cultural diversity pdf

Le 18- 12- 2013

DOUHA Aziz

Semester 3 Group 2

‘’Cultural diversity’’

Table of Contents

1) Understanding culture

the nature and structure of culture

the dynamics of culture

cultural community

loyalty to culture

cultural interaction

cultural diversity

evaluating cultures

respecting cultures

2) proxemics

culture use of space

culture use of time

3) marriage

monogamy, polygamy and polyandry

wedding ceremonies and customs

wedding includes a religious customs

„‟USA and Canada: „marital status by age and sex‟‟

Age at the first marriage

Roles and relationships in marriage

Conventions and taboos

Arranged marriage

Legal aspects

„same-sex unions and gay marriage‟

Cultural Diversity DOUHA Aziz PROF: OUAFAE BOUZKERI S3_G2

English Studies

Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Meknes 3

Cultural diversity

Understanding culture

1) The nature and structure of culture:

The culture is built up with the meaning and significance of its activities and

relationships.

The meaning of an activity is related to its nature, point and purpose.

The significance of an activity is related to its value and worth.

Meaning and significance are closely related.

Culture is historically created system of meaning and significance.

It is a system of beliefs and practices people understand, regulate and structure their

individual and collective lives.

Culture is based on terms : drug culture, moral, political culture, academic culture,

sexual C,

Types of culture :

Folk culture: it refers to practice and beliefs of ordinary people.

High culture: it refers to the great achievement of the talented minds of society

People of high culture go beyond the general culture of the wider society in its

concern to explore the universal features. Even the talented people are shaped by

their society (language; experience)

Culture is articulated:

It is reflected in the language of a society, which means it is linguistically described in its

structures: syntax; grammar, vocabulary.

It is embodied in its proverbs, maxims, myths, rituals, symbols, customs, traditions, art,

music, written literature and moral life.

It is also articulated in the rules and norms that govern some activities :

How, where, when and with whom one eats associates makes love, mourns and

disposes of the dead.

Culture develops over time : Raymond Williams called it „‟ residual strands of

thoughts‟‟

Culture and morality :

Many writers mistakenly dissociate morality from culture „‟culture is local and morality

is inherently universal‟‟

Morality is related to what kind of life worth living, activities worth pursuing and forms

of human relations worth cultivating.

Culture shapes and structures moral life including its scope, authority emotions


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Many traditional cultures consider human attitude to the nature as a matter of moral

concern

Some cultures believe that food is god‟s gift and a means they eat it is considered

moral.

Some protestant culture stresses the internal dimension of morality and treats it as a

separate aspect of life.

Practices and beliefs

They are different at least in four important respects:

Beliefs: they are necessarily general, vague and amenable to different interpretations.

Practices : they are meant to regulate human conduct and social relations are fairly

determinate and concrete

Beliefs : they are not easy to discover and enforce

Practices: the conformity to them is easily ascertainable and enforceable.

Beliefs: they are pertaining to the realm of thought and they are likely to be influenced

by new idea.

Practices: they are pertaining to the realm of conduct they are likely to be influenced

by new social situation or experience.

Beliefs : the coherence among them is a matter of intellectual consistency

Practices: their coherence is a matter of practical compatibility.

But they are closely related

Culture and society

Society:

Society usually refers to group of people and the structure of their relations

It is also concerned with the structure of practices

It has its own system of sanctions in form of ostracism

Culture:

Culture refers to the content and the organizing and legitimizing principles of relations

For example:

Monogamy: is embedded in the meaning and significance that our culture assigns to

marriage, but person follows it because he respects these beliefs; or did not want to

appear odd.

Culture and religion

Both of them tend to be closely connected because there are few of wholly secular or

humanist culture. In fact, modernity might seem deeply shaped by the values, ideals,

beliefs and myths of Christianity.

Religion plays different roles according to many cultures.


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No culture can be derived from religion

Religion never covers all the aspects of human life; no religion can tell how to eat,

dress, talk, sit, and sleep....

Culture and religion influence each other at various level

Religion shapes a culture‟s system of beliefs and practices.

Some cultures are primarily derived from and heavily dependent on religion. In other

cultures, religion is only one source of influence and it is constantly challenged by

science, and secular morality.

Some people share just few beliefs in society and others share all of them as well as

practices.

The identity of culture is not settled; not all of its aspects change at the same time, like

the identity of an individual.

Culture changes slowly and allows its members time to absorb and adjust to changes

and reconstitute its identity on new basis.

Sometimes cultural change is rapid. In this case, people unable to rely on their cultural

resources to navigate the way.

Individuals experience cultural conflict when a person subscribes to two different

systems of meaning and significance wholly or partially.

1) „‟wholly‟‟: the conflict encompasses all the significant areas of life. Ex: someone who

feels deeply drawn both to the traditional Muslim or catholic and modern secular

views of life, and s/he is unable to reconcile between them.

2) Partially: the conflict is limited to particular areas of life. Ex: one, who is torn

between, traditional Hindus and modern western views of sexuality.

These conflicts can lead to moral confusion and schizophrenia and self-destruction

Languages too share much in common.

Cultures are distinguished from each other by the content of their beliefs and

practices, and the manner in which these are internally related and form reasonably

recognized whole.

Individuals relate to their culture in several different ways. Three are common:

Some people cherish its system of significance and meaning, and seek to lead culturally

authentic lives by scrupulously living up to its ideals of a good father, son, husband...

Some others are more innovative while remaining rooted in their culture

Some other individuals are culturally foot loose because they are not loyal to any

culture. They float freely between several cultures. They also pick up beliefs, practices,

and lifestyle that engage their sympathies. It is a culture of quotations, a babble of

discordant voices. They sometimes rebel against these beliefs and practices but cannot


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reject them altogether for they have no fixed points of reference with which to define

themselves.

Culture boundaries structures our lives give us a sense of rootedness and identity and

provide a point of reference.

Nomadic cultural voyage, driven by a morbid fear of anything that is coherent stable,

has history and involves discipline has no basis on which to decide which boundaries to

transgress, why, what new world to build out of such acts of transgression

2) The dynamics of culture

The culture of any society is closely tied up with its economics, political and other

institutions.

The development of the institutions leads to the development of the culture.

Marx: he gave pride of place to the mode of material production.

Culture did not exist in social vacuum it often performed the ideological role of

legitimizing the prevailing system of economic and political power.

Herber: he believes in the enormous power of economic system.

Montesquieu: he rightly stressed the influence of climate and geography.

Hegel: that of ideas

Weber: that of religion

Each of them went wrong in neglecting the other factors, and neglecting the difference

between societies and historical periods.

Each society organizes and regulates its system of economy according to the meaning

and significance it assigns.

Culture is not a passive inheritance but an active process of creating meaning.

Culture changes in response to several other factors. Technology, conquest, wars,

natural calamities

IKA tribe in Africa was long known for its optimistic view of the world, familial loyalty

and hospitality to strangers Owing to a most tragic famine.

The war also has created the civilisation, as it is known today.

Linda Colley in 1992 has perceptively analysed. How British cultural self-

understanding was profoundly altered by the Napoleonic wars

Marx: articulated with unparalleled acuity that technology is a source of great cultural

changes, every major change in technology affects the process and the relations of

production, hence the economic, political, and cultural organization of society.

As a result, the society requires new forms of discipline, new habits and traits of

temperament.


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o One of the most obvious example is that the changes in meaning and significance of

sexuality.

TV in culture as in India the night activity is to watch TV men and women that lead to

gradual weakening of that traditional distance between the two genders.

3) ‘’Cultural community’’

As people sharing a common language, religion, structure of civilization..., they are

united in terms of a shared culture constitute a cultural community

The Kinds of cultural community

Some people share a religion especially those their culture is derived from religion.

Some other people share ethnicity all cultures tend to have an ethnic basis and every

one may lose its ethnicity when s/he immigrates to another area.

Others share nothing in common save their culture.

Cultural community has two dimensions. „‟Cultural and communal’’.

Cultural: has content in the form of a particular culture.

Communal: it has basis in the form of group of men and women who share that

culture.

They are separated in thoughts and practices

A person may retain one‟s culture but lose or sever ties with one‟s cultural

community.

Ex: the immigrants cherish their culture but it is oppressive or uncongenial.

„‟OUR CULTURE‟‟ this term does not refer to which we born or emigrate or given up

for adaptation... but one which we understand and organize our individual and

collective lives

No cultural communities can be imagined ones.

Some people might watch others films, read their literature... but they cannot form

part of their collective culture, because this influence cannot reshape the system of

their beliefs and practices.

Being raised into a cultural community is to be deeply influenced by its cultural and

communal basis.

Culture catches people at a highly impressionable, plaint stage, and structures their

personality.

They acquire particular habits, prejudices, musical, culinary, sartorial, artistic....

Growing up within a cultural community also means building up common bonds and

developing sense of solidarity with its other members.

One also develops the necessary psychological and moral skills to find one‟s way

around within


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A sense of rootedness and effortless communication are the spontaneous products of

the membership of a cultural community.

The membership of a cultural community has two major consequences.

1. It structures and shapes the individual‟s personality in a certain way and gives it a

content or identity.

2. It embeds him/her within, and identifies with, a particular group of people.

Culture is a system of regulation, it approves or disapproves of certain forms of

behaviours and ways of life__ prescribes rules and norms governing human relation

and activities, and enforce these by means of reward and punishment.

Its system of norms and meaning are not and cannot be neutral between conflicting

interest and aspirations.

Although human beings are shaped by their culture, they are not constituted or

determined by it in the sense of being unable to take a critical view of it or rise above

its constitutive beliefs and practices and reach out to other cultures.

Culture can determines or constitutes only if we assume that culture is a cohesive and

tightly structured wholly that is not itself influenced by anything external to it, and that

individuals are a passive and pliant material devoid of independent thoughts.

People are never plaint passive and devoid of independent resources.

Culture encourages individuals to think critically about the beliefs and practices of

outsiders as part of its self-reproductive mechanism.

4) ‘’Loyalty to culture’’

Prima-facie is idea of loyalty to culture

After the aftermath of the publication of the satanic verse, Edward Said criticized

Salmon-Rushdie for using his intimate knowledge of his community to feed the anti-

Muslim prejudices of the west and sharing all lack of loyalty to it.

Ali Mazrui accused Rushdie of „cultural treason‟

Many African Americans level charges of betrayed and disloyalty against those of their

members who fail to stand up for their community. Turn their backs on it or go over

to the other side and feed the cultural and racist prejudices of the white majority. As a

result, they build a disdainful vocabulary: „cultural scabs‟ „uncle Toms‟ and „coconuts‟

Religion people speak about being true to their religion , and liberals about being loyal

to the principles, values of liberal tradition

Loyalty to (is no different, and refers to loyalty to values ideas, system of meaning and

moral and spiritual sensibilities.

Our culture gives coherence to our lives, resources to make sense of the world,

stabilizes our personality.


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Its art, rituals, songs, stories and literature fill us with inevitable tragedies of life.

During world war two British rightly thought that their way of life was worth dying for

„‟not because they are theirs, but they represented a great human achievement of

universal and permanent value.

We should be loyal because it is profound contribution to our lives.

Tamir 1993: if we think, it has no worth, while ideals, is highly oppressive it has

poorly equipped us for leading the good life or distorted our intellectual and moral

development

No culture is wholly worthless.

It is unlikely to commend the allegiance of its members and last long

Our culture has therefore at least some claim on our loyalty.

If it may be overridden if on balance our judgement of is negative.

Our loyalty to it generates several duties.

1. To cherish the memories of those who creatively contributed to it, and sustained it

during trying times and to exemplify its noblest ideals.

2. To preserve and pass on to succeeding generations what we think valuable in it.

3. Loyalty to culture also involves. Duty to explore, deepen and enrich its resources and

remove its defects “no one is project”, we cannot bound some beliefs and practices

that are perverse and ill.

To love culture is to wish it well.

Loyalty to cultural community is not as to culture because the first implies loyalty not

to ideals, values......., of a culture because the first implies loyalty not to ideals,

values...of culture but to community built around. Ex: to our families, schools....

The loyalty to culture is stronger if community is in danger of disintegration from

external threats. Ex: „‟Jews in the aftermath of Holocaust‟‟.

Dworkin puts it: it is having some duty, out of simple justice, to leave the structure as

we found it 1985

Cultural free riding, nihilism, circumventing cultural, moral constraints in pursuit of

narrow self-interest or gratification of fleeting impulses are surest way to destroy a

cultural community

Mahatma Gandhi expressed this well when he said, he so deeply loved his

community that he could not bear to see it disfigured by such practices as

untouchability, child marriage, and caste oppression.

Cultural communities are not voluntary associations.

Even we leave them we cannot do so as we leave voluntary one


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A person may discourage others to disobey the instructions of certain culture or

marry outside it; however, he was shaped by its language, collective memories...

Nevertheless, if per-impossible we can manage to discard both its culture and all our

communal ties with it.

If others continue to identify me and despise me as Jew or black person even when I

no longer define myself in this way of strategically aligning myself with the community

while retaining a critical distance from it.

5) Cultural interaction :

All cultures interact and inescapably influenced each other, one barrow their

technology.

One culture might be influenced by others beliefs and practices.

If not it might be distinguished from them.

Others are not mute external fact but shape its self-definition and constitute a silent

and unacknowledged presence within it.

The culture of classical Athens was profoundly influenced by the earlier Athenian

culture, those of Mediterranean

Counties, Egypt and further east as well as its constant attempt to distinguish itself

from Sparta and Persia.

Christianity was a product of Judaism, oriental cultures Roman religious and political

beliefs and practices and Greek philosophy.

Islam was deeply shaped by Judaism, Christianity, pre Islamic religious beliefs and

practices and the Aristotelian philosophy.

In sense of that, culture is wide spreading nowadays thanks to the globalization,

technology and travel freely across the world.

Transnational communications giants such as the CNN, Sony Warner Brother and

news international transmit a standardized western culture.

Increased migrations of people bring cultures into closed contact.

Appadurai, 1990: globalization primarily originates in and is propelled by the west,

and involves westernizing the rest of the world.

Western ideas cannot easily graft outside their cultural home unless they are suitably

modified in the light of what in their producers views the non-western world

appreciates or customarily associates with the west.

Thus, western experts are often not authentically western but a product of double

abstraction.

Western culture today enjoys enormous economic and political power, prestige and

respectability.


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The western interaction with others occurs under grossly unequal conditions and

others in this sense often find it difficult to make autonomous choices.

For non-western cultures, they unable to arrest the disintegration of their traditional

cultures which have hitherto given meaning to their lives and held them together as

communication.

Inherited cultures cannot be discarded like clothes or new one assimilated without

appropriate indigenization.

For those, return to the past is not the answer because for them are largely products

of nostalgic myth making and they neither are related to contemporary reality nor

carry conviction with many of their members.

However, the only course of action to such societies is to undertake the momentous

task of creatively reinterpreting their culture and judiciously incorporating those

elements of western culture that they approve of and can assimilate: this task is for_

leaders, government encouraging cultural experimentation, and giving the

indigenous cultural activities and industries encouragement.

6 : Cultural Diversity :

It can be defined also as the presence of a variety of cultures and cultural perspectives

within a society.

The first systematic case for it was made by J. S. Mill, Humboldt, Herder and others.

Nowadays: Berlin, Raz and Kymlicka restated it with important modifications. They

advanced four arguments:

I. First: Cultural diversity increases the available range of options of choice.

However, this argument is restrictive since it values other cultures only as options or

potential objects of choice.

It does not give a good reason to value such cultures as those of indigenous people,

religious communities, the Amish or Cypsies, which are not realistic options for us.

This argument implies that other cultures are from our own.

In case we would give our culture up, or radically revise it or even introduce into it the

beliefs and practices of another, other mainstream cultures are rarely options for us.

II. Second: some writers argue that since human beings are culturally embodied, they

have a right to their culture and that culture diversity is an inescapable and legitimate

outcome of the existence of that right.

This argument shows the inescapability but not the desirability of cultural diversity.

It establishes why membership of one person is important, but not establishes the

importance of cultural diversity.


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It establishes also, why one should enjoy access to one‟s own culture, not why one

should also have access to others.

If the dominant culture is overpowering, respects, and rewards only those who

conform to it, members of other culture would lack the capacity, confidence, and the

incentive to retain their cultures, leading over time to the withering away of formal

right to their culture.

III. Third: Herber, Schiller and other romantic liberals advanced an aesthetic case for

cultural diversity that creates a rich varied and aesthetically pleasing and stimulating

world.

The aesthetical considerations are a matter of taste.

It is very difficult to convince those who prefer a uniform moral and social world.

Cultures are not merely objects of aesthetic contemplation. Monist insist that we

cannot show that cultural diversity is not only aesthetically, but also morally justified.

Then, either the moral case for uniformity overrides the aesthetic one for diversity or

we need to find some way of resolving their conflict.

IV. Fourth: Mill, Humboldt and others link cultural diversity to individuality and

progress.

It encourages a healthy competition between different system of ideas and way of life.

Both individuality and progress prevent the dominance of anyone of the cultures and

facilitates the emergencies of new truths.

Although Mill weakened the force of this argument by tying it too closely to a

particular view of human excellence, it contains important insight; however, it suffers

from several limitations.

Since cultural diversity is linked to competition, it cannot defend the right of

indigenous peoples, the Amish, Orthodox, religious groups and others who have no

wish either to compete or to discuss new truths.

Finally, no culture embodies all that in valuable in human life and develops the full range

of human possibilities.

Cultures correct and complement each other, expand each other‟s horizon of thought

and each other to new forms of human fulfilment.

Although a native people‟s way of life is not an option for us, it serves important

cultural purposes.

Cultural diversity is also an important constituent and condition of human freedom.

Although human beings lack an Archimidean standpoints or a „‟view from nowhere„‟

they do have mini-Archimidean standpoints in the form of other cultures that enable

them to view their own from the outside. (Weinstock 1994)


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Diversity of cultures also alerts us to that within our own because our culture is a

product of different influences and different strands of thoughts.

This diversity in our culture encourage us to homogenize it and to impose on it a

singular identity; besides, an internal dialogue within the culture.

Cultural diversity creates a climate in which different cultures can engage in a mutually

beneficial dialogue.

Different artistic, literary, musical... interrogate challenge and probe each other.

Ex: a British Indian taking invasive pictures at religious ceremony was gently asked by

an English friend if that was a common practice there and did not offend the feelings of

the gathering. When their white colleague died, an Afro-Caribbean asked their

common white friend to join him in calling on the widow.

To say that cultural diversity is desirable for these and other reasons, is not to say that

the prevailing forms of it should be preserved.

Culture has no authority rather than that derived from the willing allegiance of its

members: if they no longer subscribe to its practices and beliefs, it dies.

Practices can be compelled but not beliefs.

When beliefs are lost, practices become largely social and lose their cultural meaning

No culture can be preserved by force or artificial means.

Cultural conservatives also argue that unlike the long established existing cultures with

the accumulated weight of tradition behind them, new cultures have no history,

traditions, evocative, collective memories, intergenerational continuity, a coherent

narrative and so on, and that encouraging them would destroy the great historical

achievement

Cultures are easy to undermine but exceedingly difficult to create

The new cultures also may be worst, better, one might be cautious and resist the spirit

of pert modernist adventurism.

While all this is true, it misses out many important dimensions of culture.

If the existence of culture does not command the allegiance of its members, there is

no way to keep it alive.

Every age also has its distinct needs experiences and aspirations; and cultures must be

adapted to these if they are to conduce to human flourishing.

Although a cultural community may legitimately stand up for its moral values and

vision, it should also allow for experimentation and innovation and ensure a judicious

balance between continuity and change.

Some people prefer to live their simple faith than risk losing it in searching of higher

truths.


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In this case, a culturally homogeneous society has its strengths, it facilitates a sense of

community and solidarity, makes interpersonal communication easier sustains a thick

culture, is held together with relative ease, is psychologically economical and can count

on and easily mobilize its members‟ loyalties. It also has a tendency to become closed,

intolerant, averse to change claustrophobic and oppressive, and to discourage

differences, dissent and what J. S Mill (1964) called experiments in living. They want

moral certainty.

A culturally homogeneous society cannot provide the creative tensions of an

intercultural dialogue; expand imagination and moral and intellectual sympathy.

Thanks to globalization and the changing nature of modern technology, no society can

insulate itself against external influences.

Thanks to liberal and democratic spirit of our age, hitherto marginalized groups

demand recognition, and the resulting internal dissent undermines old certainties.

Culturally open can be shallow eclectic, bland, thin, and devoid of coherence and

historical depth.

Self-contained ways of life can be repressive, intolerant narrow, inward looking and

authoritarian.

If some individuals or groups freely choose to live within their traditional culture, we

should respect their decisions.

Multiculturalism is not only the culturally open way is the best.

If it were, it would reproduce the monist mistake and betray its inspiring principle.

There is more to be said for a culturally open and diverse than for a culturally self-

contained way of life.

Evaluating cultures

It is sometimes argued that cultures are incommensurable and should be judged in

their own terms.

The idea of judging comparing and grading whole cultures is logically incoherent.

Owing to the fact that cultures represent unique and highly complex visions of the

good life, they cannot be measured on a single scale.

We can compare whole cultures in specific aspects:

1) To show that one culture‟s literature is richer and explores with greater

sensitivity a wider range of human emotions and experience than another‟s.

2) Its spirituality is deeper and its view of god nobler, more inspiring and less

terrifying than that of another.

3) We can compare them also through the moral and political aspects of cultures.


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We can evaluate cultures in terms of the ways in which they guard against these

limitations: „‟corruptible, fallible, prone to misjudgements partiality and bias.‟‟

Those limitations check, regulate and distribute power and allow for open expressions

of disagreement and debate are less prone to hypocrisy and misuse of authority, more

stable and more conductive to human flourishing

It is a demonstrable fact of human life that human beings grow into sane adults only

under certain conditions

We can compare also cultures on the basis of the extent to which they respect the

constraints of these and other universally shared human features.

Once we take cultural differences into an account. We have the required resources to

make cross comparative judgements.

Judging cultures internally is only partly valid in the sense that we should understand

cultures from within before passing judgements on them.

Should also not expect them to conform to our standards of right and wrong, and

where no external judgement is likely to make much sense to their members. In these

cases the idea of judging culture in its own terms becomes deeply problematic

A culture is not static and contains both the residues of its largely dormant past beliefs

and prefigurations of the newly- emergent ones. In short, each one is too

multistranded, fluid and open-ended to have „fixed terms‟ in which to evaluate it.

For liberal society considers equality to be one of its central values but socialists

challenged this on the ground that formally equal rights were empty unless their

bearers had the resources to exercise them equally effectively and that an adequate

definition of equality should include abroad equality of these resources.

For socialists, liberal society was committed to a wider sense of equality of right, for

socialists, equality of power and resources.

However, every culture is exposed to other and cannot avoid comparing itself with

them.

In culture with a long history, it is almost always possible to find elements which can be

suitably interpreted to yield critical resources.

Equality of women and men as an example: Muslims pointed that the prophet‟s wives

were powerful women: „’KHADIJA’’ ran a flourishing business, and AYESHA had

views of her own and sometimes disagreed with him, In Judaism and Christianity as

well. ( Walzer 1004)

Culture has no essence.

In all cases the conservatives view is more faithful to the tradition than the reformist is,

and that reformers are somewhat disingenuous.


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A culture cannot survive unless it addresses the issues and aspirations of the age.

While conservatives might be more faithful to its texts or history, They risk losing

their alienated followers

Reformers might be wrong or even disingenuous in their interpretations, but they at

least keep their culture alive and vibrant.

Respecting culture

All cultures deserve equal respect.

It is great to respect persons and the way they choose to run their lives. However, it

does not prevent us from judging and criticizing their way of life.

The judgement should be based on a sympathetic understanding of their world of

thought from within.

We separate the right and its exercise, and do not allow our attitude to one to

influence that to the other.

Other‟s right does not forfeit our respect because it is exercised badly

A culture has two dimensions:

a) A community whose culture it is

b) The content and character of that culture

Thus; respect a culture is respect for a community‟s right

We should respect a community‟s right to its culture for a variety of reasons:

1) Because human beings should be free to decide how to live

2) Because their culture is bound up with their history and identity which means

much for them.

Every community has as good as a right to its culture as any other, and these is no

basis for in equality

Our respect for culture is based on our assessment of its content or the kind of life it

makes possible for its members.

Since culture gives stability, meaning, coherence, and holds its members together, it

deserves respect.

Although all cultures have worthy and deserve basic respect they are not equally

worthy and do not merit equal respect.

When we judge other cultures, we should not seek to mould them in our image.

Respect for human dignity for example should be insisted upon, but it should not be

confused with liberal individualism.

Raz, Dworkin and kymlicka: the area of personal choice i crucial to human well-being,

but should not be equated with full-scale autonomy.


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Broadly speaking: if a cultural community respects human worth and dignity, safeguards

basic human interests within the limits of its resources, poses no threat to outsiders

and enjoys the allegiance of most of its members, and thus provides the basic

conditions of the good life, it deserves to be respected and left alone.

Monists argue that since some cultures are superior, they have a right to impose

themselves on others.

Culturalists assume that since every community has a right to its culture, we are not

entitled to judge, criticize or press for changes in it.

However, we should respect the community‟s right but should also feel free to

criticize its beliefs and practices.

When there is a change in culture in culture, we may rightly press for change but that

depends on our relation to it:

1) If it is outside our territorial boundaries, we have no direct responsibilities for it.

2) If it is within our territorial boundaries, it depends on whether the community

concerned wishes to lead a self-contained life as the Amish, Ultra-orthodox do, or to

maintain limited contacts with the wider society as indigenous peoples do, or to

become an integral part of it, as is the case with immigrants.

There is a persistent tendency in some western societies to act as global missionaries and

assume that all other societies need western guidance and moral leadership.

(1) ‘’Proxemics’’

Proxemics: is a study of human use of space and it is considered as a silent language.

Each individual has a comfortable distance in the communication. Sometimes we feel

that the person whom we talk to cannot understand what we are saying, so we get

closer to him or her in order to have more chance of understanding.

Many people avoid looking directly at each other. Others choose not to look at

anyone in the crowd or in elevator in order to avoid feeling uncomfortably closed.

Whispering and shouting generally get your attention more than speaking with normal

voice.

Culture also tells us when and how it is acceptable to touch other individuals.

However, In North America, culture discourages touching by adults except in

moments of intimacy or formal greeting. It is most rigidly applied to men.

If men hold hands or kiss in public, they may be labelled homosexual and subsequently

marginalized socially.


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Most cultures which discourage touching are found in Asia and North Europe.

However, in Southern Europe, middle East and Latin America much more physical

touch is excepted and desired

(2) Culture use of space

In North America: N Americans corporate offices, the boss is usually physically

isolated in a very separate private room. It minimizes his personal contact with

ordinary workers.

Japanese offices commonly are set up with the boss‟s desk at the end of a row of

pushed together desks

A courtroom: in the USA judge usually wears a black robe and sits behind an elevated

desk, other desks are positioned in each side of it in lower height, so that all attention

is focused on the judge.

Culture also guides our perception of space by defining units of it. Ex: in the industrial

world, space is divided into standardized segments with sides and positions. Ex: in

USA, property boundaries are referenced to such segments of space. In every dense

acres „‟ of population‟‟ land owners are ready to kill each other over disputed fence

lines between their properties and vice versa in rural acres of the west, where a

density is lesser.

(3) ‘’Culture use of time’’

In North America or in England: the time of meeting „‟business meeting‟‟ is related to

the relationship between members.

People of lower status are expected to be on time, if not early.

People of Higher status can expected that the others would wait for them. Ex: a

patient should be on time and wait for his doctor if he was not come yet.

When individuals are of different cultures, and have different expectations about time,

there is a potential for misunderstanding, frustration, and hurt feeling.

Ex: Arab businessperson does not arrive on time for meeting a potential North

American customer in New York. For Arab person, time may be relatively „elastic‟ a

pace of life is a bit slower

This can be avoided if each other have foreknowledge about the others „‟ when in

Rome do as the Romans do‟‟.

(4) „‟marriage’’

It refers to customs, rules and obligations. Therefore, it is a cultural pattern.

Monogamy and polygamy:

Monogamy: It means that man should marry only one single wife in a marital estate.


English Studies


In USA and western societies: marriage is monogamous by the tradition and law but if

the marriage is limited by death of partner or by divorce, remarriage is acceptable.

This kind of marriage is common in the world.

The ancient Hebrew according to the old testament of the bible practiced polygamy or

polygyny.

During 16th century in USA, members of Mormon religion practiced polygyny.

Although church rejected such practices officially in 1890, some Mormons still engage

in plural relationships.

Under Islamic law today, a man may legally have as many as four wives.

It is practiced in some African nations.

Even it is approved form of marriage, it is almost rare occurrence; in reality man

cannot offered more than one wife.

Anthropologists believe that polygyny reflect the male desire for prestige and paternity

rather than sex desire.

Polygyny is practiced generally in societies, which depend on having children for

wealth, status, and immorality.

Polyandry: is extremely rare, it is practiced in groups who live in extremely

impoverished environments or there is a shortage of women. Ex: in Tibet, woman may

marry the eldest son of family and take other brothers as husbands. This reduces the

competition among the heirs.

(5) ‘’Wedding ceremonies and customs’’

Ritual aspects:

Anthropologists characterize them as „‟rituals of transition‟‟ or „‟rites of passage‟‟

Each transition dramatize these changes...wedding announce to the community the

union between the individuals.

All wedding rituals around the world share common features.

1. Exchanging rings

2. Tying of the bride and groom‟s garments together

3. Joining of hands

4. Some other emphasise it as the foundation of family, as Hindus do when they circle a

sacred fire.

In USA and Canada: until the mid-19th century, ceremony was modest event that took

place in homes.

By 1900, a formal wedding and its rituals had become major event in Middle class

families.


English Studies


White wedding in which the bride dressed in white is now standard throughout US,

Canada and Europe. It spreads also to Asia and Africa as well.

o Wedding includes a religious customs:

Roman Catholic: they read nuptial mass as many scriptural texts concerning marriage.

The present of the priest and two witnesses is essential.

Orthodox Jewish celebrations: bride and groom stand under a chuppah: ( canopy that

symbolizes that home they will establish).

Groom smashes a wineglass.

Most scholars believe that the act of smashing wineglass commemorates them the

destruction of the first Jewish temple that of Solomon in Jerusalem by the Babylonians

in 586 BC.

Greek and orthodox church:

The best man places crowns attached by ribbon on the heads of the bride and groom,

signifying divine sanction of their marriage.

Some African and Canadian prefer a nonreligious or civil

These civil weddings typically occur in commercial wedding chapels or reception halls...

Most couples exchange some sort of vows may prescribed by the church or written by

the couple

Traditional Protestant vows include the promise to love and to cherish, for better and

for worse, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, until parted by the death.

In all kinds of wedding ceremonies religious or civil, many couples hold a reception.

Friends, family and guests gather to eat, drink, dance, listen to music, and give gift to

bride and groom. The couple cut a special large cake that is shared by all the guests.

They may also conduct a receiving line where they greet and thank each guest for

attending.

Many newlyweds take a honeymoon trip

Popular honeymoon destination for USA citizens and Canadians include Hawaii,

Mexico, and Caribbean.

‘USA and Canada’: ‘’marital status by age and sex’’

Countries of North America and Europe have the same marriage patterns. Historically

the most of European nations immigrated to North America.

The most of the people in these areas are single, and they include the large late age of

marriage.

USA has historically had higher rates of marriage and divorce than other industrialized

countries. The annual rate was about „9‟ marriages for every 1000 people. However,

nowadays it has decreased.


English Studies


American adults married declined from 72% in 1970 to 60% in 1998, but 90% of

American married at some point of time in their lives

In Canada: it declined also. In the mid- 1940s the annual marriage rate was 11 married

for every 1000 people, but today it is just 5.

About half of the current adults of Canada are married.

Age at the first marriage:

In USA: women: 25 and men: about 27, they marry for the first time an average of 5

years later than the others do in 1950s.

In Canada: women: 24, men: 27

USA rate of divorce in 1997 was 4,3 divorces took place for every 1000.

The median duration of marriage in USA has increased since 1970 rising from 6,7 of

years to 7,2 of years in 1990.

In Canada each year 2,2 divorce for every 1000 people.

Remarriage has been common in USA: the majority of them remarrying within ten

years.

In the other countries

India: men: over 23: women: under 19, nearly 44% of Indian women between 15 and

19 are married.

Jamaica: women and men are 31, less than 1% of them are between 15__19.

Cuba: the annual marriage rate is 15 for every 1000 people.

South Africa: only 3 for every 1000.

Many Western Europe share 5 ___ 1000 as well as they are similar in rate of divorce.

Italy, Australia, Germany, and France approximately 2 divorces for every 1000 people.

(6) Roles and relationships in marriage

Over the past 700 years, social, economic, religious, and cultural changes have

dramatically altered the instruction of marriage.

Western societies, by changing from agriculture to industrial as well as from rural to

urban.

The increase in the enlightenment and decline of morality and increase of an average

life expectancy.

Scholars identified two themes that equality between men and women.

1 ‘’increased Equality’’

Historically laws and traditions restricted women‟s opportunities and limited their legal

rights.

They were under protection and control of man.

Couple were considered as one person, who was the husband.


English Studies


In 18th century, English legal scholars Si William Blackstone summed up the laws of

marriage: „‟the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the

marriage, or at least is incorporated into that of husband‟‟.

In addition, after Americans had immigrated, they brought with them such traditions.

Woman lost her properties after marriage and they become husband‟s properties.

In the late 1800s, reformers secured passage of married women‟s properties of

married women‟s properties Acts in USA they are given control over their

properties as well as outside earnings.

Laws in Western countries did not begin to reflected marriage as a bond between

equals until Mid-20 century „‟because husband still legally could forbid his wife from

working outside.

Women gained parity with men, but during industrial revolution of the late 18th and

19th centuries, societies begun to shift away from household based economy.

Today many scholars believe that the central issue in marriage in Western countries is

the redefining of gender relations.

In USA and other industrialized countries, women have become powerful and have

high status.

(2) ‘’ importance of intimacy’’

Transition from tradition to modern society has increased society‟s emphasis on love

as basis for marriage.

Love is often portrayed as dangerous emotion that can end in tragedy. Many Western

people believe this.

After 1800, new ideology of marriage took hold it was because of rise of modern

society...

However, emotional satisfaction comes to be seen as the criteria for successful

marriage.

Second party:

The mate selection process in marriage involves what social scientists call „‟marriage

market‟‟.

In traditional societies, marriage involved transfers of property from the parents to

their marrying children.

Ex: In some societies, the bride‟s parents may give property (known as a Dowry) to

the new couple, Greece, Egypt, India, China as well as in Europe in the past.

They do so in order to attract the son-in-law with desirable qualities.

In those societies families with many daughter can become impoverish: in this case, in

earlier time in Europe some families sent „‟extra‟‟ daughters to convents.


English Studies


In India and China, families sometimes do infanticide their children.

In some other societies, the groom‟s family gives property (bride wealth, bride price)

also to bride‟s relatives. It occurs in parts of African, Middle East, and Asia

Anthropologists characterize it as compensation to the bride‟s family for the transfer

to the groom‟s family.

(7) ‘’Conventions and taboos’’

Some societies forbid marrying outside the clan. It is called endogamy while marring

outside one‟s clan or religion is called exogamy.

Marriage taboos are related to marrying between two closely related individuals.

It depends on the kind of society, but in most cases, the prohibition applies to

biological nuclear family.

In many cultures, the taboos occur within step relatives, the prohibition on incest

relationships.

In Britain: step-relatives are not allowed to marry one another even sexual relations

are not legally forbidden between them.

In ancient Egypt, brother-sister marriage and sexual intimacy was permitted in the

royal family.

Young typically date prior to marriage. It is a courtship

Courtship implies a deepen level of commitment than dating does. It means (period of

courting).

It is known as betrothed (engaged to be married).

An engaged woman is known as man‟s fiancée and an engaged man is known as

woman‟s fiancé. Men typically give an engagement ring to their fiancées.

In the past: dating, courtship, engagement were distinct stages.

Since the 1960s, they have tended to be blend into one another.

Modern engagement often involves sexual relations.

Nowadays, it includes the practice of cohabitation_ living together in unmarried sexual

relationships.

This was among poor people then young people and middle class since the 1960s.

People usually select partners according to race, ethnicity, religion, economic status,

age, and the level of prestige of their partners also that of education.

Ex: In USA, people seek partners who are similar to them, may be in the amount of

the education or money or race.

Marriage between white and black Africans was 1% until Supreme Court of USA ruled

the practice unconstitutional though some state still recognise that as miscegenation.

(8)‘’Arranged marriage’’


English Studies


Ex: in traditional Chinese practice, the bride and the groom meet for the first time on

their wedding day.

In some upper caste Hindu marriages, children are betrothed ate a very early age and

have no voice in the decision.

In some cultures, there is what scientists call preferential marriage: bride or groom is

supposed to marry a particular kind of person.

(9) ‘’Legal aspects’’

In Western Europe before the protestant reformation of the 16th century, Catholic

Church presided over marriage.

In some parts of Northern Europe, weddings took place in private homes with elder

family members or local officials presiding.

Under federal system of USA government „‟ all states require that individuals must be

18 years of age before they can marry. They must obtain parental permission.

Most states require individuals to undergo a blood test for rubella and syphilis.

Many states also require a waiting period of one to five days between the issuing of the

license and the wedding ceremony

Couple must register a marriage certificate with the Gove after wedding ceremony

All states ban marriages between blood relatives, brother, sister, parent-child.

All states forbid bigamy__ that is either partner is already married.

In 1967, decision of loving V. Virginia, US Supreme Court ruled that laws prohibiting

interracial marriage were unconstitutional.

But some people could live as they are married (cohabitation)

In USA, half of newlyweds have lived together before.

(10) ‘’Same-sex unions and gay marriage’’

Many countries have passed legislation to recognize homosexual unions as civil or

registered or rather than as marriage.

Countries currently legalize gay marriage are Belgium, Canada, Netherlands, and Spain.

In 2001, the Netherlands became the first one to legalize homosexual.

In 2003, Belgium legalized same-sex marriages. The law of Belgium gave homosexual

couples the most rights as married heterosexual couples have, but it did not allow

them to adopt children.

Canadian courts began legalizing gay marriage in number of provinces in 2002 but in

July 2005 it became legal throughout the country.

In late 2005 United Kingdom, allowing civil partnerships went into force in December

2005.


English Studies


In 1996, USA Congress adopted the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA): which first

allows states to enact laws that deny recognition of same-sex marriage, but obtained in

other states. Second, defines marriage as the legal union of one man and woman.

By 2004, 39 states had adopted legislation similar to DOMA.

In 2000, Vermont became the first state to allow gay partners to join in a civil union

that grants them the same rights under state law.

In 2003, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts ruled that same-sex marriages are

permitted under its constitution.

Some USA cities San Francisco, California, and Portland, Oregon__ began issuing

marriage licenses and performing weddings for thousands of gay couples. Opponents

argued that these marriages violated state law and immediately challenged them in

Court.

In August 2004 the California Supreme Court invalidated nearly 4000 same-sex

marriages performed earlier in the year in San Francisco

In April 2005, the Oregon Supreme Court similarly nullified 3000 marriage license

issued to Portland-area gay couples.

The courts ruled that local officials improperly disregarded state law in granting

marriage licenses and certificates to same-sex couples.

Thanks my friends

I hope best wishes to all English students; however, I would like rather to thank

students of S3 G2 and I hope so that I benefit you through this abstract. See you

successful in the future if God willing.

26

DOUHA Aziz

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