Haiti And Japan: A Cultural Comparison
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The residents of Haiti give significant value to the events in 1804 when they expelled the French in 1804. That incident made them the first nation to be ruled independently by black majority. They gave some distinct traditions in music, dance, dress, and religion. Specific prayers, some distinct language words, and spirit entities have huge influence of African culture but it is also predominantly different from Current African and New World Cultures. However, the culture of Japan emphasizes on the representation of historical and regional distinctiveness through symbols and art. Every city and town have a unique thing that it represents like arts, music, performances, and traditional songs. They value “education and technology” the most and work on the slogans of “Eastern Values; Western Science”. During the Meiji Period, the focus was on the unification of the country rather than promoting local loyalties
The State recognizes its religion as Catholicism; however, it is on the continuous decrease and now only 70 percent of the people recognize themselves as catholic as compared to the 90 percent a few decades ago. Voodoo is one of the famous religions that some people in Haiti practice. In the locality, it is known as serving the Iwa. Voodoo is a mixture of African culture and catholic beliefs. These beliefs have a huge impact on their activities in everyday life for example crying ritual at the end of funeral, interaction and feasting for several days. However, In Japan, the religion that is practiced the most is Shinto, which is the belief on several Gods, and the relationship between people and their environment ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"de3paNhj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Stoyan, Niedzwiecki, Morgan, Hartlyn, & Espinal, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Stoyan, Niedzwiecki, Morgan, Hartlyn, & Espinal, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":156,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/ZQ75FF8F"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/ZQ75FF8F"],"itemData":{"id":156,"type":"article-journal","title":"Trust in government institutions: The effects of performance and participation in the Dominican Republic and Haiti","container-title":"International Political Science Review","page":"18-35","volume":"37","issue":"1","author":[{"family":"Stoyan","given":"Alissandra T."},{"family":"Niedzwiecki","given":"Sara"},{"family":"Morgan","given":"Jana"},{"family":"Hartlyn","given":"Jonathan"},{"family":"Espinal","given":"Rosario"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Stoyan, Niedzwiecki, Morgan, Hartlyn, & Espinal, 2016). The religion of Shinto has no formal scripture writing like the Abrahamic religions. Shinto has also affected Japanese people greatly in their everyday life which include purification rituals from many ill spirits and occasions for children to honor them at shrines.
The historic language that most of the Haitian spoke was French but now-a-days, the language spoken by most of the people is Kreyol. The pronunciation of Kreyol is similar to that of French so it is in the vocabulary but the syntax in which it is written is similar to that of other creoles. Kreyol is now considered as the basic recognized language of the country. However, French is also recognized as the second official language but only prevails among the elites of the country. However recently, English is replacing English as the second language of the country because of the vast migration of Haitian to America and the availability of cable networks in the country.
In Japan, the official and recognized language is Japanese or Nihongo. In the period of the Meiji rule, the government focused on creating a centralized state, and language played an important role in this unification. A national dialect was introduced which replaced the local regional dialects. This dialect which is known as the standard language, was based on the communicational patterns of the warrior’s class in Tokyo ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"1OTc6jrn","properties":{"unsorted":true,"formattedCitation":"(Hashimoto, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Hashimoto, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":157,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/VDF9EISE"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/VDF9EISE"],"itemData":{"id":157,"type":"chapter","title":"2 Japan’s Language Policy and the “Lost Decade”","container-title":"Language policy, culture, and identity in Asian contexts","publisher":"Routledge","page":"25-36","author":[{"family":"Hashimoto","given":"Kayoko"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Hashimoto, 2017). Internationally, Japanese language is very similar to Korean, and some similarities with oceanic languages suggests that historically, some oceanic people may as well have settled or stayed there.
In Haiti, the status of men and women differ very hugely and outsiders think that most of the women in the country are suppressed. This may be true in some rural parts but in urban and middle-class family, women have the same status as men. However, the scarcity of jobs and low wage structure are some of the major problems that women are facing in the country. That said, women in rural areas also play an important role in the economy of the country, in most areas the farm earnings are controlled by wives. In Japan, traditionally the women were considered as a part of household matters. However, this thinking has changed significantly after World War 2 ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"7ZtcXSxN","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Kitayama, Mesquita, & Karasawa, 2006)","plainCitation":"(Kitayama, Mesquita, & Karasawa, 2006)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":155,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/HXAVYJG5"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/HXAVYJG5"],"itemData":{"id":155,"type":"article-journal","title":"Cultural affordances and emotional experience: socially engaging and disengaging emotions in Japan and the United States.","container-title":"Journal of personality and social psychology","page":"890","volume":"91","issue":"5","author":[{"family":"Kitayama","given":"Shinobu"},{"family":"Mesquita","given":"Batja"},{"family":"Karasawa","given":"Mayumi"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2006"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Kitayama, Mesquita, & Karasawa, 2006). Today like all the other major developed countries, women in Japan take equal part in technological advancement of the country. There are some linguistic differences in Japanese language as well for men and women. Traditionally, today as well, women are supposed to be more polite and formal in their speech.
In Haiti, the families are considered as a nucleus of a house. The husband is generally thought of as an owner of the house and in rural areas responsible for planting and livestock. However, women generally deal with the dealings of the household. Women act as a caretaker of the property and finances of the house. Women have full rights over the money earned from the sale of animals and plants. Sons and daughters inherit equally from their parents will. If the head of the family dies, their property is equally distributed among their children. In Japan, apart from the nucleus family, the tradition of slightly extended families living with their children and grandchildren is also common. However, they don’t play any major roles in the decision-making process.
Elite and middle-class people marry like all the traditions of the modern world, however, whether the marriages are legal or not, a union is only expected to be complete when a man builds a house for the family and their first child is born. However, now a day, marriage happens later in relationships usually when children get older and reach adulthood. Usually families live on the land that is provided by the parents of the husband. In Japan, traditional concept of marriages has changed from “arranged marriages” to “love marriages”. There is still a tradition of finding your partner through match makers in some parts of the country, however, personal opinions now weigh more than that of parental decisions.
If I was a person that was travelling to Japan in order to do business in Japan, I should first get the required information about the business incentives, different technological practices, cultural differences, political climate, business laws and government role in providing ease of business. As my culture is very different from that of Japan, I would require to know about the market value of that certain business that I wish to start. Since Japan is a very advance technological country with very advanced infrastructure so it should not be any problem. The political climate of the country usually remains stable; however, the cost of labor is one thing that can affect the overall profitability of the country.
Japan provides free education and books to students at elementary level and the standard of education is generally very high. If a person is studying in Japan, he will not only experience a great learning environment but also a unique and special culture. The country of Japan is advanced, safe and also a peaceful place to study with rich culture. For someone from western culture, certain things are worth noticing before visiting Japan. Japan doesn’t have any toilet paper or towels in public restrooms and there are also no trash cans on the streets. People in japan also drive on the left side, so if someone is coming from a British country, he will find it very difficult to drive initially. There are also some table and eating manners that need to be learned while eating in public places.
The history of the Japanese culture is a lot similar to my Haitian culture. Pilgrimages to the shrines for the Japanese Spirit of Love and Prosperity, Benziaten is celebrated with a lot of passion and enthusiasm. This pilgrimage is the same to the Haitian pilgrimage to Ville Bonheur in which Ezili, the Haitian Patron Spirit of Love and Prosperity is honored and seek the blessings for the people. The communication is very much similar, including the Japanese religious practices and cultural values. While visiting the shrines in the Japanese culture, the visitors ring bells so that they can wake the Spirits. For making requests, they clap their hands and bow their heads. We, the Haitians clap three times in a set and ring the ason (sonnen ason) for making request to the spirits.
The government in Japan is a very sophisticated and reformed system among all the law systems in the world. The Haitian culture analyzes and considers the Japanese government system as the best with complete attempts of originality and effectiveness.
The most common stereotype that my culture has about the Japanese culture is that the people in Japan are well-mannered and they are immensely respectful towards each other and they are also mostly friendly and hospitable. However, it is not like that. The kindness in the Japanese should never be taken for granted as they only respect because they want to make a person feel hosted as a visitor.
The education system in Japan is much different than that of Haiti. In Japanese education system, the students are taught to develop their characters and manners first. The discipline is focused on a priority basis and qualities like justice, self-confidence, and respect for others are taught to them. While the Haiti education system has a much different culture because most of the primary schools in Haiti are supported or managed by the NGOs where there is no set goal or aim for education.
References
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Hashimoto, K. (2017). 2 Japan’s Language Policy and the “Lost Decade.” In Language policy, culture, and identity in Asian contexts (pp. 25–36). Routledge.
Kitayama, S., Mesquita, B., & Karasawa, M. (2006). Cultural affordances and emotional experience: Socially engaging and disengaging emotions in Japan and the United States. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(5), 890.
Stoyan, A. T., Niedzwiecki, S., Morgan, J., Hartlyn, J., & Espinal, R. (2016). Trust in government institutions: The effects of performance and participation in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. International Political Science Review, 37(1), 18–35.
