#Culture- a double headed #enigma?
When we are born in this material world, our birth was inside a culture. As through the years, we were culturalized through a process. When this process is completed our culture is then deep rooted and is inside us. We then take our culture everywhere we go.
We usually never leave home without it. Now while all of this is normal and inevitable, it could also be one of the great hindrances that can hold us back from full self- actualization.
Enculturalization can sometimes hold you back from your fullest expression as a human being and from unleashing your highest potentials. In this, culture plays a double-role and one that is both a blessings and a curse.
“Culture” is a great contributor to human development as well as a great limitation and inhibitor of human development.
How can it be both?
Well, it operates in both ways at different times in our development.
In the first stages of our development, culture is essential and tremendously contributes and usually in a very positive way. In fact, without it we would not become human at all. Children who are taken out of human culture and are raised in the wilderness by animals may never become human. If they miss the language imprint period, they may never learn to talk. And as they miss the symbolization period of cognitive development, they also may never learn how to enter into the human dimension of symbols of which culture exists.
Our first exposure to “culture” occurs in our homes—the home environment created for us by our parents. Here they cultivate our mind, emotions, speech, and behaviors as they plant their cultural seeds of meaning within us and shape and condition us to respond as they do to the cultural frames of their own Enculturalization.
Some Parents could impose this without they themselves not having a slightest idea of this while some Parents do teach, guide and enable their children freedom to think. This happens because of various schools of thought, belief systems across.
- Take some time now and ask yourself the following questions:
- How have you been enculturalized?
- In and by what culture?
- What culture or cultures were you born inside of?
If you don’t know it, your culture is your Matrix—a set of frames pulled down over your eyes to conceal you from the truth (from what is real) and to create a man-made reality for your mind. You were born in the Matrix of your culture and to the extent that you think it is real and true and right — to that extent you have been thoroughly enculturalized and to that extent, the Matrix has you.
- How do you escape that Matrix?
- And why should you escape your culture and Enculturalization?
Because :
It sometimes could limit your thinking.
It could put restraint on your possibilities.
It might prevent you from even seeing and experiencing the full range of human possibilities.
Where does Culture exist?
Culture exists in the minds of those who have been cultivated to see certain things, value certain things have in certain ways, recognize certain rituals as meaningful, etc. In fact, culture which sounds like a thing is an invisible nominalization referring to a high level set of invisible frames in our minds that are for the most part outside-of-our-awareness (i.e., unconscious). We mostly become aware of our culture when we meet other cultures.
When Abraham Maslow was modeling the characteristics of self-actualizing people, one of the distinctions he recognized was that the selfous age and no longer relevant or useful. So like people, our “cultures” go through birth-growth-and-death stages. They are given birth, they grow, they evolve, they get old, they become irrelevant, and they pass away.
In this every culture operates like the proverbial Procrustean bed*. We live down in the Procrustean bed of our culture and if we are “too short” —if we don’t measure up to the things that our cultures values and treats as important —not pretty enough, strong enough, intelligent enough, wealthy enough, etc. then the culture does its work in attempting to “stretch” us. It does it through teaching, demanding, shaming, punishing, etc. And if we are “too tall” then the culture works to “shorten” us through criticism, scolding, warnings, etc.
In these ways every culture no matter how wise, developed, advanced, caring, or noble works to create a “product.” The product is that of a well-culturalized person who fits in, gets along, and exemplifies the values and ideals of that particular culture.
So to be a “cultural man” or a “cultural woman” is like being an “organizational man,” a “yes man,” a good compliant, non-questioning, non-disturbing cog in the machine of that culture.
And to this extent, our Enculturalization creates limitations and dis-empowerment. To this extent it prevents us from discovering and developing our own uniqueness so that we can be authentically ourselves.
When I mention about Enculturalization I would also like to mention about Dharma ( the root word of culture ( Sanskriti) in Sanskrit)
The Hindu Dharma Saastra talks about two Dharmas (culture). Samanya Dharma ( Universal Dharma/culture) and Vishesha Dharma ( Specific Dharma/culture)
Dharma is something which changes with place and time. Dharma has to be INTERPRETED based on the context. Not knowing how and when to interpret could lead to confusion. Dharma has to be interpreted appropriately, rather than being fixed to certain ideals and being helpless in doing the right action ( like Bhishma** of Mahabharata). So when it comes to culture, it is not universal, which makes it a learning experience for others who are new to it and get along with it.
Let me give you an example: if someone from India goes and visits and English man’s/American’s house and starts eating with his hand ( eating with hand has its own significance as per the Indian culture) , he may hurt them so he may need to be alert to these factors at the same time following his dharma ( Ahimsa- non violence) with deeper understanding. He can still eat with a fork/knife while he can have his type of ( Indian Vegetarian diet) food. So there is Samanya Dharma which is universal and Vishesha Dharma which varies from place to place. We learn, adapt without letting go of our Vishesha Dharma.
And if some aspects of others’ culture is not keeping with ours and there is contradiction, we need not adapt those aspects.
As you welcome the new calendar year, ask yourself the following questions:
- How much has your culture enculturalized you and how much do you resist it?
- What parts of your culture do you resist?
- To what extent is your identity tied up in your culture of origin?
- How easily can you transcend your culture?
- To what degree can you look and relate to people apart from their Enculturalization?
- How aware are you of the lens that your culture has placed upon your way of perceiving things?
- How consciously can you adapt to the Universal culture( Samanya Dharma) while retaining your specific culture(Vishesha Dharma)?
* Procrustean bed- A situation or place that someone is forced into, often violently. In Greek mythology, the giant Procrustes would capture people and then stretch or cut off their limbs to make them fit into his bed.
**Bhishma. was one of the important and central characters in Mahabharata( the Indian Epic) who was fixed to certain ideals and because of that was helpless in doing the right action.
Sources:
1. Understanding neurological levels by Robert Dilts
2. Positive psychology – CR Snyder
3. Transcending Culture- Dr Michael Hall
4. The Gita
5. The Greek mythology
6. Extract from our soon to be published book – Building #Workplace #Equality-#Ethics, #Diversity and #Inclusion