Cultural Autobiography: Exploring the Differences and Similarities of Lithuania and South Africa

This cultural autobiography explores the differences and similarities of Lithuania and South Africa through their traditions, rituals, and mental models. The Iceberg and Onion models of culture are used to analyze visible and invisible elements of each country's culture. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of equal rights and humanity over cultural differences.

Cultural
Autobiography

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Culture of Lithuania...............................................................................................................3
Culture of South Africa..........................................................................................................4
Model of Culture and Behaviour............................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
A cultural autobiography is considered as the reflective or self-analytic story of the present and
past. The cultural autobiography is not comprehensive due to the complexity of the life
experiences. It gives the chance to explore and enhance the overall knowledge as every
individual is different from the country and tends to follow their own culture (Terleckaite, 2020).
Hence, it leads to show their upbringing through their words and actions. There are millions of
cities from which some are similar to each other and some are different in their own way. Here,
there is the overview of two cultures which are same at some point and different at another point.
MAIN BODY
Culture of Lithuania
The culture of Lithuania include the indigenous heritage which is being described by the
specific Lithuania language considering the Nordic ethical factors and Christian rituals that
results from the historical which binds up with Poland. Lithuania's are considered as a kind of
nature and also have the powerful idea regarding shared value of culture which starts with the
primary school, where the folk music, national traditions and holidays shows an essential role.
Lithuania is situated on the coast of Baltic Sea all over 40,500 square miles in the field, as this
leads to share the borders with Poland and Kaliningrad. The root of nation and its improvement
were strongly affected by the external job and as a result of the observed requirement of the
people to take care something of their own (Jones, 2019).
Further, the national sign is Vytis, the white knight, sitting across his horse and swinging
the sword as it symbolises the struggle of nation to preserve them from interlopers. The flag
undertakes the horizontal stripes in green, yellow and red as this colour is the symbol of nature.
Despite from these, food plays a vital role for the celebration and a lengthy table full of delicious
fare which is observed as the symbol of richness and hospitality. The Christmas Eve cuisine is
the most symbolical cuisine considering the twelve dishes without meat which are cooked
considering various types of fish, grain porridge that often pickled mushrooms.
The economy of Lithuania is based on agriculture but in the recent time the government
tends to attempted to allocate the profitable activity like metalworking, light industry and so on
which is the part of commercial profile. Lithuania is majorly depending on the other nations for
the raw materials and fuel as the major issue regarding the high unemployment, job security,

poor labour protection laws and many more. Marriages in Lithuania have two factors including
legal and spiritual. Couples need to list at the municipal wedding hall and also have the religious
joining which is being accompanied by the fancy party that can last for the three days (Saunders,
2019). There has been a decrement in the amount of weddings and the termination of woman’s
last name changes to indicate her matrimonial condition as people may look suspiciously upon
the aged women who have never wedded.
Culture of South Africa
The culture of South Africa has been known as the rainbow country as it is made up of
numerous various cultures and religious belief. Considering the boarders of South Africa; Zulu,
Xhosa, Ndebele, Hindu, Muslim and many more people live over there. All citizens in collective
terms calling South Africa Place as home and hence, their lives tend to change to form the part of
heritage of country, identification and society (Patel, 2021). South Africa is comprised of all the
several determinants which is important for serving the South Africans to understand and learn
from each other regarding the cultural activities.
It is considered as the part of healing the democracy that has brought later the culture was
utilized to classify the South Africans in past. The heritage of South Africa is classified into two
categories including natural and cultural. The natural practice of country is within its
environment and natural resources including gold and water. For this, significant region which
are quite specific as where the animals or plants are in the risk for the disappearance (Abdullahi
and et. al., 2019). Cultural heritage, can be entirely is more litigious content as the term “cultural
heritage” is used to depict those things that change towards the awareness of identification of the
specific group or gathering of people. There are some areas in which this can get questionable
when the portion of cultural practice appear to have clash straight away with the dignity of
another individual as it appears to misbehave the development of global human rights.
Further, the natural situation that can be considered to become the world heritage sites that
depict the major phase of the history of earth that include the fossil, rocks and other geological
features. In south Africa, learners having twelve years of formal education from the grade 1 to 12
as grade R which is considered as the pre-primary foundation year. Here, the public universities
in south Africa are categorised into three categories including traditional which is offered in
theory oriented universities degrees and the universities of technology that provide vocational
oriented diplomas and degrees and lastly, the broad universities that provide both types of

qualification (Kokins, Kostjukovs and Zariņa, 2018). South Africa also had a large impact on
Scouting motion considering the rituals and occasions that relies under the experiences of Robert
Baden Powell during the time of South Africa. There is the great variety in music from South
Africa as numerous black musicians who sang in Afrikaans or English during segregation have
begun to sing in traditional African languages.
Model of Culture and Behaviour
The Iceberg Model of Culture:
According to this model, the culture of different countries and their elements are
identified which are visible or invisible. If talking about the elements of some visible countries
then they are including their attitude, their use and their actions which are visible to everyone.
However, in this model, these different countries are also provoked by some constant actions
which are invisible. Yet some countries are more focusing on the elements which are visible
because this will support these countries to participate more spectators which leads to better
participation and more audience as there are distinct types of culture and rituals in each and
every country (Ægisdóttir and et. al., 2019). This will help these countries to recognize content,
utility, attitude, responsibility, and the want of all participants involved in this. This will help all
the people to learn and obtain its faith, emotions, attitude and learning from the culture. Here are
some of the measures taken to recognize elements of the country:
Visible culture practices: It involves the system of all the countries that is about their
culture and pattern obeyed by people which is followed by South Africa as this country named
South Africa understand and illustrate everything about their culture and their rituals which they
got from outside. Lithuania is a country who do not trust on visible elements as this country is
having its own misunderstanding as they want some things to be secret for their country's
development (Teller, 2020). This is because they think every individual have different perception
which can create problems and hindrances. While South Africans wants to know about
everyone's rituals and preferences, way of living and guide the organisation to recognize
different activities of culture and guide every individual so extremely like their taste, living
standards, attitude etc.
Patterns and Habits: All the countries have different ways and tradition. As each and
every country has its own culture like South Africa is having its own style of celebration. If we
talk about wedding style of South Africa they worship and falling into church for charlatans and

also having different varieties of cuisine like fish, rice, meat and some veggies in public halls
(Manor, 2019). While in Lithuania, it has its own culture which belongs to their forefather that is
from relations of their family with varieties of cuisine to eat like meat, wine etc. The Lithuania is
more broad - minded as compared to South Africa. These moves are taken to help out the
country to do the tasks all together.
Mental Models: This model examine the feelings like pressure, irritation to perform any
task. In Lithuania, people mostly obey their forefather and that is why they are restricted as
whatever they do in their life should be followed by their forefather that is done by their
ancestors otherwise they will consider that thing as wrong (Ling and et. al., 2019). While in
South Africa, they are free as all are aware about this country who experienced many situations
like world war, nuclear bomb and many more. But every individual of any of the country have
different way of thinking and working capacity to perform any of the task very efficiently. And if
comparing South Africa with Lithuania then South Africa is more improved than Lithuania
because they are not depending on any other. This model helps out to find all the issues and
acknowledge them to identify tradition and attitude of society.
Onion model of culture:
It comprises of the four kinds which contains utility, standards, attitude, symbols. This
model is very cooperative in researching and better recognizing of every type. Here are 4 types
of the model which is used to recognize the insights and culture which are defined below:
Value: South Africa have distinct utilities as here all the individuals always think not to
give up and all the time doing their best to upgrade and expand the country and appreciating each
other to review the responsibility and perform the tasks with each other. While in Lithuania, they
are having distinct values where this country wants long relationships which should be trustable
and based on respect (Dimopoulos, Queiros and van Zyl, 2019). Religion plays a vital role in
Lithuania as they are more into the source of their family that is ancestors, having different
flavours and attitude so Lithuanians are more restricted in compare to South Africa. Lithuanians
trust in invisible elements as they are very peaceful and superior so they want to live by
themselves. South Africa trusts in visible elements as these people loves to mixed up with
everyone and they are very intelligent as they always want to learn new things and take more
chances. So these are some points which make South Africa more successful than Lithuania.

Rituals: Both the countries have different culture and traditions. For example,
Lithuanians are related to their forefather and they trust on making long relations in very easy
and neat way while South Africa is having its own traditions and they select distillation, esteem,
worship, songs, food etc.
Symbol: National symbol of the flag of South Africa include three colours including
black, green and gold as it is also found in the African national congress and in Lithuania,
national symbol of its flag comprised of the horizontal tricolour of yellow, green and red and
considered as a naval jack and historical state flag (Ayentimi, Burgess and Dayaram, 2018).
Heroes: South Africans are prone to falling in church for charlatans as it is very
important for them as they are more into the religion and Lithuanians are much involved into
their forefather as this country is more religious than other 34 European countries.
CONCLUSION
From the above demonstrated information, it has been analysed that cultures are different to
each other and similar at the one point. For this, differences in food, culture, rituals are analysed
as the upbringing difference occur only when the environmental change and society get major
difference. Further, the cities are dealing with so much of the issues like the rate of increase in
population and employment. There is the huge difference in both above cultures as they tend to
eat different food and also wear different clothes but despite from this, they are different in terms
of physical, mental and spiritual level. There must be the equal rights which are given to male
and female whether they belong from any other culture or not going to keep culture apart from
the humanity.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Teller, A., 2020. Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth
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