Relativity of Culture - Essay Example

For example, the Pulawat community in Pacific Ocean Island has been using canoes to cross to the mainland despite the existence of modern boats that are safe and fast. The community does not consider this practice as a risk to life because they perceive it as a safety culture. Other communities’ maybe perceive canoes as unsafe and primitive to use in an ocean, but to Pulawat island community it is their way of life. Their brains cognitive and perpetual abilities see this as the best way to tackle the problem of crossing to the mainland.

Culture differs depending on the geographical location and the environment and what is right to one community maybe wrong to another. The Americans are used to cross from the island to the mainland using motor boats which are manufactured in their industries. Pulawat community has, on several times, been challenged to adapt the use of modern boats without success. This shows that culture persists for a long period of time and it takes a long time to change (Westen, 12). Until recently, the Pulawat island community has slowly started to adapt modern engine boats because they have been influenced by American culture that canoes are not safe.

The community has been highly influenced but in the absence of this influence, the community would have continued sticking to their canoes. This implies that an ethnocentric view of culture can have an influence on another community’s culture. In conclusion, cultures are influenced by psychological functions that are coordinated by the human brain. Ethnocentric views of one culture can inflict fear on another causing cultural change. Fear is a brain function that in turn influences change of culture.

Thus, culture is influenced by psychological functions such as fear.