Creatures of our Culture

I agree to some extent with Ruth Benedict's statement that we are "creatures of our culture." However, for people like me who don't really feel like they belong to any one culture, I'd say that factors such as life experiences have shaped me a lot more than 'culture.' My habits, beliefs, and impossibilities were first influenced by my parents but then as I grew older my peers, teachers, and personal experiences pretty much shaped who I am today. The problem with the world 'culture,' is that almost anything can be described as a culture. For instance I belong to a student culture, a california culture, a white anglo-saxon middle class culture, a female culture, etc. which definately all have influenced me in some way or another but to say that I am a "creature of my culture" is taking it a little too far for me.

The second part of our prompt asks us "how can we break through the limits of our cultures?" I would answer that in order to do this, a person should include themselves in more than one culture. This way, we have lots of channels of influence and are not limited by any one belief, attitude, or way of life.