Cultural Reporter Summary

As we have all seen multiple times throughout the semester, Martin and Nakayama define culture as "learned patters of behavior and attitudes share by a group of people" (p. 88) Culture can vary greatly between countries, states, counties and even homes. Culture is different with every single person you talk to. That is what makes culture so interesting, it has a very basic definition, but, it is an incredibly complex concept. I decided to focus my research on a religious group and I decided to pick the Muslim religion.

I used this quote in one of my last blogs, but I feel like it fits in very well for my decision, from Yan Martel's book, the Life of Pi 'I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not love it. What a
beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion." (Martel 2001) After my research on the Muslim faith, I can see what Martel was talking about with this quote, the Muslim faith and culture is very beautiful and incredibly complex.

I decided to study this group for a few different reasons. The first part of my decision is based on plain curiosity. Islam is a very popular and powerful religion. According to www.muslimpopulation.com, as of 2012 there are 2.1 billion Muslim people in the world and I think that it is probably beneficial to know some information about the religion of more than 1/4 of the worlds population. The second reason I decided to focus on the Muslim religion is because of history of the religion. Muslim religion dates back to the 7th century, with many variations and alterations made to the culture in that time frame. Finally, the last reason I decided to focus on the Muslim religion is because it is so different from my own personal religion.

I have had a little bit of trouble in getting people willing to be recorded for the questions I have been asking, but, I have gotten quite a bit of information gathered from observations and research. I have decided to focus my questions more on people that are not Muslim. I have been asking people their views and assumptions of Muslim culture and then asking those Muslim individuals that agreed to answer my questions how these views and accusations affect them. The Muslim people that have agreed to answer my questions agreed to answer the questions only if they were not recorded.

I have learned quite a bit about the Muslim culture throughout my research thus far and am looking forward to putting it all together for the final movie project. The Muslim culture is incredibly complex and unique and I am happy with the decision I have made even with the speed bumps and difficulties I have had on the way to this point.

Sources:

Martel, Y. (2001) Life of Pi. Canada. Knopf Publishing
Martin, J.N. & Nakayama, T.K. (2012). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.) Boston, MA: Mcgraw Hill
Muslim picture with US flag background. Accessed 4-12-13
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxOELgnp9jutRqGq37awZzw3rPXmmd-lmP3OmkMhK2CzaqP_PBYz1I2xEIAjmITc0m9HxF4vzc0UyHANQFNqYQC01r2WVFKvGKKjVmXlEk46ZGA6ahtKWOB0zeuLUKp4fXtefzM-MAfUMu/s0/
Life of Pi Book Cover Picture. Accessed 4-12-13
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqF57Q6N_eADppNmMMdOCqbZpQqkb2XuhxbB88Zr4QWfdFgQhBLJWtuIAVXPUeygt4X70pkVcO0JbZDAn7-w4g6TwF3wTvpvXZuzd_eL2r0yZ7cLoX_zh_har0mPQZBNPzyl4Azp9DoXsP/s1600/Life+of+Pi+Cover.jpg