1. Introduction
Dravidian people practice Dravidian culture. They form the vast populace of South India. Other than India, the Dravidian people have also spread in parts of Asia such as Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal. In the third century BCE, they lived in large empires such as Chalukya, Pandyan, Hoysala, Pallava, and other minor kingdoms such as Chera, Eastern Ganga, Western Ganga, Sena, Reddy, Jaffna, Mysore, and many more (Nath, 2013). They have trading organizations and Medieval Tamil guilds like the Maningramam and Ayyavole that played a crucial role in the Southeast Asia trade. Religious leaders and traders also traveled to Southeast Asia to represent their culture. Dravidians developed local scripts such as Pallava script and Grantha that entailed many native writings like Javanese Kawi script, Thai, Khmer, and Baybain. Even though colonization was meant to change people’s individualistic culture and generate one, Dravidians remain disunited in their sub-groups or languages. As much Dravidians can be in one nation such as India, they still fight against themselves for power, thus explaining the many sub-cultures of India from the prehistoric times.
2. Brief History
The majority of the populace in the Indian subcontinent before the second millennium were the Dravidians. They lived in South of India in areas like Tulu, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam. They are one of the major cultures in the world. However, their origin remains unclear. Some authors claim that Dravidians existed before the Indo-Aryan thus resulting in the making of Indus Valley civilization. Others argue that Dravidians came after the Indo-Aryan and displaced them (Nath, 2013). Sources indicate that the Dravidians were civilized earlier than the Aryans because of the craftsmanship skills that they portrayed in the 1920s (Nath, 2013). They also practiced farming and animal keeping, and during trade, they used coins. They adapted quickly to an advanced city life compared to the Aryans.
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3. Cultural Context
Historically, the United States has been known as a place that accommodates all languages. However, it is also known for its language or culture extinction; the U.S. is good at eliminating immigrants’ mother tongue and replacing it with English. For instance, in 1910, nearly 10 million people recorded a mother tongue other than U.S.’s English, mainly Italian, German, Polish and Yiddish (Rumbaut & Massey, 2013, p. 141). The succeeding end of corpus immigration from Europe part of the world led to fading of language and culture diversity. However, in 2010, 60 million people spoke other languages other than English, notably Spanish (Rumbaut & Massey, 2013, p. 141). This change implies that there is a possibility of Dravidians population in the United States.
Culture entails morals, laws, beliefs, customs, arts, and habits obtained by members of a given society (JUNGHARE, 2015, P. 406). People are born without culture but learn and adapt to the existing culture in the community that nurtures them. Culture and language are inseparable hence they are acquired at the same time. All cultures and languages evolve making the original ones become the traditional ones. When a group of Aryans settled in Maharashtra as traders or colonists, they met a large population of Dravidians. Instead of the Aryans embracing the Dravidians language, they corrupted it and named it Marathi then placed it as a trade language amid them and the Dravidians (JUNGHARE, 2015, P. 407). The Dravidian culture of the Indians is classified as both collectivism and individualistic (JUNGHARE, 2015, P. 407). Collectivism because Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, and other languages of India represent the traditional culture of Indians. However, when the Dravidians and other Indian populations interacted with the West and gained economic independence and English education, they graduated to individualism.
Dravidian architecture was completed in the sixteenth century. It is referred to as Hindu temple architecture that bears primarily Hindu temples with a dominating feature of a high gatehouse. It is one of the ancient styles of building in Vastu Shastra, an old book (Nath, 2013). Their music and dances can be traced to the third century BCE (Nath, 2013). The ancient system of music was described as Cliappatikaram. The theatre dances have a deep history that dates back to nearly two millennia that entail dances such as Pandarangam and Kotukotti that exist in the ancient poems known as Kalingathu Parani.
Culture is a value for most people. For an individual to trace his or her roots, one has to identify to a particular lifestyle to gain a sense of belonging (Nath, 2013). The cultural values of the Dravidians culture entail their language, architecture and theatre dances. Even though the Aryans joined them as traders, they did not embrace the Aryans language but allowed them to borrow their own. They value their theatre dances such as Pandarangam and Kotukotti thus explaining why they are included in their poems; to pass to their offspring. Hinduism is the dominant faith of the Dravidians that is alienated by their temple construction style.
4. Sex and Gender Roles
Gender roles date back to the early history where both sexes had different tasks assigned to them. In Dravidian’s culture, most of the domestic functions were attached to women. For instance, women played a crucial role in agriculture to ensure the production of foods for both short-term and long-term bases. They were also left to hunt. They have almost equal privileges as men. They used the term ‘ma’ to refer to mother.
5. Acculturation
The direct changes that occur to an individual’s culture that leads to domination over another culture either through political or military conquest are known as acculturation (Gardner, 2016, p. 201). First, there is no information on the origin of the Dravidians culture hence it is difficult to alienate the changes that have taken place in it since its birth. The primary information know is that the Dravidians are mainly in the southern part of India. There are four main languages of the Dravidians that include Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada that date back to the pre-historic era.
6. Conclusion
Even though colonization was meant to change people’s individualistic culture and generate one, Dravidians remain disunited in their sub-groups or languages. First, the origin of the Dravidians remains unknown because there is no information about the root of this culture. When the Aryans colonists or traders, a sub-group of Indian community just like the Dravidians met the Dravidians, they were reluctant to embrace the Dravidians language. Instead, they borrowed some words to form Marathi, the trade language. Their reluctance denotes struggle for power among the subcultures of India. There is a possibility of some Dravidians in the U.S. due to the increasing number of non-English speakers. The culture of Dravidians is both individualistic and collectivism. Collectivism because the Aryans corrupted the Dravidians to form the trade language and individualistic when the Dravidians interact with the West to gain economic independence and education. The artistic of the Dravidians is evident in the temple structure that denotes Hinduism and their main cultural religion. They also value their theatre dances and language. Women have equal rights as men in the Dravidians culture.
References
Gardner, P. M. (2016). South Indian foragers’ acculturation in the deep past. Hunter Gatherer Research , 2 (2), 199-219. doi:10.3828/hgr.2016.16
JUNGHARE , I. Y. (2015). LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION: INDIA. International Conference RCIC'15 , 405 - 413. Retrieved from https://www.afahc.ro/ro/rcic/2015/rcic'15/AP/Junghare.pdf
Nath, R. M. (2013). The back-ground of Assamese culture .
Rumbaut, R. G., & Massey, D. S. (2013). Immigration & Language Diversity in the United States. Daedalus , 142 (3), 141-154. doi:10.1162/daed_a_00224
