What are the positive and negative aspects of our cultural values ?

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ASPECT OF OUR CULTURAL VALUES

Positive aspects

1) Respect and hospitality; Refer to polite behavior that a person has towards other especially those he/she thinks are older or important to him/ her. For example in many societies the children are taught various way through which they should show respect. Those include greeting, receiving and handling property. How to talk to the elder etc. Through these way children grow up knowing how well they can behave in their families and community at large.

2) Caring for other people and property; Among the people who may need special care in the society are children, old people, disabled, the sick people and other people with special problem. It is a positive cultural value to help people belonging to the mentioned group to get various services because they are the most disadvantages.

3) Proper dressing; As one of the important cultural value proper dressing helps to maintain ones personality. It makes people look smart and acceptable to other member of the society. Currently in many societies there is an increase of parent outcry over the whole issue of indecent dressing among the youth. This problem is associated with the ongoing globalization process which among other things contribute to the decline in moral is the societies and more particular to the youth.

4) Hard working; This is another positive cultural value, certainly because through hardworking the people in the societies are able to produce more and better quality goods and service for the individual and national development.

5) Accountability and transparency; Refer to a situation in which a person is held responsible for a certain task assigned to him/her and she /he may be expected to give satisfactory explanations concerning that task if there is any to need so. Transparency for that matter it means openness or without secret. Accountability and transparency are therefore important cultural value that should be promoted by the society.0nce these are observed the society expectation and wishes can be easily met.

6) Honest; This refer to a state of person being fair and trustful. It is another important cultural value that any society is supported to impart to its member .If this value is successfully imparted to the society member the immoral practices such as corruption, theft, embezzlement of public found etc. can be minimized.

7) Patriotism; This refers to a situation in which one loved his/ her country. Patriotism is an important cultural aspect since it enables the member of a given country to participate fully in the development activities in their country. Because of the love for their country people can even be ready to die for it.

8) Co-operation or participation in various social activities; Is important culture value because it helps to create unity and increase strength towards accomplishment of certain task for the sake of attaining common goals in the society.




Negative Aspects

• Female Genital mutilation; According to the world Health organization is define as all procedure that involve partial or total removal of the external genitalia or other intentional mutilation of the female genital organs, whether for cultural or any other non therapeutic reason.

• In inheritance of widows; This is practice of taking a woman (widow) after the death of her husband. This act has negative effective because it can lead to the contracting of the HIV/AIDS if one of the partners is a victim of HIV/AIDS. This act is also a violation of human right because it turns the woman as object of pleasure and sometimes the property of the inherited widow are taken by the new husband and the humans left with nothing.

• Early and forced marriage; Early marriage is the situation where by a person gets married while he/she is below the legally acceptable age for having marriage i.e below 18 years for a boy, 15 years for a girl. Forced marriage refers to a situation in which a boy or girl is being forced by parents or relatives to get marriage to a person he/she don’t want. This practices is more common to girls than boys. Both early and forced marriages have contributed to several negative effects including marital conflicts which in turn lead to separation and divorce hence leads to an increase of street children.

• Polygamism; this is the situation whereby on man get married to many wives. This practice can also leads to having many children that parents may fails to take care of them thus end up being street children.

• Belief in witchcraft; Is common among some illiterate societies has greatly contributed to various negative effects. The notable effect include the killing of the innocent people include the old women with red eyes due to some allegation that they are the one ones who bewitch other people. This practice is very common in area like Shinyanga and Mwanza in Tanzania.

• The killing of twins and handicapped people, in some tradition societies twins and other people with handicaps such as albino were being killed due to the belief that having such as people in the family or societies was a curse from the God and if such people are left the society will be facing misfortunes. However, in recent years the killing of the albinos has been associated with the belief that some of their body organs bring fortunes to people engaging in various activities such as business, especially in the mining and commercial sector. This belief has contributed much to the killing of albinos in different part of our country.

• Paying of bride price; Is payment made to the parent of daughter or women who is to be marriage by the person or the family of man who want to marry. The paying of bride price has led to misconception that the married women has been bought just like any other items. As a result of this misconception same man in some societies tend to mistreat their wives.

• Food taboos; These refer to practices where by women and girls are restricted or forbidden from taking same kind of food varieties especially those, which are delicious and nutritious such as eggs, liver. Chickens etc. These practices may have negative effects on omen health.