AMITY UNIVERSITY GURGAON

AMITY LAW SCHOOL

LAW & CULTURE

Submitted To:
Ms. Papiya Goldar
Professor

From: Varun Kumar Shukla

ROLL NO. A50801816017

Introduction
Law, Religion and Culture is a powerful human tool for survival, but it is a fragile
phenomenon. It is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists only in our
minds. Our written languages, governments, buildings, and other man-made things
are merely the products of culture. Culture is an integral part of every society. It is a
learned pattern of behavior and ways in which a person lives his or her life. Culture is
essential for the existence of a society, because it binds people together. However,
these are only the products of culture followed by the society and cannot be defined as
culture.

Definition of Culture
Culture refers to the following Ways of Life. These are the best two definitions I
could find -- by two folks who should know. Hofstede defined a very common set of
models for international cultures, whilst Schein is an uber-guru on a several topics and
has written one of the best books on organizational culture.

Culture is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the
members of one human group from those of another. Culture in this sense is a system
of collectively held values. -- Geert Hofstede
Culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by
members of an organization, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic taken
for granted fashion an organization's view of its self and its environment. -- Edgar
Schein

According to English Anthropologist Edward B Taylor, culture is that complex whole

which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities
and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
culture is something that a person learns from his family and surroundings, and is not
ingrained in him from birth. It does not have any biological connection because even
if a person is brought up in a culture different from that in which he was born, he
imbibes the culture of the society where he grows up. It is also not a hidden fact that
some people feel the need to follow the beliefs and traditions of their own culture,
even though they might be not subscribing to certain ideologies within.
Elements of Culture
There are different types of cultures across the world and each culture has its unique
essence. While defining the term culture, there are several elements that together
constitute as the culture of a particular region or the culture of particular people.
Language: The various languages are essentially an important part of the
culture. Read information about different languages.
Norms: Every society or every civilization has a set of norms, which are an
inseparable part, and an important element of the culture. This can include the
folkways, mores, taboos and rituals in a culture.
Values: The social values of a particular civilization are also considered as an
element of the culture. The values of a culture often refer to the things to be
achieved or the things, which are considered of great worth or value in a
particular culture.
Religion and Beliefs: The religion and the beliefs of the people in a
civilization play an important role in shaping up of the culture as well. Read
information about world religions.
Social Collectives: Social collectives refer to the social groups, organizations,
communities, institutions, classes, and societies, which are considered as
symbolic social constructions.
Statuses and Roles: A status or a social role is nothing but a slot or position
within a group or society, which gives an overall idea of the social structure and
hence is an important element of culture. This can also include traditional
gender-based or age-based roles.
Cultural Integration: This includes the degree of harmony or integration
within the various elements of culture. This can include elements like sub-
cultures, local cultures and the difference between historical and cultural
traditions.

Characteristics of Culture

Culture is shared, by which we mean that every culture is shared by

a group of people. Depending on the region they live in, the climatic
conditions they thrive in and their historical heritage, they form a set
of values and beliefs. This set of their principles of life shapes their
culture. No culture belongs to an individual. It is rather shared
among many people of a certain part of the world. It belongs to a
single community and not to any single human being.

Generations learn to follow these ideals and principles. Culture

propagates through generations, which adopt their old customs and
traditions as a part of their culture. The ideals they base their lives
on is a part of their culture. Cultural values are imparted from one
generation to another, thus resulting in a continual of traditions that
are a part of culture. The language, the literature and the art forms
pass across generations. Culture is learned, understood and adopted
by the younger generations of society. No individual is born with a
sense of his/herculture.

What are the elements of culture? The language, other forms of

expression as also the thoughts and emotions of the people, their
social and cultural norms, their principles and beliefs are the basic
elements of culture. For an effective transfer of culture from one
generation to another, it has to be translated in terms of symbols
Despite the efforts of the older generations to transfer their cultural
values to the forthcoming generations, many tend to remain
unaware of their culture. People are often found to have an
incomplete knowledge of their culture.
A gradual change is characteristic to almost every culture. Cultures
are subject to change. Culture loses some of its traits and gains new
ones. The aspects of culture that change vary across societies. With
the passage of time, new technologies emerge, new modes of work
come up, social thinking undergoes transitions and so does culture.
Every culture changes in time although the rate of change of every
culture varies.

Studies have brought out a fact that no culture can remain in

isolation. There is hardly any social community that is completely
isolated from the rest of the world. Every culture hence, is mostly
influenced by cultures of the surrounding regions. Cultural values
are prone to be affected by the values of communities in close
vicinity. The cultures, which emerged during the same periods of
time often, show certain similarities. Modern times have witnessed
an intermix of cultures. Cultures are blended together giving rise to
shared cultures.

Importance of Culture

The cultural values of a community give it an identity of its own. A community gains
a character and a personality of its own, because of the culture of its people. Culture is
shared by the members of a community. It is learned and passed from the older
generations to the newer ones. For an effective transfer of culture from one generation
to another, it has to be translated into symbols. Culture is a bond that ties the people of
a region or community together. It is that one common
The customs and traditions that the people of a community follow, the festivals they
celebrate, the kind of clothing they wear, the food they eat, and most importantly, the
cultural values they adhere to, bind them together.

Culture is seen as a system of social control, wherein people shape their standards and
behavior. The cultural values form the founding principles of ones life. They
influence ones principles and philosophies of life. They influence ones way of living
and thus impact social life.

The importance of culture lies in the fact that it is a link between people and their
value systems. Read information about the different cultures of world.

Religion: Meaning, Nature , Role and other details

Religion is an almost universal institution in human society. It is found in all societies,
past and present. All the preliterate societies known to us have religion. Religion goes
back to the beginning of the culture itself. It is a very ancient institution. There is no
primitive society without religion.

Meaning of Religion:

Religion is concerned with the shared beliefs and practices of human beings. It is the
human response to those elements in the life and environment of mankind which are
beyond their ordinary comprehension. Religion is pre-eminently social and is found in
nearly all societies. Majumdar and Madan explain that the word religion has its origin
in the Latin word Rel (I) igio. This is derived from two root words.
The first root is Leg, meaning together, count or observe. The second root is Lig,
meaning to bind. The first root refers to belief in and practice of signs of Divine
Communication. The second root refers to the carrying out those activities which link
human beings with the supernatural powers. Thus, we find that the word religion
basically represents beliefs and practices which are generally the main characteristics
of all religions.

Nature of Religion:

In sociology, the word religion is used in a wider sense than that used in religious
books. A common characteristic found among all religions is that they represent a
complex of emotional feelings and attitudes towards mysterious and perplexities of
life.
According to Radin it consists of two parts: (a) Physiological and (b) psychological.
The physiological part expresses itself in such acts as kneeling, closing the eyes,
touching the feet. The psychological part consists of supernormal sensitivity to certain
traditions and beliefs. While belief in supernatural powers may be considered basic to
all religion, equally fundamental is the presence of a deeply emotional feeling which
Golden Weiber called the religion thrill.
If we analyse the great religions of the world, we shall find that each of them contains,
five basic elements: (1) belief in supernatural powers, (2) belief in the holy, (3) ritual,
(4) acts defined as sinful and (5) some method of salvation.
Role or Functions of Religion:

Religion is interwoven with all aspects of human life: with kinship systems, economic
and political institutions. Prior to the advent of what may be called as the age of
reason, religion has been the chief supporter of the spiritual and moral values of life.
It has shaped domestic, economic and political institutions. Hence, it is obvious that
religion performs a number of functions both for the religious group and for the wider
society. These functions of religion are discussed bellow.

1. Religion Helps in the Struggle for Societal Survival:

Religion may be said to help in the struggle for societal survival. Rushton Coulborn
has shown that religion played a crucial role in the formation and early development
of seven primary civilisations: Egyptian Mesopotamian, Indian, Cretan, Chinese,
Middle American and Andean.

2. Religion Promotes Social Integration:

Religion acts as a unifying force and hence, promotes social integration in several
ways. Religion plays an important part in crystallising, symbolising and reinforcing
common values and norms. It thus provides support for social standards, socially
accepted behaviour. Common faith, values and norms etc. are significant in unifying
people.

3. Religion helps to knit the Social Values of a Society into a Cohesive Whole:

It is the ultimate source of social cohesion. The primary requirement of society is the
common possession of social values by which individuals control the actions of self
and others and through which society is perpetuated. These social values emanate
from religious faith. Religion is the foundation upon which these values rest.
4. Religions Acts as an Agent of Social Control:

It is one of the means of informal means of social control. Religion not only defines
moral expectations for members of the religious group but usually enforces them. It
supports certain types of social conduct by placing the powerful sanctions of the
supernatural behind them.

Dysfunctions of Religion:

In addition to positive functions of religion, there are some negative aspects of its
social functions. Although religion is an integrative force, it may be disruptive for the
society as a whole. Sumner and Keller, Benjamin Kidd, Karl Marx, Thomas F. O Dea
and others have pointed the dysfunctions of religion. The dysfunctions of religion are
as follows.

1. Religion Inhibits Protests and Hinders Social Changes:

According to Thomas F. O Dea, religion inhibits protests and impedes social changes
which may even prove to be beneficial to the welfare of the society. All protests and
conflicts are not always negative. Protests and conflicts often become necessary for
bringing out changes. Some changes would certainly lead to positive reforms. By
inhibiting protests and preventing changes religion may postpone reforms.

2. Hampers the Adaptation of Society to Changed Conditions:

Social values and norms emanate from religious faith. Some of the norms which lose
their appropriateness under changed conditions may also be imposed by religion. This
can impede a more functionally appropriate adaptation of society to changing
conditions.
For example, during the medieval Europe, the Church refused to grant the ethical
legitimacy of money lending at interest, despite the great functional need of this
activity in a situation of developing capitalism. Even today, traditional Muslims face
religio-ethical problems concerning interest-taking. Similar social conflict is evident
in the case of birth control measures including abortion, in the Catholic world.
3. Religion may Foster Dependence and Irresponsibility:

Religion often makes its followers dependent on religious institutions and leaders. But
it does not develop an ability in them to assume individual responsibility. For
example, a good number of people in India prefer to take the advises of priests and
religious leaders before starting some ventures. But they do not take the suggestion of
those who are competent in the field.

4. Promotes Evil Practices:

In its course of development religion has supported and promoted evil practices such
as cannibalism, slavery, untouchability, human and animal sacrifice etc.

Changes in Religion:

Change is the very essence of a living thing. A living religion must grow, must
advance and must change. No form of religion is static. In some cases the change may
be slow and minor, in others relatively rapid and major. Every religion claims its first
principle supreme, original and eternal. Hence, there is also an element of censure for
change.

Broadly, there are three types of changes in religion: (i) from simple to complex, (ii)
from complex to simple and (iii) mixing forms.

Contact with complex form of religion adds many new elements in the simple form of
tribal religion. For example, with the gradual spread of Vaishnavism in chhotanagpur,
the Oraons tribe which lives in that region, began to reorganise traditional faith.
There are also examples of simplification of complex form of religion, specially of
rituals and ceremonies. Buddhism for instance, came as a revolt against the Vedic
ritual which was both complex and expensive, and also beyond the common mans
reach. In the 19 century, Brahmo Samaj again tried to simplify the complex nature of
Brahmanic Hinduism.

Relationship of between Law & Religion & Culture

The relation between law, morality, and religion in the West has grown progressively
more complex and fragmented over the last five hundred years. Historically, two paths
emerged in Western thought regarding the relation of transcendent justice and positive
law secured in the secular political order. The natural-law tradition followed Platonic
philosophy by locating human cognition of true justice in a rational awareness of the
divinely sanctioned order of the universe. The other tradition arose from conceptions
of obedience to divine command. Such movements were more skeptical of human
apprehension, reserving knowledge about justice to that received by revelation of the
Divine Will. The Hebraic tradition, typified by the Ten Commandments, was
structured around the community's faithful response to the laws of the God who
created and sustained them. The Christian apostle Paul claimed that only through
fideistic awareness of God's activity can true justice be revealed, and that only
absolute reliance on faith alone as the means of grace could deliver one from evil. For
Augustine, the world of things below is for security onlyto restrain eviland the
true focus of the believer's attention was the heavenly kingdom, known through faith
alone. Human knowledge could not achieve any awareness of true justice.

Modern democratic legal systems usually accommodate some form of religious

plurality and refrain from establishing or privileging any particular religious entity or
practice through legal sanction. But these legal systems are often unable to account
fully for the idea that religion is not just a distinct set of religious rituals, a defined
community, and a discrete body of doctrines. Religion is also a worldview, a set of
ideas and beliefs of conscience about the nature of the world, that for many people
shape all of their moral, economic, social, and personal affairs and choices. Religion
and morality have become increasingly private and individual affairs, formed by
interaction between the human subject, his or her culture, and his or her conscience.

Both religion and culture can be characterised as symbolic systems.

In religion we may have symbols like God or the ancestors, which known can
known or touched, but none the less play an important role in regulating society,
shaping experience, and guiding behaviour. In non-religious culture similar concepts
are public good, justice or freedom.
I call these symbols because they are indeed intangible, and though people have very
strong views on what they mean, at the same time what they mean is often strongly
disputed within the society. For people outside the society, these symbols are often
dismissed as superstition or politics, having no real meaning outside the culture in
which they are valorated.

Though these are symbols, it would be a mistake to think of them as being not real. A
person may commit suicide because of loss of symbolic money, kill their family
member because of a loss of symbolic honor, or go to war in defence of their
symbolic God. And in the lived experience of the members of the religious or
cultural system, these symbols may be experienced as persons, which speak to them,
demanding or commanding certain behaviours. Thus, these symbols are part of
world-making, the cultural creation of shared experiential world. To the people
enmeshed in the symbolic system, the world is real. And we are all enmeshed in one
or more such systems: its part of being the social, linguistic animal we call human.
Personally, over time the distinction between religious and cultural seems difficult to
maintain. Its more an artefact of the big split between religious and secular in Western
culture. It makes more sense to think of religion as a sub-system of some cultural
systems. But again: whats a religion? For instance, the scholar Robert H. Nelson
suggests the economics and environmentalism are both secular religions, in that both
operate in similar ways to traditionally-definited religions.