What Makes A Culture?
Can an individual have their own culture, or must the aspects be shared by a group? How much can be absent or altered without losing (collective) culture or (personal) identity?
When I think of culture, one of the first things to come to mind is food. When I get a chance to visit another country, I want to experience their food: the tang in the air, the flavors, the different ingredients. I’m curious whether food is mostly served at home or at a restaurant? If Asian markets are any hint, pre-packaged foods are popular in China. But Asian cooking involves all sorts of raw ingredients I’ve never heard of here in the United States. Here also we have one of our cultures that only eats either frozen foods or fast foods or snacks. But aren’t there still places in the world where cooking from scratch is an art? Some cultures encourage bonding over sharing food in various degrees from a family meal to a family-style where the food is served all in giant platters into which people dip their hands to hospitality. On the other end of the spectrum is the more formal dining experience, at a restaurant, with plates individually prepared, courses served. There are cultures more receptive to buffets (my grandparents from Kansas *loved* them), or short-order cooking. There is something special that some cultures encourage about preparing food together. Some places esteem cooks highly, while others relegate the cooking of food to the lowliest classes (or women or slaves). In some cultures dessert is a special treat, for holidays maybe – while some have a dessert at least once a day! Which cultures care about nutrition? Which about presentation? Which about exotic flavors and innovative dishes? Which focus more on comfort food and cravings? What are considered comfort foods in various cultures?
I’ve noticed that different cultures have different modes of posture. Some use chairs, and some cushions. Some have sofas, others benches. There are places where squatting is more common than sitting “Indian-style”. Related to this, I think, is hygiene: how often do the people bathe, and by what means? What are their toilet facilities like – or do they use fields, dig holes? How do the people view health, view disease? How do they treat it? Do they use prayers or rituals? Exercises? Medicines? Drugs? Herbal remedies and nutrition? Oils? Mineral baths? Other practices like chiropractors would employ? Do they gather the sick together in hospitals or tend them at home? Are there doctors? How much treatment is limited to professionals? Do they believe in preemptive medical care like scans or vaccinations? At what points do they choose not to treat a person any more?
How are drugs and alcohol viewed? Sometimes there are whole cultures built around the common experience of these substances.
What do people wear in various cultures? What are the conventions; that is, is it normal for anyone to wear pants? Robes? Hats? Certain colors or fabrics? What is the style? How often do fashions change? How are they changed? Does appearance matter as a form of art or more a form of modesty? Is clothing more about the aesthetic or the functional? How is clothing used to demonstrate distinctions in gender, age, class, employment, marital status, etc.? Do people alter their bodies for the sake of appearance: foot binding, neck stretching, piercings, tattoos?
It seems to me that different cultures hold different ideas about acceptable risks. Is it acceptable to let a child play near a fire? Jump off a log? Play where he might encounter a snake? Get into a fist-fight with another child? This is not exclusive to children, though. In some cultures taking risks is involved in a rite of passage. Risks are joined in together, to form social bonds. Other cultures are much more conservative and careful, I think. What do people put on the other side of the scale when they’re weighing risks? Are fun and excitement of any relevance to them? Competition? Appearance? Or do they only consider practical things like preparing for invasions or hunting for food?
Art is such a huge sphere for culture that I don’t even know where to begin. Cultures have their favorite mediums, subjects, colors, motives. I can only suppose that certain fonts are the preferred writing of specific cultures, since the fonts on grocery stores appealing to diverse cultures are unique and identifiable even in the United States. People groups have their own favorite sounds of music, their customary scales in which their music is played or sung. Some have more instruments than others. Dancing varies from culture to culture in complexity and energy and purpose.
There are other forms of entertainment that vary depending on the culture. Even the predominance of entertainment can be a mark of a different culture. Sports are observed as entertainment, or played for entertainment; in some cultures it seems to be one more than the other. Some sports are preferred by certain cultures, probably by way of other aspects of their culture (energy, reserve, risk) and inheritance (what did their parents play or watch?). The complexity of toys, items used for play and entertainment, is also different in foreign places. Some toys focus more on athleticism, others on skill and focus, and others do most of the work for you, performing for your enjoyment. Toys can be scientific or domestic – little representations of the working world. On the other hand, they can be silly escapes from the real world.
Architecture is probably a form of art, too. But I think it transcends art in that buildings often serve additional purposes. So, is the architecture of a culture about efficiency? Beauty? Community? Symbolism? Do they use materials found at hand, or manufactured, or transported to the building site? How big are they – are they too big for one family to raise themselves? Do people try to live in the same place their whole lives, or are they ambitious for bigger buildings? Do they live in natural formations like caves? Do they dig out holes in the ground? Do they live in trees? By rivers? Do they dig wells or irrigation trenches? Do they build dams? And how much do all of these things influence other aspects of the culture, like family and friends and food and business?
An aspect of culture in my own country so glaring that I failed to recognize it at first is materialism. How many things do people own? Is it a status symbol to own more? Is sharing encouraged? Do people show love through gifts? How do people feel about financial sacrifice? Do they invest in material things or in businesses – or adventures? Where do they keep their goods? Are things owned by individuals or groups or everyone? Is there a distinction between land as property and removable objects as property?
Cultures have their own stories. “Own” is here used loosely, because I have found common threads of story in many different cultures. There are fables about the origins of things, and love stories, and stories of wars and sacrifice. Some stories even have comedies, the sense of humor varying from culture to culture (and individual to individual). What is seen as a hero? Is it the man who slays the most enemies? The man who rules the most living men? The man who sacrifices himself? Different cultures have their different monsters. They have their own dominant fears, just as they have different favorite virtues.
Values shape cultures. It seems that in America the dominant culture values independence, and speaking our mind. I’ve heard of cultures that value the good of the whole. Some value honor, others hold preserving life as a higher value. Some value youth, and others value the elders.
Religions are often associated with and intertwined in cultures. Is there one sovereign God? What is He/he like? Are there many gods worshiped? Are certain animals or plants revered? How is worship carried out? Through song? Pilgrimage? Sex? Sacrifice? Sacred words? Eating?
Cultures have often established their own rituals to recognize significant events like birthdays, coming of age, marriage, and other accomplishments (like graduation). They have special ways of holding funerals. They bring their own unique takes on holidays. What fun, to see images and artifacts from Christmases in other places or ages!
Language is one of my favorite aspects of culture. Is it important to the culture? Is it precise or more personal? Is it written or mostly spoken? Is it tonal? How appropriate are metaphors, slang, and profanity? What are the customary greetings? Besides the words spoken, what other gestures are included? What gestures are seen as essential to good manners, and which ones are abhorrent? Which ones are just the convention? One tribe I heard of rubs its nose while thinking, but it is more common for my culture to scratch our head or chin – or to frown. Does the culture encourage more or less expression of one’s own thoughts – or feelings? Which is predominant: thoughts or feelings? Is expression mostly communicated by gesture, action, word, or art? Accordingly, are the people of the culture more generally reserved – or exuberant? Are they loud or quiet? Does everyone speak at once? Do they take turns at anything they do?
How intimate are their friendships? How many friends does a person tend to have? Do they share their friends with their whole family, or is it a private affair? How do they play? Is playing part of friendship? How do they show honor? How do they respond to dishonor? Is dishonor a casual joke or a serious offense? How are reconciliations brought about?
There is diversity in any culture, large or small. How is that balanced? Is it suppressed or embraced? Is there competition more than cooperation? Do they try to come to unity, or to sameness? Are differences displayed? Analyzed? Intentionally created? What things are used to emphasize (or manufacture) what they have in common? I know in some places religion does this, in others wars bring people together against a common enemy, and in others it is the common experience of standardized schooling that prepares them to respond in similar ways to things.
I don’t know if there are cultures without classes, but given that in most there are, how are relationships between the classes? Is there mutual respect? Is there resentment? Are people generally content with the life to which they were born? Do they practice cruelty or charity towards the classes that are more needy? Is this voluntary or institutionalized?
How big is one’s sphere in their culture? Who does a culture encourage friendship with? Who does it encourage responsibility towards? What are members encouraged to aspire to? How much is proximity a factor? What kinds of transportation do people use (walking, driving, biking, boating, flying, carting, carrying)? Do people travel for social reasons or economic ones? Or are there environmental reasons to practice a sort of migratory lifestyle?
Here in the United States we have many cultures living side by side, some whose “boundaries” are only a block or two from a significantly different group. And with technology the way it is today, we can converse with people far away, travel quickly to see them, view photos they took, and purchase art created in foreign cultures. How aware are people of other cultures? (How aware are they that theirs is distinct?) Are they interested in them? Do they want to integrate good things from other cultures into their own? Do they integrate foreigners? Is this by means of cooperation or an initiation and instruction? Are they willing to adapt their own culture? Do they resist change? Do they try to replace every culture they meet? Do they replace the cultures of peoples they come to dominate? Do they have compassion for foreigners or other cultures? Do they feel superior? Do they covet what other cultures have or are?
To an extent, family structure is different in cultures. How do husbands relate to their wives, and what is expected of each within the home? How do people come to be married? How many wives may a man have? How do parents relate to their children? Who else bears the burden of child-rearing (community, grandparents, school, nannies)? What kinds of discipline are used? Are children seen and not heard? Are they seen as trophies or contributors? How important is extended family? Is family more important than friends? Are there specific obligations towards family members? How does a family unit relate to the rest of the world? How much is the government involved?
Some people view laws and government as providing order and security, or as being the at-the-ready conflict resolvers, while others expect the government to oversee all of the individual’s (and group’s) needs. Some expect the government to enforce justice, and others are content with a system built on bribes. Do the people believe it is their place to submit, or to reform, or to revolt? In some places, the government is not only expected to take care of needs, but to take on big societal problems, and solve them. Governments tend to look out for their own interests, but whether the peoples are ok with that or not is not so universal. Some governments take in a vast number of citizens, whereas there are some whose range is limited to the immediate family of a Bedouin tribe.
Is business conducted in a personal way? Does a person go door to door offering their goods or services? Is there a public common market or do consumers seek out goods and services at specific phone numbers, websites, or stores? Is a transaction considered between equals, or are service providers a lower class? Are the servants recognized as members of a household or anonymous functionaries? Is there a mindset of professionalism? Who desires the professionalism – professional or consumer or both or neither? How influential are corporations – the idea that no one person is responsible for the good or service being sold?
There is such a variety of technology, and tools, that are used in different societies, and these can be both representative and influential. What things are used for communication? For building? Transporting? How much of life is taken up by work?
What is the general schedule? What is the work week? How many hours in a day are work? Is work a means or an end? Which hours are devoted to sleeping? When and how do people wake? When do they play? When do they have social activities? Do they work together or finish their work and then spend time together? When do they eat and how often?
If a group’s language is forgotten, and they move from the land of their buildings and ditches; if they stop playing with their old toys, and their clothing no longer distinguishes them clearly from one class to another – but they carry on a secret family recipe from the old, old days when all those things had been in place, have they lost their culture? Can they share their recipe, market their spices and vegetables to other people groups, and still have their culture? When do we say a culture has become distinct? When do we say it has merged with another?
Should we try to preserve cultures? Or is a way of life gloriously defined by the personalities and abilities and histories of the people who make up the group? Is there a difference between dissolving a culture and replacing it? What harms does the structure of tradition found in a culture cause? What benefits does it provide?
To God be all glory,
Lisa of Longbourn
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Lisa of Longbourn 