What is culture?
Culture can be defined as social activities, norms, and beliefs that are recognizable among human societies. It also encompasses the customs, shared knowledge, laws, and habits observed among people of a particular society. Naturally, culture is acquired, and people tend to develop culture through observation and learning 6through socialization. People who share a similar culture are said to belong to one culture group. Cultural groups are sometimes referred to as ethnic groups to symbolize a collective identity among the people of a given society. This identity is known as a cultural identity that enables individuals within a community to develop perceptions that bind them to the culture. Usually, members of an ethnic or cultural group are defined by similarity in linguistics, behavior, religion, or beliefs. Also, ethnic groups are bond by similar ancestry or cultural heritage.
Within a culture group, there may exist dominant and differential cultures. Dominant cultures make up the macro-cultural practices that are common among the majority of society. These macro-cultures have smaller units of differential cultural activities. These constitute the micro-culture of the specific society and are only shared among a smaller proportion of society. The cultural diversity of culture is hence defined based on the number of micro-cultures present in a particular society. Micro-cultural practices may include a common knowledge or experience that seems to bind those who share it strongly. Also, microcultures only exist within a macro-culture and still observe the macro-cultural practices.
Globalization brings about cultural mingling. In such settings, people will always bring forth their cultural practices while trying to relate to other cultures. This relativism is called ethnocentrism, where a person uses his or her own culture to judge different cultures. In trying to understand people’s perceptions, an emic approach is more appropriate. This shifts the focus from the ethnocentrism focus to the individual elements of the other culture being studied. Emic emphasizes an insider strategy in understanding culture by considering particulars like linguistics, perceptions, and beliefs. Unlike the emic approach, the etic approach relies on pre-existing external opinions and theories about the culture being investigated. Etic utilizes the information gained from sources that are not found within the particular culture of interest.
Cultural diversity often brings about misjudgments of other people’s cultures. However, cultural relativist argues that a person’s culture should only be understood from a particular person’s standpoint. This eliminates biases and discriminations that may be created by ethnocentrism by regarding other cultures as being wrong or bad. People should instead try to understand different cultures as being equally important and right for the people within a particular culture. Also, form a relativist perspective, we have a fair opportunity to learn about other people’s cultures by trying to relate to them. This can be connected to the Skipping Stone Hypothesis, where a stone before getting submerged into water, makes some skips on water’s surface. For instance, one may ask questions regarding the cultural practices rather than develop misjudgments on the traditions.
Modern societies are perceived to have gone through a set of the historical process to be in their present state. Equally, the Historical particularism argues that these developments are unique for different societies and have played a critical role in the development of cultural practices. As such, a culture can only be well understood and described from a long term analysis of the historical evolution process with consideration to the ecological interactions among society. The differences in cultures can hence be due to the history of different societies. Conversely, neo-evolution stresses the development of culture through social evolution. Over a long evolutionary period, people’s social behaviors are thought to have evolved in different directions leading to the emergence of different societies and cultures.
Different societies have developed different ways through which they interact with their environment. Ethnoscience hence emerged as a scientific approach by which human societies can be described. This includes how people categorize different things in the background and can be used to provide critical information about their beliefs, perceptions, interest, and values. Different societies have various means through which they categorize things concerning their cultures. Ethnoscience employs the emic approach as it stresses how people use linguistics to categorize their environment. Ethnoscience has produced a cultural system of classification that varies among cultures.
Changes in a human environment, like when one travels to a new country or intercultural marriages, may necessitate a cultural adaptation. After the process of adaptation, one becomes fully assimilated into the unique culture and can identify with particular beliefs, practices, and norms. Usually, it is a strenuous process and may take a long time, especially when the differences between the two cultures are immense. In the first stages, one may easily dismiss the cultural practices of the new society. As one continues to live among society, they may eventually start to learn and appreciate the cultures. Cultural assimilation happens in later stages when one undergoes a complete cultural adjustment. The assimilation process may take varying periods depending on one’s ability to adapt to cultural changes.