Friday, November 16, 2012

Culture: Polemic


So what is the purpose of traditions?  What is the purpose of culture, other than an identity of belonging in a particular group?

Is it okay to say that some part of a culture aren’t ‘in’ anymore, that it is not good enough to keep, and discard it?

It confuses me.
  
Culture is formed through years and years and thought by people from who knows when. Maybe some of them aren’t making sense anymore, because mind develops; science proves things wrong and right, norms and values changes too.

So there is part of culture that is just... judged as inhuman, judged as inappropriate and against what is held universally. Does this mean they deserved to be discarded?

There are also things that are part of culture that don’t make any sense (like a lot of other things), but it holds sentimentality towards its member. Maybe they don’t give any harm like the previous culture, but you know. They don’t make sense. They are useless. Useless except that they give them some sort of comfort or whatever. Does this mean they can be considered as discard-able?

I don’t know.

Is it okay, to judge whether a particular culture is wrong or right? Nope. No. When you’re studying a culture, you have to keep in mind that there is something behind its actions. There is history of why the culture is there. Nothing is right or wrong. It is just the way it’s done is different and we have to respect that. Appreciate the diversity.

But then.

If we’re stripping cultures off to be better person, better people, better civilization, is it justified?

If we’re discarding rituals and traditions that give people contentment and keep them as a whole for the sake of health or science or national unity, is it justified?

Is it possible to keep every single part of a culture as communication and technology evolve beyond our imagination? And is it justified to strip them one by one just to be more ‘advanced’ than before?

For the sake of improving, from the notion of being better than people from the past, is it okay?

Or is it not? Why?

I am confused.

Does this confusion came from the invasion of norms and ideas where people don’t have and don’t appreciate cultures? Or is it true that cultures hamper people from being better than before?

I don’t know.

I don’t know anymore.