Cultural Variation

Between Cultures: The Role of The Environment

If human cultures modify the natural environment, it is also true that the natural environment initially shaped, and still shapes to some extent, the culture of society. 

The Japanese diet consists largely of fish, seafood and vegetables because Japan is an archipelago and the sea provided consistent sources of food and, with one twentieth of the surface of the United States, there is no room for grazing land for raising beef cattle. Similarly, climate, soil, and geography affect cultural aspects.

The Indian cultural worship of cows is a puzzling practice to westerners. Considering the fact that a lot of Indians are food-insecure, it does not make much sense to let these cows roam around the country and treat them with deference. Why not send them to the slaughterhouse and make the meat available to people? This typically ethnocentric reasoning ignores the environmental and social reality of India.

According to Marvin Harris (1974) has demonstrated that the specific treatment of cows in India is in fact an adaptation to natural and social conditions. India is still a largely traditional agricultural country with extremely low mechanization. Cows are sources of male calves that become oxen which can be used to plough fields. Cows are also a major source of manure, a valuable resource since India does not have oil resources and suffers from a shortage of wood. Manure can be used as fertilizer and heating energy. Finally, when cows die, they are given to Untouchables (the lowest caste) who then turn the skin into leather. Untouchables are also then relieved from the prohibition of eating beef, which provides them with a source of proteins.

Should the Indians decide to ignore their prohibitions and engage in mass slaughter, they might be better off in the short term, but the long-term consequences would probably be devastating. Indeed, because the main crops are rice and wheat, based on the soil and rain patterns, mechanization of Indian agriculture is not an option. Oxen remain the most effective tool for providing power for most farmers. Considering the environmental conditions in India, it is certainly rational to maintain the practice of preserving cows.

Mixed race, different people from different cultures...

Way to go, Cultural Diversity

It includes the various different social structures, belief systems, and strategies the cultures use for adapting to life situations in various parts of the world.
The differences in race, language, ethnicity, values systems, religion, and local cultures that make up various groups in a community also account for the diversity. Different cultures believe in a different way of doing things, for example; in Malaysia most people believe so much in religious perspectives and their lifestyle is based on the religious values. Where by in Africa most people are more in their historical and cultural beliefs...

Feel welcome to drop you views in regard to cultural diversity, we are living in a world with mixed races, culture and of course people of different religions, maybe it African, Asian, American or European cultures. Its time we share views...

Images, cultural diversity, religion...

Asian Cultural Diversity

Managing Asian Cultural Diversity: Cross-cultural Issues in Asia

Managing Asian cultural diversity can be very complex for Western companies. Each country has its own culture, history, ideology, language and philosophy: a strategy in Taiwan may not work in China, and vice versa. Understanding the local mentality, beliefs, and even linguistic traits can make a world of difference in managing Asian employees effectively.

The following topics are covered in this webcast:

Diversity of Asian Cultures
-Countries and Regions
-Ethnicity
-Religion
-Language
-Generational Differences

Erroneous Assumptions about Asian Cultures
-Common Stereotypes
-Latest Asia Megatrends
-Changing Asian Cultural Identities
-Women's Status

Comparison of Key Asian Cultural Concepts
-The Greater China
-Japan
-Korea
-Singapore
-Others

Cultural Impact on Asian Management Issues
-Leadership and Management Style
-Work Ethics and Integrity
-Innovation and Creativity

Culture via Africa...

African Culture, Overview

Africa is divided into a great number of ethnic cultures. The continent's cultural regeneration has also been an integral aspect of post-independence nation-building on the continent, with a recognition of the need to harness the cultural resources of Africa to enrich the process of education, requiring the creation of an enabling environment in a number of ways. In recent times, the call for a much greater emphasis on the cultural dimension in all aspects of development has become increasingly vocal. During colonialism in Africa, Europeans possessed attitudes of superiority and a sense of mission. The French were able to accept an African as French if that person gave up their African culture and adopted French ways. Knowledge of the Portuguese language and culture and abandonment of traditional African ways defined one as civilized. Kenyan social commentator Mwiti Mugambi pragmatically argues that the future of Africa can only be forged from accepting and mending the sociocultural present. For Mugambi, colonial cultural hangovers, pervasive Western cultural inundation, and aid-giving arm-twisting donors are, he argues, here to stay and no amount of looking into Africa's past will make them go away. However, Maulana Karenga states:

Our culture provides us with an ethos we must honor in both thought and practice. By ethos, we mean a people's self-understanding as well as its self-presentation in the world through its thought and practice in the other six areas of culture. It is above all a cultural challenge. For culture is here defined as the totality of thought and practice by which a people creates itself, celebrates, sustains and develops itself and introduces itself to history and humanity

— Maulana Karenga , African Culture and the Ongoing Quest for Excellence

African arts and crafts

Main article: African art

Africa has a rich tradition of arts and crafts. African arts and crafts find expression in a variety of woodcarvings,brass and leather art works. African arts and crafts also include sculpture, paintings, pottery, ceremonial and religious headgear and dress. Maulana Karenga states that in African art, the object was not as important as the soul force behind the creation of the object. He also states that All art must be revolutionary and in being revolutionary it must be collective, committing, and functional "in Africa all art is socially functional."

African culture has always placed emphasis on personal appearance and jewelry has remained an important personal accessory. Many pieces of such jewellery are made of cowry shells and similar materials. Similarly,masks are made with elaborate designs and are important part of African culture. Masks are used in various ceremonies depicting ancestors and spirits, mythological characters and deities.

In most of traditional art and craft of Africa, certain themes significant to African culture recur, including a couple, a woman with a child, a male with a weapon or animal, and an outsider or a stranger. Couples may represent ancestors, community founder, married couple or twins. The couple theme rarely exhibit intimacy of men and women. The mother with the child or children reveals intense desire of the African women to have children. The theme is also representative of mother mars and the people as her children. The man with the weapon or animal theme symbolizes honor and power. A stranger may be from some other tribe or someone from a different country, and more distorted portrayal of the stranger indicates proportionately greater gap from the stranger.

Folklore and religion

 African traditional religions and Religion in Africa

Like all human cultures, African folklore and religion represents a variety of social facets of the various cultures in Africa. Like almost all civilizations and cultures, flood myths have been circulating in different parts of Africa. Culture and religion share space and are deeply intertwined in African cultures. In Ethiopia, Christianity and Islam form the core aspects of Ethiopian culture and inform dietary customs as well as rituals and rites.^] According to a Pygmy myth, Chameleon, hearing a strange noise in a tree, cut open its trunk and water came out in a great flood that spread all over the land.

Cultural diversity refers to the variety of the makeup or the multiculturalism of a group or organization or region. It is also called multiculturalism.
It includes the various different social structures, belief systems, and strategies the cultures use for adapting to life situations in various parts of the world.
The differences in race, language, ethnicity, values systems, religion, and local cultures that make up various groups in a community also account for the diversity...