Are all cultures inherently ultimately self contained and closed and exclusive

Question:

Are all cultures inherently ultimately self contained and closed and exclusive in their own ways?

or are some cultures more so then others?

Ie. Jewish and Muslim cultures seem to be more so when it comes to marriage. I am both offended and threatened by there "seeming" exclusivity. Is that what white culture does to black culture? Is that the same thing?

Have you ever bumped up against a culture and felt excluded?

Why am I so stupid and limited like that?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Yeah I know what your talking about. You should read up on the Amish...very exclusive...yet they have a system that works really well as far as self suffiency.
The black and white thing is racism because black and white really are not cultures per se but rather races. Often the opposing races dont even make an attempt to understand the other race, much less the different cultures of that race. So again thats racism. And yes many whites do this to blacks and blacks do it to whites.
Have I ever felt excluded...heck yeah. Well excluded yet when I thought about it I didnt want to be included. I am speaking of a time I lived in a small town in North Carolina. I found the culture and unspoken laws odd and I could not conform. Racism was also deep within the culture. Having come from a more western state (NM) I thought that kind of racism didnt even exsist...boy was I wrong. Im white so you would think I would be ok right? No it bugged the hell out of me and I refused to conform to such beliefs. Needless to say I lasted only a year and a half and moved back to NM where things were more normal for me.
While I was there in NC though I learned alot. I learned that culture is formed by experience. Most the people in that small town had never experienced anything outside thier county line. I also learned that even though I hated it there it served a purpose in my understanding of culture in genral.