Clothing and Culture

For an individual to be well assimilated into a new culture, he or she should reject the culture of her or his home country and concentrate on the customs present in the new country. In this study, I shall discuss the clothing culture of the Rastafarian women, Turkey women, Indians, Egyptians and the Roma people. I shall also discuss the importance of visitors and immigrants assimilating the clothing culture of the countries they visit or live in.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Clothing and Culture specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Women in Rastafarian communities wear decently at all times. According to their religion, it is a taboo to wear second hand clothes. In case they are admitted in hospitals, they wear disposable theatre gowns instead of hospital garments that are already used. In Turkey, women who dress in head scarves are banned from public employment, being elected in parliament, serving as instructor s in private schools and tertiary institutions, working as lawyers, and in some instances, they are banned from doing business. A large number of women have been banned from university education in Turkey as a result of wearing head scarves. Women’s attire in India varies depending on religion, local culture and climate. Traditional Indian attires for women are the Lehengas and Saris. Saris are stylish and well-designed outfits. The traditional attires for Indian men are the Kurta. Indian men in the South put on long, white pieces of cloth while in the North, most men wear shirts and t-shirts. Among the Roma people, there is no customary male wear. For women, they put on customary costumes made up of a long skirt tied at the waist, an apron, a bolero vest and a baggy, low-cut blouse. The complete customary female costume is still regularly used by the Vlach Roma. Roma men have a culture of dressing well and adopting good fashions. They mostly dress in business suits but with no ties. Caps are also fashionable among the Roma men. Young people take on the local styles, such as sneakers, windbreakers and caps. Young girls may dress in jeans, but if visitors arrive, they wear a dress. Thus, dressing in Roma is an indicator of age and social status. In Egypt, there are several cultural norms that regulate clothing. For women, they are supposed to put on head scarves. A head scarf is a long piece of cloth that covers the hair and the neck. In the early Egyptian society, a scarf was seen as a symbol of social status. The first scarf wearer in Egypt was Queen Nefertiti. She put on a scarf-like part of cloth under her iconic crown. Today, scarves in Egypt are won for religious purpose. The Muslim religion requires that women tie their hair and neck with a scarf.Advertising Looking for essay on cultural studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More As seen from the above examples, dressing puts across a personâ €™s sense of belonging. It is a way of communication and a cultural symbol, open to different interpretations subject to an individual’s perspective (Simon, 1995). Since different societies have different dress cultures, it is important for visitors and immigrants to adopt the dress culture of the country that they are in. This will show a degree of unity and respect to the society that they are in. Floya (1992) explains that immigration can arouse feelings of aggravation and resentment, particularly in people who feel endangered by the transformations that large figures of immigrants may create. Simon (1995) also explains that people are normally biased on those who are dissimilar to them. Assimilating the dress culture of the new country will make the habitants of that country feel that you are a part of them. This will lessen societal tension and make it possible to communicate with others despite the differences in ethnicity, race, beliefs or state origin (Floya, 1992 ). It will also restrain the habitants from blaming the visitors for any political, social or economic changes that the country may encounter. In conclusion, it is important for visitors and immigrants to adopt the dress culture of the new country that they are in because dressing is a way of communication and a cultural symbol, open to different interpretations subject to an individual’s perspective. Assimilating the dress culture of a country will make the habitants of that country feel that you are a part of them. This will in turn lessen societal tension and make it possible for a visitor to communicate with others despite the differences in ethnicity, race, beliefs or state origin. If I were to visit a foreign country, I would retain wearing my chador. This is because it’s a symbol of my faith. When am in it, I always remember my religious vows. If I was restricted from wearing it I would feel dehumanized and oppressed. References Floya, A. (1992). Ethnicity, clas s, gender and migration. Aldershot: Avebury. Simon, H. (1995). Four types of symbolic conflict. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 2(2), 255–71.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Clothing and Culture specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This essay on Clothing and Culture was written and submitted by user M.O.D.O.G. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Deserted Soldiers in Mexican-American War essays

Deserted Soldiers in Mexican-American War essays Saint Patricks Battalion, a unit of hundred immigrants of European descents, joined Mexican Army and fought against United States in Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848. Why did those immigrant soldiers desert U.S. and assist their enemies? The success of United States invasion and control of vast territories of Mexico must rely on soldiers unity. However, the desertion of immigrant soldiers revealed some sharp conflicts among U.S. Army. U.S. Armys prejudice to those immigrant soldiers pushed them to desert. Soldiers desertion was very rare in the war history; thus, the main reason of religious discrimination, poor living condition and inhuman treatment by U.S. Army and temptation by Mexican government will be explored in this paper to explain why those immigrant deserters gave up United States and changed their side in Mexican-American War. Many immigrant soldiers, especially Irish, deserted because they experienced harsh religious discrimination in the United States. Because of the difficult condition of famine in Ireland, many Irish immigrants went to United States. Thousands of them joined U.S. Army for the U.S. Citizenship and money. However, the tension rose between Army and Irish due to the religion. Most of Irish were Catholic and U.S. Army was very intolerant towards both Irish and Catholics at that time. In Peter F. Stevenss A Perilous Journey and Six Irish Rebels' Escape to Freedom, he wrote the prejudices towards Irish in the U.S. Army, Irish were seen as lazy and ignorant, while Catholics were considered fools who were easily distracted by pageantry and led by a faraway pope(Stevens). In the army, other soldiers believed that the Irish were inferior soldiers and gave them dirty jobs. They had no chance to be promoted. Punishments such as negligence of duty were often severe. Even worse, conditions were har sh for other Catholic immigrant soldiers such as the German...

Personal characteristics that enable leaders to be effective Essay

Personal characteristics that enable leaders to be effective - Essay Example Humanistic approach of management has revolutionized the manner in which role of managers was perceived earlier.Now the emphasis is more on leading the teams instead of managing them. The management theories of leadership that emerged during 20th century also assert that personal attributes of leaders play a vital role in organizational efficiency and effectiveness. For today’s managers, it is important to identify what these personality characteristics are, in order to perform well in the leadership roles. This research is concerned with identifying personal characteristics of the leaders that enable leaders to be effective in their given roles through analysing literature available on the subject matter along with quantitative findings of a survey. Research Question What are the personal characteristics that enable leaders to be effective? Literature Review There are many leadership styles that have emerged over the period of time which include autocratic, transformative, tr ansactional, bureaucratic, charismatic, participative, Laissez-faire, task-oriented, servant and relationship oriented leadership styles (Kim and Yukl, 1995). Analysing these theories helps in understanding that there is no one ideal leadership style that can be adopted by today’s managers in perform effectively. However, there are various theories that explain that personal attributes and characteristics of the leaders have a direct impact on the motivation and performance levels of their respective teams and organizations (McCrae and Costa, 1995). Some of these theories include trait, contingency, situational and behavioural theories. Trait theories are a combination of theories presented by Gordon Allport and Odbert (1936), Raymond Cattell’s sixteen personality factor, Eyesenck’s three dimension of personality and five factor theory. A cumulative approach presented by these theories explains that the leaders possess certain personal characteristics that make them more suitable for a leadership role. According to trait theories, a leader is expected to be open to new experiences, conscientious, extravert, agreeable, emotionally stable with lack of psychoticism. Considering the impact of external factors, contingency theories were proposed (Fiedler, 1986). According to this set of theories, a leader is expected to be task and relationship oriented. The contingency theories themselves consist of path-goal theory, normative decision making and situational leadership theory (Fielder, 1964; House, 1996). All these theories recognize the notion that behaviour and skills inventory of the follower has a direct impact on the effectiveness of the leader. Therefore, a leader is expected to have capability of examining the needs of the follower and have reasonable flexibility to alter their leadership style accordingly. According to Hersey and Blanchard (1969), there are four leadership styles that can be used by the leader by combining directive an d supportive behavioural approach. These leadership styles include telling (high directive, low support), selling (high directive, high supporting), participating (low directive, high supportive), and delegating (low directive, low supportive). On the other hand, path goal theory claims that it is the nature of task and follower that should be considered by a leader while identifying a suitable behaviour according to requirement of the circumstances. These leadership styles include supportive (relations oriented), directive (task oriented), achievement oriented, and participative leader behavior (House, 1996). Another important theory that can be helpful in indentifying the effective leadership traits is transformational theory