Culture A brief study about defining & interpreting the culture with special reference to Pakistani society

Submitted by: Mehwish Batool Roll # 03 M. Phil Professional Track (Session 2009-11) Course Title: CS-620 Media, Culture and Society Submitted to: Dr. Ahsan Akhtar Naz Director Institute of Communication Studies

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.1 INTRODUCTION 1.2 WHAT IS CULTURE? - DEFINITIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS 1.2.1 Relationship between Culture and Communication 1.2.2 Relationship between Culture and Society 1.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE 1.3.1 Culture is learned 1.3.2 Culture is shared 1.3.3 Culture is subjected to change 1.3.4 Layers of Culture 1.4 ELEMENTS OF CULTURE 1.4.1 Symbols 1.4.2 Heroes 1.4.3 Statuses and Roles 1.4.4 Social Collectives 1.4.5 Cultural Integration 1.4.6 Rituals 1.4.7 Language 1.4.8 Norms 1.4.9 Values 1.4.10 Religion and Beliefs 1.5 Discussion About Pakistani Culture 1.5.1 Language 1.5.2 Symbolism 1.5.3 Social Life 1.5.4 Dressing Patterns 1.5.5 Handicrafts 1.5.6 Literature 1.5.7 Arts 1.5.8 Performing Arts 1.5.9 Festivals and Customs: 1.5.10 Sports 1.6 CONCLUSION

Introduction: Since the earliest records of human existence, we find the deep involvement of culture in human lives. Today, the importance of cultural studies has expanded to a multitude level. There is not aspect of human life that is not touched and altered by culture. At the same time, communication is deeply interlinked with culture. Thus, it is of utmost importance for a communication student to understand different dimensions of culture and how culture differs in different societies. The present study is aimed to highlight different definitions and interpretations of the terms Culture along with focus on Pakistani culture and society.

What is Culture? - Definitions and Interpretations.

Culture is ubiquitous, multidimensional, and complex term which has been defined differently by different people. More than 150 definitions of Culture have been provided by different scholars. Some of them are given below: That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. -- Sir Edward B. Tylor The deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, actions, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and artifacts acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. -- Larry A. Samovar Culture is a mans medium. This means personality, how people express themselves (including shows of emotion), the way they think, how they move, how problems are solved, how their cities are planned and laid out, how transportation systems function and are organized, as well as how economic and government systems are put together and function. It is the least studied aspects of culture that influence behaviour in the deepest and most subtle ways. -- E. T. Hall Culture is a shared learned behavior which is transmitted from one generation from one generation to another for purposes of promoting individual and social survival, adaption, and growth and development. Culture has both external (e.g artifacts, role/institutions) and internal representations (e.g values, attitudes, beliefs, cognitive/affective/sensory styles, consciousness patterns, and epistemologies). -- A. J. Marsella Culture is an aggregate means of achievement and of progress. -- Muller-Layer

Culture is a major way in which human beings adapt to their environments and give meanings to their lives. -- Nanda & Warms. Culture is the learned behavior of members of a given social group. Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people. Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning. A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand, as conditioning influences upon further action. Culture is the sum of total of the learned behavior of a group of people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are transmitted from generation to generation. Culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.

Relationship between Culture and Communication If we put it simply, Culture is communication, (and) communication is culture. This oft-quoted statement by E. T. Hall provides us the base for seeing culture from the glasses of communication and vice versa. Another definition of culture states, Culture is symbolic communication. Some of its symbols include a group's skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and motives. The meanings of the symbols are learned and deliberately perpetuated in a society through its institutions. We learn to think, feel, believe, and act as we do because of the messages that have been communicated to us, and those messages all bear the stamp of culture. This omnipresent quality of culture defines its relationship with communication. We are born without meaning. It is through communication and socializing that we learn how to dress, what toys to play with,

what to eat, who to worship etc. Just look at it, people put dogs in ovens in Korea and China, but in USA people put them on their couches. In Tehran and Saudi Arabia, people pray five times a day standing before their maker but in Las Vegas, people stand up all night in front of slot machines hoping to hit the jackpot. This is how culture differs in different regions and societies and it because they have been communication these cultures during their upbringing. Richard E. Porter and Larry A. Samovar further explain the relationship between culture and communication in their book, Communication Between Cultures. According to them, Culture is everything and everywhere. And more important, culture governs & defines the conditions and circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed or interpreted. Relationship between Culture and Society: Culture and society are intricately related. A culture consists of the objects of a society, whereas a society consists of the people who share a common culture. When the terms culture and society first acquired their current meanings, most people in the world worked and lived in small groups in the same locale. In today's world of 6 billion people, these terms have lost some of their usefulness because increasing numbers of people interact and share resources globally. Still, people tend to use culture and society in a more traditional sense: for example, being a part of a racial culture within the larger U.S. society. Through culture, people and groups define themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society. Thus, culture includes many societal aspects: language, customs, values, norms, mores, rules, tools, technologies, products, organizations, and institutions. This latter term institution refers to clusters of rules and cultural meanings associated with specific social activities. Common institutions are the family, education, religion, work, and health care

Characteristics of Culture
Culture has a number of characteristics. It is: (1) prescriptive, (2) socially shared, (3) learned, (4) subjective, (5) enduring, (6) cumulative, and (7) dynamic. Furthermore, it facilitates communication. Some of these are explained below: Culture is learned:

The members of a culture share certain ideals, which shape their lives. Generations learn to follow these ideals and principles. Culture propagates through generations, which adopt their old customs and traditions as a part of their culture. The ideals they base their lives on is a part of their culture. Cultural values are imparted from one generation to another, thus resulting in a continual of traditions that are a part of culture. The language, the literature and the art forms pass across generations. Culture is learned, understood and adopted by the younger generations of society. No individual is born with a sense of his/her culture. He/she has to learn it. Human infants come into the world with basic drives such as hunger and thirst, but they do not possess instinctive patterns of behavior to satisfy them. Likewise, they are without any cultural knowledge. However, they are genetically predisposed to rapidly learn language and other cultural traits. New born humans are amazing learning machines. Any normal baby can be placed into any family on earth and grow up to learn their culture and accept it as his or her own. Since culture is non-instinctive, we are not genetically programmed to learn a particular one. Every human generation potentially can discover new things and invent better technologies. The new cultural skills and knowledge are added onto what was learned in previous generations. As a result, culture is cumulative. Due to this cumulative effect, most high school students today are now familiar with mathematical insights and solutions that ancient Greeks such as Archimedes and Pythagoras struggled their lives to discover. Cultural evolution is due to the cumulative effect of culture. We now understand that the time between major cultural inventions has become steadily shorter, especially since the invention of agriculture 8,000-10,000 years ago. The progressively larger human population after that time was very likely both a consequence and a cause of accelerating culture growth. The more people there are, the more likely new ideas and information will accumulate. If those ideas result in a larger, more secure food supplies, the population will inevitably grow. In a sense, culture has been the human solution to surviving changing environments, but it has continuously compounded the problem by making it possible for more humans to stay alive. In other words, human cultural evolution can be seen as solving a problem that causes the same problem again and again. The ultimate cost of success of cultural technology has been a need to produce more and more food for more and more people. In short: Culture is learned through: Observation Interaction Imitation

Socializing Communication, Arts & Mass Media

Culture is shared: Every culture is shared by a group of people. Depending on the region they live in, the climatic conditions they thrive in and their historical heritage, they form a set of values and beliefs. This set of their principles of life shapes their culture. No culture belongs to an individual. It is rather shared among many people of a certain part of the world. It belongs to a single community and not to any single human being. Culture is subjected to change: All cultural knowledge does not perpetually accumulate. At the same time that new cultural traits are added, some old ones are lost because they are no longer useful. For example, most city dwellers today do not have or need the skills required for survival in a wilderness. Most would very likely starve to death because they do not know how to acquire wild foods and survive the extremes of weather outdoors. What is more important in modern urban life are such things as the ability to drive a car, use a computer, and understand how to obtain food in a supermarket or restaurant. The regular addition and subtraction of cultural traits results in culture change. All cultures change over time--none is static. However, the rate of change and the aspects of culture that change varies from society to society. For instance, people in Germany today generally seem eager to adopt new words from other languages, especially from American English, while many French people are resistant to it because of the threat of "corrupting" their own language. However, the French are just as eager as the Germans to adopt new technology. Change can occur as a result of both invention within a society as well as the diffusion click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced of cultural traits from one society to another. Predicting whether a society will adopt new cultural traits or abandon others is complicated by the fact that the various aspects of a culture are closely interwoven into a complex pattern. Changing one trait will have an impact on other traits because they are functionally interconnected. As a result, there commonly is a resistance to major changes. For example, many men in North America and Europe resisted the increase in economic and political opportunities for women over the last century because of the far ranging consequences. It inevitably changed the nature of marriage, the family, and the lives of all men. It also significantly altered the workplace as well as the legal system and the decisions made by governments. Some other significant characteristics of culture are:

Culture is transmitted from one generation to another. Culture is an integrated system, composed of parts that are related to each other. Culture is adaptive.

Layers of Culture
People even within the same culture carry several layers of mental programming within themselves. Different layers of culture exist at the following levels:

The national level: Associated with the nation as a whole. The regional level: Associated with ethnic, linguistic, or religious differences that exist within a nation. The gender level: Associated with gender differences (female vs. male) The generation level: Associated with the differences between grandparents and parents, parents and children. The social class level: Associated with educational opportunities and differences in occupation. The corporate level: Associated with the particular culture of an organization.

Elements of Culture
Cultural differences manifest themselves in different ways and differing levels of depth. Symbols represent the most superficial, while values the deepest manifestations of culture, with heroes, rituals, language and many other manifests in between. Symbols: It include words, gestures, pictures, or objects that carry a particular meaning which is only recognized by those who share a particular culture. New symbols easily develop, old ones disappear. Symbols from one particular group are regularly copied by others. This is why symbols represent the outermost layer of a culture. Heroes: Include persons, past or present, real or fictitious, who possess characteristics that are highly prized in a culture. They also serve as models for behavior. Statuses and Roles: A status or a social role is nothing but a slot or position within a group or society, which gives an overall idea of the social structure and hence is an important element of culture. This can also include traditional gender-based or age-based roles. Social Collectives: Social collectives refer to the social groups, organizations, communities, institutions, classes, and societies, which are considered as symbolic social constructions.

Cultural Integration: This includes the degree of harmony or integration within the various elements of culture. This can include elements like sub-cultures, local cultures and the difference between historical and cultural traditions. Rituals: These include collective activities, sometimes superfluous in reaching desired objectives, but are considered as socially essential. They are therefore carried out most of the times for their own sake (ways of greetings, paying respect to others, religious and social ceremonies, etc.). Language: The various languages are essentially an important part of the culture. Norms: Every society or every civilization has a set of norms, which are an inseparable part, and an important element of the culture. This can include the folkways, mores, taboos and rituals in a culture. Values: The social values of a particular civilization are also considered as an element of the culture. The values of a culture often refer to the things to be achieved or the things, which are considered of great worth or value in a particular culture. The core of a culture is formed by values. They are broad tendencies for preferences of certain state of affairs to others (good-evil, right-wrong, natural-unnatural). Many values remain unconscious to those who hold them. Therefore they often cannot be discussed, nor can they be directly observed by others. Values can only be inferred from the way people act under different circumstances. Religion and Beliefs: The religion and the beliefs of the people in a civilization play an important role in shaping up of the culture as well. It is noteworthy here that symbols, heroes, and rituals are the tangible or visual aspects of the practices of a culture. The true cultural meaning of the practices is intangible; this is revealed only when the practices are interpreted by the insiders. These and some other elements are highlighted in the table given below: Element of Culture Symbols Description Anything that has been given representational meaning by the members of a cultural group A system of patterned sounds, often with corresponding written symbols, that the Examples Gestures, a flag, a statue

Language

Urdu, English

members of a society use to communicate their thoughts and feelings to one another Values Cultural standards or judgments of what is right, good, or desirable Personal freedom, egalitarianism, respect for parents

Norms

The rules of culture that tell Not talking out loud during a the members of a culture how play, wearing black clothes to a they are expected to behave in funeral a given situation Norms that carry a strong social sanction if violated The prohibition against having because the members of a sex in public, the prohibition culture consider adherence to against destroying other them essential to the wellpeople's property being of the society Norms that carry only a weak social sanction if violated because the members of the society do not consider adherence to them essential to the well-being of the society Norms that the governing body of a society officially adopts to regulate behavior

Mores

Folkways

Washing one's clothes, eating with your mouth closed

Laws

Speed limits, robbery

Taboos

Norms so strongly held by the The prohibition against incest, members of a society that to the prohibition against violate them is virtually cannibalism inconceivable The body of knowledge that Using a digging stick to plant members of a society apply to seeds, using a robot to paint a their physical environment to car, using computers for office meet their survival needs work The physical things that the members of a society make when they apply their technology to the physical environment A bed, a hammer, a bracelet, a house

Technology

Artifacts

Discussion about Pakistani Culture Pakistan's culture is very diverse. This stems from the fact that what is now Pakistan has in the past been invaded and occupied by many different peoples, including White Huns, Persians, Arabs, Turks, Mongols and various Eurasian groups. There are differences in culture among the different ethnic groups in matters such as dress, food, and religion, especially where indigenous pre-Islamic customs differ from Islamic practices. Pakistan is a Muslim country and Islam is the official religion. Islam is the religion which is professed and practiced by the people of Pakistan. Pakistani culture can be called as Mixed Culture. Although the majority of people in Pakistan are Muslims by birth and faith, there is a strong influence of Hindu culture on the present Pakistani culture. The shadows of this influence are quite visible on the marriage ceremonies and festivals like Basant. Here we discuss some of the most prominent features of Pakistani society: Language: Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. However, English is the lingua franca and official language and most of the government ministries use English for official matters. Urdu was created by combining the languages of early invaders and settlers, including Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. Regional languages include Punjabi, Pushto, Sindhi, Baluchi and Kashmiri as well as Brahvi, Saraiki, and Hindko dialects. Symbolism: The design of Pakistan's flag was officially adopted by the country's Constituent Assembly in July 1947, it was flown for the first time on their independence day, 14 August l947. The flag was designed by Ali Jinnah, the man acclaimed as the founder of Pakistan. There is a thick white strip on the left side of the flag; the rest of the flag has a dark green background with a white crescent and a five-pointed star centered on it. The white represents peace, and the dark green represents prosperity. The crescent stands for progress, and the star stands for light, guidance, and knowledge. Pakistan also has a national emblem. In the middle of a circled wreath of jasmine flowers is a shield that has four sections, each of which shows a major product of the country from when the country was created. One section shows cotton, another shows wheat, one tea, and one jute. Above the four sections are the crescent and star, as on the national flag. On a scroll beneath the wreath is written in Urdu "Faith, Unity, Discipline." Social Life:

Social life is simple. Social customs and traditions reflect Islamic touch: people are very much conscious about their social traditions and feel pride in following them. Dress: Dress in a Muslim society like Pakistan is designed and intended to cover human body, as nudity is prohibited in Islam. So, people of Pakistan prefer to wear simple dresses according to their climate. Handicrafts: Pakistan is famous for its high standard items of glass, silver, wooden furniture, pottery, marble goods and things made of camel skin. Pakistani handicrafts are as varied as the ethnic backgrounds of the craftsmen and include work in wood, beaten brass and copperware, pottery, and jewelry, a wide variety of fabrics that feature embroidery, and the hand-designed carpets for which Pakistan is internationally recognized. Pakistani handicrafts are gaining popularity in the world market day by day, and Pakistani craftsman are considered the best in their craftsmanship. Literature: Pakistan has been referred to as a land of poetry that has been a home to some of the worlds best poets. Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal is the national poet while Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Amjad Islam Amjad, Ahmad Faraz are considered to have been some of Pakistan's greatest poets. The visual arts are art forms that focus on the creation of works which are primarily visual in nature, such as painting, photography, printmaking, and filmmaking. Visual art is defined as the arrangement of colors, forms, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium. Some of the major forms of visual arts prevalent in Pakistan are as follows: Arts: Pakistan boasts of rich heritage in visual arts, graphic arts and pop art. There are a wide variety of graphic art examples, including handpainted clay products, the hand design for batik products, and block printing called Ajrak. Glazed pottery with handpainted designs is common throughout the country, and artistic work in clay goes back thousands of years. The country has produced amazing work in Calligraphy, Landscape Painting, Miniature Painting. When it comes to Modern Art or Pop Art, then Pakistan is making progress in these field too day by day. Pop artists draw on a wide range of subject matter from films and advertising to

comic strips and household goods, and work in numerous media, especially painting, sculpture, collage and photography. Performing Arts: There are so many dance and music performance arts in Pakistanmany unique to the ethnic culture of the performerthat they are almost considered common rather than unique. Music and dance are done in the both classical and folk form. Usually the performer wears a costume that features ethnic design. Just as the costume worn by the performer identifies the tribe or ethnic group, so does the music or performance. For example, while dancing in a circle is the basic formation for Pakistani folk dances, there are also many versions of the Pathans' khattak, but they all begin with dancers in two columns accompanied by pipe and drum music. There is the Jhoomer in Baluchistan, which involves spinning around at top speed, as men do on dark nights by the light of flickering torches. The women of Punjab do the jhoomer in what is referred to as a romantic fashion. Also in Punjab, the juddi starts with girls singing to the beat of a drum; then they join in a circle and start to dance. Still another dance of Punjab is the bhangra which is described as being like rock and roll and which is always done at the beginning of the harvest season. The Ho Jamalo originated in Sind but is popular throughout Pakistan. It is a dance that is performed as part of a victory or celebration. There are four main families of musical instruments in Pakistan and more than six hundred Pakistani musical instruments; the most well known are the sitar, veena, rabab, sur mandal and tanpura. The most popular of all the instruments is the sitar but a two-piece drum, the tabla is reputedly the most important accompaniment for all Pakistani music and dancing. Nearly all the instruments are used primarily for solo performances; the Western concept of orchestral music is not part of the Pakistani musical heritage. However, Western instruments such as the piano, violin, and accordion are now often included in Pakistani concerts because they are adaptable to Pakistani music. Several other musical instruments are used, particularly the dhol, a double-sided drum that is usually hung around the neck and played with sticks, while the dholkit is smaller and played by hand. In addition, the flute is often used. Puppetry is one of the most ancient forms of entertainment in the world. It is a form of performing arts locally known as putli tamasha. Besides providing entertainment, puppetry is also used for conveying meaningful messages.

Festivals and Customs: Although the majority of people of Pakistan are followers of Islam and Islamic traditions; yet, at the same time, some local and foreign customs and traditions found a way in our daily lives and have now become a part of Pakistani culture. Following are some of the main festivals celebrated in Pakistan and the customs that are embedded with these festivals. Religious Festivals and Customs - Muslim religious festivals are celebrated according to Islamic Calendar (Lunar Calendar) and may occur some 10 days earlier each successive solar year. Some of the main religious festivals celebrated in Pakistan include Shab-e-Barat, Shab-e-Qadar, Shabe-Miraj, Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha, Milad-un-Nabi, Youm-e-Ashura, Ramadan, Birth Rites, Funeral Rites. Some national events are also observed and celebrated around the country on various days of national importance such as Independence Day, Pakistan Day, Defence Day, Iqbal Day, Quaid-eAzam Day. Cultural Ceremonies & Festivals of Pakistan include Horse & Cattle Show, Lok Virsa Mela, Basant or Jashn-e-Baharaan, Kalash Festivals, Polo Festival at Shandur, Silk Route Festival, Sibi Mela, Mela Chiraghan/Mela Shalamar, Marriage Ceremonies, Urs of different religious heroes, Sindh Festival etc. Sports: Hockey is the national sport wile Cricket is the most popular one among the masses. Football, Kabbadi, squash, badminton, and wrestling are the other major sports in Pakistan. The customs, culture and traditions of the people of a country are representative of the history, faith, language and environment of that country. Likewise, the cultural patterns of Pakistan speak of our rich cultural heritage and traditions. The culture of Pakistan seeks its influence from the cultures of India, Central Asia and the Middle East. Pakistani culture varies widely from Punjab and Sindh to Baluchistan and Khyber.

Conclusion:
Culture is an indispensible and inseparable part of human life. While its forms and manifestations differ in different societies; a global culture is also developing due to media and communication industry. Pakistan enjoys a rich culture which is deep rooted in the history and lifestyle of the region. We need to carry on and (in most of the cases) revive these practices and customs because a visible acculturation is gearing up in the society where we can see clear influences of Western and Indian culture in the current scenario.