30/07/2024
The Cultural Trilemma
Too little culture Leads to confusion and a lack of direction when unexpected events happen
Too much culture Is a rut that is difficult to escape from. When circumstances change it could leave you in a dead end. It does not serve you - you are a slave to it.
The right amount of culture Is rational and useful and provides safe guidance on the road to personal discovery and self-mastery in a changing world
What is culture?
Culture is learned human behaviour. Culture is a powerful tool for survival, as it guides our interactions with the world and the people around us. It is also a fragile phenomenon and is constantly changing because it exists only in our minds.
There are three levels of culture that are part of our learned behaviour patterns and perceptions.
The dominant culture: is the set of cultural traditions that distinguishes our broader society from other societies. South Africans are culturally different to French, Chinese, Nigerians and Brazilians. In most cases, those who share your culture do so because they acquired it as they were raised by parents and other family members who have it, as well as during general social interactions - even with strangers.
Subcultures: In diverse societies, such as ours, people often retain some of their original cultural traditions, even after being partially or fully assimilated into the dominant culture. Members of subcultures share a common identity, food tradition, dialect or language, and other cultural traits that come from their common ancestral background and experience. As the cultural differences between members of a subculture and the dominant national culture blur and eventually disappear, the subculture may cease to exist except as a group of people who claim a common ancestry. However the dominant culture itself is changed by the inclusion of aspects (words, phrases, food, behaviours) of the subcultures.
Universal culture is learned behaviour patterns shared by all people. Examples of "human cultural" traits include:
1. Communicating verbally.
2. Using age and gender to refer to people (old, young, man, woman, teenager, baby)
3. Grouping people based on marriage and relationships (wife, mother, uncle, cousin)
4. Raising children in a family setting
5. Gender division of labour (men's work versus women's work)
6. Having a concept of privacy
7. Having rules to regulate sexual behaviour
8. Distinguishing between good and bad behaviour
9. Having some sort of body ornamentation (jewellery, make-up, fashionable clothing…)
10. Making jokes and playing games
11. Creating and enjoying art
12. Known leadership roles for the implementation of community decisions
All cultures have these and other universal traits. However, different cultures have their own specific ways of expressing them and defining what is acceptable and what is not.
As we enter, move through, and grow in the world we will come into contact with different cultures and sub-cultures, and adapt to or accommodate them, whether we like to or not. Even joining a hermitage, isolated from other influences, means we have to accept the culture of the hermitage!
The questions we need to ask ourselves are: Is my culture stifling or supportive? Am I contributing to an enabling culture or do I just find fault with everybody else's culture? Which elements of my culture are non-negotiable to me (e.g. respect for others) and which aspects am I willing to discard or change?
Some elements of this post have been adapted from the following source:
