What is Culture?

Concept of Culture:

Culture is actually the lifestyle of people. Picture of human life is revealed through culture. Culture is not built overnight. All a man does and thinks to preserve his existence and to serve some purposes are his culture. For example, man eats food to live. When this food is cocked following various recipes and serve with nice decoration, it becomes man’s culture.

Types of Culture:

Culture is of two types: Concrete Culture and Abstract Culture

If the house is a concrete culture, its plan will be abstract culture. If a book is a concrete culture, the thoughts and ideas with which the writer wrote it, will be an abstract culture.

Some examples of concrete and abstract elements of Bangladeshi culture   are:

Concrete	Abstract
1.House	knowledge and of building them.
2.Furniture	out look and attitude of people.
3.Dress	religious belief and sense of morality.
4.cumputer,TV& Radio	various branches of knowledge and science.

                                   

Elements  of Bangladeshi Culture:

The elements of Bangladeshi culture are divided into two  kinds, such as—

1. Concrete or visible elements;
2.  Abstract or invisible elements;

Concrete elements:

We can see some elements of Bangladeshi culture with our eyes, and hold them with our hands that type of culture is called concrete culture. Various kinds of houses, furniture, dress, transport, food, farming tools, and books are examples of concrete elements.

Abstract Culture:

Many elements of culture we can neither see nor touch, that type of culture is called abstract culture.

Abstract elements are collective knowledge, outlook, attitude, music, ideas and values, various branches of knowledge and science, etc.

The people of our country created concrete elements of culture for their own necessities. These elements can last for hundred years. The concrete and abstract elements of our culture are not isolated from each other. Because The change of one element of Bangladeshi culture brings about changes in other elements.

Form and features of culture in Bangladesh

Agro-based culture:

Culture based on occupation:

In day-to-day life, trees and water bodies have an important role in producing food and in doing work. Due to close attachment to rivers, many occupations, such as boatmen, fishermen and boat-making-artisans etc. have developed in our culture. The river-based songs like Bhatiali. Sari etc. spontaneously tell about the rivers and river-dependent people. Besides farmers, weavers, boatmen, and fishermen, there are many other occupations like blacksmith, potter, barber and so on.

Culture based on language:

Three language groups have brought their language and culture. They are the

Austric, the Dravid, and the Indo-Europeans. Their influence is still visible in our

culture.

Culture based on religion:

Culture based on songs & poetry:

We find the reflection of this speech in the songs of Lalon, Rabindranath, and Nazrul. In the Sultanate Era, Poet Chandidas wrote-“Man is above all, nothing is above it.”The unknown folk poet wrote “Cows are of multicolor but the milk is of the same color. All songs in the entire world come from mother.” Our national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam also wrote.”Two flowers are on the same stem Hindu-Muslim. Muslim is the apple of his eye while the Hindu is his heart.”

Therefore Bangalees are living in harmony with a collection of God-gifted cultures.

Culture differs from country to country :

Geographical environment, weather, method of production etc. play special role to

build up culture. As a result, culture differs from country to country. Again, many kinds of culture can develop in a single country. Hence, culture is not stagnant, rather it is changeable. It is not that the whole culture changes. Some major aspects of culture remain unchanged for a long time.

In different places different culture:

Many kinds of culture can be practiced within a single country depending on the

characteristics like occupation, gender, age, location, the process of production, education, religion, and so on. For instance, rural culture differs from urban culture. In the geographical environment of the village, there are ponds, rivers, canals, creaks, mountains, seas, fields spread up to the horizon, etc. The occupations like farming. Pisciculture, boatmanship, etc. contribute to constructing rural culture. The main food of Bangladeshi culture, rice, and fish, is still an inseparable part of rural food habits. Many regional songs like Bhavaya, Bhatiall, Murshidi, Baromasya, Gambhiraetc reflect the happiness and sorrows of the rural people.

Culture vary man to woman and language:

 There are also differences between men and women regarding dress, lifestyle and thoughts. Since the primitive period, our language culture has developed with the vocabulary consisting of words from various language groups. Our language style consists of various language families like Austro-Asian, Dravidian, Tibetan-Burmese, Inda-European etc. Later on, our language borrowed many words and styles from the colonial rulers like the Dutch, the Portuguese, the French, and the English.

Therefore, we shall constantly practise our cultural variety through receiving,

discarding, refining, and developing other cultures, and through changes advance our culture forward.

Impact of Culture in Individual and Group Life:

Culture has a special impact on individual and group life. Culture develops beliefs, concepts, ideals, and values that control the individual’s behavior. Education is a part of the culture. So, creates a desire for a person for acquiring knowledge. In this country, the impact of culture on individual and group life is endless.

Our social unity becomes stronger through religious festivals. Cooperation, fellow–feelings, and good thoughts develop among the people. Marriage is a major family and social ceremony in the culture of Bangladesh. Through marriage, the kin relationship is created between two families. However, cultural impact differs from country to country and society to society.