Have a look at our way of life, and you will realize how foreign cultures have imperceptibly changed our culture and targeted our daily life
Pirthvi Raj Khatri
You must have heard about culture often. Culture is a common word, but what are the types of culture, and it is also important to know how many types of culture are there in everyday life.
Culture is the sum total of all our ways of living. Culture can be divided into two parts – One is material culture and the other is non-material.
Material culture includes all the physical things that people create and attach meaning to. Clothing, food, tools, and architecture are examples of material culture that most people would think of. Thoughts or ideas that make up a culture are called the non-material culture.
Non-material culture includes languages and words, dress codes, etiquette, rituals, business and social transactions, religion, laws, punishments, values, and ethics. Many of these elements of culture are learned.
Material culture and non-material culture have influenced our lives۔ Archeology has played a very important role in preserving these cultures.
First of all, it is important to know what archeology is. Archaeology is the study of the human past using material remains. These remains can be any objects that people created, modified, or used. The objects used in the past tell us what kind of culture there was before today and which cultures settled here and which one influenced our culture.
But who provides us with those items? Obviously the Archaeologists, who preserve the material found during excavations and adorn museums, recording them as information that reaches us. Nations existed for thousands of years; what was their culture, all this has been possible with the help of archaeology.
Another aspect needs to be discussed is the influence of foreign cultures. Have a look at our current way of life, and you will realize how foreign cultures have imperceptibly changed our culture and targeted our daily life.
It will not be wrong to say that our existing culture is not truly representative of Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi, Pashto, Gujarati and other indigenous cultures
The external cultures have captured our entire life style from food to clothing. The fast food has almost replaced our traditional cuisines. The result is that our new generation does not even remember the name of their traditional foods. Our clothes are ample proof of foreign culture. Similarly, our old buildings are falling down and are being replaced by American style buildings. But where there are disadvantages, there will also be advantages also.
Similarly, if we consider the non-material culture, our customs have also become witnesses of alien cultures in the name of evolution. Our indigenous languages are fast losing their originality under the influence of foreign languages.
Simply, it will not be wrong to say that our existing culture is not truly representative of Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi, Pashto, Gujarati and other indigenous cultures, but also a mixture of different foreign cultures and we are slowly losing our identity.
As a student of archaeology, according to me, in future, a cultural past of our nation can be the most difficult one to recognize.
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Prithvi Raj is student at Archeology and Anthropology Department, University of Sindh Jamshoro
