Saving our culture from unacceptable changes?

As the English Anthropologist Edward B. Tylor (1871) stated, culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society."  As a central concept in anthropology, “culture” refers to a range of integrated system of learned behavior patterns that are not a result of generic inheritance (Adamson Hoebel, 1986). Human behaviour depends on many internal and external factors. Changes in these factors result in changes of the behaviours.

Our needs and behaviours are evolving and changing with time. In a small world influenced by globalization, our thinking patterns, behaviours, habits and attitudes are also changing rapidly. Therefore even without knowing, the cultures we belong are gradually evolving too. This tells us that a culture in a particular society in not a static base but an ever evolving process which determines by the changing behaviours of the members of that particular society. Asia, specially the Indian subcontinent has inherited a rich and diverse culture which is vastly different from the western world. That culture is the most astonishing feature of this region. Following the footsteps of its neighboring diva, Sri Lanka is also proud of its culture which is a mix of ancient local and Aryan inheritance. Sri Lankan culture is consisted of many subcultures mainly influenced by religions and ethnic groups. However our “Rich Sri Lankan culture” with a history of 2500 years and more, has been evolving throughout and still continues.

Culture and its subcultures play a major role in our lives. The same culture which is a result of learned behavioral patterns of one generation, on the other hand influences the behavioral patterns of the next generation.  This way we inherit the cultural behaviours from past. However our desires and needs are changing with the fast moving world and those are not necessarily the same as that of our previous generation. Therefore certain behaviours and attitudes of the new generations might look like totally unacceptable to the older generations based on their leaned culture. Now the question is whether can we judge or evaluate the acceptability of our current needs and behaviours based on a culture evolved from the behaviour patterns of the past? In other words, can the needs and behaviours of today’s Sri Lankan society be judged or controlled by a static idea of a historical culture?

Women wearing topless dresses

in 19th century Sri Lanka

Today in the Sri Lankan society, we talk about cultural acceptability of attires of women, multiple marriages, having kids before marriage, single parenting, sexual preferences and many more things. Some of these were accepted without any issue in our society many centuries ago. With the change of the behaviours influenced by many third parties time to time, today as a society we have a different definition on what is culturally acceptable and what’s not. So the same situations which were accepted long ago might have become unaccepted today. Groups commenting on women's attire today have forgotten what was accepted long ago in Sri Lanka.  Moreover, though the world today look at issues such as sexual preferences or single/gay parenting with an open mindset, we tend to put cultural barriers in front considering those as threats to our society.

Here in Sri Lanka we can find many groups who are willing to kill each other in order to protect their learned culture from these threats. These “Cultural Saviors” try to have a control over the behaviours of other members of the society, even though the world is looking at the same behaviours with en open eye. However they do not understand that the same culture that they think is static and acceptable is not going to stay as the same in future. Thus, one can predict that certain culturally unaccepted behaviours today in Sri Lanka, have a potential of becoming acceptable with time, given our thoughts, behaviours and attitudes are evolving that way. 

To gain the cultural acceptance for something worth fighting for, all we need to do is influencing others to think and change their behaviours positively about what we believe in.  This may take time but for sure it will make the battles of these Cultural Saviors’ nothing but a waste of time.

Image sources -  Image 1 Image 2