Explain your understanding of or assumptions
Explain your understanding of or assumptions about the meaning of “culture” before you read the definitions for this unit.Using examples from the definitions you read, explain how you understanding of “culture” has changed. What, for instance, were some of the most surprising definitions? How do those definitions relate to the more conventional ones? What comprises culture to your current understanding?Apply your new understanding of the meaning of culture to your reading of the first four chapters Jose Antonio Burciaga’s Drink Cultura. In these chapters, he discusses language, art, attitudes and behaviors, and foods. Using specific examples from the text, explain what makes these topics cultural? What about them specifically comprises “culture”? Be sure to explain why.Finally, reflecting on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” explain how cultural studies generally and Mexican American Studies specifically might allow you to escape the danger of a single story about Mexican-origin people in the United States. For instance, do you subscribe to or have you heard a single story about Mexican-origin peoples, Chicanos/as, or Latinos/as? What are your expectations for how cultural studies and/or this course might impact that narrative for you individually?
