Culture is commonly described as a collection of norms, moral and religious believes, traditions, and patterns of behaviours in human societies. It is acquired through the processes of education and socialisation, and is expressed through language, art, literature, music, dance, theatre, as well as architecture, dress codes, and etiquettes. Given the different circumstances and environments in which societies arise, it is no surprise that there is a huge diversity between peoples and tribes throughout the world. Yet, the homogenisation over the past 500 years has led to a sort of monoculture in the sense of ethnocentrism. Monocultures are not a good basis for resilience, as we know already from monoculture forests and crop growing.

Discoveries in South Africa (Blombos Cave, Border Cave) date tool making and creativity as far back as 70,000 BCE or 44,000 BCE respectively, showing that culture is an inherent aspect of our being. The cull of the arts and literature in education recently is alarming, but not unexpected in the world we live in, where we are supposed to behave and are treated like machines, in a dominator culture. 

There is of course another way. In many indigenous cultures the emphasis is on relations. It is based on the knowledge that everyone is connected to everybody else, to the objects around, to the environment, and to the land, which is sacred. The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth, every decision needs to consider future generations, “we do not inherit the land from our fathers, we borrow it from our children” [this quote has been traced back to Wendell Berry’s book “The Unforeseen Wilderness: An Essay on Kentucky’s Red River Gorge”, but whether it is the original quote is unknown]. This is Interbeing as Thich Nhat Hanh coined it.