HUMAN GEOGRAPHY In class, we described several cultural groups that had changed
ID: 298759 • Letter: H
Question
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
In class, we described several cultural groups that had changed in terms such as beliefs or practices due to internal or external factors. Find a cultural group that has changed in some way and discuss that change. Submit the following:
-Identify and describe the cultural group in terms of their name, their major defining characteristics, their territory and their membership.
-Identify and describe some way that group has changed over time.
-Discuss that change in terms of whether it was internal or external and then in terms of the specific factors that caused it.
Cite any sources used.
Explanation / Answer
1) Identify and describe the cultural group in terms of their name, their major defining characteristics, their territory and their membership.
A - Name - The Indian Cultural Group
Territory – South Asia- The Indian Subcontinent
Major defining characters –
Membership – The group comprises of over 1 billion members – Census 2011, India
2) Identify and describe some way that group has changed over time.
The group has evolved over time from being a largely superstitious one to a rational and spiritual way of life. For example, the practices of child marriage, Sati (mandatory self-immolation by wife on husband’s funeral pyre), polygamy etc were gradually set into oblivion and today, the culture group follows a balance between western thinking and the oriental way of life. The group also has changed in diminishing the differences among people based on caste (division among people based on ritual purity and the hereditary work that they pursue) albeit the progress is very slow as caste based riots are still common place in many parts of the subcontinent.
3) Discuss that change in terms of whether it was internal or external and then in terms of the specific factors that caused it.
The change was both internal as well as external. It was External due to the enforcement of laws like Prevention of Sati Act (The Bengal resolution) 1829, the Sarda Act of 1929 against child marriage etc by the British colonialists and the works of missionaries on changing the mindset of this culture group. Also it was external due to the induction of Western thought in the Indian education system by the British and adherence to developing scientific temper and analytical thinking in the education system post independence. However, It was internal as well due to the rational decipherment of the ancient Indian philosophies and correlating them to the prevailing conditions. For example the understanding of the fact that the ancient scriptures of this region did not mention any of the above mentioned degrading customs and their origin to the misrepresentations of the Vedas during the Puranic middle ages. Also globalization brought parity in the way of treatment to individuals that ultimately made this cultural group to enforce internal changes to give equal status to women, disabled, transgenders in their common way of life.
Specific factors like the need to bind the various threads of Indian culture into one and bringing people together to fight against the Colonial government, the need to protect the ancient cultural heritage from the onslaughts of globalization etc also led to the changes in the Indian cultural group.
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