Culture is a way of life that guides people’s behaviour. It comprises of social habits, beliefs, customs, and languages. Through culture, people can develop a sense of belonging, personal growth and ability to relate with others in a proper manner (Erdman, 2018). Apart from individual growth, it cuts across the society where everyone benefits either socially or economically. However, different groups in the world adopt a unique culture, and every group has a particular cultural behaviour that identifies them uniquely. Some of the known world cultures include Islam culture, Western Culture, Asian culture, Arab culture, Indosphere, and Sinosphere. All types of culture are influenced by their specific cultural patterns that have every individual adopt common knowledge, skills, and ideas.
In this article, Islam culture will be the main topic of discussion. It is evident that Islam is a broad culture with many representations across the world. Islam covers almost 30% of the world population, 1.7 billion (Erdman, 2018). As a religion which is also their belief, they are said to make the second-largest world religion tradition after Christianity. There are many diverse Muslim cultural groups, and these groups are, the American Islam, Middle East, American, Asian, African, and European Islam. Culture greatly motivates each of their traditions and values. Though there are a few variations that exist on their customs and traditions.
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Erdman (2018) states that Islam religion also plays a greater part in identifying their culture. As many scholars would suggest, their religion is acceptable, and most of their practices are guided by the same. Muslims believe in Holy Scripture, One God, Prophets, and the Great Judgment Day. They use all these elements as the way of offering obedience, giving charity and giving care and love to the segregated persons and being responsible as the Creator would want (Erdman, 2018). Also, Islam is a strict religion with confined codes and laws as it focuses on balancing personal and public life.
Muslims have a tradition of celebrations. Their two popular celebrations are Eid-Ul-Adha and Eid-Ui-Fitr. However, before the celebrations begin, they believe in the month of Ramadan which is in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar (Peach, C., & Vertovec, 2016). During this time, fasting takes place, and most of the time they avoid consuming food and drinking from the dawn time until sunset. However, at this time, their main agenda is to practice forgiveness and remain responsible for the needy throughout the year. According to Djait (2017), after Ramadan has ended, Eid-Ui-Fitr begins which is the celebration that marks the end of fasting. Then Eid-Ul-Adha which happens on the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar commemorates Abraham’s obedience to God.
It is a custom in the Islamic culture that everyone removes shoes while entering the house. It is a form of cleanliness especially when the shoes or sandals are dusty. As it has been a practice since time immemorial, some shoes are for indoors purposes. They only wear them while in the house, and no one is allowed to walk with them outside (Djait, 2017). As for guests, they are only allowed to enter with their shoes when advised accordingly with their hosts. Though when it is matters of emergency, the responders may not follow the custom.
Another belief is derailing people from drawing the visuals of prophets. Such an action within the Muslims is considered sensitive, and in several instances, it has caused many controversies (Djait, 2017). Therefore, drawing any visuals representing the prophets is regarded as disrespect and the tradition condemns such actions. However, the main reason for discouraging the act is to discourage Muslims from idol worshipping of any manner. They follow this by the concept of monotheism which is a central belief of Islam. Thus, Muslims only present the physical appearance of the prophets by the historical texts from the Holy Scriptures.
According to Denzin (2016), symbolic interaction theory focuses on the relationship among individuals in a society. For example, to achieve such, communication must be included since it is the exchange of symbols and language that give meaning. Thus, it is the only way that people can make sense when it comes to the social world. According to experts, the theory refers to people as the only elements that define and shapes the society other than simply actions.
George Herbert was the founder of symbolic interaction theory in the year 1931. He never published it, but his student later developed three basic pieces of evidence that explained the theory better (Vannini, 2016). First, he claimed that humans interact with things depending on the meanings attributed to them. Secondly, the meaning of these things come from the way of interaction humans have with the society and other people. Then the last evidence is when he claimed that the meanings of the objects come from the circumstances that humans encounter (Denzin, 2016). For example, when one reads an article, he or she can testify that the article was important in the interactions he was involved with the people in school or parents.
Various scholars apply the idea of symbolic interaction theory to identify specific interaction patterns amongst individuals. Their major concern is observing the one-on-one interaction. For example, in cases of political protests, symbolic interactionist would be more concerned on the way people interact during the time of the protest. Also, they may be interested in the signs and symbols the protesters use to communicate as well. Vannini (2016) claims that there are major benefits of using symbols as far as developing society is concerned. Due to this, sociologists developed a technique known as dramaturgical analysis.
Symbolic interaction theory explains how culture is created and maintained by the way people interact. Also, how people interpret others actions. This means it is a continuous process used to derive a certain meaning from both actions of others and the things within the environment or the society. For example, in Islamic culture, language acts as a way of communicating and interpreting the meanings of objects or actions to others (Denzin, 2016). Thus, to any individual who believes in the theory, understands that culture is highly dynamic and unsolidified. It is dependent on how a person interprets the meaning and interacts the when laying off the meanings.
As culture is more of consciousness, it is not different from action and interaction. The culture at large addresses how people should adopt various understandings, meanings, and roles. In most cases, this would be about communication. Culture, on the other hand, explains the values and beliefs of individuals and what are contained in it to make individuals relate to their actions. Therefore, as one would refer to Islamic culture beliefs, their actions are guided with their language, religion, and traditions.
References
Denzin, N. K. (2016). Symbolic interactionism. The international encyclopedia of communication theory and philosophy, 1-12.
Djait, H. (2017). Islamic Culture in Crisis: A Reflection on Civilizations in History. Routledge.
Erdman, K. (2018). Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutes and Organizations across Nations. Macat Library.
Peach, C., & Vertovec, S. (Eds.). (2016). Islam in Europe: The politics of religion and community. Springer.s
Vannini, P. (2016). Body/embodiment: Symbolic interaction and the sociology of the body. Routledge.
