2007 12 Culture

Culture

Every person born on earth comes into a culture. It could be American, Korean, Baganda, British, Serbian, Polynesian, Chinese or many other choices. In civilized society the culture is synonymous with the tacitly understood rules governing thought and action. If you were born to Maori society several hundred years ago, your view of the world would have been substantially different than if you were born in the Massachusetts Commonwealth at the same time.

So why is it that we human beings, who are genetically ninety nine percent the same, attribute so much importance to the color of our skin, the religion we were taught and the customs we practice based on where we were raised?

When we speak of cultured events we often think of that which is sophisticated, refined or elegant. But some cultural traditions are anything but refined. For example, many European settlers of the American continent called Natives “savages”. The settlers were by all respects invaders of these native lands. They were out to claim for their own land which had no legal title. These settlers felt threatened when natives defended their space and way of life. One way to justify killing natives was to call them savages. Stories of the great migration westward are full of references to the plains covered with buffalo and redskins. Several accounts relate how in a single day they killed both buffalo and savages with their rifles. There was no different emotion associated with killing a human being and an animal. We have since learned how wonderful and sophisticated the native society was. Yet the settlers came from traditions of great scientific and technical advances which added up in their eyes to a high society of world travel, education, art, music and commerce.

Corporate culture is what allows greed and graft to sneak into the workplace. Or, by contrast, it allows for orderly and ethical procedures to protect the common good. On the greed side, corporations are replete with examples of chief executives reaping millions of dollars in bonuses each year. They justify their positions by making decisions which affect either the profit or loss of a corporation. More often than not, they are tied to short term results in the market price which allow for generous stock option purchases at reduced strike prices. That gives them more power as they then control more shares and have more votes to make shareholder decisions which benefit themselves at the expense of both the buyer of the company’s products and the other shareholders who had to pay full price for a piece of the action. On the ethical side are executives who truly represent the best interests of the customer and only incidentally are interested in how it affects their personal bottom line. Examples of this are, I believe, certain Mutual companies…owned by customers and always keeping the customer in mind when making corporate decisions.

During High school I came in contact with a culture very different from my own. A student from Uganda came to live with my family. His name was Andrew S. Babumba Kyeyune. We called him Andy. He had a beautiful black complexion. Living in the same house for a year was a great experience for both of us. Andy described one experience of his Baganda tribe which demonstrates how different our cultures were. While he was from Kampala, a fairly large metropolis, he told us how his tribe would dig a pit in the ground, line it with broad leaves, fill it with bananas and other fruits, let it ferment and then ladle up the juices for a three day drinking and dancing festival. All ages participated in this community event. Subsequent to this fun, a brutal dictator came to power in Uganda and slaughtered many of the society’s best educated members. I’m afraid Andy may have been one of the casualties to this brutality, as I have not heard from him in at least twenty years. It is also possible that he didn’t live past his life expectancy…37 years. If he were alive today, he’d be 60. (Amendment as of October 2009. I have now heard from Andy and he is indeed alive. I hope possibly to visit him some day.)

For some reason, people throughout history have defined themselves by race. Even if a casual outsider would consider two individuals who look about the same to be of the same culture, many misunderstandings can occur by broad generalizations attributed to race. For example, to a Caucasian, a Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese or Korean might appear to be from the same culture. Yet their languages, animosities stemming from historical conflicts, and religious practices are radically different. Within the United States, race has (and still does) play a significant role in how we look at each other. Regrettably, walking down a lonely dark alley and meeting someone evokes different connotations depending on the color of their skin. While legislators have worked hard to make racial equality a reality, the true character of a culture by race comes from how hard individuals within a given race work to gain a reputation of honesty, trustworthiness, integrity and predictability. Every race has its demons. Every race has its shining stars. So why we retain false stereotypical impressions along racial lines is irrational yet prevalent. I for one prefer to not mark the box when a survey asks for “race”. I could not control what “race” I was born into. Why does it even matter? Asking the question only begs for a continuation of age old conflicts by marking quotas and arbitrarily defining our society not by the contributions of talented individuals, but by the color of their skin which is impossible for any individual to control.

One thing under our control is manners. Manners are learned rules which each culture passes on from generation to generation in an effort to control our behavior and define our interactions. In many Asian cultures, the bow of the head upon greeting and parting shows respect. In America, the handshake has a similar meaning. In Europe the dual cheek kiss is an accepted greeting. The same greeting in America would signal greater intimacy than the European greeting intended. Those salutation clues can assist you in discerning a person’s cultural origin. During our formative years, each of us grows up in a culture where our parents or other adult caregivers remind us to “mind our manners”—the code of conduct. In one culture, it is impolite to talk to someone without looking them in the eye. In another culture, looking directly at a person is uncomfortable. In one culture, the veil is of utmost importance. In another, the veil would feel strange.

The veil is often seen in the context of Islam. Religion, by its very nature, influences how a person thinks and what relationship a person has to the world. Moral systems are a big part of religion. Those systems define when a person can date, get married, have children, use certain substances (like communion) and go to war. These systems are designed in such a way that they put order into what otherwise could be a chaotic society. I am convinced that religion is a useful tool to order society when used properly. It can also be a terrible mask to truth—generating hate and bias when not used properly. Religion based on a claim to a truth which professes to be universal for everyone is often blinded by a zeal for that truth, which may in fact not be the truth. Many cultures develop their own “brand” of religion to explain human existence and human relationships. Often a sub-culture will get focused on a detail of a religion, breaking from the “mainstream” in an effort to be right. That is why we have so many splinters from the base religions of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and so forth. With the exception of Hinduism, it is interesting to note that whatever claim to God each religion has comes through a person—Christ, Mohammed, Buddha. Hinduism is more a way of life than a religion.

The isolated Huichol in Mexico, have developed their understanding of the world through four deities: Corn, Blue Deer, Peyote and the Eagle…all descended from the Sun God. This remarkable society has resisted change from the modern world in many ways, from maintaining their stick-in-the-soil agriculture to the method of making important decisions by consensus in town meetings. Also known as Wixarika, the Huichol people have developed a highly artistic culture of weaving, beadwork and fabric sculpture which defines to some degree their value to the rest of the world. Many other societies could learn from Wixarika better ways of communicating, resolving conflicts and enjoying life.

Recently we visited South Korea. That culture is superbly energetic and industrious. Having had a conflict with their neighbors to the north some fifty years ago which continues in an uneasy truce to this day, they have overcome poverty and hunger to become one of the most prosperous countries in the world. Every bit of land we saw was being effectively used. Dwellings were compact high-rises, saving the arable land for agriculture. Train systems are efficient and inexpensive. The KTX—high speed rail from Seoul to Busan and back—is quiet and efficient…sometimes going 300 kilometers an hour. What prompted this culture to thrive in contrast to its northern neighbor even though they started at virtually the same point historically? One developed an alliance with the “West” and the other with the “East”. These were cultural decisions…a democratic or centrally controlled government. Each was virtuous in their ideals. Each was willing to sacrifice in order to prevail.

So culture, a word derived from the Latin cultura, meaning to cultivate, is a complex subject involving politics, geography, language, art, commerce, religion, norms and values. It involves how people dress, how they understand their world and how they view tradition. It defines how people survive in the midst of competition from weather, geography, neighbors or competing philosophies. Culture can be sustained by maintaining tradition within a society which supports that tradition (monoculturism) or which allows tradition without conflict (multiculturism). Immigration plays a role in whether a culture becomes a melting pot, such as in the United States. That is where the cultures become mixed together without a government dictating what is culturally acceptable. Marriage and inter-cultural marriage create new variations of culture. In some societies, inter-cultural marriage is not only frowned upon, but political or religious laws prohibit the practice. In those cultures, I believe that fear of change is the driving motivator rather than a confidence of ideals. Gender roles are often defined culturally, which either enhances choice of endeavor or stifles it.

Culture is important for human survival. Culture can either get in the way of—or make possible—artistic creativity, commerce, scientific, religious and political understanding. May culture in all its forms thrive!
©Frank Bliss 2007 All rights reserved December, 2007