Primitive Culture And Cultural Violence

Cultural violence- In the words of anthropologist, E.B. Tylor in Primitive Culture, culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.

Tylor EB. Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art and Custom. New York: H. Holt and Company; 1874. p. 1. (check the date of pub.)

[Tylor, E.B. Primitive Culture: Researches Into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom. New York: Gordon Press.(1871) Reprinted in 1974]

Based on this definition, it can be comprehended that culture is the identity of a particular community, society or nation and without culture, society is impossible. An important aspect of culture is that it is primarily learnt from our elders and then shared among groups of people mainly through social interaction. Thus culture is transferred from one being to another and the entire process is continuous as it includes the thoughts, beliefs, achievements of the past, the present changes that occur in it and the process is carried on to the next generation in a similar fashion. Now coming to cultural violence, Galtung says it is “any aspect of a culture that can be used to legitimize violence in its direct or structural form”.(p. -) In

commit acts of violence and coercion with the purpose of reinforcing the ideology of the state and ‘Ideological State Apparatuses’ such as family, church, media, culture etc. function primarily by preaching, counselling, propagandizing its ideology and use repressive measures such as punishments both physical and mental as a secondary measure only when one deviates from practising the ideologies of the state apparatus.

Althusser, Louis. "Lenin and Philosophy" and Other Essays. London: New Left Books, 1977. (check the page no. and date of