All people are alike in a way because they are biologically of the same species. All people are also unique individuals and social beings. The world of a child in each culture is filled with symbols, heroes, and rituals that together embody and re-create that culture.

Our world has been populated by groups that split and split and split again. Some stayed where they were, but many moved in search of a better life. The groups that settled in different countries developed their own ways to live that were adapted to their circumstances. This took many generations, and the old taught these things to the young. If comparing a large number of cultures around the world, it would become clear that although each is different, they all meet the same five basic problems of social life. Each culture has developed its own answers to each problem.

It was a way to cope with those five problems in society like:

 

1.     Ways to feed themselves

2.     Ways to form communities

3.     Ways to defend themselves against danger

4.     Ways to bring up their children

5.     Ways to explain the mysteries of life and to express joy and fear and love and anger.

 

These ways to live are called cultures. Culture is defined as “that which distinguishes one group of people from another.” There are an infinite number of ways to form a culture, and no culture is objectively better or worse, superior or inferior, to another. Cultures are adaptations of a people to the conditions of life. When these conditions change, as they have over the last centuries, cultures are put under pressure. Still, they resist change. Today we find different cultures not only on different continents, but also in different countries and even parts of countries. A culture can never be all things to all people; what is good to one observer may be bad to another. English has the expression “You cannot have your cake and eat it too.” You cannot have one aspect of a culture that you like without having other aspects that you may not like so much.

Social rules

 

To find out more about Culture Shock follow the link.