In every society, the significance of a cultural identity is manifold. History and tradition not only give us a sense of belonging but they also strengthen our ability to appreciate the world we live in. Our values, our expressions, our perceptions are shaped by the kind of cultural landscape we are born into or we identify with. The various components of culture such as language, costume, food, art, music and literature, festivals etc all contribute towards endowing a certain richness to our experience of life.
Culture gives us a sense of identity, security and fulfills our needs as a human. It inspires generations to grow as a collective unit, and teaches them to practice responsible and cooperative behavior while simultaneously pursuing their own dreams and aspirations.
Urbanization brings in changes that lead to transformations in cultural identification too, especially for the descendants. Changing demands of socio-economic, political or contemporary day-to-day living leave little or no room for the continuation of folk culture and traditional lifestyle. The effects of urbanization aren’t always negative but they are undeniably a significant one.
It is in this context that MyGov Arunachal Pradesh invites citizens to share their views on how urbanization impacts culture and what are some of the ways to maintain a balance between urbanization and the rich cultural heritage of the state.
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
EARLY ORIGINS OF CULTURE
Dusseldorp says Africa is the place where there is the earliest artefactual evidence of what is recognised as modern human behaviour.
"A large part of this is that obviously throughout the evolution of our species our brain size increased. We became a lot smarter and now in some site in South Africa, especially in the Western Cape, there are sites called Blombos and Klipdrift,
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
Ntshangase emphasises Dusseldorp’s statement by saying that people have culture from when they are born. He says culture are ways and means of addressing needs, such as mechanisms of fetching water. “I the needs change, culture will change, If the environment changes, the culture will change.”
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
"Over time this led us have a "language instinct", part of our cultural adaption for language has actually become fossilised in our genes. But the specific language that we speak, weather we speak English, Afrikaans or Zulu, that is not encoded in our genes, we learn this when we are young,” He says.
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
HUMANS ARE BORN WITH CULTURE
Dusseldorp says in the human species there is no such a thing as a person without any culture. "Culture is ingrained in us and in our way of life that obviously an individual can't survive without culture."
"However, because we have been cultural species for so long, you get a phenomenon that is called gene culture code evolution. Take language for example, we can't survive without language, it is so important."
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
According to my understanding there are not many incidents where the two collide. Ukuthwala, if it is done genuinely does not collide with the law, but if it is done incorrectly then it will collide."
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
"With circumcision of newborn boys, it is difficult because no real harm is done but the young boy himself does not have a say in it. That is problematic. If it happens at an initiation school then it is a decision of the guy himself, so I would say, that is permissible."
Ntshangase says in most cases genuine culture does not collide with the law.
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
Referring to the Xhosa cultural practice of Ukuthwala, where they take a girl without her consent to the home of her potential husband and, the UJ archaeologist says kidnapping takes away from their autonomy.
Similarly, with regard to circumcision of boys an ethical stance must be established.
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
CULTURE VERSUS LAW
Dusseldorp says in the modern society there are always going to be cultural practices that people are going to disagree with, however the main thing is whether the person subjected to the cultural practice has a say about it.
"You must evaluate on how a cultural practice impacts on the autonomy of an individual."
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
But they will have a problem in terms of the extended family who have not abandoned what has been abandoned by their other members, they will still be asking themselves, 'you didn’t do this, why’, but if they have chosen to do so then they are able to live with it," He says.
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
V"Culture itself is not a static thing, its dynamic, I'm saying it will change, so if people have opted to whatever and don’t need culture anymore then there is no problem.