Cultural Diversity

As we have seen, all societies develop rules of behaviour (a culture) that are used to structure the behaviour of their members (in basic terms, how people are expected to relate to each other). This, in turn, leads to the idea that all societies are socially organised. In this respect, it is impossible for a society to exist if it is not organised around a framework of rules.

Social organisation, therefore, exists to help a society's members (whether human or non-human) to solve problems, the most basic of these being the problem of existence (how, in short, to socially organise a population to ensure their physical survival).

We can initially note, therefore, that human cultures develop out of the various ways that people choose to solve these basic problems of existence. This idea of choice is significant because it reflects the idea that humans have self consciousness (an awareness of themselves and others as unique individuals). This concept is significant because most animals do not have self consciousness. Only the higher primates such as baboons and chimpanzees - the closest relations we have in the non-human world - seem to have a similar form of consciousness.

In addition, the concept of choice allows us to explain the fact that:

a. The same species of insect, for example, always develops the same form of social organisation precisely because they have no choice (their behaviour is instinctive). Bees of the same species develop the same basic hive organisation in Britain as they do in Germany.

b. Human cultures vary widely in their organisation and content because humans are able to exercise choice in their range of behaviour.

Having noted the idea of a problem of existence that provides the basic human need for social organisation, we can now turn to look at the various similarities and differences in human cultures under the general heading of cultural diversity.

In basic terms, our interest here is in trying to understand the rules, routines and responsibilities that structure peoples' lives within the same society and between different societies. In this respect, therefore, there are two main aspects of cultural diversity that we need to analyse:

a. Basic cultural similarities and differences that exist between different societies. This is called an inter-cultural form of analysis.

b. Basic cultural similarities and differences that exist within the same society (including a special focus on the concept of sub-cultures). This is called an intra-cultural form of analysis.

In addition, to help us do this we can structure our analysis around a number of basic ideas:

a. Structural and Cultural Universals - an examination of the organisational features that seem to exist in all societies.

b. The concepts of ethnocentrism and cultural relativity.

c. Subcultural forms - an outline of the different sub-cultural groups that exist within any society (using Britain as an example).