Five Ugly Truth About Cultural Values
There is more to culture than how a group of people dress, eat, or act. People from different cultural backgrounds share the same values, beliefs, and customs. It is important to learn about other cultures. Learning about different values and beliefs will help you develop a meaningful and strong sense of belonging and of who you are as an individual.
Many religions stress that there are cultural values to follow. The Bible for example, mentions religious values multiple times. However, when one looks closely at the text, they see that it only mentions God a few times. Other people's religious literature mentions God several times in order to discuss the cultural values of the group. These texts can easily be used by members of a group to tell each other what the group believes in order to maintain their sense of identity.
By contrast, many cultures place little emphasis on the cultural values of the group to which they belong. Some cultures do not have any concept of right and wrong, and there are no formal laws or rules that dictate how things should be done. These cultures usually believe that things that others do are automatically right, and that what a person does is wrong. This also contributes to the feeling of lack of self-worth that makes people feel dejected and like they cannot excel in life.
A good way to understand other people's cultural values is to look to how they treat those whom they consider beneath them in society. For instance, a poor person in Africa would never treat a higher level official with any less respect than he treated his own family. Such a person would view such officials as equals, treating them with respect no matter what. This is the same cultural values that guide the way humans treat each other. A native American, for instance, will readily help another but will openly scold and insult a foreign guest who enters the country.
There are various types of cultural values that are important to a country. These values can be divided into four categories: religion, social norms, indigenous customs and national identity. Each of these groups has specific beliefs that guide how people live their lives. For example, a person from a rural community in India believes that the social norms, including marriage, are very important and cannot be violated, while someone living in a major city in America believes that religious freedom should be fully guaranteed.
The practice of yoga in the West has recently brought about many discussions about cultural values. The question many ask is whether or not such practices could ever be beneficial to a non-indu. There are many people who will readily answer “no”, but then there are many more who will state that all cultures benefit from yoga because it strengthens the body, mind and spirit. This is largely dependent on which type of cultural values one believes in. For example, some will state that those who are against yoga are actually anti-Christian and/or anti-Spanish. While it is true that some Hindus may frown upon these practices, they are merely acting out a form of cultural marketing.
With yoga, however, there is a very thin line between cultural marketing and true cultural values. Most people involved with yoga will state that the primary motivating force behind practicing yoga is basically a desire to achieve self-actualization. This means that the practitioners of yoga are doing so not out of some interest in ancient Indian rituals or philosophies, but because they have found a way to fit yoga into their daily life. As mentioned earlier, this is done for both religious and aesthetic reasons. Those who practice yoga have discovered a way to incorporate the universal practices of yoga into their lives, thus transcending their cultural boundaries.
Cultural boundaries do indeed limit a person's ability to think critically. This has been proven by many debates between those who believe that the Western world has a much higher IQ than the Eastern world. One common theme that runs through both arguments is the idea that there are two different types of intelligence. The first type of intelligence, which is cultural, is why one culture values something over another culture. The second type of intelligence, universal, is what allows people from any culture to do whatever they want to do without regard for their neighbors.
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