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
Ntshangase says, "People who have been exposed to urban areas who abandon their culture are in the minority." He adds that religion is often the reason why people abandon their traditional cultures.
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
Cultural expert, Ndela Ntshangase says urbanisation effects people's culture because they are dominated by western culture.
“When people stay in the urban areas for a long time then they can absorbed by urbanisation, even other cultures. When they go back to their homes, rural areas, they come with these ideas, and influence their areas.”
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
"We use symbols to see is if someone is part of our group or part of a different group and that in terms of evolution, we as humans collaborate with a lot of people coming that not necessarily related to us."
"Although cultural tradition are used to signal whether someone is in our group. It's also a mechanism where we exclude other people from the group and that I think can be quite a nasty side of how we use culture in our modern day."
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
Dusseldorp says if culture is seen from an evolutionary point of view there are many definitions of culture.
"The most basic definition of culture is, all the behaviour that is not genetic, that is not based on individual learning, so basically every behaviour that you learn from another individual. If you use that definition then a lot of animals have culture."
He says evolutionary culture has evolved and transferred to increase the cohesion of social groups.
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
Heritage month, which is celebrated in September, recognises various aspects of South African culture, such as music and performances, our historical inheritance, language and the food we eat.
This month is also exciting because a new species of the human genus was revealed at the Cradle of Humankind in Gauteng. Homo-naledi, which is said to be the largest collection of human fossil
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
University of Johannesburg Archaeologist, Dr. Gerrit Dusseldorp says culture is developing much quicker as a result of urbanisation because more people are coming up with new ideas, which gives people the choice to adopt or reject.
Speaking to SABC News, Dusseldorp says this phenomenon makes culture baggage much more variable than it used to be for most of the history.
Bhawna 4 years 5 months ago
Culture is as old as human kind according to experts, but is constantly changing. How do we relate to our ancestral roots in an urbanised world? Where do we come from and how does that change in a modern context?
Sijna Jose 4 years 6 months ago
The vibrant life of the tribal people,their traditional customs,festivals,and dances are some of the significant components of their rich cultural diversity.Culture is a dynamic,ever-changing entity.The changing environment makes internal adaptation necessary for culture to change. As a result,lot of changes have also been observed in the cultural practices of the Nyishi tribe of AP.The impact of urbanisation and modernization has brought aeconomic and socio-cultural transformation among people.
Mandar Das 4 years 7 months ago
With modernisation and urbanisation, did we left behind all the values and culture we inherited. if one digs in deeply, the answer might be NO. We can contribute to our society, only if we re-iterate our learnings and revise of our ethical values and culture that we have initially learned and make the place we live in something more than we call 'Urbanisation'.
Toni Pait 4 years 10 months ago
culture needs to be preserved