THE AFRICAN RURAL SURVIVALIST CONSUMER CULTURE

Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »

Chapter 3 Culture and cultural practices

Introduction

In order to obtain the goal of the study namely to establish the influence of cultural practices of the Batswana on the transmission of HIV/AIDS in Botswana it is important to make first of all an in-depth study of culture and cultural practices in general.
This chapter will focus on understanding what culture is all about. It will also help us understand the difference between cultural practices and culture. The different aspects of culture and the importance of culture will also be explored.
Hobbes (in Cuff and Payne, 1981:26) suggests that men coming together and agreeing or making a contract to live side-by-side in peace rather than continuing fighting one another formed societies Durkheim (in Cuff and Payne, 1981: 26) argues that for men to come together, at all to make a contract, they must already have some common agreement on the value of such a contract and some agreement to be bound by the unwritten rules of a contractual situation. This prior agreement for Durkheim represents a framework of order, which is the essence of society. If men could make a contract with each other, that means they were already members of a society because they held certain values in common. Consequently, it is their common roles, practices, expectations and beliefs that bind them together. Men are bound together by common values, based on shared and common experiences.
Hoogevelt (1980:24-25) believes that societal identity is always grounded in common cultural orientations shared by the members. The community defines who are we and who are they and the cultural system says why this is so. He further stated that cultural systems are basically sets of interrelated answers to fundamental questions about the human condition. Who am I? Where was I before I was born? Where am I going after death? What is real, what is unreal? What is true, what is false? (Hoogevelt, 1980:30-31)
Culture is that complex phenomena which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by a man as a member of society (Compare Seymour-Smith, 1990:65; Nxumalo, 1998; Giddens, 1990: 31; Pai, 1990 in Goodnow, et al., 1995; Kavanagh & Kennedy, 1992:11.)
Culture is a historically created system of meaning and significance or, what comes to the same thing, a system of beliefs and practices in terms of which group of human beings understand, regulate and structure their individual and collective lives. It is a way of both understanding and organizing human life (Parekh, 2002:143).
Belief systems are conceptual frameworks and explanations that groups and societies create to empower them to deal with their experiences. Such framework includes religions, ideologies, science etc. An understanding of what is right and wrong is based on cultural beliefs, attitudes and knowledge’s (Pai, 1990 in Goodnow, et al., 1995; Nxumalo, 1998).
Kwashi (2002:19) perceives culture as a complex whole, the way of life of people. He says that culture is the powerful influence behind the beliefs and practices that govern the daily behaviour and conduct of people. He further argues that culture is dynamic and differs from place to place and from people to people.
Culture is a way of thinking, feeling, believing. It is the group’s knowledge stored up (in memories of men, in books and objects) for future use (McNall, 1973:49).
However, cultural differences involve patterned life ways, values, beliefs, ideals, and practices. Cultural and sub cultural differences are not limited to extreme contrasts in, for example, language, national origin, or political orientation, but often involve more subtle differences such as those between religious, class, age, or gender groups (Kavanagh & Kennedy, 1992:11).
According to Kwashi (2002:19) culture may be defined as custom and civilization of particular people or group; or the way of life of people; the beliefs, customs, institutions, arts and all the products of human work and thought created by people or group at a particular time.
Kroeber (1952) as quoted by Moore (1997:73) believed that customs and beliefs existed independently of the individuals who held such beliefs. He continues to say that culture is transmitted by human interactions, ‘not by the genetic mechanism of heredity.
Pai (1990) as quoted by Goodnow, et al. (1995) and Williams (1986) argue that culture also includes behavioural norms; dress, food and eating related matters as well as appropriate and inappropriate behaviour.
Giddens (1989:31) supports Pai’s views of culture and adds that culture includes how to dress, marriage customs and family life, their patterns of work, religious ceremonies and leisure pursuits. It covers also the goods people create and which become meaningful for them – bows and arrows, factories and machines, books etc. Culture refers to habits, customs and materials people produce. Society refers to the system of interrelationship, which connect together the individuals who share a common culture.
Mcgurk (1990) also perceives culture as a process that is goal oriented and in its final analysis is morally driven. His view is that culture also determines what foods a person will like, whether he will think something is beautiful or ugly, what gods he will worship, and what he sees in the world.
Every culture develops over time and, since it has no coordinating authority, it remains a complex and unsystematized whole (Parketh, 2002:144).
Kluckhohn (in McNall 1973:45), Nxumalo (1998), Giddens (1990:31) and Pai (1990) as quoted by Goodnow, et al. (1995) argue that the societal legacy the individual acquires from his/her group or culture can be regarded as that part of the environment that is the creation of man.
To the anthropologist, however, to be human is to be cultured. The past experience of other men in the form of culture enters into almost every event. Each specific culture constitutes a kind of blueprint for all of life’s activities (McNall, 1973:46). He elaborates on this by saying that any cultural practice must be functional or it will disappear before long. That is, it must somehow contribute to the survival of the society or to the adjustment of the individual. Every culture is precipitate of history. Each culture embraces those aspects of the past, which, usually in altered form and with altered meanings, live on in the present.
Culture is the total behaviour pattern of the group, conditioned in part by the physical environment, both natural and manmade, but primarily by the ideas, attitudes, values and habits that have been developed by the group to meet its needs (Brown, 1957:80; McNall, 1973:45).
It widely agreed that any culture is a set of techniques for adjusting both to the external environment and to other men. However, culture creates problems as well as solves them (McNall, 1973:49).
Seymour-Smith (1990:65), Kavanagh and Kennedy (1992: 11) and Pai (1990) as quoted by Goodnow, et al. (1995) add that culture include material artifacts produced by a human society and transmitted from one generation to another.
Nxumalo (1998), Gillin and Gillin (1965:127) and Giddens (1990: 31) on the other hand explain that material culture relates to physical objects used within a culture. For example, artwork, tools and technology.
Williams (1986) and Pai (1990) as quoted by Goodnow, et al. (1995) further mention that the important elements of culture include verbal and nonverbal communication and linguistic styles.
Like Nxumalo (1998), Pai (1990) as quoted by Goodnow, et al. (1995) postulates that belief systems and knowledge include language, which is seen as an organizing framework for ideas and communication. They say that language can determine or limit understandings. Culture is articulated at several levels. At the most basic level it is reflected in the language shared with some cultural features in common. Culture of a society is also embodied in its proverbs, maxims, myths, rituals, symbols, collective memories, jokes, body language, and modes of non-linguistic communication, customs, traditions, institutions and manners of greeting. A slightly different level it is embodied in its arts, music, oral and written literature, moral life, ideals of excellence, exemplary individuals and the vision of the good life. Being concerned to structure and order human life, culture is also articulated in the rules and norms that govern such basic activities and social relations as how, where, when and whom one eats, associates and makes love, how one mourns and disposes of the dead, and treats one’s parents, children, wife, neighbours and strangers (Parketh, 2002:143-144; Pai (1990) in Goodnow, et al., 1995; Nxumalo, 1998).
Pai (1990) as quoted by Goodnow, et al. (1995), Seymour-Smith (1990:65), and Kavanagh and Kennedy (1992: 11) like Kluckhohn (in McNall, 1973:45), Moore (1997: 73), Nxumalo (1998), Williams (1986), McGurk (1990), Billington, Strawbridge, Greenside and Fitzsimon (1994:1-9) and Giddens (1990:31) believe that culture is a learned system of symbols with shared values, meanings, and behavioural norms.
Culture is learned behaviour, a set of techniques allowing the individual to adapt to the world around him. This learning takes place in a group that defines the appropriate way of responding to the patterns of nature (Kluckhohn in McNall, 1973:45; Williams, 1986; McGurk, 1990).
Culture extends to learning styles, family and kinship patterns, gender roles, how an individual is viewed and historical awareness of cultural community (Kavanagh & Kennedy, 1992:11).
By learning styles, Williams (1986) and Pai (1990) as quoted by Goodnow; et al. (1995) refers to the value of education cooperative and competitive approaches to learning. Family kinship patterns refer to who is related to whom, close and distant relations, familial expectations and obligations. Gender roles according to Pai (1990) as quoted by Goodnow, et al. (1995) refers to the roles the society expects males and females to perform. He also says that the historical awareness of a cultural community refers to the religious and spiritual beliefs and practices or differences in communication styles, which can indicate cultural identity.
According to McGurk (1990) culture is a single universe of discourse uniting all people within the single context determined by geographical proximity, social interaction and economic relations.
When a community’s culture changes or is abandoned in favour of another it remains the same community, now united in terms of another shared culture. Its cultural identity is different, but since its membership, historical continuity and so on are unaltered, and its communal or ethnic identity remains the same (Parekh, 2002:155).
Parekh further postulates that our culture is the one we live, which has members of our cultural community who share its beliefs and participate in its practices. Like all communities cultural communities are not and cannot be, just imagined communities, for imagination needs content, an experiential basis, constant reinforcement and social relevance (Parekh, 2002: 155).
Culture is important in the relationship between individuals and society. Every society has a set of individuals who share common ways of thinking and behaving and this is what is called common culture. Social structures are created to attain cultural goals. Therefore, individuals learn culture as the result of belonging to some particular group; and it constitutes that part of learned behaviour, which is shared with others. It is one of the important factors, which permits us to live together in an organised society, giving us ready-made solutions to our problems, helping us to predict the behaviour of others, and permitting others to know what to expect of us. Culture regulates our lives at every turn. From the moment we are born until we die, there is, whether we are conscious of it or not, constant pressure upon us to follow certain types of behaviour that other men have created for us (McNall, 1973:51).
Nxumalo (1998) adds that group identity is identified through collective experience and shared culture including common language, dress, beliefs, behaviour patterns and regulations as well as shared music and dances. Group identity is developed through the following mechanisms – language, including use of slang to distinguish members of a group from outsiders or newcomers.
Giddens (1990:32) argues that no culture could exist without a society. But equally no society could exist without culture. He further states that society refers to the system of interrelationships, which connects together the individuals who share a common culture. He argues that without culture, we would not be human at all in the sense in which we usually understand that term. We would have no language in which to express ourselves, no sense of self-consciousness, and our ability to think or reason would be severely limited (Giddens, 1989:31 – 32).
Just as a body of people sharing a common language, religion and structure of civil authority constitute respectively a linguistic, religious and political community; a body of people united in terms of a shared culture constitutes a cultural community. Cultural communities are of several kinds. Some also share a religion, especially when their culture is religiously derived. Some share common ethnicity. Indeed, since every culture is bearer, all cultures tend to have an ethnic basis. However, the two can part company. An ethnic community might lose its traditional culture, as when it migrates or abandons that culture in favour of another. And a culture might lose its ethnic rooted ness, as when it is freely adopted by or imposed on outsiders (Parekh, 2002:154).
Parekh (2002:154) also points out that a cultural community has two dimensions, cultural and communal. It has content in the form of a particular culture, and a communal basis in the form of a group of men and women who share that culture. Although the two are closely related, they are distinct enough to be separated in thought and practice. One might retain one’s culture but lose or several ties with one’s cultural community; for example, immigrants or those who cherish their culture but leave their community because they find it oppressive or otherwise uncongenial.
The beliefs and practices of a culture are closely related; they are also autonomous and subject to their own distinct logics. The two differ in at least four important respects. Beliefs are necessarily general, even vague and amendable to different interpretations, whereas practices, which are means to regulate human conduct and social relations, are fairly determinate and concrete. Secondly, while beliefs are not easy to discover and enforce, conformity to practices is easily ascertainable and enforceable. Thirdly, beliefs primarily pertain to the realm of thought and practices to that of conduct. Beliefs are therefore more likely to be influenced by new ideas and knowledge, practices by new social situations and experiences. Fourthly, coherence among beliefs is a matter of intellectual consistency and is different in nature from that among practices where it is basically a matter of practical compatibility. Based on these and other differences, beliefs and practices, although internally related and subject to mutual influences, are also subject to their own characteristic constraints and patterns of change. A society’s beliefs might change but its practices might not keep pace and visa versa because either can change at an unusually rapid pace. It might become unduly conservative about the other to retain its sense of continuity or stability (Parketh, 2002:145).
From the above discussion, we learned that culture is learned and transmitted from one generation to the other. It refers to the way of living and the way people adapt to their living environment. Culture also brings people or individuals in a society or community together. Through norms and values, it regulates our lives. The discussion above makes it evident that culture is dynamic. The following section will therefore focus on the functions of culture.

Declaration 
Acknowledgements 
Table of contents 
List of Tables 
List of Figures 
List of Charts 
Abstract 
Chapter 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
1.1 BACKGROUND
1.2 NEED FOR THE STUDY
1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
1.4 METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH
1.5 BENEFITS OF THE STUDY
1.6 DELIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH
1.7 OUTLINE OF THE THESIS
2 CORPORATE IMAGE
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 DEFINITIONS OF CORPORATE IMAGE
2.3 RELATED FIELDS OF CORPORATE IMAGE
2.4 COMPONENTS (DETERMINANTS) OF CORPORATE IMAGE
2.5 THE LEADERSHIP OF CORPORATE IMAGE
2.6 SUMMARY
3 THE AFRICAN RURAL SURVIVALIST CONSUMER CULTURE
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 SOCIETAL CULTURE
3.3 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURE AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
3.4 CULTURE DIVERSITY IN SOUTH AFRICAN ORGANISATIONS
3.5 THE RURAL SURVIVALIST CULTURE
3.6 SUMMARY
4 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 RELEVANCE OF ORGANISAITONAL BEHAVIOUR FOR THEnRESEARCH
4.3 DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
4.4 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AS AN INDEPENDENT STUDY FIELD
4.5 THE RELATED FIELDS OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
4.6 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AS A MULTIDISCIPLINARY FIELD
4.7 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR VARIABLES
4.8 SUMMARY
5 METHODOLOGY
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
5.3 SAMPLING
5.4 DATA COLLECTION
5.5 DATA ANALYSIS
5.6 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE INFORMATION GATHERED
5.7 SUMMARY
6 RESULTS 
6.1 INTRODUCTION
6.2 SECTION: THE BIOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE
6.3 SECTION: CONSUMERS PERCEPTION OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
6.4 SECTION: COMPANY BUSINESS CONDUCT
6.5 SECTION: EMPLOYEE CONDUCT
6.6 SECTION: PRODUCTS
6.7 SECTION: COMMUNICATION
6.8 SECTION: PRICE
6.9 SECTION: SUPPORT
6.10 SECTION: DISTRIBUTION
6.11 SECTION: SALES FORCE
6.12 SUMMARY
7 CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND GUIDELINES 
7.1 INTRODUCTION
7.2 THE RURAL CONSUMERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE CORPORATE IMAGE AND GUIDELINES TO ALIGN ORGANISATIONAL  BEHAIVOR CLOSER TO THIS IMAGE
7.3 UTILITY VALUE OF THE RESEARCH RESULTS
7.4 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
LIST OF REFERENCES
GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT