CULTURES AS SYSTEMS
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 780 ▶ |
| Object type | Human sciences |
The common acceptance by a numerous group of people of a set of values and norms tend to create a dynamically stable entity which maintains itself with recongnizable characteristics during quite a long span of historical time .
It becomes conceptually acceptable to speak of “cultural systems”. Their main characteristics are:
- each one offers basic features, values , beliefs and norms , a language , specific aesthetics, a folklore
- two or more different cultures may find it quite difficult to communicate
- a cultural system generally exists in more or less well defined and stable spatial boundaries
- the values and norms of the culture are transmitted from one generation to the following by a kind of psychological imprinting, which guarantee their survival (“historical consciousness ”)
- cultures evolve and finally tend to decay and disappear; but may leave traces and thus contribute to the inheritance of new cultures in the making
- individuals pertaining to a culture adapt themselves very uneasily in another one and are also frequently discriminated (nationalism, religious fanaticism, racism, etc) (R. ARON, 1961)
Of course, a member of a cultural system views his/her systems in function of the received imprinting, from which it is very difficult to escape
See also
Aura, History (Sistemic)