Cultural Lag,Re-socialization,Cultural Relativism - Essay Example

Cultural Lag: Culture is a dynamic entity and is a collective representation of the people’s outlook, thoughts, actions, values and believes, thiscomes in form of material and immaterial items. The culture changes certain elements from time to time. culture is highly adaptive in nature, however cultural lag occurs when a certain element either tangible or intangible remains backward and isolated. Cultural lag is when a particular entity of society fails to keep up the pace with cultural transformation and its dynamic existence.

This cultural lag can be in form of sub culture, traits, norms or mores. Every culture embraces itself to the modern explorations that take place around. For example the introduction of science and technology and other elements keep on getting added to the society. When a particular culture is not adaptive to these changes, it is termed to have suffered from cultural lag(Brinkerhoff et.al). Cultural lag is a subjective and relative term and is presented in comparison to other cultures and surroundings.

Mostly the closed model cultures and restrictive mode of cultures suffer from cultural lag. Those societies and cultures which are less adaptive to change do not welcome transformation in the beginning and as a result a delay occurs in its expression and embracing of the new items. Cultural lag leads to slow progress and lack of opportunities. Cultural lag occurs when the cultural base is small or relatively ineffective and can be mitigated through expansion of the cultural base. 2) Re-socialization: Re socialization is another relevant term related to the dynamic outlook of a culture.

It is an integrative process in which new ideas, new concepts and new approaches are introduced and embraced. Re socialization is a characteristic of an open society which allows cultural expansion. Re socialization is the gift of cultural base expansion. With time and with education new dimensions are explored, more than one way of conformity is being explored, adjusting to those new elements and acting accordingly is the name of re socialization. It is the process of learning the new ways which fall in conformance with the society and its values.

Socialization is a continuous process and starts with birth, but as new paradigms are explored, new options come up along and as a result socialization methods and means are enhanced and ultimately increased civil ethics and norms. It is the altering of ways without any major alteration in the moral code system relevant to the individuals’ needs and aspirations (Andersen and Taylor,92). For example women were not allowed to work in fields in old times and in contained societies, but as the expansion took place and enlightened values came along even the most primitive societies allowed for expansion and involvement of women in the public and commercial sector.

This is one of the examples of re socialization. Similarly allowing youngsters to make choices based on their interests and aptitude is an example of re socialization. 3) Cultural Relativism: Cultural relativism is the concept of acceptance, and adaption as per need. In such a concept individuals have a larger proportion and authority to exercise their actions as per their understandings which can be based on values extracted from other cultures. It is comes in contrast to the concept of ethnocentric values and approach.

Relativism occurs when two or more cultures have something in common. Mostly cultures have ethos, mores, norms and values in common. Cultural relativism is a sign of productivity and it nurtures tolerance and expansion of the cultural base. A strong cultural base promises cultural relativism (Nanda and Warms,11). Cultural relativism is the concept of how one culture can relate to other culture. Under this concept every culture has distinctive qualities of morality, values, norms, and no culture is above any other.

The scope of cultural relativism can be expanded to the domain of situational relativism and moral relativism. Cultural relativism is often dubbed as the pluralistic stance towards the entity of culture which would promote tolerance, peace, and harmony amongst different cultures regardless of their demographic characteristics or religious affiliations. The critics of such concept believe that cultural relativism touches on the lines of limits of cultural expansion and it invokes counter cultures with prime target being the young generation who derive wrong inspirations in the name of pluralism and cultural relativism and as a result deprive themselves of the moral standings that are significant of any culture.

Cultural relativism has the advantage of allowing growth and expansion of the material aspect of the society and as a result enables people to choose between more options. References: Andersen, Margaret L. and Howard Francis Taylor. Sociology: The Essentials. Cengage Learning, 2012. Brinkerhoff, David B., Suzanne T. Ortega and Lynn K. White. Essentials of Sociology. Cengage Learning, 2007. Nanda, Serena and Richard L. Warms. Cultural Anthropology. Cengage Learning, 2009.