The Cultural Power of Language and Legend

Updated on October 13, 2023 by Meg

Language and Legend

Personal Stories Express the Cultural Significance of Language and Legends

What characterizes culture? It's a sweeping and finely textured notion that covers a wide array of distinct portrayals. Without question, any all-inclusive characterization of culture would be incomplete without the involvement of language and legends.

Language and Legends are culturally universal. What do we mean by "cultural universals"? These are elements of society that every culture has. How they are carried out or their role in a given community in different cultures may vary--but we all are very familiar with these behaviors or ways of life as being part of the human condition. There are many more cultural universals, but these are the ones we explore here at PAC.

The need to be heard and feel understood are part of our shared, universal human condition. A common understanding of how units of sounds and symbols are organized, written and spoken facilitate understanding and effective social interaction--such as the ability to cooperate, negotiate and compromise.

Language and culture are closely intertwined--in many cases, people's nationalities are identified by the tongue in which they speak. Within communities that share a given language, dialects reveal subtle distinctions and connections. With a common basis for communicating thoughts and ideas, cultures create and pass on folklore--stories that articulate shared history, values, beliefs, practices, offering context and texture for the group's collective wisdom.

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