INTRODUCTORY UNIT - RITUALS, CULTURE AND US

5. TRADITIONAL CULTURES - LOSING THEIR GRIP

In the modern world, of course, many of the traditional cultures have loosened their grip on the individuals inside their group. This has happened with geographical dispersion, where large numbers of the members of many groups are scattered over the face of the earth, making it more difficult for the culture to be the dominant influence in the running of its members lives.

In addition, the overwhelming influence of western materialistic culture backed up by economic power of a formidable scale tends to be so powerful and all pervasive that even traditionally sheltered and isolated cultures find themselves in a defensive posture. With one hand they try to fend off the cultural influence of the West, even while they are attracted by some of the material rewards that contact with that culture can bring. As a result, an enormous leveling off in cultural differences has developed. The majority of individuals, certainly in the West, but by no means entirely so, have become distanced from their traditional cultures. These traditional cultures have frequently become, at best, a marginal and secondary influence in their lives, competing with the bland consumer culture that surrounds much of human life today - certainly in the West. In this manner, large populations have become marginalized within their traditional culture; that culture has become less important to them and no longer plays a dominant or formative role in their lives.

Once again, if we examine the competing cultural influences in the lives of many Jews today, we see this process very well borne out. Many Jews have only a marginal connection with, and a minimal knowledge of, the traditional culture of their People. Language, for example, a major component of national culture, has been very largely lost among contemporary Jews. For hundreds of years, most Jews have spoken the vernacular language of the lands in which they reside, often together with a traditional Jewish language, with at least a basic knowledge of the Hebrew language. But increasingly, in recent generations, we encounter the phenomenon among very large numbers of Jews, of almost complete Hebrew illiteracy. The Hebrew language has simply faded away. It is very common to find Jews in the West, for example, who can read the language, but without any idea of what they are actually saying. Their literacy and fluency in the language of the country in which they live, however, is extremely great.