Place

In our last section class we talked about the use of space in our personal homes or apartment, and how this usage might compare with Ghana. This reminded me of the unit on place in my Contemporary Theory class with Professor Buonforte. This is an excerpt from my final essay in that class that has to do with place:

"From the day we are born, place is an intrinsic part of our identities. It provides us with our first layers of cultural context. For example, individuals from different countries will have markedly different worldviews, as will individuals from separate states, and even those from various cities within the same state. Places can range from the smallest aspects of our environment (e.g. the dinner table), to the expansive landscapes that we do not actually inhabit (e.g. a mountain range). We may even relate with places we have never been. An African American may feel an identifying relation to Africa, or a Caucasian American with Irish ancestors to Ireland, although they have never set foot out of the United States. Thus, our individual realities are full of place.

Besides our cultural ties to place, Edward Casey acknowledges that even the abstract boundaries of place are essential to our reality when he states, “the limit of an existing thing is intrinsic to its being, a condition for its very existence” (Getting Back into Place 15). Without the boundaries of place, even the emplacement we feel within our bodies, we would be everywhere. If we were everywhere we would also be nowhere, because there would be no 'where.'"

The concepts we learned about place and how it is affected by culture were highly fascinating. Our place limits the way we even use our bodies. Walls and hallways are boundaries that determine the movements we make and the pathways we follow. This can be very different from culture to culture. For example, when we watched that video clip of Ghanaians eating, they were in a very cramped space. From my perspective as a middle class American, I would never imagine an eating space that small. Also, place can be defined very differently cross-culturally. In many places in the United States, the dinner table is a very social place, where people can converse and catch up. However, we learned that in Ghana it can be considered rude to approach someone while they are eating; therefore, maybe the dinner table is not defined as a socially interactive place.

It is interesting to see how much certain aspects can define a culture. Before my anthropology classes, I was not aware at all how much time, place, language, animate and inanimate objects all have major roles in shaping us as human beings, and determining our lifestyles. It will be intriguing to pay closer attention to these aspects as I compare my native culture with Ghanaian culture.