Multiculturism- Cultures and Civilizations

Multiculturism: The Global Culture

Multiculturism is an inherent part of human civilization that develops conflicting perspectives on several issues, including marriage, sex rituals, and the role of women and children in society. From the philosophical exchanges of Socrates and Plato to the modern judicial systems, the traditional cultural construction of the status of women and children developed some divisive views in contemporary society. A civilization comes as a complex society featuring urban developments, social stratification, a governmental body, and symbolic modes of communication. On the other hand, culture denotes a complex blend of beliefs, ethics, rules, art, traditions, and other conducts characterizing a person as a part of the collective.

Culture significantly impacts several sectors of society, including education, judicial, and marital matters. For example, Muslims continue to insist that children wear hijabs, while Gypsy and Amish held back their children from public education completely or once they reached a particular age. Similarly, “cultural defense” in the United States judicial system led to varying interpretations of the United States Constitution based on the defendant’s culture. As a result, cultural practices like the Japanese parent-child suicide, also known as oya-ko-shinzu, present a liberal dilemma to the court system, which ended up acquitting a mother that drowned her two children due to their father’s infidelity. Therefore, culture becomes vital in defining and understanding modern society’s personal and communal behaviour as it impacts its legal, political, and moral aspects.

Multiculturalism is the existence of multiple cultures in society, while gendered citizenship refers to unequal access to rights and equality based on an individual’s gender. Socrates and Plato had some of the earliest works in multiculturalism as they examined women’s societal status through intercultural exchanges. Practices such as the exchange of women through barter and marriage alluded to the denial of some basic rights to one sex by the dominant male species. Furthermore, women became the mediators between nature and culture due to their body’s unique ability to reproduce, which might explain why stricter moral codes applied to their gender. Today, individuals find their lifestyles getting abused when others belittle their beliefs, practices, and traditions, withhold their rights to practice their global culture, or force them to be part of a culture that is not theirs. For example, when a liberal country does not recognize same-sex unions, it infringes on the privacy of marriage and imposes the state’s cultural beliefs about families on an individual.