Akwaaba

“Culture” is one of those elusive concepts in the social sciences that are always present but rarely considered and defined because of their complexity (Cole, 1992). Culture’s existence has been a thorn in the side of all major Western mainstream psychological frameworks because of their affinity to relying on universal approaches to understanding human behavior and cognition (Cole, 1992; Garcia Coll & Magnuson, 1999). However in the most recent years culture has been receiving more and more attention.

Culture has been given many definitions and many understandings. From one of the earliest conceptions of culture in recent Western scholarship (Tylor, 1874), it was defined as “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as member of society.” Although this definition is pretty inclusive, its use of “that complex whole” is vague in that no clear understanding of the function and orientation of culture can be surmised. Nobles (1985) defines culture as “a process which gives people a general design for living and pasterns for interpreting their reality.” This definition serves better to express the function of culture. “Process” further distinguishes this “complex whole” as being active and dynamic versus being a passive and static phenomenon. Traditionally Western theorists have viewed culture through the latter description. Cole (1999) asserts that this description has been expressed by the notion that culture is an independent variable meaning that culture is separate from other aspects of human behavior and cognition.

Cole (1999) suggests that an alternate view of culture be taken, one where culture is viewed as a medium through which all things function. This perspective compares to Nobles’ definition. This design acts as an active medium through which the human constructs her/his world. However the human also re-constructs this medium, which causes the dynamism of culture through its ability to be changed by new situations, experiences, environments, etc. Through these qualities culture has a serious impact on human development. Using Cole’s metaphor, the process of development is like the growth of a plant in which culture is the total environment (complex whole) of the plant, including the soil type, the climate, the water supply, intervention of humans and animals, pollution etc. (Cole, 1999). Therefore the impact is not just “serious,” but rather it is central.

Cole, M. (1999). Culture in Development. M. H. Bornstein and M.
E. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (4th ed.), pp 73-121. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Garcia Coll, C. & Magnuson, K. (1999). Cultural influences on child development: Are we ready for a paradigm shift? In C. Nelson & A. Masten (Eds.), Cultural processes in child development. Minnesota symposium on child psychology, vol. 29 (pp.1-24). New Jersy, Erlbaum.

Nobles, W. (1985). Africanity and the Black Family. Oakland: Black Family Institute Publications.

SE wo werE fi na wosankofa a yenkyi.


PEace
solarICE

Still representin' the RED, BLACK & GREEN since 1978!
EFF RED, WHITE, & BLUE*!

Ain't a damn thing changed...

*That includes the Panamanian "dummy government setup by you know who" flag.


***Something to think about***

"if the god of these religions (judaism/christianity/islam) is not above using terrorist tactics to make people believe in Him (and what's the big deal if people do Not believe in Him? God is a egomaniac) then why wouldnt the hardcore followers of these faiths have a tendency to terrorism as well?"- yuckwheat

And one more thing:
I AM NOT UTAMAROHO AND HIS VIEWS DON'T NECESSARILY REFLECT MINE!!!

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"the real pyramids were built with such precision that you can't slide a piece of paper between two 4,000 lb stones, and have shafts perfectly aligned so that you can see a tiny aperture through dozens of these mammoth blocks