Cultural Identity Essay Example for Free

Cultural Identity Essay Stuart Hall beings his discussion on Cultural Identity and Diaspora with a discussion on the emerging new cinema in the Caribbean which is known as Third Cinema. This new form of cinema is considered as the visual representation of the Afro-Caribbean subjects- â€Å"blacks† of the diasporas of the west- the new post colonial subjects. Using this discussion as a starting point Hall addresses the issues of identity, cultural practices, and cultural production. There is a new cinema emerging in the Caribbean known as the Third Cinema. It is considered as the visual representation of the Afro-Caribbean in the post colonial context. In this visual medium â€Å"Blacks† are represented as the new postcolonial subjects. In the context of cultural identity hall questions regarding the identity of this emerging new subjects. From where does he speak? Very often identity is represented as a finished product. Hall argues that instead of considering cultural identity as a finished product we should think of it a production which is never complete and is always in process. He discusses two ways of reflecting on cultural identity. Firstly, identity understood as a collective, shared history among individuals affiliated by race or ethnicity that is considered to be fixed or stable. According to this understanding our cultural identity reflects the common historical experiences and shared cultural codes which provide us as â€Å"one people.† This is known as the oneness of cultural identity, beneath the shifting divisions and changes of our actual history. From the perspective of the Caribbean’s this would be the Caribbeanness of the black experience. This is the identity the Black diaspora must discover. This understanding did play a crucial role in the Negritude movements. It was a creative mode of representing the true identity of the marginalised people. Indeed this act of rediscovery has played crucial role in the emergence of many of the important social movements of our time like feminist, ani-colonial and anti-racist. Stuart Hall also explores a second form of cultural identity that exist among the Caribbean, this is an identity understood as unstable, metamorphic, and even contradictory which signifies an identity marked by multiple points of similarities as well as differences. This cultural identity refers to â€Å"what they really are†, or rather â€Å"what they have become.† Without understanding this new identity one cannot speak of Caribbean identity as â€Å"one identity or on experience.† There are ruptures and discontinuities that constitute the Caribbean’s uniqueness. Based on this second understanding of identity as an unstable Hall discusses Caribbean cultural identity as one of heterogeneous composites. It is this second notion of identity that offers a proper understanding of the traumatic character of the colonial experience of the Caribbean people. To explain the process of identity formation, Hall uses Derridas theory ‘differance’ as support, and Hall sees the temporary positioning of identity as strategic and arbitrary. He then uses the three presencesAfrican, European, and Americanin the Caribbean to illustrate the idea of traces in our identity. A Caribbean experiences three kinds of cultural identities. Firstly, the cultural identity of the Africans which is considered as site of the repressed, secondly, the cultural identity of the Europeans which is the site of the colonialist, and thirdly, the cultural identity of the Americans which is a new world- a site of cultural confrontation. Thus the presence of these three cultural identities offers the possibility of creolization and points of new becoming. Finally, he defines the Caribbean identity as diaspora identity.

Mimicking the Natural Environment Essay -- Agriculture Nature Essays

Mimicking the Natural Environment In Clifford Geertz’s article, Two Types of Ecosystems, he suggests that the uneven distribution of the Indonesian population is in direct correlation with the different methods of agriculture used by those in the densely populated area and those in the less populated area. Geertz explores the distinct characteristics of two methods of cultivation in Indonesia, swidden and sawah agriculture. Swidden agriculture, as described by Geertz, is when the forest is burned and cleared so new crops can be sowed. The nutrients from the burned plants are used as a natural fertilizer to insure growth of its variety of crops. Swidden agriculture works in a cycle, once the nutrients in the soil are depleted, the field is abandoned to the forest, which quickly takes over, and the cultivator begins the process at a new location. Geertz describes sawah agriculture as an irrigated flooded paddy field, such as a wet-rice field. In this field only one crop, rice, is planted, intensive labor is need and the fields are rarely allowed to return to their natural state. Thus, for swidden agriculture more land area is needed than for sawah agriculture. Geertz concludes that this is why sawah agricultural methods are practiced on the densely populated island of Java, and swidden on the less densely populated islands. Although the Indonesians analyzed by Geertz live half way around the world from the Guarani of Paraguay and Brazil, the agricultural ecosystems are relevant. In Richard Reeds ethnography, Forest Dwellers, Forest Protectors, he explores the Guarani people and how they have maintained themselves in their diverse ecosystem for thousands of years. The Guarani people have adapted to life in the dense ... ...ystem are still active members of that ecosystem and can either live with in its means, or exploit it for their own. The Guarani of Paraguay and Brazil, as described by Reed, mimic their surrounding environment, living with in its means and with in its carrying capacity through the practice of agroforestry. Geertz also depicts the outer islanders of Indonesia as living within their means and with in their carrying capacity by the utilization of slash and burn agriculture. Geertz also explains the results of a society that exploits its ecosystem with unnatural land use, such as Java Indonesia which is overpopulated and crowed. In their texts, both Geertz and Reed, show the importance of a society living as close to its natural environment as possible. Works Cited: Clifford Geertz: "Two Types of Ecosystems" Richard Reeds: "Forest Dwellers, Forest Protectors"

Other Voices, Other Rooms †Analysis Essay

Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms is an exploration into role reversal, gender definitions, and the risk involved in sexuality and love against the harsh contrast of southern ideals. The novel acts as Capote’s catharsis in developing his younger self, in the character of Joel Knox, innocent and self-exploring, as he transforms into his older, liberated self in the character of Randolph who truly is the voice carrying the books message. However, to reach his destination of Randolph, Joel must begin his journey with Idabel Tompkins. Joel sees Idabel soon after entering Noon City, and is so mesmerized with her boyish antics that he is oblivious to the man offering him a nickle to capture her, something Joel would not be capable of anyway. She notices him later as well, watching Joel in the soda shop from the doorway and asking about him in her†boy-husky† voice. Immediately, Joel is intrigued on the verge of infatuation and most often referencing her boyish attributes in the same breath. On the way to the Landing, his new home, he finds Idabel on the road and picks her out from her sister as, â€Å"[t]he other moved as jerky and quick as a boy† (p31). The pair become friends and later during a fishing trip, Joel learns not only the risks invilved in loving someone but also Idabel’s evaluation of what they are together.. When she tells him to undress so they can swim naked Joel sheepishly replied, â€Å"But you’re a girl† (p131) Idabel, frustrated, replies, â€Å"What you’ve got in your britches is no news to me, and no concern of mine†¦.I never think like I’m a girl; you’ve got to remember that, or we can’t never be friends† later on proclaiming, â€Å"I want so much to be a boy† (p132). During the same trip, Joel felt he needed to put his arms around Idabel as, â€Å"the only means of expressing all he felt† he kisses her cheek and in return she becomes so mad that he pulls his hair and fights him. Joel learns the danger of loving someone, could mean loosing them or being betrayed by them. Idabel comes to get Joel at the Landing, in hopes of picking up a partner in crime to run away with. Joel mistakes this as affection and suggests they  run off and get married, picking grapes to support themselves. Idabel rebukes him sternly, â€Å"I don’t want to get married†¦.Who the hell said I wanted to get married? Now you listen, boy: you behave decent, you behave like we’re brothers, or you don’t behave at all. Anyway, we don’t want to do no sissy thing like pick grapes. I thought maybe we could join the Navy† (p174) on their way to running away, they first stop at the carnival in Noon City where they meet the alluring blonde midget Mrs. Wisteria, a 25 year old carnival worker who also wants to be loved in a society that does not value her. Idabel is immediately smitten with her and Joel notices, to his dismay, â€Å"Idabel, more excited than Joel had ever seen her, rushed up and asked [Miss Wisteria], please, wouldn’t she have some soda pop with them† (p191) Joel Later realizes Idabel is in love with the circus performer. This provokes Joel into a dream where he fears Idabel’s loss and tells her he loves her. He begins to realize he can never have her love. During their conversation, Miss Wisteria talks about her horrible experiences trying to find love and her sorrow that boys must grow tall and therefor, never want her. We see the perfect triangle of unrequited love that can never be fulfilled and can only bring sorrow. Joel longs for Idabel who is in love with the golden curls of Miss Wisteria, who molests Joel while trapped in a ferris wheel in her attempt to find a boy who will never grow tall. In an affirming signal of Joels realization of who he is, Joel sees Randolph, the homosexual transvestite cousin of his step-mother, at the carnival, while being molested by Miss Wisteria. He runs off scared looking for Idabel and hides from Miss Wisteria in the old abandoned house in town. He realizes he has a home and a bed at the Landing with Randolph, while Miss Wisteria is doomed to always be searching rooms for love, as she is now looking for Joel in the old mansion, until she finds her final room, where death awaits. Joel realizes who he is now and is almost comforted by it. He forgets Idabel for most of the rest of the story and assumes she has run off with her circus girl. Joel is content to remain at the Landing, especially after his one connection to the real world is lost when his friend Zoo comes back to stay after a rape has driven her a little crazy as well. He knows he belongs there with Randolph, the ‘ghostly lady’ in the window who wears women’s clothes and wig, but is more like him than whats outside. He hides from his old life in the form of a visit from his  original caretaker, his aunt Ellen, and moves towards Randolph, looking back and leaving his innocent self, the other Joel Knox. Works Cited Capote, Truman. Other Voices, Other Rooms. New York: Vintage, 1994. Print.

Waiting For Wings Hospital Policy For Hand And Fingernail...

Waiting for Wings Hospital Policy for Hand and Fingernail Hygiene Guidelines Purpose: This Waiting for Wings Hospital (WFWH) policy provides evidence-based principles and practices necessary for persons to accomplish proper hand and fingernail hygiene. This policy follows guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in an attempt to reduce healthcare-associated infection (HAI) that are spreads to patients, staff, and others. Scope: This policy applies to and must be adhered by all employees of WFWH including allied health professionals, students, credentialed specialists, and contractors. Patients, family members, and visitors will be encouraged to follow these guidelines. Educational material will be provided in an attempt to improve understanding of the importance of good hand and nail hygiene for the prevention of healthcare-associated infection. Background: Generations of people have considered handwashing a measure of personal hygiene. In 1847, Dr. Semmelweis insisted that healthcare providers wash their hands with disinfecting agents between patients. This early hand hygiene practice resulted in a decrease in mortality rates among hospital patients (CDC, 2002). The CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee published the Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings in 2002 that is based on hand hygiene foundations developed in generation past. In 2014, this guideline is still available online and used as a reference