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caused by death though it remains unsuccessful. Such story comes to serve as social
maxim and becomes a yardstick to judge the morality and integrity of individuals.
And at large such maxim becomes an instrument to control the society, providing
ideals to be inculcated amongst its members for individuals well-being and for the
welfare of the community. In other words, it serves as a critique to the socio-cultural
behavior of a community.
Stories help in conceptualizing ones culture in totality. But one cannot negate
the problem inherent in the process of understanding ones culture in totality as
culture being very broad an inclusive. For example, from the historical perspective, it
is social heritage or tradition that is passed on to the future generation. From the
behavioral point of view, culture is shared, learned human behavior, and a way of life.
From the functional point of view, culture is the ways human solve problems of
adapting to the environment or living together. From the structural point of view,
culture consists of patterned and interrelated ideas, symbols, behaviors, etc. Thus,
culture can be studied in many ways.
Raymond Williams, a cultural critic defines culture in a more inclusive and
descriptive manner. According to him, culture may mean all the signifying practices,
from language through arts, philosophy, journalism, fashion, advertising and other
expressions of a given society. But the thickness of human cultural activities and the
significant insight needed in understanding their nuances have spawned a variety of
analytical approaches to the subject. But one of the most formidable yet necessary
aspects of cultural analysis is to provide a description of the context within which
particular culture and its values are produced. Such approach proposes that we cannot
understand the culture of any given society, be it tradition or modern apart from the
context in which they are produced and consumed. Therefore, to understand the
cultural significance of our people, we need to uncover the ideologies implicit in those
stories of our forefathers and see how it captures the cultural nuances of our
community and explore the contextual meaning added to it. Then only we can
establish a better understanding of our roots and our identity, and the virtue of not
being the other.