WHAT IS CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE FAMILY? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The cultural diversity in the family is a term used to refer to different beliefs, customs and traditions that operate within a family. The term operates on two levels. At a first level, it refers to the cultural differences that exist between one family and another that belongs to the same society.

This means that two families will not have the same cultural principles despite belonging to the same geographical and cultural area. In any case, the basic principles could be kept.

The second level of cultural diversity refers to the variety that exists within the family. The family is made up of two or more members and each of them has a culture that they have adopted either passively (when imposed by the parents or environment) or actively (when the individual decides which elements they decide to include in their culture).

Each individual in the family contributes diverse cultural elements that have been inherited and acquired over the years, among others. This contributes to diversity in the family nucleus. It is because of this second level that families are culturally diverse even if they belong to the same community.

Acquisition of culture and diversity

There are various ways through which a human being can acquire cultural elements. Among these are the heritage of parents, migration, learning, religion, generational difference and cultural imperialism.

Cultural diversity due to parental inheritance

The family is the first environment in which an individual develops and interacts with other people. In this way, parents are the first to transmit cultural elements to the child.

In case the child develops in a family with two parents, he will have the cultural influence of two different individuals. As the child grows, these two influences will merge into one.

In this way, a new culture emerges in the family (that of the child), which is not identical to that of either parent, but which includes elements of both of these.

Cultural diversity as a result of migration

Migration is another element that contributes to the creation of cultural diversity in the family. When one or both of the parents have migrated from another country, they bring with them elements of the culture of origin.

In most cases, the elements of the culture of origin do not remain intact but are amalgamated with cultural aspects of the country to which they have migrated.

If the two parents come from different countries, then the cultural diversity will be much greater, since there will be more cultures interacting.

Diversity by cultural elements learned

Not all cultural elements are the result of the inheritance of the parents or the country of origin. Some elements are learned.

Human beings interact with a large number of people on a daily basis: at school, at university, at work, in the gym, with friends, among others. In this sense, one is in contact with the particular culture of many individuals.

By interacting with friends, colleagues and peers, the individual "learns" cultural elements from other people and integrates them into their own culture. In this way, cultural diversity increases.

Cultural diversity as a result of religion

Religion is one of the elements of culture, which can shape the behavior of human beings in different aspects of their lives.

For example, Catholics celebrate Christmas to commemorate the birth of the Child Jesus. For their part, the Jews celebrate Hanukkah, a festival that lasts for eight consecutive days, in which the defeat of Antiochus at the hands of the Maccabees is celebrated.

Cultural diversity due to the generation gap

The generation gap is a term that is used to refer to the differences that exist from one generation to another.

It is the social, cultural and political separation that exists between parents, children, grandparents, great-grandparents, among others.

In families there are at least two generations: that of parents and that of children. Sometimes the generations of grandparents and great-grandparents are also present.

This order of ideas, the existence of two or more generations guarantees cultural diversity. This is because each generation has its own values ​​and traditions, which are modified or disappear with the arrival of new generations.

Diversity as a result of cultural imperialism

One of the types of imperialism is cultural imperialism. This is understood as the dominance that a strong nation exercises over a weak one through the imposition of cultural elements.

For example, the United States exercises cultural imperialism over many nations of the world through various cultural products: movies, music, books, fast food restaurants, among others.

In this order of ideas, families include these foreign elements in their own culture. This process favors cultural diversification.

Levels of cultural diversity in the family

Cultural diversity in the family unfolds on two levels. The first level is collective, while the second level is individual.

At the first level, the family is seen as a collective organization, whose members act as a whole. This first level of cultural diversity indicates that a family is not culturally identical to another that develops in the same community.

This is because each family practices and adopts the beliefs that it considers pertinent for its proper development.

The cultural diversity from one family to another can be observed in the religion practiced, in gastronomy, in political preference, among others.

On the other hand, the second level of cultural diversity considers the family as an organization of individual beings, each of which has its own culture. In this sense, within a family there will be as many cultures as there are members it has.

At a certain point, the second level of cultural diversity is related to the generation gap, since an individual's culture varies in relation to the generation to which he belongs.

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