CCS100 Reflection Paper Caleb Ferger

From the beginning, I was under the impression that culture described the customs of a

specific ethnicity, nation, or some level of social class among the worlds diverse population.

However, I now realize that there are many other aspects of culture. Many of my views were

challenged through the book in which the chapters clearly depicted various interpretations of

what culture is considered to certain peoples, both tribal and civilized. The main focus of this

course, or focus question rather, has been what is culture? Culture in many ways has no

specific definition. However, one specific experience that jumps out to me as having a greatly

impacted the effect on how culture can be individually interpreted was our visit to the

Milwaukee Public Museum.

The Milwaukee Museum not only helped to display the physical differences between

certain cultures, but also gave an insightful view into the realm of their spiritual beliefs. I had

mentioned the aspect of art and how it played an important role in certain cultures in previous

work, but I never understood the impact of the artistic aspect of culture. Walking around the

museum, my aha! moment arose in the analysis of different cultures interpretations and beliefs

through their artwork and architecture. In a way, I could infer that distinctions in artistic

portrayals of societies define culture and how it is represented. Much of the artistic

representation created during the Mesoamericans reign in Central America depicted either a

specific god or goddess within their spiritual realm, and the architecture served a spiritual

purpose. Additionally, the purpose aided in distinguishing the wealthy and hierarchal social

class, to the poverty-stricken, often enslaved, social class.

CCS100 Reflection Paper Caleb Ferger

In correlation, the Native-American exhibit also distinguished how those people gave

purpose to what they considered to be their art. Of course, the Native-American artistic

landscape is more widespread, and was introduced by various tribal civilizations, in turn creating

an array of artistic representations and spiritual beliefs. From this, canvas artwork, cave

paintings, and distinguishable markings that represent tribal nations emerge. They clearly

indicate this in the exhibits and describe that much of the markings painted on the bodies of these

individuals, and most of the elaborate headdress and handcrafted clothing had spiritual and

specific purpose for representing which individuals had an assumed or elected position within

their tribe.

After experiencing and noticing that the artwork within a civilization helped to provide

the most information about a specific culture, I began to pay even closer attention to detail with

each display that I observed. Artifacts such as stone figures, clothing, pottery, tools, and even

ceremonial pieces provide us with so much information beyond what was originally thought

possible. Stone figures depicted mythical creatures, or what their representation of their deities

may be, providing educated and preserved time capsules of what life was like. Tools and

utensils also provide us with exponential amounts of information. For example, a society that

was working with metals and creating metal goods using certain processes can often be referred

to as being more civilized and/or innovative for their specific time period, whereas a society

that consistently uses traditional clays and/or more natural materials to aid them may be referred

to as less civilized and/or uneducated. Of course, we know that not to be the case and each

civilization is unique for what they invented and implemented as necessities to survival.
CCS100 Reflection Paper Caleb Ferger

Whether a certain society is more educated than another cannot simply be an indication

of what resources they extract from the Earth to use for their materials or what they might have

eaten. Certain societies value some resources over others. For instance, precious metals such as

gold and silver are seen as valuable to many societies because of their rarity and symbolic nature

to others as a sign of wealth, power, or royalty. Other civilizations may think people value

something that provides no benefit other than enhancing personal appearance is not a priority.

Some civilizations would rather put the premium price on resources such as trees, soils, clays,

and other natural materials that provide for a more diverse purpose, rather than something that

provides little or one purpose, and takes more time, energy, and effort to extract from the Earth.

Societies all differ in their beliefs and values. Some societies, as well, dont have artistic

artifacts or structural representation of their beliefs and society. In fact, many societies were

nomadic, and many others were more practical about the way in which they lived each and every

day. For this fact, many historians agree that some societies do not have artistic artifacts, but

rather more practical artifacts that served a valuable purpose in their everyday lives, and also

help to provide another perspective towards how a culture may be defined. This opposing theory

also contradicts my original ideology that art defines a culture. Like the connotation of the word

culture, art is interpreted in many ways and is perceived and judged by the norms and values of a

given culture. Values between cultures are shown through their personalized inventions, whether

they are artistic and spiritual, agricultural, hunting, or architectural tools, culture cannot solely be

defined through a civilizations material items, but does allow us to experience a resourcefulness

and intuitive nature from their perspective.

CCS100 Reflection Paper Caleb Ferger

What Ive been alluding to with the many things I observed at the museum is a

culmination of ideas. The main one referring to our topic question throughout this course, what

is culture? At the beginning, I didnt really put any deep thought or meaning into my response

when we were first asked that question. In my mind, I simply thought: Culture is the collection

of beliefs, morals, values, and spiritual art that defines a region, society, country, or civilization.

As the semester continued, I began to rethink what I have been told was correct all these years.

In fact, I came to the realization that there is no real definitive definition of culture. Culture is

ultimately an interpretation or a perception. Culture isnt something that can be taught or learned

by reading a book, or studying a peoples way of life, but rather experienced through a

civilization or society to set them apart from other civilizations throughout the world. A

civilization, society, or nation defines culture from their own specific interpretation.