A community’s culture defines the people’s way of life, their preferences, traditional activities and practices, values and beliefs when it comes to certain aspects that affect the people collectively as a community. For this reason therefore, it is important to note that different communities attach a lot of importance and loyalty to their cultures, and will go beyond expected levels to maintain it and ensure that it is not affected or commercialized. Going by this view therefore, attaching any positive activity to a given community’s cultures is one of the ways that can be used to ensure that the positive activity is fully accepted and assimilated into the community (Wilkenman 46). This is based on the fact that over time, the people from that particular community will finally get to cognitively relate the activity with the community’s culture, and as a result they will finally view it as part of their culture and activities.
As a result of this therefore, many health specialists especially in the developing and the under-developed states have adopted the practice of associating various cultural and traditional activities with some health practices. Some of these include hygiene observation, observing of one’s own diet as well as basic environmental cleanliness. All these are positive hygienic practices and when instilled in a given community’s culture, the become a part and parcel of that community’s practices, hence the people in these communities end up adopting health measures but in the actual sense they are doing it with the aim of observing their culture and belief (Spector 159).
This strategy has worked in many cases especially in developing states. However, it should be done with caution and only the acceptable facts should be assimilated in a culture, since some rigid communities may view these practices as cultural pollution and in turn oppose the hygienic moves (Johnson 211).
Works cited
Johnson, James. Health Organizations: Theory, Behavior, and Development. Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett press, 2008. Print.
Spector, Rachel. Culture Care Guide for Cultural Diversity in Health & Illness. New Jersey: Wiley, 2003. Print.
Winkelman, Michael. Culture and Health: Applying Medical Anthropology. New Jersey: Jossey Bass press, 2010, print.
