For this assignment, I observed people’s behavior within a mall for 25 minutes. It was in the afternoon, and there was high traffic of people moving in and out of the mall. The cultural composition of the people visiting the mall was diverse. They included Indians, Mexicans, Americans Africans, and Arabs among others. All the people that I observed exhibited diverse behavior that was largely a reflection of their cultural backgrounds. Moreover, different cultural concepts can be used to describe how the different cultures conducted themselves within the mall and how they related to each other.
To begin with, I observed ethical relativism among the people largely. The concept of ethics and morality was largely dependent on the individual’s culture. While some behavior was accepted in one culture, it was not accepted in another. The concept of ethical relatively involves an evaluation of ethics and morality in the confines of the cultural framework of defining such morality and ethics (Prasad & Singh, 2012). What is morally correct in one culture could be considered to be immoral in another. Similarly, a behavior that is considered to be ethical in one culture could be considered to be unethical in another. This is because different cultures have different ways through which they define their ethics and morality.
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There are several observations that I made inside the mall that depicted ethical relativity. To begin with, while it was culturally and morally correct for women from other cultures to walk with their heads uncovered, it was immoral for the women from the Arab culture to uncover their heads. Majority of the Arab women that I observed within the mall had covered their heads and faces with veils. On the contrary, women from other cultures did not consider covering of the head to be ethical or moral. Many of them worked with their head uncovered and in clothing that was typically different from those of the Arab women. Secondly, many of the Arab women that I observed did not come close to men. They did not engage in hugging men within the mall. Many of them walked in isolation from men and did not hold hands. I perceived that the Arab women considered holding hands with men as they walk or hugging men in public to be unethical or immoral from a cultural perspective. On the contrary, the American women and many Anglo women freely walked while holding hands with men and could occasionally hug men within the mall.
I observed the concept of ethnocentricity among the people within this mall. Many of the people despised others based on their cultures. They judged other people’s cultural values and beliefs by their cultures and the standards within those cultures. Ethnocentricity is a concept in anthropology in which people tend to judge other people’s culture and values based on their cultural standards (Prasad & Singh, 2012). They use such cultural standards to evaluate and judge other cultures that are not aware of their cultures. Ethnocentricity was greatly rampant in the mall that I observed.
I observed several instances of ethnocentricity in this mall. First, some restaurants served cuisines that were typically from one cultural background. Such restaurants did not accept people from other cultures who were not familiar or used to the cultural cuisines being served in those restaurants. For instance, there was a restaurant that served exclusively Indian cuisines. People who visited this restaurant from other cultures that did not appreciate the Indian type of food were considered out of place and consequently dismissed without the courtesy. On the contrary, the Indian customers who appreciated the Indian cuisine were warmly welcomed and served with courtesy. This showed a cultural prejudice that overrated the Indian culture compared to other culture and judged people from other cultures by the Indian cultural standards of food.
The third concept that I observed in this mall was cultural mediation. Despite ethnocentricity observed above, different cultures were observed to integrate and peacefully coexist. Cultural mediation refers to the process in which different cultures coexist and build bridges that enable them to be tolerant of each other’s set of beliefs and value systems. Under this concept, different cultures find a way of coexisting and tolerating with each other’s conflicting value systems (Prasad & Singh, 2012). Different cultures represented within this mall demonstrated an effort to reach out to each other irrespective of their cultural differences and hence build social and cultural bridges.
I observed several aspects of cultural mediation during the exercise. To begin with, the people from the Indians and Chinese cultures whose cultural values do not allow them to shake hands freely with strangers and people they were not close to were observed engaging in handshakes with people from other cultures that appreciated such handshakes such as people from the African descent. This demonstrated cultural mediation in the process of handshakes. Secondly, I observed that people from different cultures were equally engaged in cuisines that were primarily from other cultures. For instance, several African people ate the Indian cuisines in the Indian restaurants within the mall as they engaged in conversations. This demonstrated a deliberate effort to build social bridges among the different cultures represented within the mall and hence constituted cultural mediation.
The last concept anthropological concept that I observed was cultural evolution. Different cultures represented in the mall at the time of my observation demonstrated a great change in their cultural ideologies and value systems. Such changes were likely to have been informed by the interactions among the people and with the people from other cultures. Cultural evolution is an anthropological concept that defines the changes that a given culture undergoes over time in its value system and cultural beliefs (Prasad & Singh, 2012). Such changes occur as a given culture interacts with other cultures in a global space. The mall seems to have provided a space in which different cultures could easily interact and hence breed cultural evolution.
There are several observations that I made within the mall that point to cultural evolution. To begin with, some of the Arab women who are traditionally known to adorn in Hijabs and veils were observed without such hijabs and in normal clothing appreciated by the American culture. As such, the cultural concept of clothing among the Arab women was progressively shifting from their traditional hijabs to other cultural clothing that was not appreciated in this culture. As such, progressive cultural evolution was observed in the Arab culture as far as clothing was observed. Secondly, I observed that there the Chinese population was increasingly engaging in conversation in the English language. It is imperative to note that the Chinese language is the cultural language among the Chinese. However, I observed that many of the Chinese within the mall had learned English and were conversing in the English language. This shows an evolution in the Chinese culture as far as language is concerned.
In summary, the observations that I made within this mall all point to four main anthropological concepts. These include ethical relativism, ethnocentricity, cultural mediation, and cultural evolution. The observations listed in this paper demonstrate the extent to which each of the four anthropological concepts was evident in the mall that I observed.
Reference
Prasad, G. S., & Singh, H. K. (2012). Cultural anthropology . New Delhi: Crescent.
