INTRODUCTION

Every society has its own way of life, ways of dressing and cooking; eating and
toileting, sacrificing and playing, showing hospitality and reverence, and of
expressing political opinions. To study the diversity of these ways is to study
culture, for culture is a way of life.
WHAT IS CULTURE?
Ralph Linton (1936) states that ‘The Culture of a Society is the way of life of its
members; the collection of ideas and habits which they learn, share and transmit
from generation to generation’. In other words, culture is the totality of the way of
life evolved by people in their attempts to meet the challenges of living in their
environment. In this definition, culture gives order and meaning to the social,
political, economic, aesthetic, religious norms, values of people, and thus
distinguishes them from other people. It comprises material, institutional,
philosophical and creative aspects. The material aspect has to do with artifacts in
their various forms, namely tools, clothing, food, medicine, utensils, housing, etc.
The institutional aspect deals with the political, social, legal and economic
objectives, while the philosophical aspect is concerned with ideas, beliefs and
values. The creative aspect concerns a people’s innovativeness in literature (oral
or written), their visual and performing arts, and their scientific and technological
endeavours. Culture is also related to the values of a society in terms of the
society’s conception of what is right or wrong (moral values), what is ugly or
beautiful (aesthetic values).
Culture is not merely a return to the past. It embodies the attitude of a people to
the future of their traditional values when faced by the demands of modern
technology which is an essential factor of development and progress. When we
talk therefore of self-reliance, self-sufficiency and a national development
objective, we are referring to our culture as the fountain of the underlining spirit
behind all the policies on education, social, political and economic matters. The
strategies for national development would thus depend on the understanding of
culture, the adaptation of its elements for political, educational, economic
development as well as the utilization of its strengths for social integration and
development.
THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE AREA
A culture area can be defined as a geographical area occupied by people whose
cultures exhibit a significant degree of similarity with each other as well as a
significant degree of dissimilarity with the cultures of others. The concept of a
culture area is like the concept of geographical regions because it is based on
the premise that culture reflects geographical conditions. This does not mean
that culture area coincide in every detail with geographical regions, for man to a
large extent, has control over his environment.
A culture area is also a description of the way of life of thousands of people in a
country. In Nigeria, there are about 350 ethnic groups, each having its own
culture, but these have been broadly divided into six culture areas, namely
Hausa-Fulani, Tiv, Yoruba, Igbo, Bini and Efik-Ibibio.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A CULTURE AREA
Culture areas are delineated by categorising cultures according to standard
classifications such as language, political organisation, physical environment,
and religion. Those cultures that arc similar and closely related belong to one
culture area and can be plotted on an ethnographic map.
(i) Language Factor
Language is a powerful factor in categorizing culture areas. People living within
the Igbo culture area speak the same language and so constitute what linguists
call a ‘Speech Community’. Within this speech community, there may be sources
of ‘regional dialect’ eg. Amongst the West Niger Igbo, there are three dialect
clusters: Ika, Enuani and Ukwuani. In the East Niger Igbo, there are many dialect
clusters: Onitsha, Orlu, Owerri, Etche, Ikwere, Nsukka, Ohuhu, etc.
The dialects in the Igbo culture area, in spite of differences in pronunciation,
share a common structure. This makes communication between the different
dialects possible.
(ii) Political Organisation
In pre-colonial Nigeria, there were two main types of government; monarchy and
a democratic form of gerontocracy. The former featured in kingdoms ruled by
Obas, Emirs, Obongs, Obis and powerful tribal chieftains who wielded power in
styles ranging from absolute dictatorship to near democracy. Democratic
gerontocracy was found typically amongst the Igbo and their neighbours. The
political organisation of the various culture areas differ from one ‘mother. East of
the Igbo are Efik and Ibibio. Each of their towns and communities are ruled by a
king known as Obong.
(iii) Physical Environment/Economic System
This factor has to do with the geographical boundaries and the nature of the
economic system in the culture area. Economic has to do with the production,
distribution and consumption of goods and services, but we must bear in mind
that these activities take place within the context which may vary from society to
society. Within a given social system, the constituent elements of this context are
subsumed under the same factors of production comprising land (including
bodies of water from which livelihood is derived), labour and capital. In more
recent times, the organizational aspects of man – the managerial or
entrepreneurial expertise – has been added to these factors. The forms of these
factors and the way they are combined and activated for meaningful production
are not uniform in all societies. They are, however, identifiable in their divers
forms and constitute an environment which societies modify and adjust in the
quest for sustenance.
iv. Religion
Religion refers to how man in a culture area relates to the supernatural
(Universe). People living in a culture area, by and large, share identical
conception of the cosmos. Man is deplorably ignorant and the universe is largely
a mystery to him. He does not understand the nature of space and time; he does
not know what matter is made of if indeed it is made of anything. Above all, he
does not understand himself.
Some of these puzzles are, by their very nature, impossible to unravel and this is
one of the main reasons why man resorts to religion. In his essay entitled ‘Why I
am not a Christian, Bartrand Russell (1971) explains religion in terms of fear.
Religion is based, I think, primarily upon Fear It is partly the terror of the unknown
and partly as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother
who will Stand by you in all your troubles and disputes.
This is a half-truth. A strong desire to explain the mysteries of the universe
appears to be partly responsible for the evolution of religion. For the believer, the
notion of God seems to bring an end to otherwise endless stream of questions.
But it is also true that for the cynic, God provides no relief, for he wants to know
who made God. If we believe that God has no beginning or end, why can we not
believe the same of matter?
Man’s life has attained that awesome level of consciousness which we normally
attribute to God. If, then we attribute the creative power to matter, then we have
no choice. If we discard God, it means that every bit of matter has the capacity of
conscious existence when it is arranged by natural forces, in a certain manner,
as, for instant, protein molecules. Thus, the creative power is all-pervading (that
is omnipresent) and omniscience, since all knowledge depends on intelligence,
intelligence, on life and life on matter.
Believers in God also describe, him as omnipresent and omniscience. Thus, God
and the creative power in matter are undistinguishable. That is, God and the
universe form one mysterious package, and it is futile to try to isolate one from
the other. All the questions we ask about matter and the universe could be asked
about God. Since most men do not doubt the existence of the universe (some
philosophers, like Berkeley, do), they have to believe in an all power or creative
force or God. What all these boil down to is that a man is one society relates to
his God differently from another man from a different society it other words, the
way the Yoruba’s relate to their Oluwa differ significantly from that of
Hausa/Fulani’s.

NIGERIA CULTURE AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

Nigeria is a home of diverse cultures. Culture is the lifestyle of a society. It covers
every aspect of our life-style including economic, political, sociological, and
ideological aspects. Nigeria has over 250 languages/dialects groups. These
groupings are done politically in accordance with differences observed from our
cultural setting. Inspite of, our pluralistic nature in terms of language, tribe,
occupation, architectural design, were bound together by several unifying factors
from which a nation culture can be evolved. Most states in Nigeria embrace
variance of cultures. These typical variances in tradition maintain social order,
strong sense, of justice, respect and high regard for law. The major Nigerian
culture and their characteristic