Analyzing My Own Assumptions

Analyzing My Own Assumptions

One's cultural assumptions can influence how a specific piece of work is read. Below is an analyzation of my cultural values in relation to the article on genetic engineering. 

Torra, Marc. "World Map of 16 cultures for "Cultural Mandala" 7/7/11 via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution

• Due to the fact that I'm in college there is quite a bit of self doubt and yearning for better qualities both internally and externally. This is important because it shows the culture that I'm living in is somewhat similar to that which the article was written in. Additionally, I have not yet decided how I feel about genetic engineering but I do think that to some extent it could be abused because of the idea of "designer babies". 
• One major difference is that the Arizona majority is usually Republican which is different from New York, where the article was written. That being said it would be expected that the majority of Arizona's population would be more favorable of proceeding with genetic engineering but more so in the context of increasing human health aspects. 
• The culture which the text was written in is not foreign to the one in which I live. That being said many of the values are the same and not very foreign to me. 
• This specific article about genetic engineering was only written two years ago so relatively speaking not much time has passed since then but there have definitely been some advancements in the world of science since then. That being said some of the material in the article could be inaccurate and quite a bit of information could have changed. Additionally, many different opinions of this topic could have changed since then depending on outcomes and science advancements.

Reflection: 

After reading Bailey's  post about cultural assumptions I realized that we are very similar in needing facts to back up ideas. It was interesting to delve into the necessity of these facts in order to understand why something is one way. After reading her post I realized that mine is not in depth enough regarding my cultural values and I think I need to think more deeply about them in order t effectively analyze this piece of writing.  

Austin's  post also made me think about the depth of my analysis. Our articles are similar because they are both in regards to current things within the US. While his is a bit more current than mine we both had to analyze cultural values within the United States and relate them back to our articles. He made an effort to really pinpoint what he doesn't agree with in the debate which I think is something I need to go back and do to really understand all the different aspects of culture around my topic of genetic engineering.