The Characteristics Of Culture Theology Religion Essay

The Characteristics Of finale Theology Religion EssayBiologi call upy speaking, we humans be favorable beingnesss. We need our parents to be born, and once that happens even though we are considered single individuals with a brain and mind that let us think and learn, we do non isolate ourselves from the rest of the people. On the contrary, all we do is to follow our peers.We gather in groups, and these groups constitute subgroups again. This is the basic method we follow to successfully organise and hold up our complaisant structure to satisfy our several needs.The first of these groups is our family, and from here we span to neighbourhoods communities of different kinds, that we joined establish on a particular interest, much(prenominal) as religious, sports, academic, musical, labour, political, ideological, etc. These groups grow in number to form states and then countries or nations.All these people together establish a society. Societies differ from atomic number 53 a nother and every(prenominal) single one of them is unique, particular and characterised for a plainive ingest that we call culture.Culture is that complex absoluteness that we learn day by day. It is everything with which we fill and give sense to our existence. The modality we wear, think, believe, act, speak, perceive are all framed and shaped by the ideas, concepts, values that are part of a circumstantial culture.Through culture we learn to adapt ourselves in this physical world, manipulating the available resources for our own welfare and we also shape our behaviour to turn away a affable chaos.Concepts of CultureCulture is neither natural nor artificial. It stems from neither genetics nor rational thought, for it is made up of rules of conduct, which were not invented and whose function is in general not understood by the people who obey them. Some of these rules are residues of traditions acquired in the different types of social structure through which each human gro up has passed. Other rules take a shit been consciously accepted or modified for the sake of specific goals. Yet there is no doubt that, between the instincts inherited from our genotype and the rules inspired by reason, the piling of unconscious rules remains more important and more effective beca mapping reason itself is a product rather than a cause of cultural evolution. Claude Lvi-Strauss, 1983.Culture means the unhurt complex of traditional behavior which has been developed by the human race and is successively learnt by each coevals. A culture is slight precise. It can mean the forms of traditional behavior which are characteristic of a given society, or of a group of societies, or of a certain race, or of a certain area, or of a certain period of time. Margaret Mead, 1937.Culture is the integral whole consisting of implements and consumers goods, of constitutional charters for the various social groupings, of human ideas and crafts, beliefs and customs. Whether we con sider a very simple or primitive culture or an extremely complex and developed one, we are confronted by a vast apparatus, part material, partly human, and partly spiritual, by which man is able to cope with the concrete specific problems that face him. Bronislaw Malinowski, 1944.Culture embraces all the manifestations of social behavior of a community, the reactions of the individual as modify by the habits of the groups in which he lives, and the product of human activities as determined by these habits. Franz Boas, 1930.Characteristics of CultureCulture is learnt as soon as we are in contact with other members of our culture, we start learning all almost it therefore, we can assume that culture is learnt rather than inherited biologically. A human being will learn the culture of the society where he is raised thus, a person that is born in Australia would not practise the same culture if he had been born in Poland. In this context we are different from animals since they are biologically built in a way that they will know how to abide and act naturally even if they grew in isolation.Culture is shared if culture is learnt, we can state that it is also shared. We share all knowledge among the members of the same society. This way we pass on the standards of our culture along years keeping it alive. As we are social beings, we have a high tendency of sharing and this feature let us improve as a whole. By sharing we provide the necessary tools that are used for a gentle adaptation in all stages and environments we go through in our lives.Culture is integrated culture itself is not a single unit. It is a complex whole in which every feature that characterizes it has an important role that makes that culture distinctive and peculiar. All these features function integrated and not separately from one another. This way when a feature changes, it affects to the whole system making it also swift.Culture is dynamic there are some reasons such as population grow th, technological innovation, environmental crisis, intrusion of outsiders, allowance of behaviour, etc that have made cultures change. That is why cultures must be flexible and dynamic in order to adapt constantly to the new changes and avoid repression of his members.Culture is based on symbols culture has been transmitted among its members along the years through a set of different symbols. Symbols are then the instrument used to pass on culture and keep it alive from generation to generation, and language is the most important one.Functions of CultureAccording to Bronislaw Malinowski (1884 1942) the function of culture is to fulfill certain biological and psychological needs people share.Cultures are expected to fulfill certain functions in order to lead a society successfully and some of them might me stock warrant the biological continuity of its members.Provide practical means to pass on knowledge among members.Meet the psychological and emotional needs of its members.Being flexible abounding in order to survive the increasing shifting conditions.Offer strategies for the rational production and distribution of goods and services considered necessary for life.Provide an organised and diverse social structure so that all its members can fit in it and also understand the world in their own means.Facilitate social interactions among its members and offer mediocre ways to avoid or resolve conflicts that might rise within the group as well as with outsiders.Allow human beings to adapt the environment to their own purposes. Social interactions do not refer to only relationships among human beings but also and deeply with genius. The survival of all cultures depends on the way they use and treat nature.A well-working culture is the one that satisfies the different groups within the society as equally as achievable thus, its individual members can all have access to the resources available in the community and achieve their personal and collective goals. T his will avoid the members to feel unsafe and unattached therefore, they will not good fall into anti-social behaviours, such as violence, crime, suicide, depression, abuse of drugs, etc.Enculturation and AcculturationEvery single culture is learnt by their members and transmitted from person to person and from generation to generation to avoid its absolute disappearance. The most important instrument used to carry this out is language. The process of passing on knowledge among people is what we call enculturation. This process is vital to underwrite the survival of the culture, but it is also significant to do it in the most smoothly manner to avoid any open frame among members and also among the features of the culture being transmitted.Enculturation let us understand the past so that we can make a better sense of the posit and therefore plan a more sustainable future for the welfare of our species. This process also gives us the opportunity to find out more about ourselves ou r ancestors and origin where the way we think and perceive the world, our values and beliefs come from.When enculturation is carried out in the proper manner, the members of all cultures grow up closer to their past, renewing the core values that make their cultures unique and distinct from all others. They also grow up in an environment characterized by the deep pride of be to one particular culture and behave with strong ideas of maintaining their culture alive albeit the irrevocable changes they must go through.There is also another phenomenon that cultures might experience, consisting on the absorption of one culture over another one, called acculturation. This usually happens when industrialized or capital societies influence highly over traditional small societies to the promontory of modifying them completely. Once they are in contact, the former shapes and converts the latter one. The small society adopts the culture of the powerful one as the final outcome. This process is similar to that of colonization. It is especially more noticeable now that we live in a globalized world where the small societies are usually the most affected ones.Ethnocentrism and cultural relativismThere is generally a bad habit of criticising other peoples behaviour but most of all to judge the way other cultures function. When we find ourselves interacting with people from other cultures, or simply see it on the media we get surprised by the different manners they behave, think and express in similar situations. There is nothing wrongly with comparing cultures, in fact, this way we learn more about others and value ours, too. We must keep in mind that when comparing, we should adopt an unbiased position in order to understand the best way possible why other people do things in the way they do, and avoid unsupported preconceptions.The term that refers to what it is mentioned in the paragraph above is ethnocentrism the belief that the way that ones own culture functions is the only proper and correct one, while all others are wrong.In order to avoid making fast judgements or simply incorrect conclusions anthropologists, when studying cultures, always put into practice what they call cultural relativism which is the idea that we must suspend or postpone judgement of other peoples practices until we acquire a full understanding of the culture in which we are interested so as to understand them in their own cultural terms. It is important to clarify that in this process what it is done is to put off ones judgement towards another culture, it is neither precipitated nor cancelled. Through cultural relativism it is possible to hold our judgements and perceptions about the culture being observed to the last stage in order to take down accurate data and keep legitimate records furthermore, avoid preconceptions influenced by ethnocentrism.ConclusionAlong history not only humans have changed, but also the way we live. In our search for a better and more comfo rtable world for us to inhabit we have made an irrational and abusive use of natural resources. We have damaged nature to such extreme points to threaten our own survival. Most of the societies around the world, influenced by the western fashion have turned into very consumerist ones the ideas and values that used to mountain range societies together are now stirring political discomfort and creating social inequality because the leaders and members of our societies are more tented to achieve personal and individual net profit at any cost to work collectively so that every member can accomplish his personal and collective needs.The process of changing is unbeatable everything needs to keep changing constantly to stay alive therefore a culture that does not adjust its features simple disappears. The most important affected feature of a culture is its language. Language is that particular faculty that differentiates us from animals and makes us a unique and rational species.Through language we humans are able to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas and most importantly to transmit our culture from one generation into another one, assuring its survival along years. Many languages have already disappeared, mainly as a result of the process of acculturation and with the languages, also ways of thinking, expressing, seeing, perceiving are gone. This way the world becomes small and intrinsic, losing authenticity and variety provided for the distinct and diverse manners of receiving, understanding, analyzing, shaping and living this world.For a culture to survive is not enough to shift. It should do it in a way that it can guarantee that its members will satisfy their biological and social needs thus, the whole society will feel competent and safe therefore, it will behave proudly and in return to keep it alive.