Culture - From the Sociological Point

Everyone has been born and raised a certain way. Every single person learned the ways and absorbed the information that he or she was exposed to since early childhood. Most of us do not remember our earliest memories, but the knowledge that we acquired since we were kids is what makes us who we are. The customs and traditions that we practice are a large part of our Culture. Culture includes everything: customs, language, material objects, as well as the way we view the rest of the world. In The Nature of Culture, a video, Culture is broken down using specific examples.
History provides us with many examples of encounter of different cultures. In today’s world we encounter different cultures on a daily basis. Years ago, when travel was much more difficult the confrontations were not as common and when they occurred they were more intense. For instance, the film speaks of the reaction of the Spanish who came to the “new world.” The Spanish conquerors have never seen anything like that before and the idea of cultural relativism was clearly present in their description of the Native Americans. They were questioning themselves: who are these people? Why do they dress in such a weird way? In their description the Spanish looked at the natives with ethnocentrism; they called them savaged and were convinced that they were inferior. Right away they began to dictate the natives and began to establish themselves as the dominant culture; they were more powerful than the Indians.
Sometimes we do not even have to look back into history in order to find examples of cultures that change. Present-day Kenya is a country that is going through a phase of change. The people in Kenya believe that God created men and cattle at the same time; it is an important aspect of their nonmaterial culture. People of Kenya, especially the Boran people, move with their cattle in search for pasture. Their culture is persistent, but just like any culture it changes over time. The government of Kenya wants to modernize the country and is therefore introducing new technology. The Boran people are experiencing culture lag; they are struggling to adjust to those changes. The government also wants the kids to start attending schools which is a complete cultural shock to the people. The society is going through a time of transformation and it definitely won’t be an easy process.
The Nature of Culture is a film that speaks to our imagination. It opens our eyes to see the bigger picture, Culture, which is ever present in any society. Changes in culture and diffusion are unavoidable. Any culture that wants to survive has to be able to adapt to changes as it is an important attribute for survival. Some cultures die out completely; they simply vanish from the face of the earth because they are unable to keep up with the changing world. When a culture dies it is death to us all, as it removes one block of our existence. Despite our differences and, sometimes, opposing points of view we should offer our aid to any culture that struggles to survive; who knows, maybe in the future the struggling culture will be our culture, what then? Are we going to be just as indifferent when it happens to us?