The Past And The Shape Of Things Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Past And The Shape Of Things - Essay Example Today, the United States of America has developed its own peculiar cultural and social habits that make it what it is (Strenski 11). Over the past, the US has had many immigrants from varied countries that had different social and cultural backgrounds. For this reason, the US has become a culturally and racially diverse due to this massive migration in the past. However, due to the varied combination of people from many parts of the world, the future of the US has and will be determined by the past (Eliade & Ioan 47). The paper seeks to describe and give a comparison of how the past influences the future in today’s society and culture. In his theory of the sacred time, Eliade’s implies that the power of anything has its roots in its origin and that the power of the entire world relies on cosmogony. However, Eliade claims that for any religious man, two types of time exist. One of which is the sacred time and the other is the profane time. He further stipulates that the former is experienced in the religious festivals and the latter in the normal life. He further asserts that absolute truth concerning primordial time is represented by myths in the traditional societies. According to these myths, it was during this time that the first appearance of the Sacred was experienced in which the world’s structure was established. For Eliades, all myths give a description of primordial events that have made the natural world what it is currently (Schulman 204). Also, most traditional societies have a belief that origin is an essential component in determining the power of anything. Therefore, if origin equals p ower, then it becomes the first sign of a valid and significant thing. According to Eliades, the value and reality of anything lie solely on its initial appearance.

Sex and sexuality a cultural taboo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Sex and sexuality a cultural taboo - Essay Example (Bristow 2) Sex is the physical course of action of the process of intercourse where as sexuality is how you feel, perceive or experience it. Studies have shown that when individuals move from one culture to another, the impact of culture on the sexuality of females is much greater than that on males. Christensen and Carpenter, (as cited in McAnulty and Burnette, 2006) argue that recently more information is being accumulated on the subject of sex and how it differs across different cultures and this will increase the knowledge database on the subject which wasn’t available in such a quantity in the past, the information provided by studies conducted on such matters gives proof that there is not much unevenness between the cross-cultural practices of men and women but when comparing the two one can conclude that that women tend to be at variance a lot more across those cultural margins in comparison to the male individuals. The basic concept and understanding of sexuality cann ot be altered in any manner no matter how much the society attempts to do so (Aggleton 188). The impact of sexual cultural practices on general health and the lives of its members: People have varying cultural practices regarding sex and sexuality; their beliefs and culture depend upon their religion, beliefs, social customs and area in which they are living. Where their cultural practices offer benefits, they also pose high risks for the individuals undergoing them e.g. FGM is mostly done in unhygienic conditions and also without anaesthesia, it is an extremely painful procedure and if things don’t go well, it could result in infection, diseases, infertility or even death. Also it permanently deprives the child of sexual pleasure for without her genitalia she will never be able to enjoy her sexual life. It is a cultural norm for those people, and any girl who is not circumcised loses her chance of marriage as it is considered disgraceful to marry a girl who is open. The topi cs of sex and sexuality are considered taboo topics in most cultures as well as religions. The youngsters when growing up and going through physical change have many questions regarding sex and sexuality but are unable to discuss them since it is an unmentionable topic they are inquisitive about their sexuality and how they perceive themselves in that manner but they end up keeping their queries and fears to themselves since they don’t have the opportunity to discuss. Female circumcision is a brutal practice and requires our attention to be curbed. The various cultural practices can be better explained as follows: Male circumcision: Circumcision is basically a small operation performed on the male`s penis to remove the skin covering the tip of his penis (Milos & Macris 1994). It was thought that young babies don’t have their senses fully developed and are unable to feel pain which is why it was recommended that circumcision be performed preferably on infants. But later it was discovered that infants are fully capable of experiencing pain and they can very well feel the excruciating pain inflicted upon them during the circumcision process (Northrup 2004). Circumcision has been practiced for