The traditional and culture
Traditions
Although in the grand scheme of
things, America is a relatively young nation, in its 237 year (as of 2013)
history it has created and nurtured its own flourishing traditions and customs.
Thanksgiving and the 4th July are known the world over, but there are other
peculiarities that make up American culture.
For example, the voting of the
presidential election only ever takes place on a Tuesday. The first Tuesday
after the first Monday in November, confused? Therefore November 2nd is the
earliest date it can fall on and November 8th the latest.
Groundhog Day, made famous by the
90s comedy film of the same name, is the 2nd February. Folklore has it that if,
when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on the 2nd of February it is cloudy,
then spring will come early. If it is sunny, however, the groundhog will upon
seeing its shadow retreat back underground and winter weather will continue for
another 6 weeks.
Cultural
Cultural aspects of everyday life are often
difficult for people of dominant cultures to discern because their practices,
traditions, values, and understandings are taken for granted as the norm. For
them, there’s no apparent need to examine cultural difference, and thus, no
inclination to do so. In the US, middle-class European Americans are typically
so unaware of their own culture they believe that American culture is a melting
pot of other cultures. This misperception is further complicated by confusion
over terms such as Caucasian, the dominant majority, mainstream, middle class,
western, and so on. For our purposes here specifically, where we use the terms
“American and American culture” we refer to “cultural ways of the group that in
recent decades has held a mainstream position in North America. These are
people who are primarily of Western European descent, with a social position
that is often characterized as middle class on the basis of having participated
in high levels of formal schooling and associated occupations.” (Rogoff 2003)
Now that we’ve established what the term
American points to in this article, let’s begin to look at some
specific dimensions of American culture. A dimension of culture is a
recognizable point of comparison used to explain how different cultures prefer
to approach and solve a universal problem. There are more cultural dimensions
than we can possibly address here, so we will focus on a few that seem
especially relevant to patient/provider interactions.
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