Category: Culture

If we carefully examine the tradition of sociology and anthropology, we find that culture has remained, all through the last hundred years, a major theme of discussion. The emergence of ethnology, as a new branch of social science, establishes that culture is super-organic in all its manifestations. However, approach to culture has two distinct methods. For cult urology or ethnology, culture is the ultimate reality sui generis and society is the vehicle of culture a necessary but not sufficient condition of culture. For sociology, on the contrary, society is the ultimate reality which renders intelligible the nature of man and of the social institutions by which he is governed. ADVERTISEMENTS: Actually, sociolo­gists consider society as the creator of culture whereas anthropologists think that it is culture which keeps the organization…

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Whatever else India may not be, she is at least one thing. She is the greatest storehouse of spiritual knowledge.” The remarks are very appropriate because the word ‘spiritual’ strikes immediately when one thinks of India.Spiritualism can be defined as, “connecting with one’s inner spirit or soul.” India is certainly a country that provides the ground for saturating one’s senses by the touch of the being called supernatural power. Through the ages-from the ancient past-India has amalgamated the wealth of knowledge in the form of holy vedas and scriptures and has emerged as the spiritual lighthouse for the world.India’s other name Bharat Varsha-the land of Bharata was taken after a king famous in Puranic tradition. The name India was applied by the Greeks. It corresponds to…

Dussehra, a ten day long festival is celebrated throughout the country with great religious beliefs. According to the Hindu calendar this important festival of the Hindus falls in the second fortnight of the month of ‘Ashwyn’. It is the festival of victory and triumph, the victory of good over evil.In Northern India, the life of Lord Rama is enacted as Ramlila for nine nights and on the tenth day the effigies of Ravana along with his brother Kumbhakarna and son Meghnad are burnt with a lot of fanfare. It is believed that in order to conquer Ravana, Rama had prayed to Goddess Durga for nine days and on the tenth, he succeeded in slaying Ravana. Tools, weapons, cattle and books, which represent knowledge and learning, are worshipped.In North-East huge decorated…

A joint family is a group of persons, who are related to one another and who share a common roof, common religion and common property. All the working members of the family pool together their resources and hand them over to a common head who is usually the eldest member of the family. The head of the family looks after the general welfare of the entire family. Any member who brings in extra income does not get preferential treatment. Thus, the joint family actually puts into practice the idea of Karl Marx “To each according to his need, from each according to his ability”. It is socialistic in nature.The joint family system is the characteristic feature of agricultural societies. They have existed in countries like India and China whose economy…