even fully understand the American culture and I was born here. Since we are subjective in nature, it's interesting to think about the extent to which others have an effect on our own perception of the world.

Thoughts?