Cultural and Ethnic Studies

Culture and ethnic identity from the foundation of most people’s place in society.Cultural sensitivity entails learning and understanding the social, cultural and economic beliefs and practices of a particular foreign culture. Training and understanding of the community’s native language also enhances communication and eliminates the language barrier. The idea depicted by modern day society is of the western culture crawling into rather cultures one in the south-east around the world and the natives of these particular communities embracing it. However, with modernism and post-modernism slowly engulfing the whole world, Africa and the east, where culture is deep-rooted, are been sucked into western cultures and practices.

Culture is formed on some basic foundations and principles. These include birth, initiation, marriage and death (Eller 40). Birth for instance was accustomed to some various traditions that had been passed on from generation to generation. A good example is when a child was born, it was customary for the mother to go into seclusion for during her maternal period and the father would only see her afterwards. The community signified the sex of the baby through ululation done a specific number of times for a specific sex.

Witchcraft is another predominant vice in most cultures. Most communities used to consecrated those they suspected of being witches into “Witch Camps”as they awaited judgment and execution if found guilty. The selection criteria for those suspected of witchcraft was however tainted and most complained that it targeted old people since these were suspected to have the means and experience to be witches and wizards. Judgment was usually passed by the community leader and all agreed the means of carrying out what they termed as justice by consensus. This was usually through burning at the stake if the culprit was found guilty.

Funerals also play a major role in the customs and culture of most ethnic communities. Death was revered by all community members and was usually associated with curses and witchcraft. Most people believed that if one of their family members died while he was of a considerable young age, then this was as a result of a curse by someone who had a grudge against the family. This made funerals accustomed to various cleansing rituals to appease the dead individual and offer protection to the living members by breaking the curses (Eller 29).

Most ethnic communities were highly influenced by songs and used them a lot in the day to day lives (Eller 45). Songs were characterized by the different occasions in which they were sung. Dirges were also common songs sang during funerals to praise the dead and seek forgiveness for any injustice done. Dirges formed a significant part of the funeral rituals and were usually led by the head of the family of the deceased in most cultures.

In conclusion, culture plays a great role in helping us to form our social identity and should be passed on to generations especially now that most people has slowly forgotten and shunned their culture away. Culture should be embraced and transformed so that it can co-exist and adapt with modernization instead of being forgotten and trod upon in today’s society.

Works Cited

Eller, Jack D. From Culture to Ethnicity to Conflict: An Anthropological Perspective on International Ethnic Conflict. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1999. Print.