Contesting Culture in Exams' Questions - Essay Example

Topic: Exam Essays Affiliation: Question One The exhibition, Kafou: Haiti, Art and Vodou, showcased Haitian rich culture and history across cultural, social, religious, economic, political, and environmental aspects. Presented between October 20, 2012 and January 6, 2013, the exhibition was characterized by creativity and innovativeness among the Haiti people. The societal context of the country was adequately accounted for in this exhibition. Most importantly, the traditions, beliefs, and customs of the Haiti people were the focal point of the exhibition. Given the fact that Haitian culture is rich in stereotypes, the exhibition stood a critical ground to challenge the Haitian culture. Stereotypes of Haitian culture, just like any other societal setting, are based on the everyday life of the people, factoring in their beliefs, traditions, and customs. One of the most outstanding areas that generate most stereotypes in Haiti is religion. While historically Haitians were predominantly catholic, their religious beliefs have undergone immense changes over the years. Today, most Haitians practice Vodou; a spiritual belief system that combines Catholicism, Islam, European folklore, freemasonry, and island’s Taino people religious aspects (Nottingham Contemporary, 2012). Haitian history has remained enormously rich, especially in terms of the culture practiced by the Haiti people. Essentially, Vodou has become the primary inspirational factor when it comes to the social organization in Haiti. This implies that even art work in Haiti is inspired by Vodou. The presentation of Haiti culture through art has manifested just how much artwork can be used to communicate culture and traditions. In Haiti, this presentation has played an additional role, over and above the said communication. This role relates to the extent to which the exhibition challenged the stereotype factor of Haitian culture. The exhibition showcased the past, present, and anticipated future of Haitian culture. In the process, imagination was driven to the next level relative to the interests that the exhibition was set to serve. While Haitian stereotypes have been static over the years, the exhibition accounted for Haitian diversity and dynamism in culture. It captured the over-time changes that have been factored in the Haitian culture. In this respect, the exhibition presented stereotypes of Haitian culture as ones that fail to diversify as the societal setting of the Haiti people progresses. Another challenged aspect of the Haitian stereotypes is based on religion. In Haiti, majority of the people practice Vodou. Besides this, other forms of religion like Catholicism, Protestants, and Islam are also observed, just to mention but a few. While other religious practices are factored in the already developed Haitian stereotypes, Vodou is the primary contributing factor. Following this, Vodou was seen as the outstanding Haitian practice that inspired the exhibition. However, it was also evident that the aspects and areas presented during the exhibition went beyond what is literally held to be Vodou culture, thus encompassing contemporary imagination, creativity, and innovativeness. Cultural, social, religious, economic, political, and environmental phenomena were evident during the exhibition. Given the already mentioned fact that Haitian stereotypes are primarily derived from culture, traditions, and beliefs, the exhibition challenged the intensiveness and extensiveness of Haitian stereotypes. The exhibition presented diversified artwork that cut across cultural, social, religious, economic, political, and environmental aspects. In this respect, as much as Vodou, culture, beliefs, traditions, or customs inspired the Kafou: Haiti, Art and Vodou exhibition, the stereotypes that inform Haitian culture were challenged on the basis of their adequacy in covering Haitian cultural, social, religious, economic, political, and environmental aspects. Question Two Letter writing to prisoners is an event that brings prisoners and letter writers together. This event is designed to show solidarity between the two identified parties. Over and above bringing letter writers and prisoners together under the solidarity slogan, the event is also aimed at raising awareness relative to all the parties involved. Cultural/social norms dictate that prisoners are held in jail to punish them for wrongdoing. On the same note, cultural/social norms advocate for coherence and functional relations between the members of the society. Violation of cultural/ social constitutes wrongdoing in the society. On the same note, engagement in criminal activities as defined by the law also interferes with cultural or social doctrines in one way or another. In this respect, there are complexities involved in relation to the diversity and dynamism of cultural/social norms. The Letter writing to prisoners’ event ultimately challenges dominant cultural/social norms. It goes beyond the punishment factor of imprisonment to making friends, supporting, and encouraging solidarity between the prisoners and ordinary members of the society. Another cultural/social norm that the event challenged is the isolation of prisoners from the public or ordinary people. The legal system curtails the freedoms of prisoners, so that an aspect of punishment for the crimes committed is realized. On its part, the event seeks to unite and relate prisoners with the public. While the fact that the prisoners committed crimes is not refuted, the event strives to give the prisoners a normal life. The event provides the prisoners with an opportunity to contact and relate with the world outside the prison walls. Therefore, prisoners can enjoy socialization, sharing, support, and awareness as they serve their term. There exist variant power structures across the globe. Each power structure is influenced by differentiated factors, all of which determine their functionality and basis of operation (Bloomberg, Sunshine, & Fararo, 2012, p.88). In the contemporary times, democracy has enhanced relations among different social groupings, the prison fraternity included. Democracy has further influenced the definitions of national or regional identity. The link between the two has revolutionized how Nottingham culture views and treats prisoners, under the advocacy of the event dubbed Letter writing to prisoners. The event, Letter writing to prisoners, continues to gain popularity in Nottingham and across the national level. Regional and/or national identity as influenced by the event continues to diversify and take a dynamic direction towards positivity. In other words, the event has given prisoners, the Nottingham society, and the nation at large a new identity. The participating prisoners no longer regard themselves as an isolated lot of the society. New personalities and characters have been developed courtesy of the event. This realization counters the ordinary expectation that prisoners are there to serve their time and suffer the consequences of their actions. Nottingham has on its side redesigned its cultural/social approach to prisoners. Consequently, the nation will slowly follow the same path. The event, therefore, challenges the ordinary practice of letting prisoners suffer emotionally, psychologically, and physically. Through the event, this punishment-oriented regional and/or national identity is consistently being encouraged to give prisoners a chance to associate with the rest of the world as they suffer the consequences of their actions. In the line of challenging cultural/social norms and raising awareness subject to the event, limitations of the event emerge. While everyone is welcome to participate in the event, there are some complexities involved. Personal beliefs and take on prisoners vary from one individual to another. The harmonization process of these beliefs requires time and resources for briefing purposes. As a result, the event faces an operational limitation in terms of participating members and reached prisoners. Another limitation relates to the long-term goals and objectives of the event. The letter writing activity faces limitations relative to its long term functionality. Moreover, the lack of one-on-one interaction between letter writers and the prisoners poses success limitations in terms of how effective and efficient the event serves its purpose. Finally, the issue at hand is critical to deal with. The stakeholders involved in the issue stand by strict guidelines of both law and order. Therefore, the event is subjected to cultural, social, and legal aspects that seek to curtail its operations. Reference List Bloomberg, W., Sunshine, M. & Fararo, T. (2012). Suburban Power Structures and Public Education: A Study of Values, Influence and Tax Effort, London: Literary Licensing, LLC. Nottingham Contemporary. (2012). Kafou: Haiti, Art and Vodou. [Online] Available at: http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/art/kafou-haiti-art-and-vodou [Accessed January, 2013]. Read More