Introduction
Definition of Culture: What is culture?
Why is culture important?
How does literature define culture?
Symbols and Language
What are symbols and language?
What is the importance of symbols and language in culture?
Norms and Values
What are customs and values?
How do people define norms and values?
Which values are important in the modern world?
Which values are important in the West?
Which values are important in Doha, Qatar?
Conclusion
What is culture?
What are the most important aspects of culture?
Summary
Culture
Introduction
Culture involves the shared set of values, beliefs, customs, traditions, morals, knowledge, art, language, and other forms of habits or abilities of a particular group of people. The individuals acquire and practice the shared set of beliefs, customs, values, and other traits in a particular context to signify their unique culture. Culture is important mainly because it influences the life, actions, behaviors, and perceptions in several ways, especially in the context of views, values, beliefs, desires, and concerns. Conversely, culture is also important because it allows people to reflect or recognize their identity, sense of belonging, group affiliations, and purpose in the society (Longhurst, et al., 2014). Literature plays a vital role in culture because almost all cultures have a unique history and traditions in literary works, especially in the context of poetry. The Qatari literature illustrates several aspects of the Qatari culture primarily due to the unique writing styles, poems, and books of prominent authors or poets.
Symbols and Language
Symbols and language are the most important components of culture because they allow the people from a particular culture to communicate in a unique fashion. Language is a prominent element of culture because it represents culture at the most basic level. Language is one of the key features that differentiates one culture from another and provides a shared medium for the members of the culture. For example, the Arabic language is the primary language of Qatar, and all Qatari people share the same linguistic features. Although Arabic is common throughout the Middle East, the dialects and pronunciations may differ mainly because of the differences in culture. Conversely, the Arabic language also distinguishes the Qatari culture from the Western culture because the Western culture primarily utilizes English as a mode of communication. The symbols and gestures along with the language also separate a particular culture from other cultures of the world.
The members of a particular culture share several elements, including language, symbols, viewpoints, and beliefs. However, symbols provide a sense of common characteristics along with differentiation from other cultures. Symbols may include verbal, nonverbal, written, and unwritten signs, figures, gestures, words, phrases, and other forms of visual representation. For example, segregation of men and women is a primary symbol of the Qatari culture mainly because of the influence of Shariah (Islamic Law and Jurisprudence). The clothes of males and females also symbolize the Qatari culture in a distinct manner. Men wear a long white garment called the Thobe along with a headdress referred to as the Gutra. On the other hand, women wear the Abaya (a long black gown that covers the entire body from the shoulders down) and a head scarf called Hijab. The gestures of men and women in public are also prominent symbols of the Qatari culture, especially in the context of greeting strangers or acquaintances.
Norms and Values
Norms and values refer to the shared viewpoints, beliefs, traditions, expectations, and acceptable behavior of individuals in a particular culture. The standards and values represent the common perceptions or beliefs of the people regarding life, behavior, social roles, and other aspects of culture. The actions, behavior, beliefs, and attitudes of the people define the norms and values in a particular culture. The standards or expectations may include ethics, morality, religious views, worldviews, and opinions about other people belonging to the local or foreign culture. For example, the public in Qatar can relate to their personal viewpoints and perceptions with other Qatari individuals due to their shared beliefs stemming from the same culture. The norms and values drive or shape the behavior and activities of people regarding the expectations and acceptance of other individuals in the culture. The values and norms also define the way of life, traditions, rituals, and heritage of a particular culture. Some of the most important customs and values in the modern world include ethical behavior, respect for other persons, compassionate personality, sympathy, empathy, and tolerance.
Culture plays an important role in the overall ideology of an individual and it focuses on different norms and values. These norms and values sets up the tone of the cultural ideology of a nation. Societies rest on the norms and values of a culture and they shape up with respect to these norms. Norms are different cultural products that focus on perspectives like values, customs and traditions. A norm also represents a cultural understanding of what others do and think about other individuals within a society. Values possess a major influence on an individual’s behavior towards what is right or wrong, good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable in a society. Cultural values of different societies vary with each other because of difference in religion, societal norms, traditions, etc.
The modern world demand subtle changes and societies should accept these changes just to stay abreast of different competitive pressures. In the current era of globalization, different nations should focus on their traditional values just to stay different in the current era. They should focus on their cultural ideologies. Similarly, modern world demands technology-oriented values as individuals should learn the art of innovation. They should focus on inventing newer perspectives to stay ahead of different other societies. Societies should focus on effective educational scenarios as different modern societies look out of educated individuals. Modernized culture demands the acceptance of change. However, people should not disregard their own cultural identities to accept these cultural policies. Different modern societies also look out for ethical values through which they can develop a platform that would focus on morality and social acceptance. This cultural ideology would accept individuals of all the races, religions and sexual orientation. The modern world also focuses a lot on environmental scenarios and ethical ideologies to attain favorable returns. The modern is a combination of education, technology, ethics, morality and acceptability.
The western norms and values stress a lot on freedom of expression and giving appropriate chance to every individual. This freedom shapes their basic cultural ideology, but several western societies do not give importance to family values. This might hurt the societal bonding of family and social ties within a family.
Qatar- Doha represents a safe place to reside as it depicts the Middle-Eastern culture. Religion plays an important role when it comes to the cultural values of this nation. Dressing of men and women is in accordance with the religious beliefs of the nation. Women wear an abaya that covers their whole body, while men wear their traditional dress according to their culture. Thobe is their national dress and it comes with a head cover of guthra. Qataris focus a lot on greetings and ethics in terms of social gatherings. Similarly, Qatari people are against all non-Islamic things and they take this as a negative scenario. The design and architecture of this nation also stresses a lot on Islamic ideologies.
Conclusively, culture plays an important role in shaping up a society. It focuses on different perspectives like ideologies, societal habits, music, arts, cuisine, etc. Main aspects of culture focus on the beliefs, attitudes, meanings, religion, roles, etc. However, these perspectives vary from one society to another. Different societies maintain a different set of culture just to make sure that they remain different from the crowd. Cultural trends of previous era of different countries have changed with the advent of time, and different societies embraced modernized point of views. However, certain cultural ideologies still embrace their traditional views with modernized views to maintain a balance in their overall cultural framework. The west believes that people should remain open in their explorations and they should focus on freedom of speech. The western culture would always remain different with the eastern cultural themes. The eastern ideologies focus mainly on family values and religious scenarios.
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