Cultural Perspectives: A Self-Reflexive Journal on Religion

This self-reflexive journal explores the complexities of researching religion and cultural practices from diverse cultural contexts. The author anticipates challenges in accurately representing different religious perspectives and recognizing potential biases stemming from personal beliefs and limited firsthand knowledge. The article by Miner on cultural diversity is highlighted as a tool for understanding unfamiliar cultural practices from a local perspective and for analyzing one's own culture objectively. Furthermore, the journal reflects on sources that address resistance to cultural diversity, attributing it to narrow-mindedness and prejudice. The author's initial response to these articles emphasizes the importance of adopting an emic perspective when studying other religions, promoting a deeper understanding and appreciation of diverse cultural practices. Desklib provides a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and study resources.

Running head: Self-reflexive journal
SELF-REFLEXIVE JOURNAL

1
Self-reflexive journal
The topic for my final research paper is religion where I will deal with various religious
and cultural practices belonging to different cultural contexts. For writing the paper, I think that I
may have some difficulties in describing the region of different places from the perspective of an
insider. On the other hand, it may also be difficult to perceive my own religion from the
perspective of an observer. This is so because my own personal beliefs and favors regarding my
own religion and lack of first-hand knowledge about other religions may create bias that can
affect my writing. In order to blur these bias and beliefs, the article of Miner about cultural
diversity has helped me in realizing that there are some local beliefs and contexts that give birth
to diverse and unusual cultural practices which can only be understood after perceiving them
from the perspective of a local person (Miner, 1956). In addition, this article will help me in
analyzing my own culture from the perspective of an outsider. On the other hand, the chosen
sources for part one and two of the paper have helped me in realizing that there are many people
who stand against cultural diversity either knowingly or unknowingly just because they judge
people based on what culture or religion they belong to (Rahmath, Chambers & Wakewich,
2016). In other words, narrow-mindedness pushes people to snatch natural human rights from
people belonging to different religions. Thus, my initial response towards these articles was that
the writers have perceived other religions from an emic perspective.

2
Self-reflexive journal
Reference list
Miner, H. (1956). Body ritual among the Nacirema. American anthropologist, 58(3), 503-507.
Retrieved on: 7th Feb, 2018, From:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1956.58.3.02a00080
Rahmath, S., Chambers, L., & Wakewich, P. (2016). Asserting citizenship: Muslim women's
experiences with the hijab in Canada. In Women's Studies International Forum 58(1),
34-40. Retrieved on: 7th Feb, 2018, From:
http://daneshyari.com/article/preview/375859.pdf