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Focus Paper I believe that answering a question like “what is culture?” requires a concise and concrete background about myself in order for people to understand me. For this reason, excuse me if you think I am getting off the subject when reading my essay. To begin, my name is Edvín Hernandez and I am a Guatemalan Indian native. I was born into a large impoverished Indian peasant family, and raised in the Quiche branch of the Mayan culture in Guatemala. My original idiom is Quiche, which was one of the Mayan languages centuries ago. Besides my native language, Quiche, I mastered Spanish and English in my early teenage years after I migrated to the United States in February of 1997. Culture according to the Webster’s New World Dictionary is the ideas, customs, skills, arts, etc. of a people or group that are transferred, communicated, or passed along, as in or to succeeding generations. Similarly, I defined culture as the total pattern of human behavior that includes a specific set of social, educational, religious and professional behaviors, practices and values that individuals learn and adhere to while participating in or out of groups they usually interact with. In short, Culture is social heritage, rules for living, and a way of life, which is passed on to future generations. When talking about or defining culture, it becomes complex to me because I cannot succinct its definition into one specific word. This is why, to avoid ambiguity, I decided to talk about a specific aspect of my culture, that is practices taken before, during, and after childbirth. To most Indians in my town, pregnancy is viewed as a normal part of life, and therefore, is not seen as requiring medical care. In fact, most Indians highly value large families and this extended family support. Mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, and the comadrona together feel they have collective knowledge to care for the mother and baby, strongly enough that they encourage the notion that prenatal care is unnecessary. So, when a woman gets pregnant and is not shy, she tells her situation to her mother and her husband or future husband. But if she is shy, she waits until her mother or other people notice the natural signs of her pregnancy; for instance, her stomach increases in size and blemishes begin to appear on her face. After a woman’s mother or other member of her family realizes that she is pregnant, her mother or a close relative stars to make the preparation for the delivery. They begin by asking her questions like: When was her last period? What moth of the year she stopped menstruating? What was the moon’s position when she got pregnant? And who the father is (only if the mother doesn’t know he is)? Then she recalls and answers all these questions carefully because they are considered relevant to the creature’s well being. After or before the woman confirms that she is pregnant, the parents seek the help of family members or forefathers to help them with the preparation and to find the child some godparents, so that if the baby’s mother and father die, he or she shouldn't be tempted by any of the bad habits our people sometimes fall into.
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