Clyde Kluckhohn, in his article from his well-known book “Mirror for Man” identifies the anthropologists’ concept of culture and interprets the meanings and differences among all the people around the world. He argues that people’s behaviors are accountable to culture, and not ”biological properties of the people concerned, their individual past experience, and the immediate situations.” Nature is only restricting kinds of behaviors that lead by nurture. Kluckhohn says people vary from one culture to another, but they are similar in several fundamental respects. One example is the difference in eating habits among people. Kluckhohn tells the story of a trader's wife served snake meat sandwiches to their guests. Once they found out, many of them throw up the food that they thought is delicious before. Another example is the practice of polygamy. American women hate the idea. The women in Koryak of Siberia fully supported it. Despite all these shallow differences, Kluckhohn says, there is always a few basic similarities and “Man” is one of it. Men are more easily to get affected by their culture. Their difference can be accounted to their different "social legacies." I agree with his idea that nature only limits on human behaviors and nurture is the one leading it.
In the book “Iron and Silk”, Mark Salzman talks about his own experience in a country that is totally different from where he was born and how people act differently from his hometown. One of the thing that came to Salzman’s mind is that Chinese people want to "save face" no matter what they are doing. In the first example, Salzman had a conversation with one of the teachers about kissing. Teacher Lui said that it is definitely not okay to kiss your kid no matter how young they are. It will be such embarrassment for both children and parents in China even if you really like them. If people saw that, they will make fun of them. Mrs. Lui only kisses her ch...