Culture refers to the traits that
define a society or social group. Symbols, ideals, language, and conventions
are the most essential traits that define a society or social group. Here are
some elements which collectively create a culture:
Symbols
A diversity of symbols is the first
element found in any civilization. Anything that is used to represent anything
else is referred to as a symbol. People who share a culture typically give an
object, gesture, sound, or picture a special meaning. A cross, for example, is
an important symbol for Christians. It's not merely two pieces of wood nailed
together, nor is it just an antique torture and death device. To Christians, it
symbolizes the foundation of their whole faith, and they hold it in high
regard. More instances of symbols may be found throughout our society.
Emoticons are keyboard combinations that many people use to express their
emotions online or through messaging. Our entire country is represented by the
Pakistani flag. At a traffic crossroads, a red light indicates that you must
come to a complete stop.
Values
Values are important aspects of
non-material civilization. They are broad, conceptual concepts that govern our
lives, decisions, needs, choices, and actions. A people group or culture imparts
insights of what is fortunate or unfortunate, set in stone, attractive or
improper, adequate or unseemly, moral or deceptive, and so forth for our lives,
they are general street guides. Values are traded in networks and are educated.
They can be either negative or positive. Trustworthiness, truth-telling,
sympathy for all, accommodation, supporting those out of luck, and so on are
acceptable characteristics, without a doubt. Robbery, profanity, affront,
untrustworthiness, wrongness, thriftiness, and so forth, are instances of
negative values.
Language
Language is a set of words and symbols
that allows people to communicate with one another. This includes entire
languages in the sense that humans understand them, such as English, Urdu,
Arabic, and so on. Body language, slang, and popular phrases that are exclusive
to certain groups of individuals are also included. Even though both America
and the United Kingdom speak English well, we have slang and phrases that imply
various things. American French fries, for example, are British chips, while
American cookies are British biscuits. Eye contact has various meanings in
different cultures, which is another illustration of how cultural languages
change beyond words. Eye contact in the United States indicates that you are
paying attention and are interested in what someone has to say. Eye contact may
be considered impolite and a challenge to authority in some cultures.
Norms
Norms are important elements of
culture as well. There are tacit social life, friendship and contact rules.
Detailed and specific guidelines for specific circumstances are the rules.
They're asking us how to do, when to do, what not to do, what to do it, why to
do it, etc. From principles, norms are extracted. That implies, there is a
general value that defines the quality for each individual norm. Individuals
cannot behave according to the group's established values and norms. As a
result, disregarding values and norms, as well as deviating from typical values
and standards, is widespread. Social expectations may be divided into two
categories. These are the ones:
- Mores
- Folkways
Mores are the customs, norms, and
behaviors that are acceptable to a society or social group. Mores and norms are
similar in meaning in the society. Violation of, and divergence from, these
types of norms can lead to significant group reactions. As the formal rules of
a society or a community, the strongest principles are treated. Formal rules
are social rules that are written and codified. The Conventions are called
other types of mores. Conventions are laws formed that regulate behavior; society
normally embraces ideals.
Folkways:
Folkways are acquired and shared
behaviors in a social group, which we commonly refer to as "customs."
They are not morally relevant, but they might be crucial for social
acceptability. Each community can establish its own traditions, but there are
those that are adopted on a societal level. Folkways distinguish between
impolite and polite conduct, and as a result, they put societal pressure on us
to act and interact in specific ways. They do not, however, have moral
importance, and breaking them seldom results in significant repercussions or
punishments. Folkways differ from laws in that, whereas laws are formalized,
developed, kept, and executed by society's legislative power, folkways are
created, maintained, and enforced by public opinion or tradition. Folkways will
be divided into two categories: fashion and custom.
Fashion
Fashion is a mode of conduct, a type
of folklore that is socially acceptable but subject to periodic change at a
given time. Adherents incorporate both divergence and alignment with a certain
group's standard.
Custom
Custom is a folkway or what is said, a
type of social conduct that has been common and well known in a community and
has gained a degree of official approval, having existed for a long period of
time. Custom is an activity routine shared by one or more of a society's
members. Habit is a personality characteristic, where a group characteristic is
as ordinary. Although custom changes at a slower pace while fashion is always
changing, fashion and customs can be distinguished in that.
Cultural Variations
The variation of cultures through
communities and locations relates to cultural heterogeneity. There are various
traditions, as there are distinct cultures. The richness in human society is
outstanding. Culture to culture, values and moral standards change
dramatically, often in extreme ways. For example, Muslims do not eat pork, but
Hindus consume pork but do not eat bull. Between cultures and within
civilizations, there may be cultural variety or variability. If we look at
Ethiopia and India as two cultures, we can see that they have significant cultural
differences. On the other hand, both cultures have a great deal of cultural
diversity. Cultural diversity can lead to disparities in health and illness
outcomes between cultures. Variations of dietary patterns, for instance, are
closely related to the forms of diseases. A case in point may be the prevalence
of tapeworm among raw-meat eating individuals.
Subculture is a term used to describe
the diversity of culture inside a civilization. A subculture is a separate
culture that a group of people shares within a community. Because there are
communities inside and as a smaller component of the broader, dominant culture,
we call it a subculture (with their sub-cultures). There is a unique culture
among university students, street children, and prostitutes in Addis Ababa, as
well as a culture among medical practitioners, among others, which might be
markers of subculture. Why do cultures differ from society to society?
Sociologists, cultural geographers, anthropologists, and other social
scientists have studied the roots of cultural distinctions between cultures.
Geographic factors, racial determination, demographic characteristics, era of
interest, and basic historical chances were all used to explain the variation.
Those who advocate for race determination argue that ethnic variance is
genetically driven. There are regional variables: temperature, altitude, and so
on. Changes in population dynamics, population growth, etc. are included in
demographic variables, while societies differ and the importance of people in
life often varies by period of interest. Cultural diversity is due to mere
historical opportunities; a community can be created from a certain group of
individuals when specific historical situations and opportunity are present.
No one interpretation is, however,
adequate on its own; anthropologists today dismiss specific deterministic
theories such as those focused on race; more holistic explanations account for
cultural differences instead. Different habits are known as unusual or savage.
Ethnocentrism
By contrast with our own, we also
prefer to judge other cultures. It is not objectively feasible or proper to
underestimate, exaggerate, or assess other cultures based on one's cultural
norm. In general, ethnocentrism is a mentality of taking one's own ethnicity
and way of life as the highest and the cornerstone of all and, on the other
hand, as inferior, poor, full of mistakes, etc. in contrast to other ethnic
groups and societies. It is the propensity of evaluating the actions and
attitudes of people raised in other cultures to impose one's own cultural
values. It's a shared society. People all throughout the world think that
common explanations, beliefs, and traditions are accurate, correct, and moral.
Every society has its own culture,
which is more or less diverse. Individuals from different ethnic backgrounds
may notice that each culture has its own particular behavioral pattern. We do
not independently grasp the traditions and values from the larger society of
which they are part. A culture must be learnt, regardless of its own
conceptions and beliefs. Rather than labelling other nations' societies as
uncivilized or backward, cultural relativism refers to a state of mind in which
cultural distinctions are valued.
Respect for Cultural Differences Involves:
- Appreciating uniqueness in cultures.
- Recognizing that in one culture, what is unethical, legal, appropriate, etc., might not be so in another culture.
- Accepting other cultures and honoring them.
- Acceptance of each body of tradition's inherent integrity and sense as the way of life of a civilization that has worked with its environment, biological requirements, and social connections.
- Trying to grasp, in terms of its own sense and reasoning, any culture and its elements.
- Knowing that only one of many is a person's own culture.
The inverse of ethnocentrism can be
called linguistic relativism. However, the argument that actions in a given
society should not be measured by the rules of another is quite controversial.
This is because it claims that there is no superior, foreign or fundamental
morality in its extremeness. The definitions include complicated decisions,
dilemmas and inconsistencies surrounding cultural exchanges and interactions
within and within cultures in the problems of ethnocentrism and cultural
relativism. The dilemmas and inconsistencies become apparent when we see that
the conventional anthropological stance holds that all cultural values and
practices, including those referred to as "harmful social practices"
in Pakistan, are part and parcel of a society's general cultural structure and
should therefore not be judged and undermined by any outsider. In any event,
there are no ready-made solutions to this problem; nonetheless, what must be
protected for the time being is cultural variety, as well as international
values of justice and human rights.
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