Culture, Components & Major Relms Flashcards
What is Culture, its classical definition.
According to E.B Taylor, “ Culture is that complex whole which includes customs, beliefs, knowledge, art, moral, etc, which is accquired by man as the member of a society “.
Culture is various material and non-material aspects of life, which a man accquires due to him being part of a particular society.
Culture has two distinctive aspects, material and non-material, material aspects of culture are foods, cloths, etc. while the non-material culture includes ideas and thoughts.
Components Of Culture.
There are 5 different components of culture :
1] Cultural Trait - A learned system of beliefs, customs, traditions that are passed from one generation to another. There are 7 primary cultural trait. A person develop cultural trait due to his presence in an society of a particular cultural trait.
2] Cultural Complex - Combination of different cultural trait in distinctive ways.
3] Cultural System - A group of inter-related Cultural Complexes.
4] Cultural Region - A part of earth surface that has common cultural elements and has distinctive cultural authority from other regions.
5] Cultural Relm - A geographical region where cultural trait maintains homogenity, and are supposed to be product of regional geographical circumstances.
Brock Webb and Major and Minor Cultural Relms of the World.
Brock Webb tried to establish the dominance of a particular phenomenon over the evolution of cultural landscape, for this purpose he divided the earth into 4 major and 2 minor cultural relms. He found out that the role of religion on the culture of a particular region is tremendous.
4 Major Cultural Relms of the World :
1] Occidental - it is further divided into 6 parts
a) West European
b) Continental
c) Mediteraninan
d) Anglo-American
e) Australian
f) Latin American
2] Islamic
3] Indic
4] East-Asian
minor cultural relms :
1] South-East asian
2] Negro African
Occidental Relm and its divisions
Occidental culture is European Culture. This region is particularly dominated by christianity. There are regional variations because of the level of industrialization, modernization, etc. In the post-Industrialization period, the religious and traditional values are declining. Due to the vast extent of this region it is further sub-divided into 6 parts.
A] West-European Culture : It is an developed, industrialized and urbanized culture
B] Continental Culture : It is also an developed culture, but religions plays an important role.
C] Mediterranian Culture : This culture is very much influenced by Christianity, it is said to be the cause for their slow economic development.
D] Anglo-American Culture : It is an highly developed culture, where the traditional ideas are declining and are being replaced by modern thoughts.
E] Australian Culture : It is off-spring of west-European culture, with some regional variations.
F] Latin-American : This region is under-developed and is included in occidental culture because its population accepted Christianity because of their colonializers.
Islamic Culture Relm
This culture is highly influenced by Islamic values. It extends from Morocco in the west till Pakistan in the east. This culture is based on orthodoxy and traditional religious beliefs, because of which high illiteracy rates and low development can be witnessed.
Indic Culture
This refers to the culture of the Indian sub-continent. This culture is well defined, it extends from the Himalayas in the north till the Kanyakumari in the south. The features of this culture are, paddy cultivation, caste system, rainy season coming at the same time all over the region, etc. This culture is influenced by various communities, but the impact of Vedic society can be seen.
East-Asian Culture
This culture is influenced by Buddhism, with some regional variations. True Buddhist influence can be witnessed in South Korea and Japan. but, this culture is marked by modernization and industrialization.
South-East Asian Culture :
This culture is marked by various cultural differences. The influence of Buddhism can be seen in Mayanmar, Thailand & Veitnam.
Influence of Hinduism can be seen in Indonesia.
Influence of Islamic Culture can be seen in Malaysia & Indonesia.
Meso-African Culture
This culture is also known as Negro Culture, it is very scattered and isolated, this culture is marked by extreme poverty, marginalization and backwardness. This culture includes tropical Africa
