Five Things About My Culture

[browngirl]

I first saw this in sparkymonster's journal, and most recently in griffen's.

List 5 things which are basic common knowledge in your culture, which people outside are unfamiliar with. This is not about obscurity, but something everyday to you, that others go "bzuh?" at.

Ah, but what is my culture? I'm an immigrant! I've got more than one! And I like to talk, so here are at least two sets:

As I've experienced it, anyway. :)

1. Steak is cooked in sauce in a pan, until fork tender.
2. Everyone used to have livestock, even in the city; goats still roam Kingston, afaik. Middle-and-upper class people do this less these days, but everyone has fruit trees they eat from, etc.
3. The hottest weather is no reason not to have a big bowl of soup.
4. It is an acceptable option for parents to leave their children with trusted friends or relatives for months or years, so that the parents may do a long-term project that might not be a good environment for their kids. (Like going to another country to work but not to settle, for instance.)
5. When writing a letter home, it is very strongly recommended that one include some money. That may be more of an immigrant thing than a Jamaican thing, though.



Well, really, having grown up in NYC. On rereading, most of these aren't true in Boston.

1. Lock your doors.
2. Get out of people's way.
3. Public transit is a way of life.
4. It's not actually that people are all bad. They just could be, so a modicum of wariness is sensible.
5. Jaywalking is a fine art, to be accomplished with one's brain on. If they hit you and you were being an idiot, it's your fault.

I'd say more, but Eva (sitting on my lap) keeps trying to type!

Comments

[brownbetty]

Oh, man, fruit trees. When I lived in Mexico we had an orange tree and a lime tree in our back yard. OM NOM NOM NOM.

My mother is from upper-class ranch background (which is to say, she is from a background where being a rancher counts as upper class) and sees nothing odd about keeping livestock, but everywhere else I go it seems to be regarded as something you only do in abject poverty (and very low class, dear.) It's a bit weird.

I wonder if I should try doing one for the prairies?

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

Well, I admit that I see a major class difference between 'We own a ranch' and 'we have a pig living in the backyard/house'. Now, if you own a ranch, you may also have smaller livestock as well for family use, but that's more a factor of 'if you've got a large ranch, you have to be at least somewhat outside the city, due to the nature of having enough land to be a ranch. Keeping food animals seems to be more common and less class-linked the more rural the area is.' But it's also possible that that's either a historical or an outsiders perspective. (Historical because once upon a time my family owned ranches, so I've heard a lot of stories about that. Outsiders because I am definitely a city-girl.)