How much does Culture and Lifestyle Affect Behavior There are circumstances and conditions in our lives

that simply come with us at birth; such things as our ethnic origin, our race, the culture into which you are born-just to name a few things. You have no control over the culture into which you are born, they are a given to you. t is your world. The lifestyle of your parents and!or caregiver becomes the constant influence in your e"istence. Your perception of life is greatly influenced by the culture and lifestyle of your caregiver. Your behavior will directly correlate with their influence upon you, to a great e"tent of your e"istence. You are imprinted in your thin#ing and conse$uently in your behavior by those who care for you. This is the core influence upon how our personality and character development. The culture into which you are born will influence how you see the world. %e gain understanding of our personhood;our communication s#ills develop as to how we relate with the rest of society. t affects how we see ourselves fitting in the world around us. %e are influenced in a negative or positive manner by the lifestyle of our environment. %e learn to cope in our personal surroundings, using the same coping mechanism we see demonstrated in our immediate environment. &ociety and family cue us to how we are accepted by the larger community in which we are introduced to interact and develop our personal concept. %e begin to define ourselves in the culture to which we are born in our moral system, our way of interacting in social relationships and other human endeavors from consumer goods to art, music, language, and science. 's we grow up, lifestyle becomes our personal choice of how we refine or fine tune our behavior. There is no choice (option) as to the culture into which we arrive on earth, is concerned. *ow the larger society perceives your culture is a part of your inheritance at birth. *ow you accept yourself and how you choose to be perceived is a part of your personal choice and acceptance of your own personhood. You adapt to the circumstances under which you become a viable participant. You can choose those aspects of your culture that are most positive to you and ma#e them a part of character and abstain from the more negative aspects of your culture. You can choose to define yourself and not be defined by your circumstances, culture or lifestyle into which you are born. +oal oriented people are not limited by how they are defined by culture or lifestyle. You can change your behavior. There are cultures of people who are identified by their aggressive and warli#e nature. There are cultures of people who are passive and less aggressive. The aggressive culture will influence individuals born into it,s

system to have a mindset to ac$uire those things you need by what ever means necessary. This is normal. The passive culture will influence an individual born into their system to avoid confrontation or to find resolution to problems without engaging in conflict. This become a basic part of their personality. -ulture and lifestyle can affect your behavior to a degree, but it does not necessarily dominate you. You have choice and choice ma#es change possible. Your culture affects every aspect of your life .ur culture is our routine of sleeping, bathing, dressing, eating, and getting to wor#. t is our household chores and the actions we perform on the job; the way we buy goods and services, write and mail a letter, ta#e a ta"i or board a bus, ma#e a telephone call, go to a movie, or attend church. t is the way we greet friends or address a stranger, the admonitions we give our children and the way we respond, what we consider good and bad manners, and even to a large e"tent what we consider right and wrong. 'll these and thousands of other ways of thin#ing, feeling, and acting seem so natural and right that we may even wonder how else one could do it. /ut to millions of other people in the world every one of these acts would seem strange, aw#ward, incomprehensible, unnatural, or wrong. These people would perform many, if not all, of the same acts, but they would be done in different ways that to them would seem logical, natural, and right. -ulture affects the lives of each and every person differently. Your culture is what defines who you are and how you live. .ften times, your culture decides what you celebrate and how you spea#. Your culture is what brings you, your family and your friends together. 0....................................................................................................................... ............. The 1ion 2ance is one of the most widely spread fol# dance in -hina. 1ion is the #ing of animals. n -hinese tradition, lion is regarded as a mascot , which can bring good luc#. The dance has a long history with records of more than 3,444 years ago. 2uring the Tang 2ynasty (567-849), the 1ion 2ance was already introduced into the royal family of the dynasty. n the 1ion 2ance, two people act as a lion; one waving the lion head and the other waving the lion body and tail; or one performer acts as a cub. 'nother person is needed to hold a sil# ball to play with the lion. &#ill is the most important thing while performing the 1ion 2ance. 'fter

more than 3,444 years of development, there are various 1ion 2ances. t:s one of most popular programs of dance and acrobatics troupes today. %hen during -hinese ;ew Year, you can hear the firecrac#ers popping followed by the loud music of banging drums and cymbals clashing in beat with each other. Then as the smo#e clears, a huge beast emerges from the smo#e. <ids hide behind their parents as the beast sha#es its head from side to side and begins to dance around. t is a frightening beast, but it scares the evil spirits and brings good luc# to all the stores around you. 's some people #now from this description, this is 1ion 2ancing = a mi"ture of dance and martial arts. The legendary story of how 1ion 2ancing began ta#es place in a cave where the lions were sleeping. ' mon# enters and prepares a shrine around the cave. %hen he is finished, the mon# wa#es the sleepy lions by playing on the drum and gong. *e wants the sleepy lions to bow to the shrine he has created, but the lions only want to dance around and have fun. &o the mon# ta#es some lettuce greens to po#e fun at the lions and get their attention. This ma#es the lions so mad that they eat the greens. ;owadays, 1ion 2ancers throw lettuce at the audience in order to spread good luc# around because the greens represent wealth. Welcoming a VIP The 1ions are often invited to welcome a > ? or guest of honor at a an!uet or meeting. %hen the drum or gongs start playing, it signals the approach of the > ?. The lion dance performance begins when the > ? alights from his car or appears at the front gate. The lions accompany the > ? from the arrival point to the > ? table or the stage. &uch welcome ceremonies are used in both traditional occasions as well as by corporations to give foreign visitors an interesting and uni$ue e"perience. "round rea#ing ceremony $ %pening ceremony 1ion dance performances are also found at ground brea#ing ceremonies of buildings and institutions. The performances create a joyous mood for an important and significant occasion. n this function, lion dances witness and usher many important occasions and events of a society. Two &tyles of 1ion 2ance@ ;orthern and &outhern The two styles of lion dances differ not only in the type of costumes worn by the lion dancers but also in the types of movements performed. n the

northern style, the lions have shaggy orange and yellow fur and a long mane . Their movements are very life-li#e, oftentimes using their legs to prance dramatically. n the northern style of dance, the lions typically appear in family pairs@ two adult lions and two young lions. 1ion dancers are most often performed by students of #ung fu. &o, the dances can also be very acrobatic including stunts li#e the lions balancing on balls, lifts, and leaping through the air re$uiring the dancers to be very fit and agile. -onclusions There are not too many resources that detail aspects of the 1ion 2ance. Aven the ones did find barely mentioned 1ion 2ancing. t may be that this paper is one of the few semi-scholarly wor#s to deal e"clusively with the lion dance. have certainly not been able to find any, though not for lac# of trying. 's time moves further away from the origin, many things have been lost. 1ion 2ancing has gone from a serious art done by professionals for emperors, to a public spectacle done mostly to #eep the culture alive. n itself, the 1ion 2ance is beautiful to watch, but without an understanding of its history, too much of it becomes meaningless.