The major cultural realms are:
1. Occidental Realm
2. Islamic Realm
3. Indian Realm
4. East Indian Realm
And the minor cultural realms are:
1. South-East Asian Realm
2. Meso-African or Negro African Realm. (Fig. 6.1).
Occidental Realm:
Occidental culture is the culture of the European society. It is
influenced to a great extent by Christianity. It has regional
modifications on the basis of varying levels of industrialisation,
political and economic thought, colonisation, commercialisation,
urbanisation, and development of transport system, land
development of social, political and economic institutions.
In many parts of the occidental culture, the impact of non-religious
factors, particularly the effect of modernisation, is so great that the
religious values are sidelined. Post- industrial Europe is fast
emerging as a society where traditional values are nearly
abandoned. The occidental culture covers a vast area. It is further
divided into six sub-regions considering the impact of regional
environment.
(i) West European is the most industrialised and urbanised culture.
(ii) Continental European culture is influenced by different political
and economic thoughts, while Christianity remains an important
influence.
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(iii) Mediterranean Europe includes countries lying to the south of
the Alps. It is the region of dominance of Christianity. To many
geographers, the deep-rooted traditional social system is the
principal cause of limited economic development in countries like
Spain, Portugal and southern Italy, compared to countries of
northern and western Europe which adopted necessary changes in
their social systems.
(iv) Anglo-American and
(v) Australian cultural realms are practically the offspring’s of west
European culture. Both are inhabited by migrants from west
Europe. There are only some regional differences.
(vi) Latin American culture is very similar to the Mediterranean
culture. It is the only region of occidental culture which lies in the
tropics and is underdeveloped. It became a part of the occidental
culture as a result of conversion of tribes into Christianity. The
colonial languages, Spanish and Portuguese, have become the state
languages. Regional architecture has been influenced by the
Spanish and Portuguese styles. Practically all countries maintain
economic, cultural and social ties with the Mediterranean countries.
Islamic Cultural Realm:
The culture here is influenced by Islamic values. It covers a vast
geographical area from Morocco in the west to Pakistan in the east.
The population is sparsely distributed due to inhospitable
environment. The coasts, river basins and oases have been the
cradles of Arabian culture in this realm. The British call it the
Middle-East while the Germans call it a region of oriental culture.
This cultural realm lies between the traditional Indian culture in the
east and the modernised European culture in the west.
Islamic culture is highly orthodox and based on traditional beliefs,
the impact of which can be seen in high female illiteracy rates.
These countries have very high per capita incomes, but the level of
modernisation is very low.
Indie Cultural Realm:
This is the culture of the Indian sub-continent. Baker called it a sub-
continental culture, while D. Stamp used the term paddy culture.
This cultural realm is well-defined; it lies between Himalayas in the
north, Indian Ocean in the south and Hindukush Mountains in the
west.
This cultural realm is characterized by joint family, village
community, caste system, semi- feudal land relations, subsistence
agriculture, paddy farming, seasonal climate changes and
agricultural season coming at the same time all over the region. The
culture of this region is greatly influenced by Vedic values. Though
the region is inhabited by various communities, the social system
has the hidden impact of Vedic cultural values.
East Asian Culture:
This culture is basically a Buddhist culture with regional
modifications. True Buddhist culture can be seen in South Korea
and Japan. Even these two countries have felt the impact of
industrialisation, urbanisation and modernisation. The culture of
mainland China has modified the Buddhist system. This culture was
adopted after the Second World War.
South-East Asian Culture It is a transitional culture lying at a place
where different cultures have intermingled. Dominance of
Buddhism can be seen in Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Influence of Christianity can be seen in the Philippines and of Indie
culture over islands of Indonesia. The Islamic influence is evident in
Malaysia and the Indonesian islands. No other region has such
peculiarities.
Meso-African Culture:
This culture is also known as the Negro culture. It principally
includes tropical Africa. Similar cultural systems can be seen among
the American Red Indians, Latin American tribes, Australian
aboriginals and several tribes of Asia-Pacific region.
Historian Toynbee has used the term ‘marginalised culture’ for
these traditional culture units. Some geographers even include
Eskimos under this cultural realm. Thus, it is a widely scattered
cultural realm characterised by marginalised and relatively isolated
communities
