Reference no: EM133548498

Question

"Cultures solve the common problems of human beings, but they solve them in different ways. ... Each provides its people with a means of communication (language). Each determines who wields power and under what circumstances power can be used (status). Each provides for the regulation of reproduction (family) and supplies a system of rules (government). These rules may be written (laws) or unwritten (custom), but they are always present. Cultures supply human beings with an explanation of their relationship to nature (magic, myth, religion, and science). They provide their people with some conception of time (temporality). They supply a system by which signi?cant lessons of the culture (history) can be given a physical representation and stored and passed on to future generations. The representation usually comes in the form of dance, song, poetry, architecture, handicrafts, story, design, or painting (art). What makes cultures similar is the problems they solve, not the methods they devise to solve them" (p. 70). Compare two different cultures that you are familiar with in terms of the categories to which they refer. What categories are similar and which ones are different? How would you explain the differences and similarities?