6

Culture

1. INTRODUCTION

Culture is a basic concept in sociology and anthropology because it is what makes humans unique in the animal kingdom. Man is an animal with culture. Human social structure, from the simplest family to the most complex corporations, depends on culture for its existence. Societies cannot exist without cultures. However, the two are not the same thing. Culture consists of commonly accepted and expected ideas, attitudes, values, and habits of the individuals, which they learn in connection with social living. For the individual, in the early years of life, culture is of enormous aid in learning to get on more effectively in the world. An understanding of human culture, says Stuart Chase, enlarges one’s perspective. He shows us how all people have similar needs, but they meet those needs by habits, customs, and beliefs, which are peculiar to each group.

Culture has been defined in a number of ways. Some thinkers include in it all the major social components that bind men together in a society. Culture is that knowledge, which a new generation subjectively derives from the previous one. It is an essential ingredient of human society. The essential point in regard to culture is that it is acquired by man as a member of society and persists through tradition. These points of acquisition and tradition have been emphasized by Edward B. Tylor and Robert Redfield in their definitions. The essential factor in this acquisition through tradition is the ability to learn from the group. A man learns his behaviour, and this behaviour which is learnt denotes his culture. Singing, talking, dancing, and eating belong to the category of culture. Moreover, the behaviours are not his own, but are shared by others. They have been transmitted to him by someone, be it his school teachers, his parents, or his friends.

2. CLASSIFICATION OF CULTURES

An American anthropologist Ruth Benedict, in her Patterns of Culture published in 1934, has classified cultures into two broad types on the basis of their ethos or distinctive feeling tones. She has made a comparison of three tribal cultures—the Zuni, the Dobuan, and the Kwakiutl— and shown how each has its own unique impact on personality. The two types of cultures which she has mentioned are (1) the Apollonian culture and (2) the Dionysian culture.

2.1. Apollonian Culture

It is characterized by qualities such as self-control, even-temperedness, moderation, mutual understanding, mutual assistance, and cooperativeness. As Ruth Benedict has pointed out, the Zuni tribe of the southwestern USA represents the Apollonian culture. In the Zuni tribe, the members reveal characteristics that are peculiar to their culture. The Zunis dislike individualism, violence, and power. They respect moderation and modesty, cooperation, and mutual understanding. They are emotionally undisturbed. The spirit of competition is virtually absent in them.

2.2. Dionysian Culture

This culture is marked by high emotionalism, aggressiveness, individualism, superficiality; prestige, and competitiveness. According to Ruth Benedict, the Dobuans of Melanesia and the Kwakiutl Indians represent the Dionysian culture. In the Dobuan and Kwakiurl societies, which are Dionysian in character, members exhibit traits common to their culture.

The Dobuans make virtues of ill will and treachery. They fight against one another for possession of good things in life. Suspicion, cruelty, animosity, and malignancy are traits of almost all Dobuans.

The Kwakiutl Indians of the Pacific Northwest Coast define everything that happens in terms of triumph or shame. For them, life is a constant struggle to put one’s rivals to shame. They destroy the material possessions of the defeated. The defeated resort to sulking or to acts of desperation.

Benedict has tried to show that it is possible to identify the influence of the total culture on personality. She has tried to establish that each culture will produce its special type or types of personality. It is true that her study reveals the mutual interplay of culture and socialization in conditioning personality. Culture provides for the way in which personality is to be developed. But personality as such is developed through the process of socialization. It may also be argued that different ways and means of socialization may produce different personalities. Individuals try to develop their personalities in accordance with their cultural ideas and expectations.

3. CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

• Acquired: Culture is not something one is born with. By culture we mean traits that are learnt through socialization, habits, and thoughts. Thus, we find that man acquires cultural behaviour. This is possible because he has the capacity of symbolic communication.

Figure 6.1 Characteristics of Culture

• Communicative: Culture is communicated from one generation to the next. As a result of this, it is constantly accumulating and goes on added with successive generations. Since culture can be communicated, the new generation benefits from the experiences of the older one. In this way, culture becomes semi-temporary. It does not disappear with the extinction of a particular individual or a group.
• Evolves into complex forms: Culture evolves into complex forms through division of labour, which develops special skills and increases the independence of society’s members.
• Fulfils needs: Culture fulfils those ethical and social needs that are ends in themselves. Social habits form a part of culture. Habits can be formed of those activities only which tend to fulfil some needs.
• Idealistic: When we talk about culture, we have in mind those ideal patterns or norms of behaviour, according to which the members of society attempt to conduct themselves. These ideals, norms, and patterns gain acceptance in society.
• Integrates elements: Every culture has an order and a system. Its various parts are integrated with each other. Any new element that is introduced into the culture also gets integrated likewise. It is true that those cultures which are more open to external influences are comparatively more heterogeneous, but at least some degree of integration is evident even in them.
• Language is its chief vehicle: Man lives not only in the present but also in the past and the future. He is enabled to do this because he possesses language skills, which transmits to him what was learnt in the past and enables him to transmit the accumulated wisdom.
• Social: Although individuals take some part in its transmission and communication, culture is social, rather than individual, in nature. Culture is inclusive of the expectation of the members of the groups. Man cannot create or generate culture in isolation.
• Adaptive: As environment changes, so does culture. Thanks to this constant transformation, culture is constantly adapted to external forces. However, once it is developed, the influences of the natural environment begin to decrease. In addition, the various aspects of culture also undergo development, and some internal adaptation among them is necessitated as a result.

3.1. Views of James and Joseph (1980)

• Culture is a group’s blueprint for acceptable ways of thinking and behaving.
• Although culture is universal in man’s experience, it is unique for each group. According to Alfred Weber, culture is unique and civilization is universal.
• Culture is transmitted from generation to generation.
• Culture is stable, but continuously adapting.
• Culture is affected by the environment, including such variables as climate, geographical location, food resources, and natural resources.
• Culture does not affect man’s basic physiological needs (such as need for food or water), but people from different cultural groups may vary genetically.
• All cultures have four components in common: art forms, language, institutions, and technology.

4. NATURE OF CULTURE

To explain about the nature of culture, we should first know about Homo sapiens. They have several specific biological characteristics such as erect posture, favourable brain structure, stereoscopic vision, structure of hands, flexible shoulder, and sexual receptivity for the opposite sex. All the characteristics favour the development of culture that guarantee that human beings are the most gifted members of the animal kingdom. The human life never had single definite beginning. It evolved very slowly and gradually took the human form. They used tools that are half a million years old. To say that culture evolved about 5,00,000 years ago is very difficult. The concept of culture was explained by E.B. Taylor in the year 1860. He defined culture as the sum of ideas, concepts, beliefs, values, material, cultural equipments, and non-material aspects that makes the members of a society. According to him, the theme of culture means act of ‘human collectivity’, which has been agreed by most of anthropologists, and the ‘man-made parts of the environment’ form a modern culture. From this, it is clear that culture and society cannot be separated. They form the two sides of the same coin, and they are interdependent, where the outcome of the society forms the culture and the survival of culture depends on the society. Culture is developed on the support of man’s adaptability towards nature. It is because of the adaptive value of culture, the culture is formed, which is explained by Herskovits as the culture is a screen between man and nature. Culture is an instrument by which man intervenes the environment and gives a definite shape accordingly. Therefore, it is understood that culture is formed by human relations and not by their collectivity in the society. Society and its nature determine specific culture of the human.

5. RELATION BETWEEN CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION

5.1. Civilization Is the Developed Form of Culture

• According to A.W. Green, a culture becomes a civilization only when it possesses written languages, science, and philosophy, a specialized division of labour, and a complex technology and political system.
• Since ancient cultures did not possess all these elements, we may say that those had no civilization.
• According to J.L. Gillin and J.P. Gillin, civilization is a more complex and evolved form of culture.
• Franz Boas, Ogburn, and Nimkoff also treated civilization as a state which follows culture.
• According to Ogburn, civilization may be defined as the later phase of superior organic culture.

5.2. Opinion of Maclver and Page

• According to Maclver and Page, civilization includes all those things which lead to the attainment of some objective, such as typewriters, press, lathe, motor, and so on. Civilization includes both basic technology and social technology. Basic technology means the authority of man over natural phenomena. Social technology implies the model which controls man’s behaviour.
• On the other hand, culture includes those elements that bring satisfaction and pleasure to man. Examples of these are religion, art, philosophy, literature, and music.
• Civilization is the expression of our nature in our models of living and thinking, in our everyday intercourse, in art, in literature, in recreation, and in enjoyment.

6. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION

It is always important to understand about the term culture and differentiate from civilization. Many scholars and writers have explained their thoughts and concepts on civilization. Some believe civilization began at the time of writing and the advent of metals. Like history, civilization begins with writing. According to Ogburn and Nimkoff, civilization is the latter phase of the super organic culture. Some writers have based civilization on civil organization in contrast to clan or kinship organization. Since civil organization was found more commonly in large towns, people living in these towns were called civilized. A.A. Goldenweiser used the word civilization as synonymous to culture and applied the term to non-literate peoples.

6.1. Civilization Is Constantly Progressing

Figure 6.2 Difference between Culture and Civilization

Machines, means of transportation and communication, and so on, which constitute the civilization, are constantly progressing. According to Maclver, civilization not only marches but always marches ahead, provided there is no catastrophic break of social continuity in the same direction. Civilization shows a persistent upward trend. It is cumulative and tends to advance indefinitely. Since man invented the automobile, it has continuously improved. This yardstick of improvement cannot be applied in the case of culture. For example, we cannot say that the arts, literature, thoughts, or ideals of today are superior to those of the past.

6.2. Civilization Has a Standard of Measurement

Since civilization is a means, it has a universal standard of measurement, that is, utility. But culture is an end in itself. Therefore, it has no similar qualitative or quantitative standard of measurement. The elements, ideas, values, thoughts, and so on, of culture change are in accordance with time and place.

6.3. Civilization Is Borrowed as It Is

The borrowing of civilization from another country or generation does not involve any deterioration, loss, or damage. Railways, motor cars, aeroplanes, machines, and so on, are borrowed without any change in their character. But the elements of culture, such as religion, art, literature, and ideas, can never be borrowed as they are. For example, the Indian Christian is different from his western counterpart. The reason for this is that he or she has many elements borrowed from Hinduism and Islam.

6.4. Civilization Is External

Civilization is related to external things while culture to internal thoughts, feelings, ideas, values, and so on. Civilization is the means for the expression and manifestation of culture. It is the body, and culture the soul.

6.5. Civilization Is Passed on Easily

Civilization objects have utility value. As mentioned earlier, they are connected with the external life of man. As a result, they can be easily adapted from one generation to another or from one country to another. The same cannot be said to be true of culture. For, it is not easy to communicate and adapt something that is related to an inner tendency.

Culture can be adapted only after an appropriate inner development.

7. CULTURAL DIVERSITY

According to the human mind, symbols play a vital role in depicting cultural representation of reality. Each culture has its own definite set of symbols that are associated with variety of experiences and perceptions. Meaning of symbols is neither instinctive nor automatic, but it is the members of the culture who determine the symbol selection. Symbol representation occurs in different forms, such as verbal, non-verbal, written, or unwritten. Symbols can be anything that convey the meanings such as page, drawings, pictures, and gestures. Symbols that represent social status are clothing, homes, cars, and other consumer items.

In a culture, language is an important source of continuity and identity. For example, in Canada, residents refuse to speak in English instead they prefer to talk in Canadian as they fear losing their cultural identity. Similarly, in United States of America, immigrants find difficult to adapt English language as their official national language.

Figure 6.3 Symbol of Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity exists successfully in India because our country has people belonging to different ethnic groups and interests. We learn the culture from others. There needs to be good level of understanding to work with each other in an effective way. A health-care provider is needed to undergo cultural diversity training to learn and understand different forms of culture among ethnic groups, which prevents negative stereotypes about one another.

Learning and gaining knowledge about skills related to cultural diversity will always strengthen and broaden health-care delivery system. It also helps to learn alternatives in health-care services, delivery systems, conceptualization of illness, and treatment methods. The culture practice offers excellent traditional health-care perspectives, utilized by health-care providers, identified and respected within the group. Many ideas and concepts develop from total cultural belief system. It is one of the resource area for which nursing care is based and defined.

It is important for the nurses to understand about cultural diversity because the entire life process is rooted on culture, which defines health and illness. They should learn the procedures that people follow to maintain their health and well-being, and understand people’s belief in case of illness and where do they seek to cure the illness. They should also learn about healers and their way of caring people or members of different cultural groups. Finally, they should learn about their cultural background and whether it may or may not influence the way in which care is delivered. Therefore, every nurse has the responsibility to understand the cultural practices, factors that affect patients, and any cultural variations that influence must be assessed if found any individual cultural difference that exist may affect the health and wellness of the patient.

8. COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

8.1. Cultural Traits

Cultural traits are the single elements or smallest units of a culture. They are the units of observation which when put together constitute culture. According to E.A. Hoebel, cultural traits are repeatedly irreducible units of learned behaviour pattern or material product thereof. Any culture can be seen as to include thousands of such units. Thus, shaking hands, touching the feet, tipping hats, kissing on the cheeks as a gesture of affection, giving seats to ladies first, saluting the flag, wearing white saris at mourning, taking vegetarian diets, walking barefooted, sprinkling water on the idols, carrying kirpans, growing beard and hair, eating in brass utensils, and so on, are cultural traits.

8.1.1. Cultural Complexes

According to E.A. Hoebel, cultural complexes are nothing but larger clusters of traits organized about some nuclear points of references. Cultural traits, as we know, do not usually appear singly or independently. They are customarily associated with other related traits to form a cultural complex. The importance of a single trait is indicated when it fits into a cluster of traits, each one of which performs a significant role in the total complex. Examples are kneeling before idol and taking prasad from the priest.

8.1.2. Cultural Patterns

A cultural pattern is formed when traits and complexes become related to each other in functional roles. Each culture complex has a role to play in society. A cultural pattern consists of a number of cultural complexes. Thus, the Indian cultural pattern consists of Gandhism, spiritualism, joint family, caste system, and ruralism. Cultural patterns have been classified by Clerk Wissler as follows: Speech and language; material traits: food habits, shelter, transportation, dress, utensils, tools, weapons, occupations and industries; art; mythology and scientific knowledge; religious practices; family and social system; property; government; war.

Kimball Thung has also classified cultural patterns as follows: Patterns of communication: gestures and language; methods or objects for providing for men’s physical welfare: food-seeking, personal care, shelter, tools, and so on; means or techniques of travel and transportation of goods and services; exchange of goods and services, barter, trade, commerce, occupations; forms of property: real and personal; sex and family pattern: marriage and divorce, forms of kinship, relation, guardianship, inheritance; social control and institutions of government: mores, public opinion, organized state, laws and political officers; artistic expression: architecture, painting, culture, music, literature, dancing; recreational and leisure-time interests and activities; mythology and philosophy; religious and magical ideas and practices; science; cultural structuring of basic interactional processes.

8.1.3. Universals, Alternatives, and Specialities

Ralph Linton has pointed out that some cultural traits are present in all members of a society, while other traits are shared by only some members. The traits which are followed by all members are called universals. As a matter of fact, these traits are so widely shared that without them one is obviously different or an outcast. For example, man must clothe certain parts of the body. This is true for nearly all cultures. But the traits that one should be monogamous, drive on the left of the street, and condemn free love, are the universals of the Indian culture. Alternatives are different activities allowed and accepted for achieving the same end. It may be noted that alternatives in one society may be universals elsewhere and vice versa. Specialities are elements of the culture which are shared by some but not all groups within a society.

8.1.4. Sub-cultures

Sub-cultures are the cultural traits of a particular group or category. They are of course related to the general culture of the society and yet are distinguishable from it. Thus, the cultures of occupational groups, religious groups, castes, social classes, age groups, sex groups and many other groups are sub-cultures. The Hindu culture is a sub-culture of the Indian culture.

8.2. Cultural Relativism

The concept of cultural relativism states that values and customs are relative to the given culture of which they are a part. The former determines what is right and wrong while the latter pertains to usage and effectiveness. Taken too rigidly, cultural relativism may be interpreted as every custom being valid in terms of its own cultural setting. In practical terms, it means the anthropologists and sociologists learn to suspend judgement, to try to look at things from the point of view of the people being studied, and to practice empathy, so that they achieve humanistic perception and scientific accuracy.

8.3. Contra Culture

The term contra culture is applied to designate those groups which not only differ from the prevailing patterns but also sharply challenge them. Thus, a group of dacoits has its own norms and standards that are compulsory for all the members of the group, but these norms and standards sharply differ from the conventional prevalent patterns. The people trained in these norms are influenced against the dominant cultural norms; hence the term contra culture.

8.4. Cultural Area

Culture, as we have seen earlier, is specific to a group or category of persons. The cultural traits and complexes of some societies may be similar. The societies having similar cultural traits and complexes constitute cultural area. Such societies are generally those which live in similar natural environments.

8.5. Cultural Lag

According to William F. Ogburn, cultural lag refers to a situation in which one part of a culture, that is, non-material culture, lags behinds the other, that is, material culture, and causes an imbalance or disharmony in the society. The strain that exists between the two correlated parts of culture that change at unequal rates of speed may be interpreted as a lag in the part, that is, changing at a slower rate for the one lags behind the other. We accept the material aspects of another culture without any difficulty, but our values, beliefs, norms, morality, and so on, will change only very slowly.

8.6. Cultural Diffusion

According to R.M. Maclver and C.H. Page, cultural diffusion plays the most important role in social development. If we turn the pages of history; we find all the great cultures to have developed from the mutual contacts between various cultures. The Egyptian culture influenced India. Indian thoughts reached China, and the two Oriental countries together made important contribution to the Western civilization. The Romans were influenced by the Greeks, who in turn were influenced by the culture that grew upon the banks of the Nile. In much the same way, the modern cultures share a symbiotic relationship. According to Ogburn and Nimkoff, the transference of culture parts from one sphere to another or from one part of culture to another is called diffusion.

Diffusion of this kind is evinced in most of the objects of the modern world, such as railways, motor car, aeroplane, cinema, tank, telephone, telegraph, and television. Not only machines and tools but also thoughts spread from one country to another. The following factors are influential in the process of diffusion: (i) relations and communications, (ii) need of and desire for new traits, (iii) competition with old traits and objections to them, and (iv) the respect and recognition of those who bring new traits.

9. CULTURAL GROWTH

The development of culture is a continuous process. In this process, on the one hand, we have tradition. The experiences of the proponents of one culture are accumulated and handed down from one generation to another. On the other hand, we have windows open for fresh air. New elements from other cultures are introduced through accommodation, cross-fertilization, and diffusion. Culture progresses as a result of the unification of the two processes.

If you consider the culture of any country, its development is a result of this process carried out over centuries and millennia. In this development, the rate of progress is not uniform. At times it is slow, and at others it is relatively fast. Not only that. Sometimes the development is moving towards progress, at other times towards deterioration. In order to understand cultural growth properly, it is necessary to understand the processes of cultural growth, which are as follows:

9.1. Accumulation

In the beginning, an individual experiments with an object which is virtually new to him. He meets with a series of successes and failures. What he does is he discards the fruitless ones and adopts the successful ones for future purposes. Thus, the experience gained in this experimentation is accumulated and passed on from one generation to another as social heritage. Language has played a crucial role in this accumulation. Besides, new experiments continue to be made. If there is an increase in needs, there is also an increase in inventions. In this way, both the material and non-material aspects of culture progress through such accumulation.

9.2. Diffusion

Accumulation is only one of the processes of cultural growth. The adoption of novel concepts from other cultures is a significant means of cultural growth. Accordingly, diffusion applies to the adoption of new ideas by one individual or society from another. In the globalized world of today, diffusion has assumed an added significance. Almost every culture of the world is adopting new ideas and things from every other culture. The influence of the West deserves a special mention in this regard.

9.3. Accommodation

It is not enough that a culture has acquired new ideas through diffusion. It is also important that these new ideas be accommodated with the other features of the culture. Today, we see that a number of elements of Western culture have become a part of the Indian life and added to its progress. But this happened only after these elements were acquired and adopted in India and were followed by the subsequent process of accommodation.

9.4. Cross-fertilization

The conjunction of two cultures is beneficial to both. Borrowing is seldom a one-way process. If a culture borrows from another, the latter also gets influenced by the former. This process of mutual give-and-take is called cross-fertilization. Thanks to this, culture retains its vitality and life.

9.5. Acculturation

When such a conjunction of two cultures occurs, causing cultural growth, and they are intimately related rather than identified, the process is called acculturation. Sometimes, contraculturation also sets in. It is the opposite of the process of acculturation. For example, consider what happened during the British rule in India. Many British things were adopted in our country but the Swadeshi movement and the development of nationalism abolished and condemned many things of Western origin at the same time.

9.6. Assimilation

This is the extreme form in the process of cultural conjunction. When one culture becomes so intimate with another that it loses its individuality, it is called assimilation. We may call it a solvent–solute kind of relationship.

10. EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

For a century and more, archaeologists have dug up the tools, weapons, pottery, idols, coins, and other material things of peoples, who have long since died, in search of clues to their social life. Such evidences, however, do not reveal the origin of culture; they indicate its antiquity. If they reveal anything about the evolution of culture, it is only about its material aspects. To trace the origin of a specific cultural trait is difficult. It is lost in the mists of antiquity. However, the basic process valued in cultural development is discovery and invention. No single invention contributes very much to the development of a culture; it is only an addition to what already exists Moreover, the invention, though achieved by one individual, has itself been made possible by forces that grow out of the culture. The inventor or a person is not therefore the cause of the invention; he is only the agent of cultural conditions that bring about a modification of the culture. Although culture develops traits, a culture is actually a patterning of interdependent trait complexes. A trait does not evolve independent of the entire complex of which it is a part, nor does it operate independent of the other traits. The existing cultural traits influence the invention of the new trait.

An invention, whether material or non-material, is an improvement over the existing cultural traits. It is only partly new. It is a new synthesis. Everywhere, that has been the case. The composition combines the traits into what is considered to be a new song. The inventor takes elements from a variety of old or existing modes of living and runs them together into a new mode of living. The importance of the inventor, however, may not be minimized. Although his invention may be regarded merely as an improvement over or a synthesis of existing cultural traits, yet he does contribute purpose and endeavours for it. Intent upon the creation of a new idea or a new mechanical device, he proceeds to try this or that combination of cultural element. This implies initiative and perseverance in him. Unless there are people in a society with the required initiative, there will be no new cultural development and the society may stagnate.

It may also he noted that for cultural development men must become discontent with some of the many things as they are, and provoked by their discontent must be led to find a way out. If they think that disease, famine, war, political corruption, rising prices, and moral depredation are acts of God that cannot be avoided, the society will lose its vigour.

11. NEED OF CULTURE IN MAN

Man differs from animal species in that he lives in a world of ideas. He acts and reacts in terms of ideas about objects and organisms. The animals live only in the present. They lack language. Their knowledge is limited to instincts plus what is learned by direct observation. Such learning can never accumulate. Only man inhabits past, present, and future simultaneously. He possesses the capacity to vocalize, respond, represent, articulate, and learn from the stimulus–response relationship. These peculiar elements in the make-up of man provided a background against which culture arose. The rudiments of culture developed by one generation serve as a foundation-stone to the next generation, which makes its own additions. Man is born in the stream of culture and must continuously swim in it if he is to live as a member of society.

12. CULTURAL VARIABILITY

Culture is a distinctive character of a nation, of a group, or of a period of history. This is why we speak of the culture of India, of Japan, or of America. A popular joke about members of different nations gives us an insight into different cultures of different societies. Once three students—a Japanese, an Indian, and an American—visited the Niagara Falls. The Japanese boy was bewitched by the beauty of the grand spectacle while the Indian student began to philosophize about the Supreme Being manifested in this phenomenon of nature. The silent communion of the two Orientals with the Niagara Falls was sharply interrupted as the American student asked, ‘Friends, how much horse-power is there in these falls?’

In India, non-violence is considered to be a great virtue, whereas in Russia violence is a part of the culture. Among certain groups, men and women mix and move freely on the roads, whereas among others, such a mixing is severely condemned. Thus, we find group variations of cultural behaviour among different peoples over the world and also among the same peoples at different periods of history. These variations are not to be interpreted as merely amusing and motivated.

The factors that influence cultural variability are as follows:

• Historical accidents: Some of the customs whose origin is difficult to trace must have begun because of some personal or group unconscious behaviour. A man might have done a particular action unconsciously; later others imitated him; and through imitation, by and large, the action became a custom or part of a culture.
• Geographical environment: In India, snake worship started because of the abundance of the reptile. The marriage season began to be fixed in accordance with the harvesting time and agricultural pursuits of the people. Thus, geographical factors play a very important part in individual and group living. These are chiefly limiting rather than directly causative. Cultures may vary even when the geographic conditions are the same.
• Mobility of human organism: It is because human organism is flexible and mobile that there is cultural variability. Man has always adjusted himself to his natural environment, to his group, and to his fellows. On account of his constant adjustment, cultural behaviour has shown great variability among the same people during different periods of history.
• Inventions and discoveries: Inventions and discoveries also bring about cultural variability.
• Individual peculiarities or personal eccentricities: Sometimes individual peculiarities or personal eccentricities also influence cultural behaviour. The Gandhi cap has come to our culture through individual peculiarity. Often, the conscious efforts of an individual may change the current modes of behaviour. The change to khadi also has an economic significance.
• Change in the modes of production: Karl Marx held that the mode of production is the sole determinant of the culture of a people—their art, morals, customs, laws, literature, and so on. Any change in the mode of production affects the culture.
• Dominant cultural themes: The superiority of men over women is the main theme around which Indian culture is built. Egypt was organized about nether world themes. The American society is organized around the themes of free enterprise and equality. Marxism was for long the dominant theme of the Russian culture.
  

Figure 6.4 The Factors That Influence Cultural Variability

13. FUNCTIONS OF CULTURE

• Culture makes man a human being: It is culture that makes the human animal a man, regulates his conduct, and prepares him for group life. It provides to him a complete design for living. It teaches him what type of food he should take and in what manner, how he should cover himself and behave with his fellows, how he should speak with the people, and how he should cooperate or compete with others.
• Culture provides solutions for complicated situations: Culture provides man with a set of behaviour even for complicated situations. It so thoroughly influences him that often he does not require any external force to keep himself in conformity with social requirements.
• Culture provides traditional interpretations: Through culture man gets traditional interpretations for many situations, according to which he determines his behaviour. For example, if a cat crosses his way he postpones his journey.

Figure 6.5 Functions of Culture

• Culture keeps social relationships intact: Culture has its importance not only for man but also for the group. Had there been no culture, there would have been no group life. Culture is designed and the prescription is composed of guiding values and ideals. By regulating the behaviour of the people and satisfying their primary drives pertaining to hunger, shelter, and sex, culture has been able to maintain group life.
• Culture broadens the vision of the individual: Culture has given a new vision to the individual by providing him a set of rules for the cooperation of the individuals. It teaches him to think himself as a part of the larger whole. It provides him with the concepts of family, state, nation, and class, and makes possible the coordination and division of labour.
• Culture creates new needs: Culture also creates new needs and new drives, such as the thirst for knowledge, and arranges for their satisfaction. It satisfies the aesthetic, moral, and religious interests of the members of the group.

14. INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON HEALTH AND ILLNESSES

There are socio-cultural factors that influence the health since people are exposed to risk-taking behaviours, vulnerability to disease. It is important for the nurse to analyse efforts, practices in the culture that promote health and quality care, since socio-cultural factors play vital role in shaping perceptions and responses to the health problems, and their impact and well-being. Therefore, every health professional has the responsibility to understand the factors that influence the illness and those promote wellness and root cause for morbidity and mortality rates.

14.1. Cultural Factors That Influence the Health Care

There are many factors that affect the health care of people in a particular culture. They are as follows:

• Decision taken by the family members and their role in health care.
• Functional role responsibility of community where the person lives.
• Impact and influence of religion on diet, beliefs, illness, and treatment.
• Perception and their view on health and wellness.
• Beliefs on death and dying process.
• Views on Eastern, Western, alternative, or traditional medicine.
• Perception on aetiology and treatment modalities on illnesses, both physical and mental.

14.1.1. Beliefs in the Family

People in rural communities of India have lots of misconceptions about family size and structure. People believe that children are born by god’s gift. Wealth of the family is determined by birth of child. Families have been fond of male children, which leads to less gap among childbirths. Lack of spacing between childbirths lead to severe anaemia for mothers, malnutrition, low birth weight and high risk factors that increase infant mortality rate.

14.1.2. Sex and Marriage

Sexual customs and practices vary among different ethnic groups. For example, Muslims have religious restrictions on performing oro-genital sex, especially at the time of menstruation. Similarly, orthodox Jews are prohibited to have intercourse during menstruation, even seven days after completion of menstruation. Such practices have definite influence on oral health and family planning because such practices are stressed as it explains maintenance of oral and sexual hygiene, and prevention of oral and genital infections. The marriage practices such as polygamy, which is marrying of one man to several woman, and polyandry, which is marrying a woman to several men, are even practised at present in Nilgiri hills, Nayars of Malabar coast in Kerala, and also among Jaunsar-Bawar in UP. Because of such practices, venereal diseases or sexually transmitted diseases occur if a person has sexual contact with more than one partner. These diseases are more common among them because there is no monogamy followed in such marriage practices.

14.1.3. Maternal and Child Health

There are lot of customs and beliefs about maternal and child health care, some of which are good, bad, and not much important. Some of the good customs are prolonged breastfeeding, giving oil bath, massaging the newborn and exposing the baby after bath in morning to sunlight. Some bad customs include avoiding ‘colostrum’ (first expressed milk), avoiding foods like papaya, milk, fish, egg, meat and green leafy vegetables during pregnancy and lactation period, and providing light diet (this custom is seen in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, where they have a misconception that consuming heavy foods may induce heat and cause problems to the newborn). Unimportant customs include applying turmeric considered to be holy spice on anterior fontanelle of newborn, piercing the ears, nose, balding the hair, and applying kajal in eyelids thought to remove the evil eye from the baby. Very bad customs in rural folk include applying cow dung in the umbilicus, which causes tetanus infection in the newborns.

14.1.4. Religious Restrictions in Food Habits

Many religious beliefs and differences have great impact on health and illness. For example, Hindus do not consume beef because cow is worshiped as ‘Gomatha’ and as a sacred animal called ‘Nandhi’. Similarly, Muslims do not eat pork because they believe pig is a dirty animal— a ‘scavenger’ that consumes dirt from sewage. However, these habits seem to be healthy any way as these avoid cysticercosis infection, which are caused by tapeworms found in improperly cooked beef and pork, thereby leading to severe anaemia. This disease spreads via the faecaloral route through contaminated food and water, and is primarily a food-borne disease, which lead to oral ulcers, gingival bleeding, and lesions causing disability.

14.2. Personal Habits

14.2.1. Purdah System

Purdah system is practiced among Muslims, where females are supposed to cover their whole body, which makes them prone to vitamin D deficiency, hypoplasia of teeth, and osteoporosis. Since skin is not exposed to sunlight as most of the women wear black purdah that absorbs harmful ultraviolet rays, the risk for basal cell carcinoma is less, but prevalence of droplet infections like tuberculosis and diphtheria is high.

14.2.2. Smoking and Alcoholism

Many religious practices are against smoking and alcoholism, especially in Muslims and Hindus. This promotes oral health. Younger generation of present are vulnerable as they consider smoking and alcohol consumption as a symbol of muscularism and status. It forms acceptable behaviour among the peer groups and especially in tribal population. These habits were more prevalent among fishing communities earlier, for example, in districts of Srikakulum and Vishakhapatanam in Andhra Pradesh, but now prevalent in almost all parts of India, more among young and adolescents. Although government has passed lots of laws and regulations to regulate this, tobacco consumption and alcoholism are still prevalent. This indicates high frequencies and incidences of palatal malignancies.

14.2.3. Pan Chewing as a Custom

Offering pan with betel leaves, slaked lime, areca nut, and catechu is the way of welcoming guest in North India, for example, in Rajasthan, UP, Maharasthra, and West Bengal. It is considered as a disrespect to the host, if the pan is not eaten; therefore, people consume it. However, continuous eating leads to oral diseases, periodontal illnesses, and oral submucosal fibrosis.

14.2.4. Drug Addiction

Hindu munivars and sadhus have habit of inserting charas, bhang, and ganja into cigarettes for pleasure and comfort. This habit has spread to youths in India, and they have finally become addicted to those substances. Similarly, in western culture, families have habit of consuming alcohol as common practice. This leads to overconsumption and addiction leading to dangerous illnesses.

14.2.5. Sedentary Lifestyle

The sedentary lifestyle followed among urban people is the main reason and cause for obesity-related illnesses. Sitting for long time watching television and eating junk food leads to coronary artery diseases, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and so on. Carbonated beverages contain lots of phosphates and cause demineralization. For example, if 200 ml of fizzy drink is consumed, six glasses of milk is needed to replace the calcium loss. Research proves that drinking carbonated beverage is hazardous to health. It is dangerous to consume such drinks; it causes dry mouth, thirst pain, and buccal keratosis. Sedentary life lacks physical activity that even reduces the lifespan of the individual.

15. ROLE OF NURSES IN CULTURAL PRACTICES

Nurses play important role in uplifting patients’ health-care needs. By understanding different cultural aspects and their effects on health and illnesses, they can sincerely care the people in the society. Equitable distribution of health-care delivery exists only if needed changes occur in the organizational culture. People in the society should be prepared for an organizational change in the promotion of safety to procure the health-care needs. The culture practice model that explains the nurses’ role in empowering the cultural health care is shown in Figure 6.6.

Figure 6.6 Cultural Practice Model

Health is the prime concern for wellness, and wellness is the factor that determines an individual’s quality of health. Everyone has their own ideas, beliefs, concepts about health, illness, and wellness. Not all cultural practices promote good nutrition, sleep, regular exercise, and so on. It is important for the nurse to do proper assessment about cultural practices of people and learn their lifestyle and practices, and analyse their beliefs about illnesses and health, and discourage the practices that lead to illnesses.

15.1. Nursing Process and Nurse’s Role

There is always a perfect need to assess each patient’s needs, problems, and his or her cultural practices.

15.1.1. Cultural Assessment

Nurse should determine what type of cultural heritage and language skills the patients have, and find out if the root cause of illness is any harmful cultural practice. He or she should collect all the data from the family practices, and finally discuss with the family to identify the root cause.

15.1.2. Cultural Diagnosis

Nurse should find the problem that is actual and potential cause for illness. He or she should also find the factors that actually promote illness, and potential factors that may be hidden.

15.1.3. Process of Cultural Competence: Cultural Nursing Intervention

First, understand all the cultural factors that influence race, ethnic, social, and emotional relationships, child-bearing practices, and their attitude towards health. The nurses need to process certain intervention such as the following:

• Cultural awareness: Having better idea about specific cultural practice on patient who is being given care.
• Cultural desire: Learning about different ethnic groups and respecting such cultures and analysing the pros and cons of them.
• Cultural skills: Learning and understanding skills in order to interact with people in the society. Respecting and learning the cultural aspects of lifestyle.
• Cultural knowledge: Without gaining knowledge that is with lack of input there is no use in learning culture. Nurses need to do lots of review about culture and understand basic nature of any cultural practices in depth so that they can analyse in a better manner to provide good quality care.
• Cultural encounter: Once the nurses learn about the culture it is important that the nurses respect the culture, thoroughly analyse it, and find pros and cons of existing cultural practices; promote good and remove bad practices through health education; create awareness about bad cultural practices thereby improving the health of the people.

• Man is not only a social animal but also a cultural being. His social life has been made possible because of culture.
• Culture is something that has elevated him from the level of animal to the heights of man.
• Man cannot survive as man without culture.
• Culture represents all the achievements of mankind.
• Culture and society are interdependent.
• Culture possesses continuity and extends beyond the lifetime of those who possess, create, and utilize it. It is passed from the old to the new members.
• It provides knowledge, which is essential for the physical, social, and intellectual existence of man.
• Society and culture and social culture are mutually related concepts. There is no culture without human society. There can be no society without individuals.
• Culture is human accomplishments acquired and passed on in terms of social inheritance. It is learned behaviour acquired by man as a member of society.

I. LONG ESSAY

• Define culture, and discuss its characteristics in detail.
• Discuss the importance of language, customs, and traditions in culture.

II. SHORT ESSAY

• Explain the role of culture in nursing profession.
• Discuss in detail about cultural diversity.
• Describe about the functions of culture.
• Discuss impact of culture on human behaviour.
• Discuss about evolution of culture.
• Explain classifications of culture.
• Enumerate the relation between culture and civilization.
• Describe the components of culture.

III. SHORT ANSWERS

• Explain cultural relativism.
• Explain cultural lag.
• Explain cultural diffusion.
• Explain cultural growth.
• Explain cultural variability.

IV. MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. What does culture usually reflect in modern society
   1. group culture
   2. national culture
   3. religious culture
   4. geographical culture
2. Which among the following is not a pertinent function of culture?
   1. religion of social conduct of individuals
   2. teaching the individuals to live and behave in the society
   3. inculcating a sense of aggressive competition
   4. teaching the individual manners, good habits, and so on
3. Material culture implies:
   1. possession of material occupation
   2. possession of concrete ideas and beliefs
   3. possession of luxurious articles
   4. possession of essential commodities
4. Culture may be defined as the
   1. pattern of arrangements, material and behaviour adopted by a society
   2. typical habit patterns of people
   3. sum total of collective behaviour
   4. uncodified ideology of people
5. Which of the following is not a permanent element of Indian culture?
   1. spiritualism
   2. religious tolerance and freedom
   3. open mindedness of the people
   4. materialistic outlook of the people
6. To constitute culture the acquired behaviour should be
   1. shared by the group
   2. transmitted away to the members of the group
   3. shared by transmitted among members of the group
   4. believed to be ideal by the group
7. Which of the following is a characteristic of culture?
   1. culture is learnt.
   2. culture is divine creation.
   3. culture makes man’s life materially comfortable.
   4. culture is religious and ethical system.
8. The difference between culture and civilization is:
   1. culture is divine creation while civilization is manmade.
   2. culture denotes non-utilitarian things civilization denotes utilization things.
   3. culture has spiritual basis, civilization has a material basis.
   4. culture is static, civilization is dynamic.
9. One culture is distinguished from another by
   1. the family system
   2. the form of marriage
   3. the material traits
   4. the material and non-material traits
10. Variability of culture id due to
    1. the natural jealousies of the different nations
    2. the absence of a universal language
    3. the geographical environment of a nation
    4. the inventory capacity of a nation
11. Culture is important for the individual because
    1. it makes him a human being
    2. it unites him with his ancestors
    3. it provides him easy mean of social living
    4. it helps him to earn his livelihood
12. Culture is important for the group because
    1. it takes social relationship intact.
    2. it makes of one group from the other.
    3. it satisfies human needs from the other.
    4. it provides stability to the group.
13. The borrowing of culture is effected by:
    1. physical isolation
    2. language differences
    3. religious differences
    4. biological differences
14. The peaceful co-existence of many cultural and ethical groups is normally referred by sociologist as
    1. integration
    2. amalgamation
    3. cultural pluralism
    4. assimilation
15. The process of borrowing cultural items from another culture is known as
    1. acculturation
    2. socialization
    3. unculturation
    4. acquisition
16. Cultural relativism
    1. is a recognition where each culture is judged in terms of its own standards
    2. is an argument that different parts of culture are inter related
    3. means any culture can be evaluated in absolute terms
    4. means that different cultures are related to each other in terms of some universal elements
17. The principle that a culture must be understood and judged on its own terms without reference to the values of another culture is known as
    1. cultural specificity
    2. cultural pluralism
    3. cultural hegemony
    4. cultural relativism
18. Acculturation is
    1. accepting the culture of the dominant group
    2. assimilation with the other group
    3. the acceptance of the end product of cultural give and take
    4. complete integration of conflicting cultures
19. Culture is
    1. imitating an individual in the group ways
    2. a limitation on freedom
    3. whims of a conservation in the group
    4. repetition of the most repeated
20. What does cultural relativism imply?
    1. a culture may be good or bad.
    2. it is bounded to its antecedents.
    3. it is bound to the place.
    4. preconceived notion of a group forms part of it.

ANSWERS

1. b 2. c 3. c 4. b 5. d 6. d 7. a 8. d 9. a 10. b 11. a 12. d 13. c 14. a 15. a 16. d 17. d 18. a 19. a 20. a

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