The concept of heritage & culture.
To distinguish the two terms; culture is what a particular society or community does daily & heritage is the origin of a person or people's ancestors. I'm going to put the "Everyone is from Africa" nonsense on ice for now because the first homo sapiens were from Africa, yes, but put simply, if you are not dark skinned with short, spirally hair: your immediate ancestors (ancestors who look like you) don't originate from Africa & arrived too recently in history for your genetic group to be considered African. Culture & heritage are often used interchangeably but they are not exactly the same thing.
CULTURE
I'm watching one of the popular dramas briefly on a TV (I rarely watch TV, I'm more a talk radio fan) & the mother is scolding the daughter for planning to marry someone without letting the family know. I imagine how differently this could turn out in a white family where eloping is more frequent. This is black culture in South Africa, we need to let the families know of our intention of getting married then a massive price (ilobolo) must be paid to the brides family by the groom's family. For me, I think this is one of the main reasons there are so many black children born out of wedlock in this country. We are an impoverished society even if there are a few, select BEE's among us we still largely remain the less wealthy in the country & cannot afford a wedding. In this case, an ancient culture is simply no longer practical, especially since it was tweaked by Theophillus Shepstone to make the lobola price a standard 11 cows. Eleven cows including the wedding for someone like me is a huge price, I'd have to win the lotto for me to afford a wedding. So I'd prefer the eloping option like the black couple that literally made the news because they got married at the Department of Home Affairs offices, the total cost of their wedding was R75. Something I've heard happens frequently in other parts of the world where a couple could get legally married even overnight.
A lot of other cultures & customs are outdated but which cultures & customs are practical & actually help us move forward? For me, the two most practical customs in my culture are ukusoka (circumcision) & something called UMkhosi woHlanga (virginity testing to ensure maidens are kept pure until marriage). Ukusoka prevents STDs being spread & UMkhosi woHlanga ensures that there are no destitute single-parent households because even if a woman would find a husband after having a child with someone else, her present husband would find difficulty raising a child that is not really his actual flesh & blood i. e. a child he did not create.
Cultures can be created, later rejected & brought back from the past to deal with present situations. As much as cultures change through the times, I think they keep recurring because the same problems in society we deal with today have been faced & solved before in our pasts.
HERITAGE
Now heritage, is where your blood is from. We've seen a lot of people send in their "genetic samples" to organisations such as ancestry.com to have their heritage traced. After you've figured out where you're from, a person usually wants to connect more or connects more with a certain people. I have yet to find a purpose for this heritage tracing people seem obsessed about but maybe this is because I've always known where I'm from. Ofcourse, the more you know of your heritage, the more it enriches you as a person a little more but it serves no real, practical purpose in daily life where people are all sorts of mixtures of all tribes & races because it's better a good horse than a horse of a good kind. Perhaps, heritage means little to an individual but when it comes to a community might mean something down the line. I've heard the saying "When a foreigner enters an identity is questioned" & I suppose this means forms of discrimination are a community trying to determine what they are in a way.
Heritage is one of those complex subjects that only matter when push comes to shove. When they say "humans are social creatures" I tend to agree & disagree because you don't lose yourself if your are not part of a community, in fact, I think you're more likely to lose yourself in a community but I also think as an individual you might want/need a community unless you're the "I'd rather drown than ask for help" type.
Using myself as a case study, I found out around four or five years ago which region my surname comes from. I appreciate the fact that the surnames of both sides of my family did not change during colonisation which makes it easier for me to identify with a group. I identify as primarily Zulu even if my great-grandmother on my fathers side was Xesibe. I often think of myself as one eighth Xesibe & the rest Zulu. There is nothing I can do about my heritage no matter how much random people make a noise about it, I simply am what I am & I appreciate what I am. Mpofana clan praises are probably from after the early 1800's as they differ from the clan praises of our original "nation" we broke away from in the 1800's but I see fit to use the clan praises we obtained later out of respect of my parents & larger Mpofana group today even though I know some pre-1800s clan praises.
I'm not from another country because I speak foreign languages. I taught myself various languages because I wanted to improve myself & my understanding of the world. For me, heritage only becomes important in politics in South Africa but in all other aspects of life like what you enjoy & dislike just boils down to the individual... like-minded individuals form a culture & knowledge of heritage does often play a large part of many strong cultures but not on a constant basis.
For me, culture is a more fleeting concept but it does define a people. We must never forget that culture & customs are made by a people for the benefit of a certain group & can be changed should they no longer serve a purpose. Culture also contributes to the quality of life that a group lives & I suppose we can tell a bad culture from a good culture by how satisfied the majority of that group are with it & how affluent that group is. Heritage is more permanent because it is what you are, it varies in importance on the climate of situations in a community. Heritage & culture both contribute in forming an individuals identity & what group they identify with but their importance fluctuates depending on situations.
CULTURE
I'm watching one of the popular dramas briefly on a TV (I rarely watch TV, I'm more a talk radio fan) & the mother is scolding the daughter for planning to marry someone without letting the family know. I imagine how differently this could turn out in a white family where eloping is more frequent. This is black culture in South Africa, we need to let the families know of our intention of getting married then a massive price (ilobolo) must be paid to the brides family by the groom's family. For me, I think this is one of the main reasons there are so many black children born out of wedlock in this country. We are an impoverished society even if there are a few, select BEE's among us we still largely remain the less wealthy in the country & cannot afford a wedding. In this case, an ancient culture is simply no longer practical, especially since it was tweaked by Theophillus Shepstone to make the lobola price a standard 11 cows. Eleven cows including the wedding for someone like me is a huge price, I'd have to win the lotto for me to afford a wedding. So I'd prefer the eloping option like the black couple that literally made the news because they got married at the Department of Home Affairs offices, the total cost of their wedding was R75. Something I've heard happens frequently in other parts of the world where a couple could get legally married even overnight.
A lot of other cultures & customs are outdated but which cultures & customs are practical & actually help us move forward? For me, the two most practical customs in my culture are ukusoka (circumcision) & something called UMkhosi woHlanga (virginity testing to ensure maidens are kept pure until marriage). Ukusoka prevents STDs being spread & UMkhosi woHlanga ensures that there are no destitute single-parent households because even if a woman would find a husband after having a child with someone else, her present husband would find difficulty raising a child that is not really his actual flesh & blood i. e. a child he did not create.
Cultures can be created, later rejected & brought back from the past to deal with present situations. As much as cultures change through the times, I think they keep recurring because the same problems in society we deal with today have been faced & solved before in our pasts.
HERITAGE
Now heritage, is where your blood is from. We've seen a lot of people send in their "genetic samples" to organisations such as ancestry.com to have their heritage traced. After you've figured out where you're from, a person usually wants to connect more or connects more with a certain people. I have yet to find a purpose for this heritage tracing people seem obsessed about but maybe this is because I've always known where I'm from. Ofcourse, the more you know of your heritage, the more it enriches you as a person a little more but it serves no real, practical purpose in daily life where people are all sorts of mixtures of all tribes & races because it's better a good horse than a horse of a good kind. Perhaps, heritage means little to an individual but when it comes to a community might mean something down the line. I've heard the saying "When a foreigner enters an identity is questioned" & I suppose this means forms of discrimination are a community trying to determine what they are in a way.
Heritage is one of those complex subjects that only matter when push comes to shove. When they say "humans are social creatures" I tend to agree & disagree because you don't lose yourself if your are not part of a community, in fact, I think you're more likely to lose yourself in a community but I also think as an individual you might want/need a community unless you're the "I'd rather drown than ask for help" type.
Using myself as a case study, I found out around four or five years ago which region my surname comes from. I appreciate the fact that the surnames of both sides of my family did not change during colonisation which makes it easier for me to identify with a group. I identify as primarily Zulu even if my great-grandmother on my fathers side was Xesibe. I often think of myself as one eighth Xesibe & the rest Zulu. There is nothing I can do about my heritage no matter how much random people make a noise about it, I simply am what I am & I appreciate what I am. Mpofana clan praises are probably from after the early 1800's as they differ from the clan praises of our original "nation" we broke away from in the 1800's but I see fit to use the clan praises we obtained later out of respect of my parents & larger Mpofana group today even though I know some pre-1800s clan praises.
I'm not from another country because I speak foreign languages. I taught myself various languages because I wanted to improve myself & my understanding of the world. For me, heritage only becomes important in politics in South Africa but in all other aspects of life like what you enjoy & dislike just boils down to the individual... like-minded individuals form a culture & knowledge of heritage does often play a large part of many strong cultures but not on a constant basis.
For me, culture is a more fleeting concept but it does define a people. We must never forget that culture & customs are made by a people for the benefit of a certain group & can be changed should they no longer serve a purpose. Culture also contributes to the quality of life that a group lives & I suppose we can tell a bad culture from a good culture by how satisfied the majority of that group are with it & how affluent that group is. Heritage is more permanent because it is what you are, it varies in importance on the climate of situations in a community. Heritage & culture both contribute in forming an individuals identity & what group they identify with but their importance fluctuates depending on situations.
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