ShmoopTube

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by: boundaries... those

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things your dog doesn't, you know, seem to understand very well. All right, [dog jumps on couch]

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well here's our question. Unlike physical and geometric boundaries, cultural [question and answers listed]

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boundaries what? And here are potential answers...

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Okay so, first thing's first: what's the deal with

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cultural boundaries, people? Well, they can be defined by ethnicity, language, or [cultural boundaries defined]

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religion. They can be found in big areas like regions of a country where a [people practice religion]

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certain religion dominates, or small areas like Andy's room and Sid's room [Woody in Andy's room]

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in Toy Story. Very different cultures going on inside those homes. So could our

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answer be A? Well, all we have to do is look at the rise and fall of different

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neighborhoods in a city or a map of different demographics in the U.S. to [person in city]

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know that A is not our answer. Cultural boundaries aren't guarded by the Border

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Patrol, and they can be affected by a host of different factors over time. Well [border patrolman guards bookstore]

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after a while, a certain cultural boundary could disappear altogether, so

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no, definitely not A. What about B? Not quite. Cultural boundaries are actually a [A ruled out]

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really good way for countries to justify political boundaries. They make the

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argument that if two cultures don't want to live together, why make them? It's not [people fight]

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like they just throw the Slytherins in with the Hufflepuffs then call it a day, [Slytherins with Hufflepuffs]

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right? That would be ridiculous. So let's throw an invisibility cloak over B and [B disappears]

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check out C. Cultural boundaries are open to biased interpretation. Well, this

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one's a little trickier because yes, cultural boundaries could be open to [magician]

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biased interpretation, but the question says "unlike physical and geometric

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boundaries," and those types of boundaries are also open to biased interpretation. [person in tank]

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Neighboring countries dispute their borders all the time. In fact, pretty much

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everything in life is open to biased interpretation, so you'd better get used to [biased interpretation causes conflict]

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it now. While you readjust your new worldview, we'll cross out C and move [C ruled out]

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on to D: cultural boundaries must be acknowledged by the international

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community. So in a nutshell, the international community definitely

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doesn't have to recognize cultural boundaries. As we said before, they can [international community pictured]

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range from vast territories to street-by-street, and unless a literal war breaks

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out, the international community kind of mind its own business.

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Kind of like the guy who just witnessed a mafia stickup and is doing his best to [guy ignores stickup]

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be really interested in the clouds. Long story short, it's not D, and that [D ruled out]

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leaves us with E: cultural boundaries are less distinct. Well, it's all been leading

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up to this, people. We've established that cultural boundaries can change over time,

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are not recognized by the international community, and can be subject to bias, [cultural boundaries discussed]

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so yep: they're much less distinct than physical boundaries. Think less of the

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border between states and more of the difference between Cubs and White Sox [fans argue]

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fans. Anyway, all that to say our answer is E. Cultural boundaries will pop up [E selected]

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anywhere that two different cultures come together. Which can be a good thing... [North and South India pictured]

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how else will you know if you're talking to a fan from the opposing team if she

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doesn't wear her team colors? Yeah, we've saved ourselves from a lot of dead-end [friends argue over team]

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friendships that way.

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