Culture, as defined in class, is the sum total ways of
living built up by a group of human beings which is transmitted from one
generation to another. These can be ways of living such as religion, language,
festivals, and even daily behaviors. All of these, however, are affected by the
environment and your surroundings. As learned in class using Tom Horton’s Bay Country in our case study on
inhabitants of Smith Island, the direct surroundings of a society directly
affects the people. The citizens of Smith Island relied heavily on the bounty
of the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay in essence was their life. They have a dozen
words for the different molting stages of a crab because crab was their livelihood.
It became more than a job, crabbing was life. So much so that the disappearance
of crab in the bay is making the folks of Smith Island disappear as well.
Cultural values can be seen in India in a dramatic way as well. The Ganges
River in India is the holiest river to the Hindu faith and is a source of
spiritual purification. Around 22 million people a year visit the Ganges to
purify themselves or to release the bodies of loved ones into the afterlife.
This cultural cornerstone is being threatened.
The river is one of the most polluted in the world due to domestic
waste, industrial waste, and cremation of bodies and faces daily threats from
the 400 million people who rely on the Ganges for a living. If the river were
to become polluted to a point of no one being able to use it, then India would be at more than a recreational
loss. A culture that uses the river as the center of spiritual release will
fade away, and India may not be India any more.
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