Culture Essay

According to Macionis and Plummer (2005), “sociologists define culture as ‘designs for living’: the values, beliefs, behavior, practices and material objects that constitute a peoples way of life” (p.106). Johnson (1995) defines it as “the accumulated store of symbols, ideas, and material products associated with a social system, whether it can be an entire society or a family” (p. 68). The elements of culture must be identified in order to establish a society’s distinctiveness. There are five major components of culture:   symbols, language, values, norms and material culture.
    Symbols are “anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share culture” (Macionis and Plummer, 2005, p. 107). The Caribbean and its societies have many symbols. Our flags may be used as an example. Flags are universal and recognized worldwide, each with different meanings or emblems. The black, green and gold of the Jamaican flag symbolizes of the hardship faced by the people, green for the land and yellow for the sun. In the Haitian flag, blue represents the population of the ancient slaves, red represents people of mixed races, and their motto is ‘Liberty or Death’. A society’s food may also be used as a means of distinctness. In any society, food has some annotation or ingredients that make it significant. The name especially of some cuisines tells tales of their origin and gives the diner a sense of acknowledgement as to its origin.

    Additionally, currency used in the Caribbean may vary. Bahamas uses Bahamian dollars, British Virgin Islands uses the US dollar and Cuba uses the Cuban Peso. Independent countries usually have their own currency while dependent ones rely on the currency of the mother country. The Jamaican currency has pictures of the national heroes, past prime ministers and different places on the island such as Dunn’s River falls and Port Royal. However, Cayman Islands which is a British colony has the Queen of England on their currency....