Student 72

Lunchbox

Knowledge and culture are interconnected because the appreciation of culture is a method of knowledge-sharing. For centuries, people have shared their knowledge through cultural traditions such as storytelling, warcraft, and cooking. Food is an extremely important cultural expression that many people feel strongly about. Therefore, the object I chose is a lunchbox because it demonstrates how my mother instills her knowledge of my family’s culture through food.

Each day, my lunchbox carries a different variety of indian cuisine; one day it is roti with aloo gobi, the next day it is dosa with coconut chutney, and the other it is lemon rice with a side of mango pickle. The lunchbox represents my mother’s responsibility to help her daughter to keep in touch with her Indian heritage despite being 9,000 miles away because without understanding my cultural background, I am more likely to feel like an outsider in my own life. This directly shows how knowledge is being transferred from my mother to me regarding my culture.

Additionally, since I am vegetarian, my lunchbox reflects my food habits which shows how my object is linked to the optional theme, religion. Being vegetarian is a trait that my family has adopted for many generations because hinduism stresses the importance respecting all living creatures. Therefore, following a plant-based diet has allowed my family to transfer knowledge in the form of values and ideologies which shows how my object is linked to the 12 key concepts.

Transfer of knowledge does not have to be within cultures. For instance, at my lunch table, everybody brings a lunchbox carrying something different or new, so I am able to learn more about Pakistani, Mexican, or even Korean culture. Therefore, food is a physical evidence of the way appreciation of culture can not only lead to the transfer of knowledge through family, but also between friends and even strangers. Hence, knowledge and culture share an extremely interconnected relationship as knowledge is transferred and shared through cultural appreciation.

DreamCatcher

Dreamcatchers are handmade loops with woven net designs and sacred ornamentation using beads and feathers. The above Dreamcatcher is a dreamcatcher that I was able to purchase from a Native American owned business during my visit to Canada. They are significant to indegenous groups as they are an important part of native american religion and lore, and they connect the clan with their tribe’s knowledge. The tradition of teaching the art of making dreamcatchers is a way that the tribes preserve their heritage. Therefore, this shows how my object is linked to the optional theme, Indigenous societies.

Recently, they have become a part popular culture, so I attended a workshop hosted by the Ojibwe tribe when I was in Southern Canada. Not only was I able to learn about the cultural significance of the Dreamcatcher, but also regarding the history of the tribe itself. This highlights the way popularization of Dreamcatchers has created a spike of interest in native american culture and has empowered the groups to spread their heritage among those outside of their own peoples. In my experience, dreamcatchers represent the knowledge I have gained from attending the workshop which demonstrates how dreamcatchers not only shows how the clans preserve cultural habits and ideas within their society, but also share it among others. This is further emphasized by the fact that the art of dreamcatchers is something only to be gifted from another.

Unfortunately, there is another perspective to this situation since popularization of the Dreamcatcher has led to increased cultural appropriation or using a piece of another’s culture for personal gain, often for aesthetic reasons. This has made the tribes more protective of their knowledge to prevent the sensationalization and misinterpretation of their cultural knowledge.

This expresses the way dreamcatchers can be viewed is in different ways by different people, linking it to the concept of perspectives. Dreamcatchers embody the positive and negative relationship that culture and knowledge often has because it reveals the way cultural knowledge can be both shared and appreciated as well as stolen and exploited.

The Hindu Calendar

The Hindu Calendar or the Panchangais a lunisolar calendar. Although, originated in mainland India, there are many variations of the same calendar across South and Southeast Asia used to mark Hindu festivals which encapsulates the way knowledge has traveled borders due to cultural expression.

I chose the Hindu Calendar because it demonstrates the way people in my culture have measured time by marking important days through religious celebrations. The passage of time is an abstract concept, so learning to quantify it is invaluable since it allows humans to communicate and creates order in our life. The Hindu Calendar represents this creation of knowledge through culture since it highlights the way religion has led to the cultivation of knowledge regarding time measurement. Additionally, it links to the concept of explanation since the hindu calendar is only one of the ways that time can be understood.

For example, the object demonstrates how hindu celebrations express transition between seasons. For instance, Holi, the celebration of colors conveys the transition from winter to spring. Holiis a special event for me because I am able to spend time with my family, and take part in religious activities such as attending pooja ceremonies at the temple. Because we use the Hindu Calendar to mark such festivals, it allows me to acknowledge my religion and culture despite using the western calendar on a daily basis.

The Hindu Calendar connects directly to the optional theme, religion, because it centralizes religious tradition as a method to display time. All in all, the object I chose shows how culture has allowed people to keep communicate and systemize human life by making time more tangible.