The Importance Of Culture In South Africa

“Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both”( C. Wright Mills,1916-1962). Culture is not something that has just been passed down across time, but it is something that is still being done today. Culture is what we all practice, and it is something that we cross paths with on a daily biases, something we have and always will cross paths with. Culture isn’t what we presume to think it is, it is much deeper, it is language, and movement, art, the things we touch at that is a part of culture. Thinking back to modern culture 44,000 years ago and how it has emerged but in a way it all links back to the archeological layers of border cave, South Africa. There they had found one of the

Culture is much more than what we as an American society presume it to be. Culture is everything that defines our human race our existence. Without the archeological artifacts found left by the modern day civilizations, there would be no way for us to know our history, and where culture came from its origination. We are still finding cultural artifacts that are linking our ways of culture today to the culture 44,000 years ago. An archeologist by the name of Lucinda Blackwell said “Archeological material discovered at Border Cave, South Africa has allowed us to demonstrate that many elements of material culture that characterize the life style of San hunter-gatherers in southern Africa, were part of the culture and technology of the inhabitants of this site 44,000 years ago”. (Blackwell). Culture is Artifacts, language, religion, government, economic systems, occupations, arts, housing, and clothing. Culture is what makes up our human race. Although culture is different in every country, it is still the same in many ways. Culture is what separates us as a human civilization, and it is in many ways what connects

It is what separates us individuals. It separates us in groups, such as how we have celebrities and then we have us “Regular” people. It is amazing how us as a growing civilization have separated ourselves from one another. I myself am involved in subcultures. I have tattoos, piercings, and as a child growing up, and until this day have been labeled as being bougie. Being “Bougie” formed its own district subculture; it just hadn’t been given a name. It is based on dress style, the way one speaks, acts, what kind of house the individual lives in, what car one drives, how one presents themselves, how they look, and many other features. Nowadays you can depict exactly who is bougie and who is not, by merely looking at the way a person is dressed, and by the first few words that come out of a person’s mouth when they talk. Tattoos and piercing have always been its own district subculture. Having a belly ring or a nose ring has separated age groups; having more than just a single ear piercing. Same goes for tattoos. In this generation having a tattoo or a few other piercings other than just your ears have separated many high school “groups”. Groups meaning the many different subcultures found in high schools. My tattoos and piercings symbolize my independence; it is a subculture all on its own. What it means today in this society to have a piercing or tattoo is that one has proven their defiance,