Potjie kos --- more recipes

Please click HERE for Potjie Kos recipes.

Vet koek / Phat cake...

Please click HERE for a fantastic recipe! In Afrikaans as well as in English.

What is culture? .....from the previous entry

I posted a view of a reader on a blog a couple of days ago. I've found a couple of sites that I agree with about "culture" and how to define it. On http://www.culture-at-work.com/concept2.html you will find what I agree with. Previously I've heard other South Africans saying about the UK when they arrived here..."wow, what a "culture shock"....and it is true....in some ways. I will explain it. The only "shock" I experienced was the schools, being a teacher, we are not used to the children behaving like they do back home in our schools. Also, the youngsters and their behaviour in public, e.g. a night out in the pubs and what you see what happens after that, especially the girls. We are not used to girls/women drinking like they do in the UK. - (I'm sorry, for not knowing much about other countries, I can't add my view about them.)So, what I want to say, is that culture is definitely a way of living. You are used to live in a certain way and used to people acting a certain way in situations, but that is only one definition! READ HERE more about what I agree with. I agree that you learn culture. "Culture involves at least three components: what people think, what they do, and the material products they produce. Thus, mental processes, beliefs, knowledge, and values are parts of culture. Some anthropologists would define culture entirely as mental rules guiding behavior, although often wide divergence exists between the acknowledged rules for correct behavior and what people actually do. Consequently, some researchers pay most attention to human behavior and its material products. Culture also has several properties: it is shared, learned, symbolic, transmitted cross-generationally, adaptive, and integrated."
A baby is born "blank" and the inputs that you as a parent make, depends on his/her behaviour, which is part of culture! So, parents, you have nothing to be excused for! If your child is misbehaving....it bounces back to you....haha!

Food and menu

This picture is not mine, I found it on the net....the bowl on the right is a salad, called "three bean salad"...I don't know if you know this salad, quite nice, you just mix the beans and ..whallah! you've got a salad!

And here...ladies and gentlemen....for the.....boerpampoen!

It is the bottom one, but this is a pic from the net, and it doesn't have those "cracks"....but oh dear! It is sooooooo......nice! I want my mummy!!!!!!!
And this menu....during our visit to Pelgrims Rest...the historical town in the Eastern part of the country, Mpumalanga....which means "where the sun rises"....

Found this pic just now on a site....this is the Boerpampoen/pumpkin

What is culture?

It's been about 2 weeks since I started wondering about "culture" and how to define it....we were having a discussion about "what culture is..." If you take an English person, WHAT makes that person "English"...(apart from tea!! , because I grew up to love my tea too!!)...and also.....WHAT tells you the person you know is a South African! or an American....or an Australian/whatever nation....

I found the following comments on THIS SITE this moring, but I do disagree with some of the points....Once I've decided on what I think culture is, I will add mine here and in the meantime, add your views too...that would be interesting!

1) Culture is no special way of life!The anthropological concept of culture describes the different possibilities of organizing human life. Such an idea of culture may not operate with categories of more or less worth. According to this eating with fork and knife or having a harmonical lunch with your family is not more cultured than eating with fingers or having some fast food in your 15-minutes-lunch-break.

2) Culture is not the opposite of nature!Common ideas define culture as the perfection of natural conditions or see culture as the overcoming of a natural stadium. In both cases nature and culture are strictly separated. In opposite to this we have to understand the way we see nature, the idea of nature itself is a cultural construction.

3) Culture is nothing aesthetical or exclusive! Poetry and painting seem to be cultural products par excellence. In contrast to them illegal graffiti and dirty Rap Music seem to be uncivilized barbarism. Assuming culture as all specific rules of thinking and acting, aesthetical ideas just are a piece of the cultural whole and not the one and only category that defines culture.

4) Culture is nothing constant and fixed! Culture is a process of endless redefinition and reorganisation. Culture must be thought as the Semiotics do: Using the allegory of the mythical argoship they assume culture as an assemble of symbols which is always in motion, a ship that is permanent transforming during its odyssey through the time.

5) Culture is nothing that could become infected!People who talk about an infection of culture think about it as a homogeneous, uniform something, a health body that can become ill influenced by other foreign cultures. Firstly, in fact culture must be unterstood as a melting pot. Culture is a complexe product of different and heterogeneous influences. Secondly, the use of such a metaphor reminds me a lot to a long gone time.

6) Culture is nothing that could be protected! The idea of protection requires an imagination of ideal cultural conditions. Such an assumption is against the character of culture that is determined by permanent flow. ...

Zulu tribe

Click on THIS LINK to see more and find more information on the different tribes.