After taking into consideration the information gathered from both this class and my ChAD 67 class and combining it with my own personal experiences with culture, I do agree with Ruth Benedict and her belief that we are “creatures of our culture”. From utero (our mother’s bellies) we become subject to the beliefs of our culture. We are exposed to I from the time of conception to the time of birth and even further exposed as we get older. Our families and society transfers cultural beliefs, morals, and practices, and we accept it as a child because that is all we know. But as adolescents and adults things change a bit. As we get older I believe this is when we start to modify the our identity that was placed onto us by our culture to suit our own needs and wants. As adults this is when we begin to explore new cultures and beliefs and this is how I believe we can break through the limits of our cultures. For example, say one grows up as a catholic, this is their religious cultures. But this person grows and experiences the world maybe they begin to practice Catholicism less and less. Maybe they mix their Christian beliefs with some elements of Buddhism. Or maybe they become a Buddhist all together. I believe that the limitations of culture can be broken through maturity and exploration as well as having openness to new things.
I agree that having maturity is important to breaking through the limitations of culture. I think it is a part of the maturing process to begin to question the ideas we were brought up to have. For instance, you mentioned someone being brought up Catholic and then as they got older morphing their views on religion. I feel like everyone goes through this sort of questioning period where they analyze how their parents raised them and then see how these beliefs sit with them personally and then being to form their own ideas about the world. While many people may stick with that they are familiar with, others may find that they resonate better with another belief system.
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