Culture and social values contribute to developing the individual norms, attitude, and manner. It is important to recognize that people’s social structures, cultural traditions, norms and behaviors vary among the regions. The interconnection among the people influences the individual, families and community behaviors. Social values can be collective conscious or unconscious process of mind. The attitude of a person is revealed by his actions which results from personal beliefs and social values. Thus in aggregate level, the actions of all persons to any respective incident define the overall cultural aspects of a nation.
Differences of culture and society between two regions
Sara Lynn is an undergraduate student at an American university. Sara was born In India and she passed 15 years there before completing schooling she had shifted from there. While living there she faced various experience which she admits a clear distinction between the culture of India and USA. She was asked some questions about these experiences.
It is obvious USA and India has many cultural differences but what was the most striking thing about your stay in India?
Answer: I was in the Swimming pool but not swimming at that time. I was listening to music aloud on my iPhone. A person who oversees the pool came and grabbed the phone and hooked it up to a loudspeaker so I could hear music better. He came back and smiled at me “better?” his intention was clear to make my time enjoyable. The surprising thing is he felt fine taking my phone without asking my permission. It seems very cordial but in U.S. anyone cannot think of touching others personal gadgets without asking permission.
Q. What is the important aspect of Indian culture?
Answer: Marriage plays a vital role in a person’s life. Arranged marriage seems very interesting where two completely unknown persons get married with the presence of two families. Especially in the rural area, love marriages are strictly prohibited. Indian people live in a Joint family where the parents, male children, spouse of children reside in the same house. The nuclear families are seen in urban areas. The social structure is completely different than that of America’s.
Q. What is the position of women in society?
I will start with clothing. The appropriate clothing for women is considered Sal war Kameez, Churidar, Sharees. Muslim women cover themselves with Hizab. The society is male-driven. The country is still fighting to establish equal opportunities for women. Pre-adulthood marriage is very common in India. Women feel insecure without the presence of male guardian. But in U.S. a women are more independent socially and financially.
Q. Tell something about their religions. How is it related to society and culture?
Answer: Indians are very religious people. The core theme of western cultures is individuality. Indian religions are practiced by separate religious institutions. There are Hindus, Muslims, Shiks, and Buddhists. India is a secular country. Hindu religious views are integrated into their social and cultural traditions.
India is called “the country of villages” for the predominant role of villages in the total population. 87% people live in villages (Learning). In primitive village community, the close ties of kinship based on the inhabitants of the land. On the other hand, the urban population is heterogeneous and diversified (Horton and Hunt 58). Urban society is complex and far from the natural environment.
How the artifacts reveals the past history of a region
India’s culture is strongly related to epic Indian mythologies. Dancing sculpture, painting and stone artifacts shows the historical values of the society. Archaeologists and historians interpret some valuable facts about the ancient lifestyle of India. Some artifacts belonged to the Chalcolithic or copper age followed by the Iron Age that was discovered from the Indus valley. India has some most intricate sculptors of the world. Indian took the old Austric gods and they worship many gods by crafting sculptures and painting visual arts. There is an image of a seated male sculpture with ribbon headband and inlay ornament on the forehead (Lynch and Maher 96).
The two ends of the fillet along the hair were carefully combed towards the back of the head. The sculptures are made by the clay, stone, bricks and mud. The sculptures present the kings, gods. People used to pray them because of their power over the natural phenomenon. They praised the statues and pray to them and to get material success and prosperity.
Artifacts show the richness in art of a culture and society. It is a way of approaching the past. According to archaeologists the artifact objects asserts their presence as symbol and material force simultaneously. The director of a museum said that an artifact shows the way to history. Artifacts are the touchstones which can bring memory and meaning to life. Artifacts are the proof that the particular tradition existed in history. When the artifacts are discovered it opens the opportunity of new interpretations and different points of view. The main understanding is to acknowledge and embrace the conflicting meanings of complex artifacts.
Artifacts show the glory of the art of a culture and society. It shows the way to past. According to archaeologists the artifact objects asserts their presence as the symbol and material force simultaneously. The director of a museum once said that an artifact shows the way to history. Artifacts are the touchstones which can bring memory and meaning to life. Artifacts are the proof that the particular tradition existed in history. When the artifacts are discovered it opens the opportunity for new interpretations and different points of view. The main understanding is to acknowledge and embrace the conflicting meanings of complex artifacts.
One of the best examples of prehistoric artifacts discovered is “Sandy”. It was unearthed in 1939 in Tennessee farm. It is reckoned that the statue was carved between 1000-1350 A.D. Sandy was discovered along with a female companion. Middle Tennessee is recognized as one of the three core religion of Mississippian culture. The stone statue represents the Tennessee-Cumberland religion.
Native American history is much older than the history of modern America. The facts, lifestyle, and cultures of Native American Indians are found in their artifacts. It gives insight into the lives of the indigenous people of America before the discovery of America. These artifacts are man-made such as weapons, tools, ornaments. The oldest artifact is ‘arrowhead’ it is assumed that it was from 14000 years Old Stone Age culture. Native American Shamans have a long story about their mystical phenomenon.
Ethnocentrism in a functionalism perspective
Ethnocentrism is the view of judging other ethnic groups based on the norms, standards, and values of a particular culture. According to the view, a particular ethnic group is superior to all others. The notion implies the dominant group of people has developed their beliefs and values which they think superior to all others. On the other hand, cultural relativism is the view where individual beliefs and values are relative culturally and cannot be compared with each other by a single standard (Horton and Hunt 162).
Ethnocentrism is very common in many countries. The great example of ethnocentrism is the killing of Jews by Hitler's Germany. 10 million people were killed just because of their religious view. India is divided into few different social classes. There is a caste system in Hindu religion. The social classes are also based on the caste. These four classes are priests, warriors, merchants, and laborer. The caste system basically determines the rank which is based on the wealth. Different caste people cannot get married to each other. The laborer is the lower class they are treated like slaves. The religious view was transmitted to the root of the social structure of the society. India is a land of religion since it is the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism. 80.5% people practice Hinduism and 13.4% people are Muslim.
India is divided because of the religious view of people. Ethnicity Races of Indian people are mixed. Due to the colonial influence, India has been transformed into a mixed cultural society. It is very arduous to construct ethnography of the millions of Indian population. There are 8 different ethnic groups according to the census of 1901. These are Dravidian, Pre-Dravidian, Turk-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Mongolian, Mongoloid-Dravidian, Aryan-Dravidian, and Scytho-Dravidian. Because of the wide variety of ethnic groups, India has been described as an ethnological museum (Goode 241).
The variety of racial and religious differences with ignorance, lack of access to the world culture exacerbates the casual racism. Middle class urban Indian society follows the pop culture but it doesn’t show the receptiveness of western liberal attitude. The active campaign in India challenges the cultural disparagement of darker skin but the stubborn caste system is ignored which is the root of all the ethnocentric discrimination. Sometimes people are solely discriminated for their color of skin.
Works Cited
Goode, Erich. Social Deviance. 6th ed., Allyn and Bacon, 2011, pp. 175-267.
Horton, Paul B, and Chester L Hunt. Sociology. McGraw-Hill, 2007, pp. 42-190.
Learning, History. "Sociology " History Learning". History Learning Site, 2018, http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/?s=sociology. Accessed 8 Mar 2018.
Lynch, Tom, and Susan Naramore Maher. Artifacts " Illuminations. University Of Nebraska Press, 2012, pp. 55-134.
