Introduction
Culture is a product of evolution and human creativity; it comprises of all aspects of human adjustment which include sets of ideals, beliefs, and customs common to a group of people.
Mexican-American Culture
As in any human culture, the Mexican-American is diverse and persistently changing as a result influence of other cultures. They hold very strong attachments to their language, people, and customs. Then spoken art in this context by the Mexican American is Spanglish. This language generally entails the incorporation of English from Americans and Spanish from the Spanish people. In what is consider as a non popular family by the Mexicans the Americans portray this as an extended familinas a whole. Food is a defining aspect of every culture and the Mexican-American culture is not an exception. The Mexican food is unique and particular. For example, some of their typical genuine main dishes are tamales, sole, tacos, and others (Sylvia, 1996).
The dishes are mainly prepared for special occasions such as Birthdays, Christmas, and New Years and they differ from family to family (Dennis, 1993).Social responsibilities are very straightforward, particularly to the more traditional families which are mainly patriarchal and male dominated; however as families become incorporated to the central culture these responsibilities have changed in that, the traditional function of women was to stay home and look after the children; on the other hand the function of men was to work in the labor force and provide for the family. The abidance by the young ones to the taught roles was a necessarily in the community..
As the number of Mexican-Americans is big particularly in California, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, and New Mexico it is very easy to sustain these cultural ties among the various societies. Some of the major celebrations that strengthen the cultural traditions of Mexican-Americans are Cinco de Mayo, and the anniversary of Mexican independence which are celebrated all across the United States (Sylvia, 1996). The Mexican-American culture is very rich in customs, values, and believes but very poor in its access to authority relations, equity, and social justice. However, they are the major group inside the Hispanic group yet being so large they are the most underrepresented, undereducated, and marginalized in the American community.
Dying Process
In this aspect of death, there are many ceremonies that are performed and are in strong connection to what is perceived by the community. In reality a liberal aspect entails where their entails the absence of any regularities to be followed. Life is portrayed as a very eminent aspect that ought to be respected and it is through this life that a spiritual aspect emerges. This life has many aspect and it is from it that experience attributed to forgiveness and practicing of ethical principles are clearly performed (Kramer, 1988).
Credence from the Buddhists take into account that what is taking place in the general set up of a human being is usually not a long lasting g aspect but rather a temporal one. This conception is over and over again contemplated upon and ends up resulting to the recognition of how death can emerge therefore giving two separate identities of the living and the dead.Death engages 8 stages whereby the body becomes powerless; vision becomes unclear and eyes fixed, liquids in the body dry up and hearing stops, the body freezes and inhalations grow feeble while exhalations are strong, breathing ceases, the conceptual mind becomes more delicate and the dying person experiences visions, white, red, dark and also a vision of clear empty space.
Culture surrounding death and dying
The Mexican civilization seems to clinch death more brilliantly in that death and the spiritual world at their empathy are taken in consideration various performances are entailed for example the performance of the bullfight, Day of the Dead revels, folk art are also considered and through all this performances, they all consider it as y embracing the unavoidability of death, therefore honoring how life is.
Western traditions pertaining to dying death
The western civilization on the other hand consider the practices carried out I honor of death as morbid. The whole concept of how life is entirely perceived in diverse views and this pertains how there is no life after deaths occurance.The practices that are there to honor this occasion are considered as unworthy and time consuming instead of future forecasting.
Hospice care and grief group
The popular medical developments that involve the transfusion of blood have no objection and usually have the option to pursue therapeutic advice. On the other hand, as the circumstance of mind preparedness and control is of such implication to the death course of action, some of the patients of the Buddhist faith possibly will be uncertain to receive any kind of prescription which may result to serious implication of their thoughts. This shows that nearly all the prescriptoions may be totally not tolerated by the patient’s o the Buddhist faith.
Funeral Process
The Mexican-American Buddhist principles views death as unavoidable and as a chance for improvement through rebirth and so does not encourage grief, though some communities may still include grieving rituals, like putting on white cloth, or even wailing, to represent the great result of their grief (Trutner & Trutner, 1990). In the same way, there is a great difference in the performance of funerals by the communities. The populations of the Buddhist have various ways and this depend totally on the country of origin. Most of the arrangement to what is being performed in the services is usually take into account by the members of the family.
Depending on the choice of service, tune-up may occur at the designated location as per the choice of the members. In Buddhist tradition, desire for the 3 detached segments seconding the interment: which embrace location of the body in the coffin; taking away the deceased to the cemetery; and the real interment. It is thought that if the points are not clearly taken into account, the fate of the fortitude of the deceased could be negatively affected and pessimistic pressure affect persons in attendance whose turnout is not well informed.
Religious beliefs of Buddhism
Buddhism, similar to the mainstream of huge confidence of the world, is alienated into more than a few diverse customs. One fundamental conviction of Buddhism is over and over again referred to as reincarnation. This is the idea that people are reborn after dying. Their God is called Buddha. Buddhists seek refuge from Buddha, Dharma, and the noble Sangha or society of monks and nuns who have become open-minded. The Buddha teaches that life is dissatisfactory due to craving (Dennis, 1993).
Meditation is an ordinary practice in most if not all schools of Buddhism, for the clergy if not the laity(Sylvia, 1996). Vital to Buddhist principles and practice is the law of karma and vipaka; action and its fruition, which occurs within the dynamic of dependent origination. However, Actions which lead to happiness are defined as skillful or good, while those that lead to suffering are called unskillful or awful actions that are expressed by the way of mind, body or speech.
The family system
The Buddhism folks structure is patriarchal entailing that the oldest man in a relations is the lawful head and responsible for all portion of the family, taking into account funds and performance of the bother occupants of the family. In a wonderful family, the man who has stayed for a long period of time is usually considered as the grand father an in this case his sons family and his grandsons often take time staying together with him Women on he other hand are by no means enduring associates of the relatives however they go into this constant male people as they wed split-up, develop into widows and entail in the overall remarriage concept again (Sylvia, 1996). Offspring of this families care more often than not given the names of the attributed family members and in this case the lineage of the father is taken into account. On the other hand the mother stays dormant without any proposal of their names being shattered upon (Alan, 1998).
Prayers/medication
It is normally believed that Buddhism involves extensive hours of meditation and is devoid of elaborative prayers and ceremonies linked to prayer-offerings (Dennis, 1993). Supplementary than the information multifaceted ritual prayer gifts, predominantly its Mahayana and Vajrayana forms (Sylvia, 1996). However, before exploring the values and content of pujas, it would be suitable to understand and try to define what constitutes the act of puja. It also involves calling upon the enlightened beings like the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, yodams or tutelary deities, cho-kyongs or dharma guards, dakas and dakhinis or extraterrestrial beings, nagas or wisdom beings and other dharmapalas or guardians of the valuable wisdom (Dennis, 1993).
Hinduism funeral process
They may in general be divided into 4 levels which are; rituals and rites to be conducted when the individual is believed to be on the death bed, rites which escort the disposal of the dead body, rites which allow the soul of the dead to transfer successfully from the phase of a ghost to the territory of the ancestors, and rites conducted in honor of the Pitrs. Events for cremation differ from place to place.
straight away subsequent to the death, the cadaver is put on the floor with the skull pointing on the southern side.this direction and position is considered as the direction that portrayed the dead at the same time as an oil lamp is positioned close to deceased body, and is reserved for flaming incessantly for the primary 3 days subsequent to the death occurrence. This deceased corpse is well thought-out to be an indication of immense uncleanness therefore minimal corporal handling with the dead body is continuous, so as to keep away from the spread of disease.
Hinduism religious beliefs
There are quite a lot of ceremonies that are based on the circumstance. very important performance as the birth of wedding ceremony, and burial ceremonies are sanctified throughout a religious reparation known as samskāra.
Dying process
The dying individual actively gets ready to attain death (Alan, 1998). He/she preferably chooses moment to take last breath and If possible, a close member of the family puts water from the Ganges River in mouth of dying individual to bring peace and comfort. The family sings reads the bible, say devotional prayers, and performs mantras to assist the dying individual focus on Brahman (Sylvia, 1996).
Hospice
Hinduism has a religious framework that recognizes terminal illness and death as part of a cosmic cycle or order of things. For instance, the situation of the mind of the dying individual at the time of death influences their rebirth. However, full cognizance is preferred and may lead the patient to decline to sedatives or pain medication that would lead to loss of consciousness. Physical pain or an extensive dying process may be credited to selfish or harmful actions carried out by the patient during their own lifetime.
Hinduism family system
A best example of the combined family is the Hindu family. It is created by spouses and their off springs. The unit first starts as a nuclear family consisting of father mother and children and as time passes by, the daughters will leave home to their married homes while an extended patrilocal three generation household is created when sons remain as their wives move in and bear children. The head of the three generation unit is called Dada and his wife is called Dadi. She is in charge of organizing the events of all her daughters-in-law and grandchildren (Alan, 1998). The sons must work under their father’s direction and must turn over all their earnings to him. This duty relates also to income earned outside of the family.
There is a widespread home during the joint and extensive levels like common ownership of property, shared worship, shared kitchen, and household-wide commitments. In Hindu’s tradition women got married during their pre-puberty years and the average age at marriage for women was eight the reason was that to facilitate adaptation to the husband’s family, young wife could learn to obey husband and other relations members and family members looked upon the young wife as a child, able to make mistakes and the woman is not well thought-out as holy until married while their male counterparts are sacred at birth.
Prayer and meditation
The essential part of the Hindu culture is Prayer or worship. The performance of the prayer is the most acknowledged form of worship in Hinduism while Yoga and meditation are also measured as a type of devotional examination towards the Lord. Importance is given to repetitive prayer through the Hindu devotional Bhakti movements (Alan, 1998).
The Gayatri mantra is Hinduism’s most entrusted prayer they perform everyday, and not only reflecting its straightforward meaning, but also dwelling on and absorbing its sound, regarded to be heavy with sacred meaning and it is for this reason almost all Hindu prayers and mantras are sung (Alan, 1998).
References
Alan, C. (1998). Sons and Mothers in Chinese Buddhism. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Dennis, R. (1993). American-Mexican Culture. New York: Baywood Publishing Company, Inc.
Kramer, K. (1988). The Spiritual Art of Dying: How World Religions perceive Death. New York: Paulist Press.
Sylvia, V. (1996). Death in Hindu India: In Facing Death. New Haven: Yale University Press.