Domains of culture
1. First and foremost, the term “cultural domain” is a conglomeration of two important terms. The first being “culture” which for this study is taken to mean attitudes, values and goals that are common to a particular tribe, nation or any group. On the other hand, domain is simply a territory or the boundary of any nature. Consequently, cultural domain is a term with no standard definition but can be taken to mean a collection of items, objects or people with similar characteristics. Many researches have been done majorly by anthropologists to put this subject matter into a world perspective, and so far, twelve aspects of cultural domain have been identified (Campinha, 1999). This paper therefore, critically examines the twelve aspects as outlined below:
2. Overview/heritage is the first in the list of twelve aspects and is seen as the most general of them all. It generally concerns aspects of ones country of birth or his current residence in case migration took place in his life time. Integral in the analysis of this aspect are issues like the political development and orientation, economic capacity of the country which in turn affects individual per capita income and education system of a country. The next aspect of cultural domain concerns communication in a group which is determined by the language and dialects of people. Here, issues like critical language context, paralanguage accompaniments such as individual volume and tone are weighed extensively. Examination of nonverbal communications that are always dominant in every society, and the probability of ease of sharing information amongst members are also handled deeply (Campinha, 1999).
Family roles and organization is the next in the line of culture domain. This is the most important social fabric of the society without which, the nation is broken down. In this genre therefore, issues touching on household head and related gender duties are keenly evaluated. This analysis will not be complete without touching on children issues that determine their development growth in the future; for instance their education and roles as adolescents. In each family, the aged and extended family members form an extended determinant that holds family lineage and flow together; this is also keenly evaluated in this genre. Workforce forms the next subset of this subject matter and is the lifeline of any nation as it deals with the production capacity of the nation’s human resource. This in turn is affected by several factors such as gender roles that discriminate duties along gender orientations, individualism that stresses accumulation of individual wealth, and health care practices that deals with the health status of a working nation’s population. Issues like individual autonomy, communication amongst various ethnicities in a country is also given special attention (Campinha, 1999).
3. The fifth domain is Biocultural ecology of the people in a country. This context takes consideration of ethnic and racial backgrounds of members of a country, which is determined by the physical differences that differentiate people using variables of skin color. Body stature that is a function of family genetics, endemic and topographical effects is also taken into keen consideration.
High risk behaviors amongst the population also fall under domains of culture and is defined by the abuse of drugs in the population. For instance, uses of illegal drugs like cocaine are analyzed in this subset. Failure to engage oneself in physical activities that affect physical wellbeing, and refusal to use safety measures in any activity also belong to this domain. Nutrition is the next subset of culture domain and is critical if society is to hold up together. The term nutrition is always synonymous to food and the definition attached to food which varies from community to community. Therefore, rituals and taboos that people have on different foods are conceived at this point (Hage, 1972).
4. Culture domain also entails issues of pregnancy and childbearing practice in every society. Different societies have different understanding concerning pregnancy using variables like fertility issues, and birth control practices. For instance, some societies encourage high birth rates while others do not. At the same time, different societies will attach different practices to pregnancy (Hage, 1972).
Culture domain will not be completely without looking at the greatest fear of the world; Death ritual. There has never been a common point amongst the cultures of the world as regards death. Different rituals have been developed by societies to give effect to their meaning of death. Spirituality which is closely related with death forms a critical aspect of culture. It is mostly attributed to people’s views concerning metaphysical entities like God amongst Christians and Muslims. More so, man always feels closely linked with these metaphysical entities through prayers, hence, they are one (Hage, 1972).
The last section of culture domain concerns health care practice of a country. This is the general focus of a nation’s health care practice in areas such as prevention and treatment of acute diseases, traditional treatment methods such as midwifery, and people’s perception towards contracting a particular disease (Hage, 1972).
5. In conclusion, the above discussed aspects of culture domain are crucial in terms of understanding different societies completely. This would be simple to undertake as one will just have to compare the above variables for each society and make conclusions based on them. Importantly, the above domains should not be taken as static elements since culture is a progressive term which changes everyday. Hence, more aspects should be brought into play.
References:
Campinha-Bacote, J. (1999). The process of cultural competence in the delivery of health care
services: A culturally competent model of care (3rd ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Transcultural
C.A.R.E. Associates.
Hage, J. (1972). Techniques and problems of theory construction in sociology. New York: John
Wiley.
