Purpose

= = toc =Why study culture?=

Studies of **culture** are essential to foster **global respect** and **empathy**, and to develop **understanding** of different perceptions and customs.

//**Why are these things important? How are they relevant to us?**//

“//We need to promote greater tolerance and understanding among the peoples of the world. Nothing can be more dangerous to our efforts to build peace and development than a world divided along religious, ethnic or cultural lines. In each nation, and among all nations, we must work to promote unity based on our shared humanity//.” [|Kofi Annan]
 * Well, you could look at it from the following point of view:**

“//If you are going to be a global company, international education and experience has to be high on the list. The Boeing Company … needs international education to be able to operate. And the ability to communicate easily in the language of the country, to go to the media, to conduct your meetings with senior corporate colleagues or government officials, is invaluable//” [| Stanley Roth], Vice President for Asia, Boeing Company
 * or this**:

“//Just as the race to the moon galvanized an earlier generation, the education race must mobilize us to meet the demands of the 21st century...In a global economy, our students need to be prepared with world languages and culture...We need to do better at teaching the high demand languages that are increasingly important in the new world like Chinese and Arabic//.” [|Senator Jon Corzine], as Governor-elect of New Jersey, USA (now Governor of NJ)
 * or this:**

//**think**// about what happens when we have **no** understanding whatsoever of why people do what they do, what their customs are or why they are different. //Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace: respect for diversity.// [| John Hume]
 * or**

=What will we do in this unit?=


 * FIRSTLY** we want to identify the general meaning of **‘culture’**, exploring definitions through **literature**, **visuals** and **human behavior**. Let's examine different **products** of culture, as well as the **patterns of behavior** in our own **middle school** culture, right here at **SAS**.




 * SECONDLY**, we will look at how cultures evolve and the factors that can affect this evolution. We will begin this through an analysis of a film: Rabbit Proof Fence. This will also be part of our exploration of the impact of contact on the cultures of indigenous civilizations.

//The First Fleet in Sydney Cove, January 27, 1788//, by John Allcot

//Rabbit Proof Fence// will be our text for the first part of the unit. We will investigate the themes of family, personal identity, cultural identity and displacement as well as the structural elements of film. The themes of the film will provide us with a basis from which to compare and contrast the effects of major colonizing movements across time. As the Mariners' Museum portal below will show you, exploration and migration have always been part of human history. And remember what we said in our last unit: whatever we do has an impact on ourselves and our environment.



We will use our new knowledge to focus on the rights of indigenous peoples, and the role that governments played in their stories.


 * THIRDLY**, we will continue our exploration of culture through the text //House on Mango Street//. Through Esperanza’s eyes, we will experience the reality of the ‘[|melting pot]’, a further evolution of different cultures, and investigate the meaning of [|E Pluribus Unum] (Out of the Many, One).


 * FINALLY** //House on Mango Street//’s use of poetry will give us an opportunity to to further develop our exploration of how words have the power to enhance images through careful choice and placement by the writer

//Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance//. ~Carl Sandburg //Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words//. ~Robert Frost //Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.// ~T.S. Eliot, Dante, 1920 (All quotes from [|The Quote Garden])

[| John F. Kennedy]
 * "//Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal//."**

__**Sources**__

John Allcot (1888-1973), //The First Fleet in Sydney Cove, January 27, 1788//, 1938, art reproduction. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts 2007, //European Discovery and the Colonisation of Australia//, Culture and Recreation Portal, viewed 26 February, 2007, http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/australianhistory/.

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