Things Fall Apart

Our society today is full of hundreds, possibly thousands, of different cultures. But keep in mind, this is the number of cultures our society only currently has. There have been many cultures in the past that have not survived from which our society could have possibly learned many lessons from. Most of them have been overwhelmed by more dominant cultures. Just imagine how advanced some of these now extinct cultures could have become.

The definition of a culture is basically the set of values, beliefs, religion, language, etc. that a specific group shares. Cultures may create a sense of belonging and safety amongst individuals. Many people grow up within a specific culture. That culture is all they have ever known. In these cases, transition from one culture to another may be quite difficult. For example, Okonkwo grew up within the Ibo civilization his whole life. He became well respected and developed a close bond with his culture. So when the missionaries arrived and people from the Ibo society started converting, it was not easy for Okonkwo to grow used to the idea that his culture was gradually disappearing. Okonkwo and his warrior friends were the members that benefitted most from the culture’s traditional cultural practices. On the other hand, people such as Nwoye could not quite understand the point of some of the practices. Although Okonkwo benefitted from the cultural practices by being able to prove his masculinity, he also ended up losing Ikemefuma and destroying his relationship with Nwoye because of the practices. The most unfortunate of people were probably people like Ikemefuma and the many infant twins that had been left in the Evil Forest. Even though these cultural practices were okay for the warriors, it was fa...

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...bandoning twins in the Evil Forest and murdering other members may only be suitable to their unique time and place. These cultural practices are a part of the norm in Ibo culture. If these types of incidents were to happen somewhere in Europe, the clansmen would be most likely be in immense trouble with the law. The clan’s cultural practices play an important role in assessing their society because one needs to be able to understand the reason behind each ritual/practice. Only then will they be able to understand why the Ibo culture is different from European culture.

Different cultures learn from one another so no culture should go extinct. It is important for mall cultures to be preserved. Some cultures have cultural practices that may not always seem to be morally right. Perhaps, society would benefit from abandoning these practices instead of the entire culture.