Essay: Our Culture Our Identity

The world is a unique place mixed up with the different cultures that people bear around the world. Cultures refer to social norms, values and behaviors which people follow generation to generation. Culture doesn’t cover only one thing. It includes wide range of people’s life style such as languages, foods, clothes, arts, music, festivals, religions and dances etc. Even a single society may contain lots of cultural differences among the people living there. Those cultural diversities signify who we are and what our culture is and automatically creates our identity. Each culture is distinctive and has its own identity.

 

Culture varies according to the place where we live, the language we speak, the religion we follow, the food we eat, the clothes we put on and the tradition that we follow. It also varies with the ethnicity and geographical structures. A person who is born in Nepalese society generally follows Nepalese cultures as he/she is experiencing it since his/her birth. The cultures that people have in Himalayan region may not be pursued by the people of Terai region due to geographical variations. The people of Himalayan region have their own cultures that are separated from the people of Hiily and Terai which help them to create their different identities.

 

Newly born children tend to follow the languages of their parents. They are supposed to wear the dresses that their family members and neighbours put on in various occasions. They are likely to favor the food which is typically eaten in their society. They are influenced by the rituals of their place and community and likely to act accordingly. The particular type of dances performed in specific occasions symbolizes the identity of same place. For instances,the ‘Burqua’ in Muslim society, ‘Deuda’ in far western part of Nepal and ‘Cow’ as goddess Laxmi in Hindu culture are the identity of those respective places and religion.

 

To sum up, culture also represents our history. The long-age practices of social activities and traditions shape-up the culture. We follow the culture that we are familiar with. It is very tough to adopt the culture of other’s as we are mostly unknown and nit habituated with it. We have already set up our identity through our culture. For an instance, it’s a difficult task to follow Hindu culture for a Christian or Buddhist. Thus our culture is our identity.