WHAT ARE THE CULTURAL COMPONENTS? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The cultural components are a set of practices, forms of social expression, artistic and political, traditions, customs and regionalisms that characterize a society and distinguish it from others. Like a whole framework that is part of the culture of society, these components develop throughout history and evolution.

If culture is defined as "everything that man does, says or thinks", then it can be determined that cultural components are clearly subject to the actions of man and his peers in a given physical space, which will develop and mark their identity more and more clearly.

For man, communication is not possible without the use of language, both verbal and non-verbal. Since man has had the ability to communicate among equals, the first cultural components have begun to develop. Language can be considered the main forging trigger of culture in the world.

The physical space where man decided to settle also greatly influences the cultural development of early societies.

The processes of miscegenation that were experienced with the discovery of America also caused a kind of rebirth in cultural structures and models at that time.

If that new step was the mixing of millenary cultures, today there is a new phenomenon that affects cultural components throughout the world: globalization.

Main cultural components

- Political and civic

Once a society is established, the creation of certain symbols encourages the notion of identity of its members.

In today's nations, the main cultural components that represent them are symbols such as the flag, the coat of arms, and the national anthem.

In the same way, the political and government systems adopted by the nations reveal the cultural values ​​of their members.

At the citizen level, the relationships and trust generated between them and the power strata throughout history determine generational positions and reactions to any change, or even the absence of it.

An example of this can be considered the political system implemented by the United States since its independence, which for more than 200 years has maintained its operation without being perverted by personalistic ambitions, as has happened with many nations in Latin America.

This type of political behavior on the part of the rulers and the governed is due to cultural baggage.

Example

Mexican flag. (See File history below for details. Based on the arms by Juan Gabino.). The flag and shield are a political cultural component of an international nature. Since the Middle Ages, nation-states have evolved their flag based on the socio-political contexts that best represent their population.

- History and customs

History is a fundamental part of the identity of a society; it is knowing where they come from and how they have come to be who they are now.

The level of roots of a culture can largely depend on the sense of identity that they have with their own history.

From history and generations arise customs and traditions: practices that continue to this day (some with greater integrity than others), and that keep certain values ​​alive within an ethnic and social environment.

These traditions usually take the form of religious or pagan celebrations, with regional differences within the same nation.

The celebration of characteristic historical dates is also another form of celebration and cultural evocation. Crossbreeding and cultural exchange have modified the integrity of these practices in almost the entire world.

This should not be considered in a negative way, since it is the same individuals who assimilate changes in their activities until they become their own again.

Example

The British usually drink tea, being one of their most popular traditions. The origin of this custom has a historical component, since it corresponds to when the English began to harvest stolen tea from China in the 18th century.

At that time, drinking tea was considered a ritual typical of high society, so its consumption soon expanded among the rest of the population.

- Artistic practices and body of knowledge

Music, plastic arts, literature, cinema and theater are expressive forms that can provide a fairly clear perception of the identity of a society; Not only that, but they can also provide an approach to the problems they face in their present, how they see themselves before the rest of the world and how the world perceives them.

For this reason, the first artistic supports, such as painting, music, poetry and literature, have been present throughout the historical development of a nation, providing enlightened views, and even criticisms, on the different stages lived.

Today many nations invest in artistic production to ensure an everlasting cultural and identity record. In the same way, art has always served as a critical alternative in periods of crisis and oppression in history.

Other sets of knowledge, such as gastronomy, can be considered a highly important cultural component, since in a globalized environment such as today, it serves as a letter of introduction to the rest of the world, and its integrity is not conditioned by territorial limits.

Conduct towards cultural factors such as fine arts, sports, gastronomy, and even specialized branches such as science, research and urban planning are all results of the cultural character of the individual within society; and at the same time they are producers of greater cultural identity.

It is not surprising that certain societies, by repressing or prohibiting the access of their citizens to certain activities or knowledge, generate apathy in them towards new alternatives that could be exploited for productive and beneficial purposes.

Example

Source: Photo by V2F on Unsplash

Flamenco is part of the identity of the Spanish and especially of the Andalusian. This musical genre was born from the mixture of various cultures such as Arab, Jewish or Gypsy and its popularity continues to this day, largely due to the constant evolution it experiences.

- The language and dialect

As mentioned at the beginning, language is a fundamental part of culture in general, and from this not only the languages ​​that exist to this day, but also the dialects and colloquialisms that are born within each environment where it is spoken.

This component is very important, and it is what distinguishes, for example, that English (its accent and its expressions) is so different in the United States, England, Ireland and New Zealand; as well as the different variants of Spanish that exist in Latin America compared to Spain.

The dialect is a form of own and foreign cultural identification, and it is the one that little by little contributes to the continuous development of the culture in a given environment.

In the globalized present, even languages ​​have been influenced by “universal” discourses, and they have had to adapt to these new elements in such a way that whoever pronounces a few sentences feels identified with each word and point of view that they decide to express.

Example

The Arabic language is widespread in Africa and part of Asia, and there are also other countries where it is spoken due to immigration, such as Spain or France.

There is a standard variety of this language that derives from classical Arabic, but each region then applies certain lexical and phonological differences. This is the result of the cultural identity of each country.

References

1. Adams, RN (1956). Cultural Components of Central America. American Anthropologist, 881-907.
2. Carrasco, AS (sf). Evaluation of the cultural components of the curriculum: towards a definition of culture through dialogue with students. XVIII International Congress of the Association for the Teaching of Spanish as a Foreign Language (ASELE), (pp. 559-565).
3. Herrmann, RK, Risse, T., & Brewer, MB (2004). Transnational Identities: Becoming European in the EU. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
4. Kaufman, S. (1981). Cultural Components of Identity in Old Age. Ethos, 51-87.
5. Liddell, SK (nd). Blended spaces and deixis in sign language discourse. In D. McNeill, Language and Gesture (pp. 331-357). Cambridge University Press.