Mistry 1

Jai Mistry
Mrs. Leaver
AP Human Geography 1
22 February 2016
Unit 3
Wherever people go, their culture follows them. My selected experience for this
Unit was my attendance of an Indian cultural gathering known as a Garba. The gathering
is a celebration of dance, as everyone is encouraged to take part in a common dance
routine that occurs in a circle around a certain deity idol relating to Hindu beliefs. As
evident from the gathering, culture frames the shared behaviors of a society and culture
varies from region to region. The cultural traits exhibited in the gathering represent the
shared behaviors of the Indian society in North Texas, and the location of the gathering
being on the periphery of the cultural hearth (India) contributed to the diluted and
Americanized culture that varied between regions.
The gathering itself consisted of folklore, folksongs, and culture traits shared by
people of connected ethnicities and of a common race. On a daily schedule, the average
North Texan Indian would not display many aspects expressed in the previous sentence.
However, in the 5 hours of cultural celebration, dance, and food, an Indian could
experience the behaviors of American-Indian society. Through dance, traditional music,
and traditional clothing performed/wore by everyone at the event, I was able to
experience the shared behaviors of the North Texan Indian society. Other shared
behaviors than the easily identified such as the pattern of shoes arranged outside the
dance halls (it is a sign of respect, cleanliness to remove shoes inside a house/building)

Mistry 2
and the abundance of Hondas, Nissans, and Toyotas in the parking lot exemplify shared
habits of the American-Indian society. The event shows that wherever people go, their
culture follows. The culture that followed the immigration to Texas was blatant
throughout the environment of the event, as explained earlier.
Even though the gathering displayed Indian culture in a foreign land well, the
culture itself had been slightly modified and Americanized. This shows how culture in
India varies with culture in America, as they are different regions. The food served there
was dominantly of Indian origin, but American products such as soft drinks, ice cream,
and pizza crept into the menus of the concession stands. The music varied from pure
traditional music, with the incorporation of instruments not native to Indian arts. This
aspect (modified culture) of the experience connects to the universal truth, proving that
culture follows migrants, but a new modified culture emerged in the new land. By
bringing their culture to a foreign land, the creation of a hybrid culture is inevitable. The
traditional Garba is different to American ones to an extent, and the exposure of the
immigrants to Western culture helped create the differences.
The cultural display shown by the gathering of a society within a broader one
expresses shared behaviors within the society, and the different American-Indian culture
compared to Indian culture represents the variations between regions in the periphery and
core. The event was exciting and freshening, and provided many potential layers of
examination and analysis. While Indian culture changed as it spread to distant parts of the
world, underlying concepts remain intact.