We have come to understand cultures to be stable patterns of beliefs, thoughts, traditions, values, and practices that are handed down from one generation to the next to ensure the continuity of these systems. In fact, traditions actually shift and change under changing social and political landscapes. Culture does not reveal stable patterns, but dynamic ones where experiences and commonalities continually re-shape it.

 

It is important to shift our understanding away from totalizing culture to illustrating its diversity, contradictions, contrasts, ambiguities, and the interconnections between various internal systems that structure power

 

Related Resources

Lifecourse Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence and Help-Seeking among Filipina, Indian, and Pakistani Women, 2010

IPV often recurs over the lifecourse and survivors’ decisions to seek help are shaped by their history of positive and negative experiences of help-seeking, and because their preferred and actual sources of help change over time. Using the Life History Calendar to interview 143 Filipina, Indian and Pakistani domestic violence survivors, this research enhances our understanding of help-seeking over the lifecourse and makes recommendations for system responses to domestic violence in Asian communities.

Gender and Culture in Transition: A Community Conversation: Report on Domestic Violence Forum with the Fresno Hmong Community, 2014

By Central California Asian Pacific Women. 
Advocates and community members from Fresno convened to examine domestic violence within the context of gender equity and how it impacts Fresno’s Hmong community. Participants identified steps that communities and systems can take to raise awareness, improve service for survivors, and redefine gender values and practices.

by Sujata Warrier

2002

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