Interpreting Different Cultures - Essay Example

Introduction Human beings are spread across various locations on the face of the earth, living in different communities across continents. In these separate places, human beings have their different practices and values that they believe shapes their way of life. This is reference to their language, law, music, entertainment, beliefs among many other aspects. In this regard, it is evident that people have certain attributes that make them different from others that live in other parts of the world. It has often stated that human strengths lie in their diversity. The meaning of this statement is that the differences that people living a certain place have makes them unique in their various ways, similar to those living in another place. When people come together they can exchange this ideas, thus learn how to treasure and value each other. According to Louis Dumont, the oneness that has to exist in the different human societies does not often require reducing the diversity to that of unity. The people living in a certain place or culture need to have a common language, which plays an essential role towards passing that culture from one generation to another. One of the things that can be critical towards ensuring the success of the different human cultures is developing an effective understanding of these cultures. This understanding is important since it helps in the preservation of those cultures for other people to learn from them. In this regard, the society needs to created special institutions in which people’s cultural differences can be understood effectively. This paper examines the importance of the differences existing in human cultures focusing on ways of understanding these cultures in the most effective way. It focuses on the views and perspectives provided by Richard Shweder’s and Geertz’s views in their “Culture Theory” and “The Interpretation of Culture” respectively. What is Culture? Culture, as an independent term has often been given different meanings. To some people, culture can be described as the appreciation of the different art, food, literature and music among others (Gannon & Rajnandini, 2010). To biologists and other researchers in this field; it simply means a colony of microorganisms and other kinds of bacteria that grow in a special kind of nutrient medium specially kept in a Petri dish in the laboratory. For behavioral scientists and anthropologists, culture is interpreted as the broad range of various learned human actions and other behavioral patterns. In this regard, culture is taken to mean a range of issues that describe the different actions that people have from one community or another. Culture is a complex system that comprises of beliefs, knowledge, morals, law, art, customs among many other habits and capabilities acquired by man as an important member of the society (Gannon & Rajnandini, 2010). However, it should be understood that culture is not the making of men in the society, all people including women and children play an essential role in defining the culture of a certain place. In this regard, it has become evident that culture has become an essential element of study in the field of Anthropology. Here, emphasis is placed in understanding the factors that make one community unique from another, and how these differences can be directed towards understanding how they promote unity and oneness in the human societies. In many ways, culture has been viewed as an essential and influential human tool that is often used in the survival of man in his environment. However, culture is a very fragile phenomenon has to be carefully preserved in order to enjoy the many benefits that are accrued by practicing these cultures (Gannon & Rajnandini, 2010). Currently, the concept of culture has been changing drastically; in fact, some critics have been criticizing the concept of cultural exchanges because it leads to erosion of a people’s culture, which is an important part of their community. One of the reasons why many communities have been losing their valued cultures is because they tend to preserve they cultures in their minds instead of practicing it wherever they are. Most of the things that we do are simply products of our cultures. For instance, our spoken and written language, buildings that we make, leadership styles and strategies among other things that are fabricated. On their own, these things are not culture; instead, they are the products of our perceptions, believes and practices as outlined in our culture. In this regard, it is impossible for archeologists to start digging up culture in the course of their excavations, thinking that it is something tangible, which can be found hidden somewhere (Shweder, 1984). In their excavations, the materials that they find like broken pots, carvings among others are simply thongs that provide a reflection of their cultural patterns. These things were made by people that lived before these current generations in order to carry out their various functions through the skills and knowledge they have, which are because of their cultural beliefs and practices. Layers of Cultures From the foregone discussion, it is evident that culture comprises of many layers, each having its attributes separate from each other. All these layers or classes depend on the perceptions and behavioral practices that a group of people has. The most unique is the body comprising of the learned cultural traditions, which distinguishes one society from another. When people are communicating and sharing their various ideas and opinions in different languages, say English, Japanese, Italian or French among others, they are just trying to refer to those shared traditions, beliefs and languages that distinguish these human societies. This idea is what exactly underpins the perspectives of Dumont Louis that these cultural perspectives should be passed from one generation to another through oneness and use of a common language in each of the different particularities. In his approach, Geertz Clifford explains that the “The most common way of trying to do so is through the utilization of what are called “invariant points of reference.” (1973, 6) The people that shape and perpetuate the cultural beliefs and practices of a community do so because of what they were taught by their parents and other people in the particular community. Every community has special institutions though which the younger generations are taught the core beliefs and practices of the community. Geertz says, “Cultural universals are conceived to be crystallized responses to these unevadable realities” (1973, 7). They are expected to learn them and conduct their different activities, guided by these understandings. Subculture Subculture forms another important layer of culture, which is the people’s identity in their diversity is they interact in their various communities. The complex and diverse societies in which people have originated from; they tend to retain most of their original cultural traditions. In this case, in as much as they are important parties to the new society they have fund they often exist as identifiable subcultures in these new societies Fig 1. Subcultures (Gannon & Rajnandini, 2010) In this regard, cultural traits that are often shared as subcultures often makes them different from the entire society. In many countries, a good understanding of these subcultures is the ethnic groupings that often exist. People belonging to a certain ethnic group share several things in common; for instance, common language, food, identity, dialect among many others. All these characteristics in these ethnic groups are those that were passed on to them from their ancestors. When people interact and meet other culture from other parts of the world, they tend to learn and adopt other practices, which may are often quite different from those of their cultures. Soon the cultural differences among members of these subcultures, as well as the overall national culture begin to fade and eventually they disappear. Later the concept of cultures stops existing as a description of people that share common ancestry. These people often adopt cultural practices and patterns of others, thus losing their own cultural identity. Cultural Universalities The third class or layer comprising culture is that of cultural universals. Cultural universals can be described as the behavioral patterns that are learned and shared by all people in the entire humanity collectively (Gannon & Rajnandini, 2010). It is important to understand that irrespective of where people live across the world, they have certain universal traits that they share. One good example of these universal traits in people across countries related to the element of communication. In all human societies across the world, communication is often based on verbal and non-verbal means that are bound by certain rules relating to the grammatical and sound patterns. The rules outline aspects of sentence construction and other symbols, which are used by people who understand them. Secondly, all people across the world, in their different societies uses gender and age in the process of classifying people. For instance, across these societies, people in the society are either teenagers, children men, women among others. The only difference lies in the cultural understanding of the roles each of these groups is expected to play in the society. However, the benchmark remains that not everyone in the society has similar expectations. In addition, not everyone can be viewed in the same context; the different is in the classification on these bases, as shown in all human societies. Still on the concept of classification, another important similarity between cultures across the world is classifying people depending on the status of marriage and other forms of descent relationship. In this case, such terms as cousin, wife, uncle and mother among others often exist. In all human societies across the world, the issue of kinsmanship is evident. People have other people that can always be referred to depending on the kind of need or issue arising. In most cases, these kinsmen or relatives are people that have a close and descent relationship. Another important universality in all human societies across the world is that of bringing up children in some kinds of special family settings. It is believed that this kind of upbringing is important towards ensuring that children develop a string bond among all the relatives as explained above (Gannon & Rajnandini, 2010). Additionally, family settings are also important tools or institutions upon which these children get to learn the cultural aspects of their society. The family setting teaches children the important morals expected of them in their growth and development. The only difference is what they children are taught in these common settings, like language. Additionally, every community has its own rules and regulations that guide sexual behavior and the extent to which young people are supposed to interact until there are mature to make their responsible decisions. In this case, every human society has certain beliefs and practices built to define the boundaries pertaining sexual relations. This is important towards controlling and regulating the population of these societies. Other commonalities include the regard of moral behavior, which defines what is right and what is wrong. Additionally, all societies have a way in which the engage and entertainment, with differences arising in the way each society regards and practices these aspects (Shweder, 1984). Various cultures have developed various in which they carry out these differences in their normal processes of life; for instance, the deaf use various symbols and signs in communicating, which differ from one society to another. Conclusion Generally, it is important to know and appreciate the different cultures that exist in people across the world. These cultural practices are supposed to be specially preserved because they are an important heritage, not only to the particular societies but also to the entire nation. Anthologists often get to learn about cultures of other societies through fieldwork and other aspect of first hand observations made in these societies. From the foregone discussion, it is evident that primarily relates to how people interact in their respective societies. For this reason, it is not a concept that can be studied under special conditions in the laboratory. Therefore, people have a responsibility of taking great care of their cultural values and the things they consider as important aspects of their societies. The cultural theory, as proposed by Richard Shweder (Shweder, 1984), provides a perfect understanding of the various elements of cultures across the world. Notes Gannon, Martin & Rajnandini Pillai. 2010. Understanding Global Cultures Metaphorical Journeys through 29 Nations, Clusters of Nations, Continents, and Diversity. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE. Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic. Shweder, Richard. 1984. Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion. Cambridge Cambridgeshire: Cambridge UP. Read More