Catherine Latterell's Essay About How To Perceive A Community

it is important to promote equality and explain without causing offence why some practices are unacceptable “The key anti-oppressive component of personal ands social history discussed in chapter one understanding and valuing the cultural and spiritual heritage of families and

The first concept I would like to talk about is norms. Norms are different rules, whether they are spoken or assumed, about which kinds of behaviors are acceptable in a culture and which ones aren’t acceptable. As an example I would like to use the Disney movie Pocahontas. A clear example of a norm from this movie is the scene where Pocahontas has disobeyed her father by talking to the white man (aka John Smith). Disobedience was something you did not do in her village. The father was in charge of the family and the rest of the family was expected to listen. Another norm for her culture was to take care of the village and everyone in it. Their culture wasn’t all about fun and adventure. They made sure their top priority was the life and ease of everyone in the village. Norms can also change. There is a scene where the chief, Powhatan, tells the village that no one is allowed

In the book Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman there are many different characters, and even some of them cross paths. A community garden was started in Cleveland Ohio just by one person therefore everyone follows. They all learn how to get along with other people, how to not stereotype so much, and how to depend on each other in their community. All of them struggle with something, whether it's with family, friends, or feeling stereotyped. They learn the importance of a community, and realize how much they really depend on each other. Seedfolks shows that having a community is important for all people to incorporate diversity, culture,and unique stories into their lives. You don't realize how much people depend on their community until its gone. The importance of a community is shown through the characters and shown by how they act, what they say, overall how they are perceived by other people.

Community development involves changing the relationships between ordinary people and people in positions of power, so that everyone can take part in the issues that affect their lives. It starts from the principle that within any community there is a wealth of knowledge and experience which, if used in creative ways, can be channeled into collective action to achieve the communities' desired goals.

Community impacts our daily lives. It brings us together and it provides the support we need through tough situations. Every day we engage with our community whether it is with a person from the community or with service to help the community flourish. It is important to better ourselves as a community member or a neighbor because a community needs strong members to flourish. To become a strong community member, one must practice all types of altruism, give more than what is required, and work together with members of the community.

It is clear that cultural tradition delivers set foundations into a person’s lifetime, giving identity and sense of belonging to a person and their social group. It allows individuals to feel part of something and understand their ancestral values and customs. Several people believe that it is very important to preserve cultural traditions because they feel as if tradition is the main enabler to a shared identity and to a construction of social consistency and unity. People also believe that conservancy of cultural traditions forms exclusive bonds within members of the community, holding people with the same background together to pass on cultural values, and excluding those who aren’t part of the culture. They think that the actual preservation of traditions means not to change the customs and traditions, to not grow from our culture, for example not learning another language because you already know your mother tongue. It is a way to group up and tag everyone in a form of an alliance, and to have better organization and awareness of where everyone comes from.

These types of beliefs and strong traditions have been good examples for western civilization absorbing their rules and respect. This has been ideal to help restoring their family values.

We don’t value community since we don’t make decisions for the whole group we make them for ourselves only. In our jobs we only do what will lead us to a higher paying position, and if our position is in jeopardy we will do what ever it takes to keep it even if it means going against co-workers. This leads many people to ask the question “do I act selfishly or do I cooperate?” (Innes 2) The ways in which we raise our children has a significant affect on how they will act. If they put themselves before others constantly and think only of their own benefits, it can make them become a selfish person which will lead them to be seen as an outcast by our society. In “Behind Grandma’s House” Gary Soto shows us this when he tells us:

Societal values have always been a source of conflict because the views or opinions of one society or culture often contradict the views of another. The proposal of societal change often brings tension between those that oppose the transformation and those that approve of it. Individualism and uniformity are two forces that are constantly dueling for dominance across the globe, and the severity of this competition differs depending on the variation of the melting pot of cultures within a society. Robert B. Ray and Jeffery Cohen, experts on societal values, both inquire and delve within typical aspects and traits of habit that surround western culture regarding these

Communities require every member to contribute to them in order to function. However, the strength of a community can only be measured on what the members receive in

Community is built of two main elements. First, community requires communal caring. Members need to put themselves in positions where they are able to relate to other members and does everything “within reasonable limits of self-sacrifice” (65). The second is communal reciprocity. Individuals will serve other members of the community, not for exchange of goods, but to provide generosity and support. These elements of community appear in the lives of all individuals, even the most capitalist ones. Humans are entirely capable of these.

A community is defined as a group of people that live in the same place and share the same characteristics and behaviors. David Hackett Fischer in his book states that many different characteristics make up a community and make them unique from other communities. Many different components go into making a community and defining a particular groups behaviors and ways of life. These traditional behaviors and ways of life are known as folkways. Folkways include but are not limited to: family ways, marriage ways, work ways and power ways. The Hmong culture demonstrates how important folkways are and how each folkway helps to develop the community’s culture.

B. The folkways, customs, mores, and laws that you observed in the community member behaviors and interactions.

Under community we tend to perceive the village, the tiny city or the residential complicated within the massive town, where lives every one of us. Every community lives its own life that undergoes a method of development all the time. And each one might participate in this development in numerous ways , for example by taking part in cleaning of the street on which someone lives, by collaborating in organization of an occurrence, connected with the history of the city or the village or by rendering social services to youngsters without parents or elderly people. The individual social responsibility additionally might be expressed in creating donations for important for the society causes – social, cultural or ecological. There are some ways of donating, as an example donating of products or donating cash through a checking account or online.

Traditional societies believe that family heritage is what holds a family together. These societies have ascriptive values, meaning to follow their family's ancestry and way of life. In modern culture, an individual has the power to decide for him/herself as to what he/she wants to attain in life - including an education, career and mate. To those of us living in a modern world, traditional societies may seem to have it rough. However, to those living the traditional way, their life is set for them. They need not worry about how powerful they will be or how much money they will make. Their life brings them security.