What is culture?
To Duranti (1997), culture is such a complex notion that it may be neither possible nor desirable to arrive at an all-encompassing definition of it. It means different to different people. It mainly refers to an appreciation of good literature, music, art or food. However, for anthropologists and other behavioral scientists, culture is the range of learned human behavior patterns.
Tylor (1871) said that 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 the society.
To Trinovitch (1980, cited in Cakir, 2006) defines culture as an all-inclusive system which incorporates the biological and technical behavior of human beings with their verbal and non-verbal systems of expressive behavior starting from birth, and this “all-inclusive system” is acquired as the native culture. This process is known to as “socialization,” prepares the individual and linguistically and non-linguistically accepted patterns of the society in which he lives.
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To Robinson (1985) distinguishes between behaviorists, functionalist, cognitive and symbolic definitions of culture. Cultures is hence comprehended as something concrete that can be seen and experienced, but little interest is devoted to why or under what circumstances the behavioral patterns arise. Second, culture is viewed from a functional perspective. Although functionally oriented anthropology also deals with culture as a social phenomenon, it seems to go further than the behaviorist approach for it tries to describe and understand the structure and the variety of these forms of behavior and also to clarify as the roles they play in the society.
Culture of Maldives: Before and Now
The Maldivian’s share many aspects of a strong matriarchal tradition with ancient Dravidian culture.
There is a unique feature of Maldivian society has a very high rate of divorcing. It is due to early days of marriage. And other are being reflected by the combination of liberal Islamic rules about divorce. And the relativity loose martial bonds which is produced by lake of knowledge of the history and fully agriculture. In addition Prostitution in the Maldives it is said to be illegal.
The citizens of Maldives were Buddhists originally, but in the 12th century, Islam was declared as the national religion.
The population of Maldives belongs almost entirely to the Maldivians ethnic group, the official language is an Indo European language called (Dhivehi) or Maldivian. It’s also a mix of Arabic and Hindi. Islam is the state of religion. Apart from the residents of the capital city Male, most of the population of Maldives lives in the small villages at islands in the atolls and they live in small hut like buildings. But now in the modern days many are living on 3 story buildings.
Among 1190 islands, only 21 of the islands have over a 1,000 inhabited islands. The islands on the southern part of the country are more populated than the northern ones.
The daily life of the people in Maldives is regulated following the laws of Islam.
The traditional costumes of Maldives are quite simple and fresh. Men in the early days wear traditional sarongs (a length of clothing wrapped around the waist) with a long sleeved shirt which is white colored but mostly casual but with no top.
Cotton is the preferred to be the fabric due to the island’s tropical weather. The traditional dress for women is called (libaas). Now the weather in the Maldives rarely drops below 25°C (77°F), so lightweight and loose fitted clothing is recommended. The dress code is generally quite modern and casual in the resort areas, but more modest on inhabited islands.
Nowadays men wear jeans and buttoned shirts and women wears modest clothing, but use modernized clothing as the fashion era grows.
Being a seaside country, the main dish every Maldivian eats is (roshi) and (curry) in the early days and in modern days. Seafood and fish are very popular sources of protein there. Most vegetables are imported from other countries. A very popular after meal delicacy is Betel leaf with arecanut, cloves, and lime, known as (foh), is chewed after heaving meals. Even now a day’s people whom are much older still enjoy these foods.
Reasons Why Culture Changes
- Increasing the popularity of modern Technology – the skills and tools people use in the days. The invention of wheel, paved roads Inventions lead to demand of certain raw resources and steel for cars.
- Changing the surroundings of the environment – people are influenced by their surroundings and by gathering the materials by nature they create what the people needs and wants.
- Getting new ideas – People are now conserving resources more than ever such as recycling and reproducing. A new sense of the world has many natural resources. Example = iron plow, rock and sometimes civilizations adopt ideas to make themselves stronger.
- Tradition and Change – due to modern technology people are more connected and their Ideas are exchanged quickly from people to people across the globe due to the internet, phones and transportation methods such as People all around the world can learn what happened thousands of miles away instantly also Modern technology is changing cultures and sometimes can have a negative impact of replacing traditional cultures.
