The meaning and factors for Culture change

Cultural change

Culture does not remain stagnant since it is influenced by the life of the societies. As the system of life change can therefore be define as a process in which societies charges their pattern of culture. The following are some of the factors which influenced cultural change;

1. Internal factors; These are forced which emerge within the societies and cause the system of life to change so as to cope with the new environment .one of best example of the internal forced that can lead to cultural change is invention of new technology.

2. External factors; cultural change can be traced as far back as to the time when African continent started to have a with different country from a board. Those countries came with their way of life like dressing styles, language, religion and education.

Other factors influencing cultural change

• Migration/immigration; This is the movement of people from one place to another such as from rural to urban and from one country to another. A person may be affected by the ways of life of the destination area

• Communication; Always people communicate with other from different parts of the world. As explained before that people differ in culture and total system of life. Through communication, people imitate new culture from different groups.

• Liberalization polices; means removing something that bring restrictions. Liberalization policies can be in political, economic and social aspect.

• Influence of socialization agents; include peer group, schools, religion and mass media socialization agent are instrument through which a person can learn and get different information about the society.

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What are the ways for ensuring preventive care and maintenance of personal and public Property

The ways for ensuring preventive care and maintenance of personal and public Property

i) Cleanliness of the surrounds.

ii) Making frequency check up and inspection of property.

iii) Regular maintenance that minimizes the costs of up keeping of building furniture and fixture.

iv) Regular maintenance that creates a conductive environment to user.

v) Regular care and maintenance of existing building and facilities so as to ensure and prolong the life span of building and equipment.

Consequence of neglecting timely repairing and maintenance of person and public property.
i. Increase the cost of repairing and maintaining the property.

ii. Decrease the durability or lifespan of the neglected property which may in turn necessitate the losing of the of the property or unplanned buying of the new one.

iii. It reduce the quality or worthy of the property i.e it can make property less attractive to the people.

iv. It may lead to conflict in the society.

v. Environment destruction.

vi. May lead to the loss of important information and various properties.

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Factors which hinder promotion of worthy cultural values

Factors which hinder promotion of worthy cultural values

Despite all attempts made by the government to build, promote and preserve national cultural values still there are some factors which act as hindrances. These factors include the following;

1. Colonial legacy; Because of colonial legacy many Tanzania by the government are not confident in creating things. They are still having the mental attitude of being inferior to the white men colonialists established policies of assimilation and association together with the administrative and educational system.

2. Low level of science and technology; The capacity of production in Tanzania both materially and morally is doomed because much of technology is brought from abroad. There fore this creates sciences and technology dependence.

3. Ignorance; A great number of people are illiterate. Thus they are limited to their environment and they can hardly effectively control it. As they are trapped by the environment it there fore hinders them to promote and preserve their worthy cultural values.

4. Poor leadership; some of the leader are not committed to the task of promoting and preserving the worthy cultural value .Due to this have failed to established concrete policies which promote worthy cultural value. Those few who have managed to do so they have also failed to make thorough follow up as result most of national cultural value polices ended remaining in shelves.

5. Lack of enough funds; This problem leader and other people to contract research concerning with promotion and preservation of worthy cultural value.

6. Globalization; The growing interaction among people of different cultures, history, origin and beliefs have contributed much to the hindrance of the promotion of the worthy cultural values. A good example can be observed from the change in our traditional wedding and burial ceremonies, religious beliefs etc .In these ceremonies people are no longer interested in their traditional dances and songs but mostly they prefer foreign ones.

Solutions to the problems arising from the process of promoting and preserving of our cultural values

To integrate our culture with education and work.

To educate people on the importance of our cultural values.

People should choose or put into power the committed leaders who will be able to advocate for our worthy cultural values.

Strict laws, rules and regulation for those who despise our cultural value should be enacted by the government.

Government should formulate good police that promotes our cultural values.

Excessive dependence on foreign science and technology should be reduced.

Government should allocate enough funds for making research concerning the promotion and preservation of our worthy cultural value.

Establishing cultural clubs in school and other places with the aims of promotion and e our worthy cultural value.

Law for protection of intellectual property which have been enacted by the government should strongly be enforced


Culture of preventive care and maintenance of personal and public property

Preventive care and maintenance can be defined as a system of planning maintenance which involves inspection and making necessary modification so that properties can be used for a longer period. Maintenance involves timely repairing of property before it gets damages completely.

Importance of culture of preventive care and maintenance of personal and public property.

i) It helps to keep the property in a good condition for a long time, hence be profitable to the owner and other users.

ii) It reduces cost of making major repair by protecting the property from being severely damage.

iii) It enables people to inherit the property to their young ones or to the future generations.

iv) The culture of preventive care and maintenance of the personal and public property can help can help to preserves or keep record their cultural value that that can be used later as source of information by the researchers.

v) Culture of preventive care and maintenance of personal and public property can help to promote tourism if the preserved properties are of higher value and attractive to other people especially the foreigners.

vi) It helps to preserves the environment by reducing the piling or random throwing dumping if the damage or ruined property.

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What are the roles of different groups and institution in promoting and preservation of our worthy cultural values

The roles of different groups and institution in promoting and preservation of our worthy cultural values


1. The National Kiswahili Council; was established in August 9.1967 with its major roles being to promote and develop Kiswahili as a national language .The council enable Kiswahili to be used in all area of national communication .To day, Kiswahili is spoken and understood by a lost all Tanzania .The first president of Tanzania Mwalim JK Nyerere used Kiswahili to unite the whole of Tanzania as nation.

2. The Nation Sports Council; was established in 1967. The role of this council is,

(a) To develop, promote and control all amateur sports in the country. The council does this in co-operation with voluntary amateur sports organization. Amateur sports are sports played for enjoyment not for money.

In order to carry out this the national sport council does the following,

· Provide training of staff member

· Make grants or gives aid to national sport association or organization

· Provide playing fields and other sports facilities

· Provides sports equipment and other sports items necessary for international sport competition and festivals

(b) To provide medals, diplomas, certificate, or any other rewards.

(c) To provide scholarships for the training of the coaches and sports administrators.

(d) To advise the responsible minister on all matter related to sports.

3. The national festival and state celebrations; the council facilitates celebration of important national occasion. The council ensures that the nation does not engage in meaningless and unending celebration. The council deals with national public holiday. These national occasion are celebrated with demonstration, speeches, songs, dance, feats sports and games. There are religious holiday as well, which are public holiday but are not under this council. The holiday includes Christmas for the Christians and Eid for Muslims. Prayers, sports and games dances and feast, mark these religious holidays.

4. Departments of museum, Antiquities and National Archives; These department preserve national heritage in the form of cultural treasure and writings. Hence they stimulate much cultural enthusiasm among the people.

i) Museums; there are national as well as regional museums in Tanzania. They provide a safe permanent place for preserving national tradition, customs and work of art. They serve as cultural and recreational centers for the people of the united Republic of Tanzania. They are also important as attractions.

ii) Antiquities; Are import objects that have existed for very long time. They include remains of ancient buildings such as tradition, church, places and tombs. Tanzania is very rich in antiquities for example the ruins of old building, found at Kaole (near Bagamoyo) Kilwa and Mtwara Mikindani.

iii) National film censorship board; This organ hand one main role , that was to censor films before they are shown .To censor a films means to examine it and decide whether it is suitable for the public. The board was supposed to censor all the films which were intended to promote national culture, education and development. But due to liberalization of trade the board has not succeeded to reach goal.

iv) The council of arts and crafts; Africa countries through their governments and communities encourage creativity in art and crafty as a way of identify their cultural needs .The main purpose was to make art and crafts a servant of the people. They are supposed to be tools to helps African understand and shape their societies according to their collective needs That is the meaning of creativity.

v) Education institutions; After independence, African government, church and communities improved the educating system inherited from colonial master to suit African national culture. There were various reason for the education system inherited at Independence to be improved. Those reason were as follow;

· The aims and content of the colonial education promoted values and interest of the colonizer.

· The colonial education system was intended only to train the African for the clerical and junior administrative posts

· The education system emphasized theoretical learning. It ignored practical learning and experiments. African students lacks skill and creativity.

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What are the Importance of promoting and preserving of our worthy cultural value

Promotion and preservation of our worthy cultural values

Is a combination of efforts made by people under their government to enhance growth and existence of the national culture which has to be practiced in the nation.




Importance of promoting and preserving of our worthy cultural value
i) To maintain our national identity.

ii) To provide a foundation for stable governance.

iii) To maintain our useful value systems

iv) To protect our country from cultural deculturalization through globalization.

v) To maintain our cultural heritage.

vi) To create a sense of nationhood and promote cohesion in the daily life of Tanzania

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Ways or actions to be taken against negative aspects of our socio-cultural

Ways or actions to be taken against negative aspects of our socio-cultural

• In brief the following measures should be undertaken

• To educate the people on the impacts of negative aspect of cultural value.

• Improving women access to resources such as land cattle and forms of property.

• Equal participation in political matter. This will enable women to participate in decision making in various.

• The government should enact strict laws for those who entertain negative aspect of cultural value.

• The community should be aware of all things which cause gender inequality

• Promotion and preservation of our worthy cultural values, Is a combination of efforts made by people under their government to enhance growth and existence of the national culture which has to be practiced in the nation.

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What are the Customs and cultural practices that lead to spread of HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI'S).

Customs and cultural practices that lead to spread of HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI'S).

• HIV stand for human immunity deficiency virus and aids stand for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Getting HIV infection leads to weakening of immunity system. This makes a person with HIV vulnerable to illness HIV/AIDS is a killer disease which has no cure or vaccine.

The following are customs and cultural practices that lead to spread of HIV/AIDS and STI’S

• Female genital mutilation; (Women circumcision) can lead to the spread of HIV if the instrument used are not sterilized and are used by the group being circumcised. Most of the instrument used is knives razor blades pair of scissor and any other sharp tool. Some tribes do out tribal marks on bodies of. Some kinds claiming that they want to shed off dirty bloods. Since the instrumental used are not sterilized this practice can lead spread of HIV/AIDS to the kids.

• Inheritance of widows; May contract or spread HIV from or to man who inherit them.

• Traditional dance; Certain traditional dances are accompanied by alcohol drinking which always tend to draw men and women into sexual intercourse.

• Use of traditional midwives; who are not well trained may lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS to both mother and the newly born baby due to using of unsterilized instruments.

• Polygamist; May also be a potential cause of HIV/AIDS. Once one the of them gets HIV/AIDS all will also get.

• Early and forced marriages; can create problems when someone is forced to be married to a certain man and woman who has HIV/AIDS.

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What are the strategies for women empowerment

The strategies for women empowerment

• Women empowerment can be improved if the following things are considered;

• Improving and increasing education opportunities to women .lf education opportunities will improved to women, development will be achieved in the poor countries like Tanzania and the slogan that say “You educated a women you educated the whole society" will practically observed.

• Improving access to the resource such as land, the situation which has been to difficult for quite a long time in many societies. This will help women to have right to inherit resource such as land.

• To allow women to establish various social organization. This will help them to have a collective barraging power for their deprived rights. Through these organizations, women can ask for assistance from the government or donors in order to enable them open various project.

• The government should commit itself to the prohibition of all cultural practices and custom that oppress women such as female genital mutilation, forced and early marriages etc.

• The government to ensure that women receive equal opportunities as men in all social, political, economic issues.

• To establish special programmers for improving life standard of the women especially in rural area

• To educate men to abandon the idea that they are created superior to women.

• Improve rural technology this will help to provide women with modern working facilities. For example the use of solar and biogas energy will free women from dependence on firewood which usually contribute to environment destruction through cutting tree.

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What are the Major effects of gender discrimination ?

Major effects of gender discrimination

• There is unequal distribution of power in all sphere of life such in political, economic, social sector

• Women continue to be left out in various area of development.

• Women continue to face violence and aggression as they do not have any economic power base to support themselves. As result, majority of women live in extreme poverty.

• Enrollment of girls and women in various learning institution has not been keeping up the same pace with that of boys and men that is boy and men are many than girl and women in such institutions.

• Women are badly affected by beliefs in witchcraft, poor nutrition and ignorance about health care.

• Unequal distribution of property and wealth between men and women has totally ignored women contribution this economic harassment.

• Women are adversely affected by both early and forced marriages.

• Teaching of initiation which very often urge girls to be submissive to their future husband (boy) and men in general have greatly made girly and women passive to take part in various issues.

• Many women are ignorant of laws and procedure of claiming for their right. This problem has contributed to their discrimination and violence in different areas.

• There are very few women in managerial and decision making level .For example the number of woman in the parliament of Tanzania is one-third that of men

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What are the Institutions which perpetuate gender discrimination

Institutions which perpetuate gender discrimination

1. The family

At the family level there is belief that boys will propagate lineage and support the family, while girls have to get married. Due to this belief many families prefer to educate boy spend more money on them at the expense of the girls, when a choice has to be made between the two. As a result girls have been marginalized in may issues.

2. Religious institution

Some religious doctrine and leader reference to the Quran or Bible on the submissive nature of women tend to deny them of the opportunities to hold position of the leadership and decision making in various levels, For instance in some mosques and to churches decision made by men usually discriminate women.

3. Learning institution

In these institutions it is common practice to find that boys at re offered science subject and mathematics while girl are forced to study subject such as homes than e economic subject and typing. More intelligent than girls, hence, girls are not encouraged to work hard.

4. Traditional initiation institutions

Play a major role in perpetuating gender discrimination. Girl who have undergone initiation ceremonies become passive in school. This is because the traditional counsel and elder who initiate girls have always put more emphasis on submissiveness of women to men. Because of that women are therefore do not fully take part in decision making at home and in other placed.

5. Work places

The socialization process in the community has effects on the gender division of labour between men and women. At work placed, employment of men is given more emphases in other places.

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Which are the Customs which lead to gender discrimination ?

Customs which lead to gender discrimination;

Are those which have their origin from the patriarchal societies

• Patriarchal societies are those societies which are organized and run by men; In these societies it is only men who are the decision maker and holder of the power over the women and resources. Patriarchal systems are common in many African societies including those of Tanzania. The system are now world wide strongly discourage because they favor males over females, and thus perpetuate gender discrimination

• Exclusion of women from decision making; In many patriarchal societies there has always been a common practices to exclude women from making decision on important social, economic, political issues right from the family level to national level. This practices has greatly affected women as most of the decision made by men lead to favor them at the expense of women.

• Paying of bride; The practices of paying bride price to the parents of the girl to be married is considered by men as the condition for buying that girl/ women. Hence the fulfilling of this condition means that the women are put under the control of that mantises.

• Denial of the right to property; In many societies women and girls are not allowed to own property or to inherit any property after the death of their of their husband or parents .As a result women and girl are left with no economic base, hence became dependents to men.

• Initiation ceremonies; Include "Jando" and “Unyango” for men and women .In these ceremonies base the teachings provided to boy are quite different from those given to girls. For example among other things taught to boys one of them is to educate them how to exhibit masculine behavior such as dominance, confidence, strength, competition and rationally while girls and women are taught to exhibit feminine behavior such as submission, caring nurturing, sensitivity and emotionally. As a result, these behavior are used to justify men holing most power position and women reaming in subordinate position

• Habit of food eating; In some tribe, women are forbidden form eating certain types of food. They are not allowed to eat chicken meat, eggs, liver etc, when they are pregnant. This was due to the fear, that the child to be born will grow too big to born in in a normal way .The effect of this was that, the health of the pregnant women and eventually that of the expected baby was affected. Institution which perpetuate gender discrimination.

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What are the most outstanding gender concept among other ?

The most outstanding gender concept among other includes the following;

• Gender discrimination; It is the situation in which one kind of the sex in the society is denied of its right and opportunities simply because of belong to that sex category.

• Gender oppression; It is the situation whereby a certain sexual category is treated harshly or oppressed simply because it belong to that category for example giving heavy tasks and depriving of their important social needs.

• Gender gap; It is an inequality in job accessibility between two different sexes. Culturally, some societies give men the first priority to job opportunities than women. This situation prevails in both public and private sector in many developing countries, including Tanzania where whereby most attractive and highly paying job are occupied by men.

• Gender inequality; Is a situation whereby a certain kind of sex in a society is given priority in all aspect of life at the expense of another sex. For example inmost African societies women are marginalized in all sphere of life while men are favored.

• Gender equity; This is the principle of fairness and justice that advocate gender equality such as principle include making of laws which prevent men from undermining and denying them of their rights.

• Gender equality; This refers to a situation whereby there is no kind of practice which undermines a certain sex. It is the situation whereby there is equal treatment of both male and female in all aspects of their lives.

• Gender analysis; It is the systematic efforts to identify, analyze, document and understand the roles of men and women within a given context. It is about who does what, who has access to and control over what, benefits from what etc.

• Gender sensitive planning; It is the planning that considers both women and men in term of needs. These needs are planned equally. Generally, there are has been some effort for discouraging bad cultural practices that undermine women worldwide. Due to these efforts, the people consciousness about gender equality have been raised hence, made to see the importance of analyzing gender, formulation principle of enhancing gender equality and waged war against the multicultural practices such as child labour and female Genital Mutilation.

• Gender Mainstreaming; This refers to ideas about a given gender that are considered ordinary or normal, hence, accepted by most people in societies. It is a global strategy for promoting gender equality. Mainstreaming involves insuring that gender perspectives and attention to the goal of gender equality are central to all activities, policy development, research resource allocation, planning implementation and monitoring of programmers and project.

• Gender stereo typing; This refer to people perception and attitudes create by the socialization institution

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The impacts of negative aspects of Cultural values

IMPACTS OF NEGATIVE ASPECT OF CULTURAL VALUE

Female genital mutilation this can lead to various effects such as;

• Prolonged bleeding during and after the mutilation.

• Disturbance of the natural vaginal elasticity during delivery due to the scar left after mutilation

• Reduction of sexual pleasure during sexual intercourse

• Spread of sexually Transmitted infection because the instrument used are not sterilized and are used by the whole group being circumcised

• Death because of excessive bleeding and STI’S Such as AIDS/HIV

Gender biases can lead to;

• Unequal distribution of powers in a community

• Women being left out in areas of development

• Lack of spirit of competition hence poor performance

• Few women in managerial and decision making levels

• Violence and aggression.

Belief and practices of witchcraft can lead to;

• Transmission of STI'S

• Despise modern health services

• Family conflict.

• Unnecessary death

Inheritance of spouse (widow) can lead to;

• Contact of STI'S

• Conflicts

Early marriages can lead to;

• Toxemia

• Long difficult labour

• Blocked birth which may damage the bladder, vagina and womb

• Deaths

Polygamy can lead to;

• Rapid population increase

• Transition of STI'S

• Death

• Street dwellers.

Forced marriage may lead to;

• Family conflicts

• Contracting of STI'S

Bride price can lead to;

• Violation of sexual human rights

Forced marriage with its accompanied impact

• Domestic violence

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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.

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What are the importance of each Element of Culture ?

THE IMPORTANCE OF EACH ELEMENTS OF CULTURE

1) Language

Is an important in element of culture because it is used as a medium of communication in the society. It can also serve as an identify of a given society in particular or nation in general. For example Kiswahili language in Tanzania.

2) Traditions

Some tradition such as marriages and burial ceremonies play a key role of uniting people together when the meet to conduct or cerebrating the event.

3) Norms

Are social rule that guide behavior they specify the behavior that is appropriate or not in a given situation, norms a given as guideline on how we should act or not act not act on our daily activities.

4) Value

Help society to adopt acceptable behavior shape and individual personalities. A decent dressing for instance, can mark some one look smart and presentable in a certain occasion like wedding ceremony.

5) Ideology

Is important because it enables that society to explain, justify and order several existential condition which would otherwise prove impossible to explain .It also serves as mean for self identification for individual and group that adhere to it.

6) Art and creative

Are used by the people to express their feeling or attitude toward a certain events. The feeling can be expressed through such things like song, drama, picture e.t.c,. Other forms of arts such as painting and drawing are used for decorations.

7) Custom

Used by different societies are very important to the members of that particular society. Among other things are used to represent various object and events to the people.

8) Recreation

Provide household with necessary material such as furniture, pots, which are daily, also some of them can be sold to earn people income

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