issue207 divine第十二篇 有拍必回

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TOPIC: ISSUE207 - "Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are."
WORDS: 494          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2009-8-17 23:01:31
The author successfully points out  the importance of rituals and
ceremonies to a society. After all, the form a big part of people's social lives and activities in which they identifies themselves. However, the question on
cultural identification holds more complexity than the author puts. Other basic factors, like language, also have their fundamental role in defining a culture.
Undoubtedly, the uniqueness of ritual of ceremonies are the most direct ways for us to distinguish one culture from others. Consider Thanksgiving in the US, Ramadan in Muslin countries, and Mid-autum festival in China. All rituals and
ceremonies represent the history of a society and reveal people's sense and
emotion. Without these ceremonies, people lose the opportunity to get together and communicate, while communicating is an essential society function.  Also, by conforming to take part in rituals and ceremonies, people show respect to their cultures. Every culture need to have some
tests to discern outsiders , otherwise it would lose the right to be a culture. And the tests are usually hidden in its rituals, often religious ones.                     
However, culture is a complex mixture. It could not be defined only by rituals.
Some other basic factors help define a culture as well.  Among them  a  
fundamental one is language. Different social groups usually speak different language. It is the easiest way to identify a person by what language he speak, even if he is living outside his society.  It would be interesting to look
at the example of English. Though it is the same language spoken by both
British and American people, the English they speak differs a lot from each other. The British English is more formal and limited to grammar, while American English has more freedom of usage and a more casual style. This
example illustrate best the impact of a culture on shaping its language,thus
Another factor of identifying culture, which is kind of indirect, but deepest and most fundamental, is characters.  People from two different countries, or two parts of
one country might speak the same language, but they can still identfy themselves from one another through the differences in characters. Characters
of a person are not clear as his appearances, but it mirror the value system of the society he is living in. And value system is in fact the line that distinguish cultures. For examples, many foreigners are settled in my country. They learn to speak our native language and take part in our festivals and
ceremonies. But they need to live for at least 10 years to fully integrate into the community. This example suggests that social identification is more of a value adaption.  People would identify themselves
as members in a group or a society when they hold the same moral disciplines, same customs, and perhaps the same sense of beauty.
In conclusion, although the visual differences between cultures mainly embody on rituals and ceremonies, and vocal differences like the language, they are only on the surface. Behind these phenomenon, societies and groups are tied by invisible bond called value systems.  A definition of culture involves all of the above, on which people's
identification is built.