INTRODUCTION

Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social

behavior and norms  found in human societies, as well as the knowledge,
beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these
groups.

Humans acquire culture through the learning processes

of enculturation and socialization, which is shown by the diversity of cultures across
societies.
A cultural norm codifies acceptable conduct in society; it serves as a guideline for
behavior, dress, language, and demeanor in a situation, which serves as a template
for expectations in a social group. Accepting only a monoculture in a social group can
bear risks, just as a single species can wither in the face of environmental change,
for lack of functional responses to the change. Thus in military culture, valor is
counted a typical behavior for an individual and duty, honor, and loyalty to the social
group are counted as virtues or functional responses in the continuum of conflict. In
the practice of religion, analogous attributes can be identified in a social group.

DYNAMIC NATURE OF CULTURE

Culture is dynamic and thus complex. Culture is fluid rather than static, which means that
culture changes all the time, every day, in subtle and tangible ways. Because humans
communicate and express their cultural systems in a variety of ways, it can be hard to
pinpoint exactly what cultural dynamics are at play. Consider, for example, a conversation
about a person’s attitude or feelings. In this type of conversation, Albert MeharbianMeharbian
(1971). found that people pay attention to the words, or what is being said; the tone, or how
the words are said; and the visual behind the words, often called the body language. All of
these are aspects of culture that are interpreted differently depending on the cultural context.
Add multiple layers of culture to the conversation—such as time, power and authority,
emotion, age, gender, religion, nationality, and even previous intercultural interactions—and
communication at a cross-cultural level becomes complex and hard to manage. The following
is an example of the dynamism of cultures:
Sheila is the director of marketing for a social agency. She provides feedback to one of her
managers about how to improve services. Sheila sits behind a large executive desk and is
leaning forward. The employee sits with her arms crossed, leaning away from Sheila.

In the example, Sheila’s body language can be interpreted as any of the following: eager to
assist or help, intensely interested in what the employee has to say, aggressive and wanting
more information, or needing deeper engagement in the conversation. Her employee’s body
language could mean any of the following: protective, suspicious, not caring, or relaxed. To

1
understand the dynamics of culture in this example, you would need to pay attention to the
things you do not see such as:

 Is Sheila older or younger than her employee

 What has been their working relationship

 Does Sheila naturally lean forward when speaking with her employees

 What is the tone of voice in the conversation

WHY AND HOW SOME CULTURES WILL DIE OUT

The reason that culture is dying is due to the lack of efforts to preserve and retain culture
(Meddah, Subzero Blue).

Apart from that, another reason for the loss of culture is the increasing interconnectedness
between people (Hall, 58-63).

 Parents - do not emphasize the practice of culture in children's upbringing

 Community - schools often neglect cultural studies for students
 Authority figures - the government is not making enough effort to retain the culture of
its societies

The most crucial factor as to why culture is dying out is rapid globalization (Blomkamp, 199-
203).

 Influence - impact on the young generation who did not grow up with strong cultural
values
 New social media - Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp
 Information travels fast - different places pick up on information quickly

Globalization and modernization go hand in hand. People become driven by materialistic

goals - more concerned with wealth accumulation, status and standard of living. Culture has
no place in a money-oriented and fast-paced world

Everywhere we look, there are signs of culture changes. There are plenty of factors that
contribute to the dying of culture. Future generation will be people of homogenous culture -
possibly a culture of liberalism and modernism - where everyone everywhere dress the
same way, eat the same food, practice the same values. People will lose the essence of
uniqueness, originality and a sense of identity.

In this day and age, culture and tradition of many communities of the world are dying
because of three major reasons, namely, lackadaisical effort, the influence of mass and
cyber media, and rapid globalization.

2
 REFERENCES

Blomkamp, Emma. "The Adverse Effects of the Loss of Culture and Tradition in A
Modern and Global Society." International Journal of Cultural Studies 15.3 (2012):
199-203.

Early, P. C., & Mosakowski, E. (2004). Cultural intelligence. Harvard Business Review, 82(10),
139–146.

Hall, Stuart. Modernity: An Introduction to Modern Societies. Malden: Blackwell, 1996.

Heine, Steven J. (2015). Cultural psychology. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Cognitive

Science. (Third edition). New York, NY. pp. 254–266. 

Rein Raud (August 29, 2016). Meaning in Action: Outline of an Integral Theory of Culture.
Cambridge.