ELEMENTS OF CULTURE

Language

Language is a medium of social interact specific to each culture passed down as legacy from one generation to the other to give identity and pride with a sense of belonging to a community or even a nation that maintains distinct culture.

In a multicultural society the dominant language in the majority group becomes the social interact with the minority cultural groups who however maintain their own language to interact with their own community.
For alien language to be accepted in any culture the process of defamiliarization plays an important role in rejecting or accepting a language.

Language does not develop in a vacuum. We are all members of a social group and members of `society´ as a whole. People interact in many ways and communication is just about the most common and among the most important. Whatever is meaningful to a group, from their everyday life to their traditions constitutes their very own culture and is generally respected by all group members. Language is only one of such items. For ethnic minority groups that may have a language of their own, their language is a cornerstone in their culture. Anthropology is the science that deals with `culture´ as a whole. Linguistics deals with aspects of language and Sociolinguistics studies the way that language is used in society.

Religion

Religion serves many functions. It can be a catalyst for change, or it can serve to preserve social ideals and traditions. The role of religion as a way to preserve the traditions of the society is based in the main functions of religions. Religions are intended to reinforce group norms. This may be accomplished through defining actions as either good or evil, such as in the Western religion of Christianity. Killing is considered an evil, and so is prescribing to idolatry. By defining these actions as evil, spiritual consequences can be attributed to the actions that deter group members from participating in such activities.

The next roles of religion are to provide moral sanctions for actions and to provide values and common goals that are intended to help society function orderly. This can be accomplished by attributing certain gods, goddesses, or spirits to specific behaviors, events, or items. Each god, goddess, or spirit has a function of control over some aspect of the group member's life, and can be considered to be evil or good. In traditional Chinese societies, ancestral spirits are thought to protect current generations from harm as long as tributes of remembrance are continued. If these traditions of honoring ancestral spirits are discontinued, or are not conducted according to tradition, then the ancestral spirits will be angered and they will spread misfortune to the family. These types of mythologies uses fear to reinforce traditional rituals and practices.