Cultures with respect to Time

Cultures with respect to Time

 ( By Suhana Ahmed ) 

Image By:- Goutham Sagar

The existence of culture is in a way a symbol of people's existence and lifestyle. Culture is a set of beliefs and practices followed by a group of people in order to distinguish themselves from others and synchronize with their own. The one thing about culture is that it's very subjective and can differ from person to person in terms of opinions. 

Sometimes cultures merge with each other to form communities and bring certain changes amongst themselves; perhaps to unlearn and learn. Culture develops through time- in order to fit into the conditions of the time and to bring in improvements according to the people living in the era. 

How do cultures develop? 

A culture depends upon many aspects. Such as religious beliefs. Religion influences the practices and the behavior of an individual, and one such example for it is the marriages. 

It also relies upon the geographical conditions of a particular place. People adapt themselves according to the climate, weather, forestry, etc. of their area. The lifestyle of a person living near the equator is going to be different from a person living in the temperate zones. 

The political and social status of the territory also determines the culture followed by the people. A democratic nation works differently from a monarchy. The rules and regulations and the laws differ according to the leader of the country. A secular country has many cultures merged and works rather different from a religious country. 

Many aspects bring about a type of revolution from time to time in a particular culture so as to make people aware of the flaws in their lifestyle. Certain examples of the movements questioning the cultures are feminism, the pride movement, the anti-racist movements etc..

When cultures clash, there most likely borns a fight, arguments, slaughter and many things. 

Rigidity isn't entirely a good aspect. It is most likely that the society has a chance of improving if the people are flexible enough to bring in the right changes. 

 Our society is a model where the majority of the people are represented by a niche and powerful group of people. They have developed a sense of fear and rightness in the minds of people following them. They are the ones who generally rule society and make laws for others to follow. Then they tend to make laws favoring them and often just to satisfy their personal beliefs.

 The society has been comprising of male-dominated groups since ages. It has also impacted in developing the shape of the society. That’s why we see that the laws and beliefs in most cultures are mostly men centric, favoring them, and poking the equal rights.

 Superstition is another cause why rigid cultures are unpragmatic. It is the well-known marketing technique to create a fear of something and make someone buy a product to safeguard themselves from that misinterpreted thing that actually never existed. In the same manner, many people did try to control the thoughts of others and made them follow certain things which will ultimately benefit them. There are other examples where people have created some kind of rules and beliefs just out of fear. Generally, in villages and other backward areas, these superstitious beliefs are seen to be in excess.

Uneven distribution of resources is another reason why we don’t have rational cultures. There are places with plenty of certain resources and with a dearth of some other. People always try to have a monopoly over the resources which ultimately creates a specific set of rules to follow.

How to reach an ideal cultural system?

Frankly speaking, it is nearly impossible to attain such a condition- in the near future at least; because there won’t be equally distributed resources, there will always be some people more influential than others, there will be different mindsets of people which will be a product of there previous conditions, beliefs and greed.

But, we can always try to move a step forward. If there are a few things which we can’t change, there are a few which we can.

We should try to distribute power equally to everyone and let them have representation in society. Each section should have their voices, like women, children, poor, religious minorities, LGBTQ+ community, and every other community which don’t have much representation in the system.

We also have to learn to respect the beliefs and privacy of others and respect the differences. We need to understand that we can’t force our very own thoughts on someone.

We need to redefine our “right” and “wrong” again. We should understand that we need to change our minds with the pace of time.

Also, we should try to share the resources we have with someone who doesn’t have it be it in the form of trade. In that manner, we can develop a culture that would be comparatively sound and unbiased. 

Culture is about loving and understanding. It is supposed to be positive and not curbing someone of their rights and validating it.

 

Disclaimer:-

The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Light de Literacy and LDL does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.