Issue 207

TOPIC: ISSUE207 - "Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are."

WORDS: 445 TIME: 00:45:00 DATE: 2008-4-1 16:19:12

The speaker asserts that it is the public activity, such as rituals and ceremonies, that define a culture, and that groups of people may dismiss themselves without turning to these public activities for reference. I strongly agree with this statement. Culture is a spiritual matter that manifests itself in people's enduring engaging in sociopolitical activities. Moreover, any one who fails to observe their surroundings may tend to obscure their values.

To begin with, we must have a clear notion about what is a culture. From the developments of history, culture may be defined as one characterized by ideology, attitudes about politics, and ethics. Besides, when it comes to certain detailed realm, such as sciences, arts, and politics, culture's influence on their prominent elites can be easily found. For example, Western culture and civilization owes its very existence to a special activity held in monasteries, in which many people acquired artifacts, art works and manuscripts together, when the Roman Empire was declining from its apex.

In ancient Greek, people almost always gathered in a particular space, such as a artistic hall, where they discussed a variety of questions. For example, Aristotle and Plato just actively engaged in classes, which defines the ancient thought on sciences and arts of Greek. In the realm of society and politics, civilization is especially characterized by various activities celebrated by people. For instance, in China, the Spring Festival is the most paramount ceremony in almost the whole people's minds. In this festival, people invite their intimate friends to have dinner together and give some presents to the youngest members of families. Therefore, through this certain activity, Chinese traditional culture is defined to be a respectful and tolerant one, in which concord is easily to be found.

In contemporary, more and more kinds of cultures appear in the form of groups of adherents, and differing people who have distinct cultural ideologies may seek to discover their own values of existence by actively taking part in these groups. This is especially true among young generations. Consider the Hip-Hop culture which is quite popular among young persons in America. Members of the group of Hip-Hop typically wear extremely huge and large costume, in order to display their inner unrestrained convictions. Moreover, from the Hip-Hop group, we can conclude that the general American culture is a tolerant and civilized one in respect that Hip-Hop is reckoned as a normal culture among most Americans.

In summary, various rituals and ceremonies have played a pivotal role in defining a culture, through joining which many people clearly evaluate themselves. On the other hand, culture can represent a nation's pervasive attitudes and values towards society, ethics and politics.