Human Values and Elements of Indian Culture Unit - 1
Human Values and Elements of Indian Culture Unit - 1
Human Values and Elements of Indian Culture Unit - 1
The most widely accepted definition of culture is the definition given by TYLOR
(1974) in which he defines culture as a wide ranging set of activities that feature in
all human societies. The word culture therefore may mean a set of ideas, beliefs,
values, knowledge, behaviour, education of a particular society. UNESCO's
Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity adopted in November 2001, defines
culture as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional
features of a society or social group, that encompasses, in addition to art and
literature, life styles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs.
Culture leads to a state of perfection and refinement of the individual through
social agencies like family, educational institutions and the community. Cultural
attainments are thus not inborn but acquired over a period of time through
socialization and learning. Therefore culture constitutes the spiritual, material,
emotional, intellectual aspects of a society along with language, literature, arts,
music, dance, values, beliefs, ideas, customs, traditions and the like. Culture is a
way of life. The food you eat, the clothes you wear, the language you speak in and
the God you worship all are aspects of culture. In very simple terms, we can say
that culture is the embodiment of the way in which we think and do things. It is
also the things that we have inherited as members of society. All the achievements
of human beings as members of social groups can be called culture. Art, music,
literature, architecture, sculpture, philosophy, religion and science can be seen as
aspects of culture. However, culture also includes the customs, traditions,
festivals, ways of living and one‘s outlook on various issues of life