Nature and Culture

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Melanie Bukovec Nature and Culture: A Reflection 9/4/12 Nature and culture are two ideas that cannot simply be defined. One may classify nature based on his or her culture and formulate opinions of culture based off of his or her experiences in nature. Although their definitions are unclear, nature and culture can be compared against one another to better understand their makeup. Nature is more of an objective topic dealing with the natural sciences that questions what it really means to “be” or “exist.” Nature focuses on real, material things and is believed to be a force of God. Culture, however, deals with the studies of the humanities, is subjective, and debates how we know what we know. It is the ideal, imagined force that is built from the influences of society. Both nature and culture are characterized by the abilities of the people analyzing them, where those people are from, and separate cognitive areas. Personally, nature and culture do mean specific things. For me, nature is everything nonhuman that surrounds us. It is everything that God created and wanted us to enjoy. However, culture is the basis of a particular society. It depicts what the society believes and how it carries out those beliefs. There will never be a “true” or accepted definition for either nature or culture since everyone has his or her own personal definitions. As a result, many different evaluations of nature can be formed, contradicting views of varying branches of science and resulting from one’s culture, which is built from internal and external influences, and
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