Compare and Contrast Essay: Arab Culture vs. American Culture

The Arab world consists of many diverse communities and cultures. There are differences between countries and even within the countries themselves. This makes it nearly impossible to describe the culture without generalizing them. While I will try my best to refrain from making too many generalizations, some of them may be inevitable even if unintentional. This paper will discuss four characteristics that define Arab culture by comparing each characteristic to American culture, my own culture, and my own personal expectations of the characteristic.

One of the most important characteristics of Arab life is family. Arab social structure is centered around one’s whole family instead of just the individual. This group-focused society makes it difficult for people who are detached from their parents to be properly protected and have various personal connections. The society in American culture, however, is more focused on the individual than an Arab society. Americans value independence and want to create their own success or career. People will move out of their parent’s house at a young age or even move away from their parents to a new location! Learning about this aspect of Arab culture surprised me quite a bit. I never knew how normal it was for parents to take care of their children well into adulthood. While this was new information to me, I was aware of the emphasis on taking care of your parents when they’re older, as this is common in American culture as well.

Another important characteristic of Arab culture that involves the first characteristic alongside with it is marriage. In Arab culture, marriage is heavily centered around the whole family. Approval of the family is extremely important and basically required, since the family wants to keep their social reputation in good standards. Although the marriage is between the bride and groom, the family is traditionally more influential in the marriage decisions. Marriage is very different in Arab culture compared to American culture. In American culture, there is less importance placed on the family and more on the individuals getting married. It is more acceptable for two people to go against their parent’s will and marry in American culture. In Arab culture, doing so could cause you severe punishments from your family. You can also marry a person of any race, religion, or sexual orientation in American culture while in Arab culture there are more restrictions. In Arab culture, “According to Islamic law and tradition, a Muslim woman is not permitted to marry a non-Muslim).  Learning about marriage in Arab culture did not surprise me as I already had knowledge about the importance placed on family in the marriage and the religious restrictions when trying to marry. I also knew about the option of polygamy in the culture. Although I already knew about this characteristic, I was able to take my understanding more in-depth. 

One major characteristic of the culture is the warmth and emotion of the people. Arabs tend to show their emotions very honestly and clearly. According to the book in Chapter 1, “Their emotions are reflected clearly in their faces and voices”.  Due to their natural outgoing friendliness, foreigners may feel intimidated and misunderstand since they might be used to being reserved and not talking to strangers. In many places in America, people usually tend to keep to themselves and are not interested in talking to others. In today’s day and age, many Americans walk around with earbuds in or are occupied on the phone, so it might be hard to talk to them even if you wanted! I was not at all surprised by this characteristic of Arab culture, because my friend who is Arab exemplifies this characteristic perfectly as well as the rest of his family. Anytime I am around them, I feel their warmth and friendliness, so I have experienced this part of Arab culture personally.

The last characteristic I will discuss is religion. The major religion of the Arab world is Islam, with many smaller religions being present as well. The religion of Islam’s sacred book is the Qur’an, and it teaches values such as loyalty, generosity, warmth, and caring for the elderly.

Within the Islamic religion, are various religious sects; the largest being the Sunni community. Islamic tradition is seen as an integral element of Arab identity and can be shared between both Muslims and non-Muslims due to common heritage. Islamic identity over the last decade has grown to a point where people describe themselves as Muslim first and Arab second, however, many people do not see a separating line. As stated in chapter 1 of the textbook, “…they are nevertheless aware that Arab and Islamic culture and identity is interconnected and integrated.”  While Arab’s major religion is Islam, American’s major religion is Christianity, which is a religious minority amongst Arabs. Christianity has different sects like Islam does, like Catholic, Baptist, and Methodist for example. While Islamic people read the Qur’an, Christians read the bible and they have different beliefs regarding Jesus. I was surprised to find out how many people consider themselves to be Muslim first and then Arab, or vice versa. I always expected people’s religion and ethnicity to be seen as interconnected and not having importance over one of them before the other.

There are numerous other characteristics that can help define Arab culture. The ones I discussed in this reflection paper are the characteristics which interested me the most in talking about. I realize that the aspects of culture mentioned do not apply to everybody in the Arab world and might be a generalization of the population of Arabs. I have provided truthful information based on the textbook and the question being asked, but depending on the context or situation, these characteristics may not apply.