Does Culture Matter?
WHAT IS CULTURE?
To put it very simply, culture is our way of life. We display our culture through our values, beliefs, customs, religious practices, languages, food, clothes, and how we interact with each other.
Every social group has its culture and how the group behaves helps us to identify it. For instance, we may identify a group as Japanese because we observe its members bowing respectfully to each other, and we know that bowing is part of Japanese culture. Like bowing, cultural behaviour is often established at the formation of a social group. Countries with long histories may have patterns of behavior deeply ingrained.
NEGATIVE CULTURE
Unfortunately, not all cultural practices are accepted by everyone. In some cultures, there are arranged marriages of young children, because the girl’s parents deem an unwed adult daughter as a disgrace and a burden to their family. Societies with a minimum age for marriage, however, will certainly consider such infant marriages illegal.
As you can see, a cultural practice that is accepted by one social group can be illegal or unacceptable in another. Cultural patterns are not the same for all social groups.
CULTURE CHANGE
For centuries, women in both Eastern and Western cultures did not have the same rights, education and status as men. Women were regarded as physically and mentally inferior. By the start of the 20th Century, women began to speak out against the cultural patterns that had been long-held against them. In America, they eventually won the right for women to vote in 1920.
Another change occurred during World War II when women started working in factories, producing weapons and other war equipment. They took the place of the men who had gone off to war. Before that, few women worked outside of the home.
DOES CULTURE REALLY MATTER?
Even though cultural patterns of behavior may be deeply ingrained in some social groups, they can also change over time. Some societies try to improve themselves or to keep up with technology while others find it hard to understand that their practices are unacceptable or have become obsolete.
Cultural behaviours allow groups to develop their identity. A social group can create a culture, and this culture can greatly influence the individuals within the group. Therefore, culture matters a great deal. ♦