QUEER CUSTOM BY CLYDE KLUCKHOM
I have learned a lot of understanding customs in my Anthropology class. It was fun and very interesting. Actually, here is my assessment that I did for a particular article. The article titled Queer Custom was written by Clyde Kluckhom. He was an anthropologist and social theories. This article actually based on his own studies where he travel a lot of places to look at their customs. So, here some critical analysis regarding his article or theory.
Each and every culture has its own rituals and codes of living. Based on the article “Queer Custom” by Clyde Kluckhom, he wrote about the issue and the understanding of culture and society. He thinks that culture means the total life way of people.
As for me, culture is something human beings create to find their identity as living things. It is also the same as finding their purpose of life. It is also made up of learned behaviour that involves language and symbols. This is the way humans adapt to the environment or surrounding and makes their lives more secure in many ways. This may seem out of topic, but let’s try to understand Lady Gaga song “We are Born This Way”. She said that we are born to survive in, no matter race, type of human we are in. This explains that every individual born without realizing which part of culture they will be born into and with the culture exist in every part of the world, the main purpose of culture is trying to find their identity to survive in this world. By that, right after we were born, we have adapted our life in the culture that has been preserved and protected by our ancestor. Besides, culture is like “parasite” because it can absorb to a person's life even though he or she is from another culture. Take an example, if we put a Malay boy in the jungle and left him about 20 years, he will become a Tarzan. If we put the Malay boy in the city of New York and left him about 20 years, he will become New York’s businessman. Our surrounding and environment is the factors the creation of culture. As for the boy that lives in the jungle, he might raise by the “monkey culture” and that is why he became a Tarzan. Meanwhile, as for the boy that lives in the city, he might raise by the “entrepreneur culture”. This is ridiculous, but this is culture. It depends on where we live and with whom we have been raised is the result of which we are today no matter which origin we came from.
In addition, every culture has its own way of handling a ceremony for example after giving birth. I am a Malay girl but got the blood of Siamese and Javanese. Right after I was born, my Javanese grandmother, took my placenta and buried it with pencils, and some money. It is a symbol of intelligence and prosperity because the placenta and I have been together for 9 months. I was shocked at first, but it is culture and I have to accept it as a part of my life. The Javanese believe that buried the placenta with specific object; for example, with a pencil will make the baby, good in study during his or her life time. Similarly, in African cultures, “zan boku” means a place where placentas are buried and that is often under a tree. They treat the placenta as the dead twin of the live child and give it full burial rites. Indeed, some culture is queer to others, but it does not mean they should not be practised at all. They should practise their own culture or custom even though it might seem weird to others. People or the society typically feels their culture, belief and practises are normal or natural for them but to others, it may be strange or queer. The society with the queer custom should practise their culture because it is their identity and their way of life.
Each and every culture has its own rituals and codes of living. Based on the article “Queer Custom” by Clyde Kluckhom, he wrote about the issue and the understanding of culture and society. He thinks that culture means the total life way of people.
As for me, culture is something human beings create to find their identity as living things. It is also the same as finding their purpose of life. It is also made up of learned behaviour that involves language and symbols. This is the way humans adapt to the environment or surrounding and makes their lives more secure in many ways. This may seem out of topic, but let’s try to understand Lady Gaga song “We are Born This Way”. She said that we are born to survive in, no matter race, type of human we are in. This explains that every individual born without realizing which part of culture they will be born into and with the culture exist in every part of the world, the main purpose of culture is trying to find their identity to survive in this world. By that, right after we were born, we have adapted our life in the culture that has been preserved and protected by our ancestor. Besides, culture is like “parasite” because it can absorb to a person's life even though he or she is from another culture. Take an example, if we put a Malay boy in the jungle and left him about 20 years, he will become a Tarzan. If we put the Malay boy in the city of New York and left him about 20 years, he will become New York’s businessman. Our surrounding and environment is the factors the creation of culture. As for the boy that lives in the jungle, he might raise by the “monkey culture” and that is why he became a Tarzan. Meanwhile, as for the boy that lives in the city, he might raise by the “entrepreneur culture”. This is ridiculous, but this is culture. It depends on where we live and with whom we have been raised is the result of which we are today no matter which origin we came from.
In addition, every culture has its own way of handling a ceremony for example after giving birth. I am a Malay girl but got the blood of Siamese and Javanese. Right after I was born, my Javanese grandmother, took my placenta and buried it with pencils, and some money. It is a symbol of intelligence and prosperity because the placenta and I have been together for 9 months. I was shocked at first, but it is culture and I have to accept it as a part of my life. The Javanese believe that buried the placenta with specific object; for example, with a pencil will make the baby, good in study during his or her life time. Similarly, in African cultures, “zan boku” means a place where placentas are buried and that is often under a tree. They treat the placenta as the dead twin of the live child and give it full burial rites. Indeed, some culture is queer to others, but it does not mean they should not be practised at all. They should practise their own culture or custom even though it might seem weird to others. People or the society typically feels their culture, belief and practises are normal or natural for them but to others, it may be strange or queer. The society with the queer custom should practise their culture because it is their identity and their way of life.
From my point of view, we as the people that live in a community with different races, religions and cultures should respect and try to look others culture equally because they might also look at our culture or custom as abnormal or weird to them. To understand one culture, ones must respect and try to learn their way. We must explore and open our mind to accept those weird cultures as part of our life too to create harmony society because some has good values behind all those ritual and belief. As for the time passed by, some culture might have just extinct because there is no one to practise it anymore. Culture might also change somehow and cannot be last forever due to the nature or habitat, the modern surrounding and might vanish because of the other society coming to visit their place and try to change their way of thinking.
To sum up, culture is the people’s own way of living which is very important to have because it is unique to have our own way to live in the society with the same culture and maybe somehow, we can randomly change and adopt other culture whenever we want or create a new one.
To sum up, culture is the people’s own way of living which is very important to have because it is unique to have our own way to live in the society with the same culture and maybe somehow, we can randomly change and adopt other culture whenever we want or create a new one.