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Culture (Concluding Part)
by Anwar Shaikh |
Geography, national
aspirations and religious beliefs play an important role in the culture of a
group. Take the Semitic cultures i.e. the Arab and Jewish cultures for
instances. Hardly anything grows in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, people of this
land, in an attempt to survive, have been mainly nomadic, hardy, bold and even
ruthless. This is the reason that pillage and murder have been their mode of
life. Before, the advent of the Prophet Mohammad, there was an entrenched Arab
tradition to rob and mutilate the commercial caravans legitimately pursuing
their business interests. The Prophet not only allowed the continuation of this
Arab tradition but made it an integral part of Islam by treating it as an
article of faith. The Koran and Hadith call it Jehad or the Holy War, vhich an
be waged just for booty and women because Islam does not recognise the validity
of any other religion; people of the Book i.e. Jews and Christians are just a
golden myth, and from a part of the political convenience, and therefore does
not guarantee safety of life and property of the non-Moslems unless they accept
the Moslem servitude and pay poll tax. This culture of pillage and murder
necessitated by the geographical conditions has been given the Divine approval
in the religious guise. Islam is an essential part of the Arab culture. The
Islamic emphasis that every believer should live like the Prophet and thus
cultivate a genuine respect for the Arab culture, is an extension of the Arab
geography, which basically requires foreign economic support. The discovery of
oil has temporarily suspended this trend but this fact is quite evident from the
Islamic teachings which give supernatural sanctity to the Arabian Shrines,
requiring all faithfuls to visit them as a part ot their faith. The basic idea
is that the foreigners when on pilgrimage, that is, perform Hajj, they should
spend money to support the Arab economy.
On the contrary, the Jewish land known as Palestine or
Israel has been far from being barren. This is the reason that they have not
found it necessary to reserve all their energies to the problem of belly and
have been able to devote time to scholarly pursuits. However, their culture has
not served as a vehicle of national goals. If anything, it has been a barrier
between the Jews and the Gentiles. The former believing in their racial
superiority, have not thought it fit to spread their cultural values through
conquest or preaching. The reason has been, not to raise competitors by inducing
the Gentiles to do what they do. Secondly, the Jews have a special reverence for
money. This has brought them a good deal of success, at least financially,
unleashing world jealousy against them with its lethal consequences. Reluctance
to share financial success is yet another reason for the Jews to keep their
cultural values to themselves. However, this has not stopped them from exerting
a tremendous influence on civilisation. This is a paradox which can be
understood with reference to Christianily and Islam, which are offshoots of
Judaism. In our times, they have produced a string of great men such as Einstein
and Karl Marx; it explains the influence of the Jewish culture. However, despite
this fact, the Jews, like many other groups of people, have rigidly maintained
their cultural identity through several means which deserve mention:
Institution is one of them. In this context, it is
desirable to call it a social institution for being an important part of
culture. An institution can be a practice or an organisation related to a
fundamental social problem of life. Take marriage, for instance. It refers to
the relationship of two people - male and female, and includes a recognised way
of taking matrimonial vows, living together, bringing-up children, mutual
fidelity, friendship of the spouses, rules of separation and dissolution of the
marital union. Of course, opinion differs about the definition of an institution
but broadly speaking, it refers to the established ways, procedures and
etiquettes of a group activity and association.
However, norms play a major role within an institution.
A norm is a standard rule of behaviour commonly shared by members of a social
group, and especially within an institution. When a norm becomes an integral
part of a person's behaviour pattern, he acts spontaneausly without any regard
to fear or favour. A norm compared to a value is a more specific term. Honesty,
for example, is a value but what particular behaviour constitutes honesty, is a
norm. This is the reason that social norms indicate consensus which ranks as a
common value system of a group, and thus constitutes as the fountain of learning
culture. Norms are usually developed and handed down through tradition but they
can also be brought about by prescription and proscription.
Having described the composition of social institution,
now I may add that social institutions assume the same significance to the human
existence as the sea to the marine life. These remarks are better understood in
terms of customs, which form the core of social institutions. The cultural
distinctiveness may be created and maintained through prescribing certain types
of foods and drinks and prescribing the others. For example, the Jews and
Moslems shall not eat pig products and the Hindus shall not eat beef. Again,
certain foods may be required in association with certain rites of passage, that
is, rites such as birth, initiation, marriage, death, etc. Such dietary laws, on
the one hand, unite the members of a group, and on the other, distinguish it
from the others. The cultural significance of the dietary laws is well explained
by the Jewish and the Hindu attitudes. As a matter of fact, the urge of
maintaining cultural distinctiveness is carried right to the point of death and
even after. This is the reason that some groups bury their dead, some cremate
them, and some stand up the corpses for the vultures to devour them. Through
such customs even tiny minorities such Parsees of India have been able to
maintain their cultural identities throughout the centuries. Religion is a major
player in this field. It prescribes certain rites for birth, initiation,
marriage and death, and forbids others. Again, the Scriptures whether written or
oral are ambassadors of carrying cultural distinctiveness from one generation to
another. However, religion is not the only culture-carrier, folk art, folk lore
and folk tale are other important elements. To acquaint the reader with these
factors, I may explain thenn briefly to express their cultural value:
There is no agreed definition of folk art. It is
generally understood to mean the art which does not have defined rules of
expression but represents people's instincts, and lacks the usual sophistication
associated with the generally accepted pattern of art. It rather represents a
folk's primitive impulses which demonstrate their natural ways of feeling and
expressing modes of pain and pleasures, preferences and prevarications.
Traditions of folk art usually survive in the country side, away from city
centres. What is called folk- dancing, folk-singing, explains it. Another
example is provided by the local handicrafts whose basic techniques are handed
down from generation to generation. Such traditions are preserved jealously, and
serve as a vehicle of transmitting cultural values. A folk art whether visual or
auditory is strictly indigenous and primitive in character. When it is taken
over by a foreign culture or modified by the urge of modernisation, it ceases to
be folk art.
Folklore is thought to be the oral literature of a
group, and its narrator or bard is an actor charged with the task of
transmitting old cultural heritage to the new generation. The anthropological
folklorist examines such traditions with a view to assessing the norms and
values of predictable behaviour that once prevailed in a literate society.
Folklore, in fact, is a wide term. It covers the oral
literature covering spoken and sung expressions including proverbs, riddles,
beliefs and superstitions. Its material side refers to the physical objects
produced on traditional lines and thus includes architecture, folk arts and folk
crafts. In between the two lies, customs, rituals, festivals folk dramas, right
of passage, folk dances, and similar facts.
A folktale is usually an exaggerated and a colourful
story of a god or a glorified man. It is something which lack, reality but is
narrated or taught as if it were real and had a good deal of significance to
life. Generally, a folktale is a part of religious armoury, and for this reason
it loves the body of myths and legends. To explain myth, I may refer to Genesis,
the first book of the Bible which narrates the table of creatior, Adam and Eve,
the Carden of Eden; to the Jews, the Christians and the Moslems such events are
divinely revealed, and they deny their mythical nature, though the fact is that
they are myths which originated in the Middle East. It is well known that the
Mesopotamians knew of an earthly paradise such as Eden and the Cannanites were
aware of the concept of the cherubim and angel so frequently mentioned in the
Bible and the Koran. The Biblical story of Adam, adopted by the Koran, which
treats the formation of man from clay is an extension of the Babylonial myth.
However, the Biblical version holds that man's function is to rule the world. It
is against the Babylonian ethos which treats man as the slave of gods. On the
contrary, the Koranic tradition conforms to the Babylonian interpretation
because it states that man has no purpose except to be God's servant. One can
also see in the Babylonian myth the mention of the Deluge, the ark, the despatch
of the raven and dove as stated in the myths of Gilgamesh and Atrahasis.
There is a long list of such myths incorporated in the
Old Testament. They have been borrowed from various sources of the Middle
Eastern mythology yet they are believed to form part of Divine Revelation and
are thus drilled into the human mind with a fanatic zeal peculiar to religious
teaching. Take for example, the Jewish children who are taught the folktales
from a tender age as a part of their religious education. When they grow up,
they believe in the veracity of these tales with such a zeal that they prefer to
part with head than with their faith. It is these early childhood instructions
which determine their cultural outlook. Since the Bible is an integral part of
the Western faith, the Jewish myths have played an important role in determining
the Western culture.
So far I have not discussed the concept of civilisation.
A culture may be a local affair, but its local character may be very vast,
indeed. Indian and Chinese cultures are colossal both in terms of land and
population, yet I cannot see how one can call a culture, civilisation, which
represents an amalgam of cultures. For example, what is called the Western
civilisation, represents the salient cultural traits of the dominant European
countries such as Italy, Britain, France, Germany and Russia.
A culture can exist locally but a civilisation comes
into being through the interaction of cultures or the force of the dominant
culture. An example of interaction is provided by commerce, international
communications such as air travel, radio, television and press. An example of a
dominant culture is provided by Britain. The people of this country built up a
huge empire. Wherever, they went they carried their cultural values. Their
culture was dominant because they were the masters in someone else's house, and
it is well known that subjects copy their masters' ways of life without any
external coercion.
One can divide culture into many categories such as
pastoral, commercial, industrial and so on but I think that the classification
of a culture according to its ethos is more appropriate. Accordingly, a culture
is Libertarian, Aggressive or Passive:
1. Libertarian culture is the one which
represents free will, that is, it acknowledges people's rights to be free in
thinking, choosing and acting within the bounds of law. It goes without saying
that its laws are humane, that is, they are reformative, and not retributive. In
a nutshell, it is the ambassador and guardian of civil liberties and human
rights. The honour to lead in this field goes to Britain. The fact that Magna
Carta gives legal right to the subjects, of an armed rebellion against their
unjust ruler, is a singular act of the human history, and constitutes the
concepts of human right which cannot be violated by the state. The function of
the state is to defend them.
2. Aggressive culture is the one which tells people how
to walk, talk, eat, drink, wash, make love, sleep, dress, and so on. Compared to
the Libertarian culture, which springs from people's spontaneous way of life,
the Aggressive culture seeks to impose a way of life on people. An example of
the Aggressive culture is provided by the Arab culture, called Islamic culture.
In this culture, man is God's slave whose only function is to obey God's and
Prophet's commands. Islam though, theoretically, is a monotheistic religion, in
practice, it is based on the duality of Allah and Muhammad. Since the Prophet
Muhammad was an Arab and he demanded of his followers, no matter where they
live, to follow him in all religious and cultural details, they (the foreign
followers) are obliged to adopt the Arab culture. Again, Islam has attached the
highest sanctity to Mecca, the centre of Arabia: the Moslems all over the world
must treat it as the direction for their prayers five times a day, pay a
pilgrimage to Mecca and even bury their dead facing towards it. This reverence
for Mecca has been a major force in converting the non-Arab Moslems to the Arab
culture. This force is as subtle as it is coercive because unless a Moslem is an
Arab at heart, he does not qualify for paradise, and is destined to head for
hell.
3. Passive culture is the one which is regressive in
character for being highly stereotyped. It neglects this world in pursuit of the
other worldliness. An example of the Passive Culture is provided by the Hindu
society of India. The Hindus, originally followed a national philosophy, which
gradually degenerated into a superstition, having far greater regard for
passivity than activity. Take for example, the Hindu doctrine of non-violence.
It looks golden on paper but it has emaciated the Hindu character, once based on
chivalrous principles of honour and self-dignity. This doctrine, over the
centuries, has made the Hindus cowardly and inward-looking. They could not stand
up to the foreign invaders who pillaged them thoroughly again and again,
subjecting them to the most abject poverty that humanity has ever seen.
Culture or the way of life is one's most important
concern not only because it determines the quality of life itself, but also, as
I believe, the possibility of life-after-death depends on one's way of life.
Having discussed this issue in my books "Eternity" and "The
Universal Mystery," I shall not go into its details here. To indicate that
culture is destiny, now I shall proceed to describe:
1. The Libertarian Culture,
2. The Aggressive Culture, and
3. The Passive Culture.
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