Pagel (2014) defines culture asset of beliefs, values, norms, and practices being by a certain community while the cultural relativism is the understanding of a person’s behaviors, values, norms and values based on his/her cultural background. Culture entails all aspect of human civilization and social life . Therefore , some scholars argue that culture is like a lens through which people use to view the world (Ferris, & Stein, 2018). In sociology, the cultural relativism is the principle of considering the beliefs, values, norms, and practices of culture from the cultural perspectives as opposed to anything else. This , therefore, means people must understand their beliefs, values, norms, and practices based on their cultural perspectives but not to use one different culture to judge the other. Culture has a variety of components, and the major ones include symbols, language, norms, values, beliefs customs, traditions, food, sports, art, music, dress, technology, objects, religion, education, families, government, economics, etc. (Ferris & Stein, 2018). Language as a cultural aspect is very important because it makes the social interaction between people possible and this greatly affects the way people apprehend of objects and concepts.
There are several types of cultures across the world; however, the most fascinating and interesting cultures across the world may include the Huli (Papua New Guinea), Kazakhs (Kazakhstan), Rabari (India), Loba (Nepal) and Gauchos (South Africa). Moreover, other interesting cultures in the world include Muslim and Hindu. The most known culture among the Muslims is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) which is the cultural practice of cutting women’s clitoris with the aim of reducing their libidos before they get married. In practicing FGM, the Muslims believe that unmarried girls would experience lack of appetite for sexual activities thus barring them from engaging in prostitution or having irresponsible sexual behaviors before they are married. In addition , they believe that even after being married, such women would not engage in adultery since they have reduced libidos making them stick to their husbands. However, the Human rights activists and various religious groups who argue that it is a form of violence against women have demonized FGM.
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Pagel (2014) argues that the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has both psychological and physical problems. Women usually suffer serious Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after undergoing FGM. This sometimes results in extreme emotional stress leading to mental illness for such women. In fact, to the most extreme cases, cutting off women clitoris causes over-bleeding which finally leads to the death of women. Several women from the communities that practices FGM across the world, for example, the Muslim community often experience the death of young girls due to cutting . Further research has also associated FGM with certain cervical diseases such as cancer making several countries across the world to illegalize the practice terming it unhealthy and unfit for women. Another cultural practice that has attracted several concerns across the world among certain communities is the practice of incest where sex between fathers and daughters and other members of the family is encouraged. One of the communities that practice this kind of cultural belief is the Thonga tribe of East Africa where a father is expected to have sex with his daughter before going to out to hunt a lion. However, this kind of cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation and incest among others have been termed barbaric and oppressive to women by several women rights movement agencies, human rights activists and religious groups. Currently, several awareness campaigns are going on across the world against barbaric cultures like Female Genital Mutilation, incest, etc. because they castigate violence against women.
The debate about whether there is an American culture or not have attracted several historians and anthropologies with some of them argue such culture does not exist while others believe that the American culture is purely the Western culture (Pagel, 2014). The American society is made up of a variety of racial groups which are mainly white Americans and black Americans. The American culture is said to have begun long before America becomes a country and this culture is comprised with different types of elements that include arts, social characteristics, folklore, cuisine, languages, dialects, music, etc. The world has also become a global village where people move from one continent to the other, and this might have influenced the America culture so much making a larger part of the country to hold European or western beliefs, values, norms, and practices.
A global culture is a kind of culture that transcends national boundaries making it spread across the entire world (Pagel, 2014). The emergence of modern means of communication has facilitated the pace at which people share information that makes the global culture to spread very fast across the world. For example, the use of telephones, fax machines, e-mails and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. has made it very easy for people across the world to share values, beliefs and cultures thus leading to the formation of a global culture (Pagel, 2014). This is also what is referred to as the globalization of culture, and it has made people abandon their cultural beliefs and borrow others thus leading to cultural corrosion. Indeed cultural corrosion has been experienced in several parts of the world where civilizations such as Westernization have greatly affected. Moreover, globalization of culture has made certain cultures to extinct and anthropologists predict that cultural extinction is likely to continue across the world due to the rapid transformation of information technology.
References
Culture. (n.d). [PowerPoint presentation].
Ferris, K., & Stein, J. (2018). The Real World. 6 th ed . W. W. Norton & Company
Pagel M. (2014). Does globalization mean that we will become one culture? Retrieved at http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120522-one-world-order
