1. Culture is what makes all of us who we are. It is all of the values, beliefs, and morals that we learned through deep culture and our families. Generations upon generations have had culture, in which made them unique to other cultures. We all have culture that influenced how we were brought up, what we choose to believe in, the norms in which we lead our lives, and impacts our entire existance.
2. Some dominant values Ecuadorians have are the way they greet people in a more formal way, their differences in values due to regionalism, and the traditional gender role outlook where the man brings the bread home and the wife looks after the home. They also seem to have strong family ties making them collectivistic and use a holistic form of health treatment. Some of their behaviors include their gift giving and dining etiquette, which is a little more formal than the United States. Even their business etiquette seems to be more professional than other cultures. Some Ecuadorian traditions are impacted by their religion. The Roman Catholic Church plays a large role depiciting what holidays they celebrate including Christian-based festivals.
3. A few assumptions I have about about Ecuadorian culture would be their formality and collectivism. These assumptions stem from research I have accumulated recently. Their formality seems to exist in most aspects of their lives and their family seems to play an important role. Their collectivism seems to be prominent because of how close knit they are with their families.
4. One of the most intruiging aspects of Ecuador would be its environment. It's environment is very biodeiverse; however, with its thousands of different plant specicies and birds and hundreds of reptiles, its deforstation rate is high leaving them all at risk. Problems that are affecting deforstation include logging, road building, and oil exploration that have caused serious issues for loss of rainforest. The roads that are being bulit have resulted in burnings and hundreds of logs being cut down resulting in negative pressure for agriculture. Unfortunately, the Ecuadorian government has debt to pay and since oil is their main export, they will gain 800 million barrels of crude. This decision has an extermely negative impact on the environment.
This past year, the environment in Ecuador has become a large case called the Environmental Contamination Case. It was a trial between Ecuadorian plantiffs and the American oil company Chevron. This was a $19 million environmental contamination case, which involved Ecuadorians accusing the Chevron oil company of destroying the local environment and damazing the health of people in surrounding areas where Chevron was drilling. The trial still continues today and the president of Ecuador, President Rafael Correa has called for a global boycott of Chevron.
