Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate")[1] is a term that has

various meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of
164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions.[2] However,
the word "culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses:
Excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture
An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity
for symbolic thought and social learning
The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution,
organization or group
When the concept first emerged in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, it connoted a
process of cultivation or improvement, as in agriculture or horticulture. In the nineteenth century, it
came to refer first to the betterment or refinement of the individual, especially through education,
and then to the fulfillment of national aspirations or ideals. In the mid-nineteenth century, some
scientists used the term "culture" to refer to a universal human capacity. For the German
nonpositivist sociologist, Georg Simmel, culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through
the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history".
Cultural change
Cultural invention has come to mean any innovation that is new and found to be useful to a group
of people and expressed in their behavior but which does not exist as a physical object. Humanity
is in a global "accelerating culture change period", driven by the expansion of international
commerce, the mass media, and above all, the human population explosion, among other factors.
Cultures are internally affected by both forces encouraging change and forces resisting change.
These forces are related to both social structures and natural events, and are involved in the
perpetuation of cultural ideas and practices within current structures, which themselves are
subject to change.[186] (See structuration.)
Social conflict and the development of technologies can produce changes within a society by
altering social dynamics and promoting new cultural models, and spurring or enabling generative
action. These social shifts may accompany ideological shifts and other types of cultural change.
For example, the U.S. feminist movement involved new practices that produced a shift in gender
relations, altering both gender and economic structures. Environmental conditions may also enter
as factors. For example, after tropical forests returned at the end of the last ice age, plants
suitable for domestication were available, leading to the invention of agriculture, which in turn
brought about many cultural innovations and shifts in social dynamics.[187]

Cultures are externally affected via contact between societies, which may also produce—or inhibit
—social shifts and changes in cultural practices. War or competition over resources may impact
technological development or social dynamics. Additionally, cultural ideas may transfer from one
society to another, through diffusion or acculturation. In diffusion, the form of something (though
not necessarily its meaning) moves from one culture to another. For example, hamburgers,
mundane in the United States, seemed exotic when introduced into China. "Stimulus diffusion"
(the sharing of ideas) refers to an element of one culture leading to an invention or propagation in
another. "Direct Borrowing" on the other hand tends to refer to technological or tangible diffusion
from one culture to another. Diffusion of innovations theory presents a research-based model of
why and when individuals and cultures adopt new ideas, practices, and products.
Acculturation has different meanings, but in this context refers to replacement of the traits of one
culture with those of another, such has happened to certain Native American tribes and to many
indigenous peoples across the globe during the process of colonization. Related processes on an
individual level include assimilation (adoption of a different culture by an individual) and
transculturation.
Culture change is a term used in public policy making that emphasises the influence of cultural
capital on individual and community behaviour. It places stress on the social and cultural capital
determinants of decision making and the manner in which these interact with other factors like the
availability of information or the financial incentives facing individuals to drive behaviour.

These cultural capital influences include the role of parenting, families and close associates;
organisations such as schools and workplaces; communities and neighbourhoods; and wider
social influences such as the media. It is argued that this cultural capital manifests into specific
values, attitudes or social norms which in turn guide the behavioural intentions that individuals
adopt in regard to particular decisions or courses of action. These behavioural intentions interact
with other factors driving behaviour such as financial incentives, regulation and legislation, or
levels of information, to drive actual behaviour and ultimately feed back into underlying cultural
capital.s

The society is Pakistan is highly protective of women and girls. Sex is a taboo subject for good
women and they are not supposed to speak about it or seek it before their marriage. The society
encourages women to pursue higher learning and other economically empowering avenues;
however it prohibits any type of exposure and beautification that encourages sexual attraction.
Any type of nudity in public is treated as a sinful act and it is punishable by law.

A Glimpse In The Life Of Women In Pakistan

As long as women appreciate and accept their position as subservient to man, the woman has
nothing to fear in Pakistan. There are laws that protect her rights within the home and outside, but
she has to be subject to a male, whether he is her father, son or husband. Marriages are usually
arranged between two families and the girl is chosen by the elders of the would-be husband's
family. On the marriage day, the girl is asked whether she accepts to marry by the priests and
only after hearing her consent is the marriage solemnized.

When women go out of the house for shopping, work or studies she is expected to behave
modestly. A married woman should not go outside the house without the permission of her
husband. In most parts of Pakistan a woman would need to wear burkha (pradah) which is a
black full length gown - when she leaves the home and any type of exposure is treated as
indecent. In the house women usually wear salwar kameez and cover their heads with dupata (a
long cloth that is also use to cover the upper body of a woman).

In some of the cities the Western culture has been tolerated and women go without the burkha.
However, they need to behave modest and always act subservient to man when in public or at
home. A woman's first duty remains the happiness of her husband and it is her duty to see that he
is successful in whatever he does. This is why she is even expected to accept a second wife or
more if she cannot bear children or a male heir for her husband.

The society in Pakistan is highly patriarchal with the father or husband being the head of the
family. His word is to be respected and obeyed by all in his household. The wife is treated as a
consultant and confidante in most cases but she has no decision power.

The Western Effect

Gradually the rigidity of the religious laws is loosening with the adaptation of Western culture in
the modern cities of Pakistan. Joint families have been replaced with nuclear families in the cities
and men are willing to treat their wives and daughters with more respect. However, the last word
in still that of a man's and he is still considered the head of the family even in the cities.

The women are however, permitted to educate themselves and work which is a good sign since
education is the best path towards economic empowerment; which is turn would be able to
encourage women to be respected more in the society.