Are Cultures Defined by Their Beliefs?
A woman in Eastern Africa is selling lettuce at a market. The baby on her lap has finished nursing for quite some time yet the mother leaves her breast exposed to the public in case her child should decide to nurse again. She feels no embarrassment and no one in the market takes notice. In the same market another woman is looking for some vegetables to buy. She is wearing a nice blouse which completely covers her chest and yet everyone in the market is staring at her.
Why? Because she is wearing a skirt that comes well above the knees. Here we see a situation of how strongly beliefs affect cultural behavior such as in this case modesty. This example is an accurate portrayal of the changing culture in Eastern Africa. The belief of what modesty is drastically changes the culture and forces it to conform to those beliefs. These two women represent the collision of two beliefs and two cultures. What the lady selling lettuce believes is that the breasts are meant for feeding her children and they are not something that needs to always be covered from the public eye. Her mother and grandmother also believed the same thing, therefore she also does. There is no shame in this daily task in fact it carries a sense of pride in the fact that she is a good wife who can bear children and provide for them. However, she believes that the thighs are to never be shown in public because she was taught that they are a very private part of the body. The beliefs that she received from her ancestors, tells her that showing her thighs is immodest but letting her breast hang out is completely fine.
In contrast to this belief we have this other woman who has had more contact with the western world and is beginning to change her belief system to mimic it which in turn begins to change her culture. She begins to see models and actresses with short skirts and women on the beach showing all of their legs to and she begins to think that the whole world believes this is normal, that it is modest.
She starts to rethink her beliefs and finds that her mother and other relatives must be mistaken. They must be the only ones left who think that showing your thighs is immodest. From this belief she begins to change her culture. She also see that in western culture having your breast exposed in public is very immodest. She starts to wear bras and blouses to cover her breasts. Even covering up when breast feeding and feeling slightly embarrassed if she accidently shows anything. She starts to wear shorter skirts which show more of her leg because this is "normal" and over time feels more and more comfortable doing this. As her beliefs about what is modest changes her culture changes with it. This is what is happening in the cities in Eastern Africa. Slowly what was the norm (for example showing the breast) becomes abnormal and a bit immodest and what was immodest (showing the thigh) slowly because modest and completely normal. This is how beliefs completely define and redefine a culture. Once those beliefs are changed, once the belief of what is the "norm" is redefined the culture automatically changes to correspond with those beliefs. As the world is drawn closer together through technology and the there is more opportunity for the exchange of thoughts, ideas, and beliefs the different cultures of the world are slowly being influenced and changing into a world culture.
