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CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF MYTHOLOGEMES IN LITERARY TEXT
Alfraganus Universiteti
Filologiya fakulteti 2-bosqich magistratura talabasi
Murtozayeva Dilshoda
The word “culture” appeared in ancient Rome and meant first of all cultivation, processing,
“cultivation” of the earth. However, a well-known ancient Roman orator Cicero used this notion
in his philosophical works to denote “soul cultivation”. This second sense gradually became the
core meaning, and the notion of “spiritual culture” has got recognition.
Different viewpoints of scholars on this issue can be presented. A well- known anthropologist
Edward Tylor was the first to give the definition of culture, in his book “Primitive Culture”:
“Culture… is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom
and any other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of the society”. E.T.Hall
defines culture as “the way of life of a people, the sum of their learned behaviour patterns,
attitudes and material things”
. E.A. Schultz defines culture as follows: “It includes knowledge
and beliefs of the group of people who share common conventions to help articulate their
understandings of life and of themselves. We all have such subconscious knowledge in our
minds, just as we have the subconscious knowledge of our language”
M. Larson views culture as “a complex of beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules which a group of
people share”. M. Singer describes culture as ”a pattern of learnt, group-related perceptions
including both verbal and nonverbal language, attitudes, values, belief systems, disbelief systems
and behaviors that is accepted and expected by an identity group”
. V. Barnow maintains that
“Culture is a way of life of a group of people, the configuration of all of the more or less
stereotyped patterns of learned behavior which are handed down from one generation to the next
through means of language and imitation”. P. Newmark remarks that culture is “the way of life
and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its
means of expression”
It should be mentioned here that in defining culture some scholars focus on material culture
while others on behaviours. For instance, M. Herskovits’ definition underlines material origin of
culture “Culture is the man-made part of the environment”, while M. Mead’s definition “is the
total shared, learned behavior of a society or a subgroup”. These dimensions are combined in B.
Malinowski’s formulation: “Culture is a well organized unity divided into two fundamental
aspects – a div of artifacts and a system of customs”
.
1
Hall, E.T. and Hall, M.R. Understanding Cultural Differences: Germans, French and Americans.
Intercultural Press, Boston. 1990
2
Маслова В.А. Современные направления в лингвистике. -М.: Издательский центр,
“Академия”. 2008
3
Саидова М., Қўзиев У. Лингвокультурология. – Наманган. 2017.
4
Newmark P. More Paragraphs on Translation [M]. Multilingual Matters Limited.1998.
5
Маматов А. Э. Замонавий лингвистика (Лингвомаданиятшунослик). – Тошкент: Ношир
нашриёти. 2019.
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Original article
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Another scholar W. Goodenough explains culture in terms of the participatory responsibilities of
its members. He states that “a society’s culture is made up of whatever it is one has to know or
believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members, and to do so in any role that
they accept for any one of themselves”
.
P. Richerson and R. Boyd take psychological approach to culture describing it as a psychological
act. Accordingly, they define culture as “information capable of affecting individuals' behavior
that they acquire from other members of their species through teaching, imitation, and other
forms of social transmission”
. D. Sperber also describes culture as “widely distributed, lasting
mental and public representations inhabiting a given social group”
.
B. Malinowski views culture through an interactive design, stating that it is a response to
people’s needs, and believes. According to this view, three sets of needs: the basic needs of the
individual, the instrumental needs of the society, and the symbolic and integrative needs of both
the individual and the society are outlined
.
C. Geertz determines culture as a system of symbolic meanings. In other words, “it is a semiotic
system in which symbols function to communicate meaning from one mind to another. Cultural
symbols encode a connection between a signifying form and a signaled meaning”
. According
to the author, culture is characterized by the following four basic features:
1) culture is a kind of social inheritance in contrast to biological heritage;
2) culture is shared by the whole community, not belonging to any particular individual;
3) culture is a symbolic meaning system in which language is one of the most important factors;
4) culture is a unified system, the integral parts of which are closely related to one another.
Y. Suneetha and G.M. Sundaravalli in the book “Global Perspectives, Local Initiatives” (2011)
consider values, beliefs and material products to be the major components of culture.
Accordingly, cultural values are shaped based on how people learn to believe things ought to be
or how people should act and react to the phenomena of the surrounding world, particularly in
terms of qualities such as sincerity, honesty, integrity, loyalty and openness. These cultural
values are of axiological character and include a judgment, that is, consideration of what is good
or bad, moral or immoral, normative and not normative. For instance, Uzbek people feel proud to
hold great wedding ceremonies inviting up to 500-1000 guests. But to many Europeans this
process may seem weird and waste of money
6
Маслова В.А. Современные направления в лингвистике. -М.: Издательский центр,
“Академия”. 2008.
7
Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2005). Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human
evolution. The University of Chicago Press.
8
Маслова В.А. Лингвокультурология. -М., 2007.
9
Ashurova D.U., Galieva M.R. Cultural linguistics. T.,2019.
10
Маслова В.А. Современные направления в лингвистике. -М.: Издательский центр,
“Академия”. 2008.
11
Suneetha, Y, & Sundaravalli, G. (2011). Incorporating cross-cultural communication in ELT:
A pedagogical approach. National üniversity of Singapore
ISSN: 3030-3931, Impact factor: 7,241
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Original article
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Besides, culture comprises belief systems that are presented in national stories, legends or myths.
Y. Suneetha and G.M. Sundaravalli assert that these stories and myths shape people’s intuition
about how they are supposed to feel, believe and behave in a particular situation, i.e. shape
individual’s interpretation of the external world. So, according to the authors, the individuals
belonging to the same society share common culture and similar attitudes. For example, Asian
people believe in the power of animal sacrifices for different religious purposes whereas
Westerns’ attitude to this phenomena is quite negative.
List of used literature
1.
Aidarkhan, A. Correlation between language worldview and mentality in modern
linguistics. Molodoy uchony, 20, 436-439. 2018.
2.
Arnold I.V. The English Word. – M.: Vischaya Schkola, 1973
3.
Ashurova D.U., Galieva M.R. Cultural linguistics. T.,2019.
4.
Hall, E.T. and Hall, M.R. Understanding Cultural Differences: Germans, French and
Americans. Intercultural Press, Boston. 1990
