Tristian Savage
November 28, 2014
English Composition
Mr. Dunn Ancient Futures

Ancient futures is a book written by Helena Norberg­Hodge on the life of Ladakh culture. The book follows the Ladakh culture on how they work, religion, money, and marriage. The Ladakh culture is an old culture compared to the United States this is shown in the way they act, how they live, their family life, the religion they worship and the food that is part of their diet. The Ladakh culture has a work habit that is something unheard of in the United
States. The way they live shows in the work that they do.The labor consists of working out in the fields to grow grain, working with livestock, like goats, mainly to keep them alive and to have food or use for making clothes, building homes or making bricks to build homes. All the work they do is to build their culture. They don’t work to benefit themselves solely but to benefit them community as a whole. The Ladakh culture is based off the community and the community alone. If the work fails nothing will be the same. The food that they eat would be no longer, homes would have no repairs and clothes wouldn't be the same. “I walked out onto the balcony. Whole

families—grandfathers, parents, children—were working in the fields, come cutting, some stacking, others winnowing. Each activity had its own particular song.” (pg 22.)

The United States has a variety of different work options, from out door work life to sitting in an office. The American dream is something most people seek, which is the ability to start from nothing to become something. Success is something people go after and can find a job that will bring success. The jobs in the United States are very extensive and a variety of different job opportunities that can be obtained. The work culture is based off of trying to make as much money as possible to “further” life. In
America is about growth and how much you can make in your life. On average people work from 40 hours and above to try to support families or their own needs. Everything about American work culture is to benefit solely to yourself not as a community. Ladakh work is not just about surviving its a way of life. They work with everything they have to build their community up. If we could bring this to United States imagine what type of change that could bring to our culture. Think of what would happen if this was in our culture. Imagine people helping others in the community more than they already do. One thing that is a big topic is the United States is work ethic. “Work ethic is the principle that hard work is intrinsically virtuous or worthy of reward.” People have said that work ethic in the United States is horrible especially in our day an age, teenagers are said to have horrible work ethic. Examples could be parenting you can’t

call out of being a parent just like you