The capacity to develop ideas, norms and materials by human beings rather than the dependence on instincts to guide their behaviour has created a set of practices and principles that applies in their everyday life. As stated by Aristotle, the Greek Philosopher,”No man is an island,” the consequent interdependent life of human beings has developed ways of living. Thus cultture has played an indispensable part in societies that emerged therefrom.

Scholars in the field of sociology, anthropology and history have defined culture to suit the convinience of study in their respective fields. For example, E.B Taylor, an English anthropologist has defined culture as,”That complex whole which include knowledge, belief,arts,moral,law, customs and any other capabilities and habits as a memnber of society.On the other hand, historians use the word culture to refer to the so called higher achievements pf good life or of a period of history-specificially-arts,music, literature,philosophy,religion and science. Therefore, culture is a set of standard behaviour acquired as a result of living in a society which is passed on from one generation to the next and it is transmitted through the various modes os language. For instance,several sociologist have asked us to look at a group of squirming and squalling new born babies.They come in various sizes, shapes and colours. But no physical examination of them, no matter how minute, can tell us which of them will become a protestand, which a catholic,which will learn to speak English and which Zomi. The culture to which the infants are destined to be exposed we can answer all of these questions with ridiculous ease. A notable feature of culture is the need of social interaction and nurturing or acquiring culture in a proper perspective. The story of Anna, an illeterate girl found in the attic of a Pennsylvania farmhouse as describe by Kingsley Davis, is a case in point. The child was given no attention, no learning or physical task beyond making available just enoght to keep her alive. She was hardly able to walk, talk or sit upright and she was believed to be deaf and blind In another case, there were a handful of Zomi mothers in Lamka town who did everything to keep their draft-aged sons from normal social contact fearing evil influence from their peers. Therefore, they shut them indoors and put them under the charge of their siblings who supplied food and other requirements. At the war, such boys became useless in the society and most of them turned to drugs as an escape and eventually became socially deviant in the process. In both cases, the children who were borned with the biological requisites to become active members of a society became useless due to deprivation of the necessary learning.

The manifestations of culture varied across different societies albeit with similar substances. During the last quarter of the 19th century, bamboo and cane weaving has played an important role in the daily used products in terms of crafting such as chairs, baskets etc. through which the artistic excellence of the weaver is showcased. The erstwhile music was complete with the accompaniment of a mouth organ called,”Phiit”, a small drum,”Khuangta”, a gong and in certain cases a bagpipe. As regards learning, in the absence of modern education, the oral teaching of the village priest,”Siampu” was the sole source. Similarly, he was responsible for the propetiating evil spirits and invoking the blessings of the gods which forms the core religious principles of the age.

On the contrary, in the mainstream India, the level of arts and entertainment by the last quarter of the 19th century has reached such a high level that movies depicting the entire life of characters in a society in cinema halls are prevelent. Music had taken various forms and was divided into various genres. Literature had developed by that time to an extend that there were innumerable scholars in Hindi, Urdu,Tamil and Persian With regards to religion, there was elaborate rites, norms and practices and religious duties. Similarly , science had made a giant stride which was visible through a network of railways and cableways.

It is apparent that, underlying all of the cultural diversities and disparities to be found in societies throughout the world and throughout the course of history, there are certain cultural similarities. For example, the Zomis, Chin, Kuki and Mizo speaks, in general Paite, Chin, Thadou, Mizo dialect respectively and their vocal cords may vibrate in different rhythyms, but all speaks a dialect. Most Zomis are Christians, and we have Hindus in the mainstream India. Muslims propagating Islams likewise. However, we all have a religion. We may have different ideas about the universe and about man’s place in it, but we all have some kind of answer to the questions of human life and destiny. The rituals and ceremonies as we discussed earlier are all diverse as to defy exhaustive description but we all, nevertheless, do have rituals and ceremonies. The culture we follow tends to break down into the same components, ideas, norms and materials forms the content of our culture. It matters not whether ideas are compounded into myths or into scientific truths about the universe. It makes us the literature of the society in the broadest possible sense of that word. In non illeterate societies, they constitute the lore and legends of the tribe. Some Zomi tribes believes that their chiefs who head the commitee of the village authority are divinely ordained to rule them and to lead them to glory. Some believe that the strongest should rule, or the wealthiest, or the wiliest. Still others will support any small group that manage to gain control, and with time, as our mind broadens, we believe in government through representation by the majority of the governed.

Norms on the other hand, is the way of doing or executing the ideas conceived. Most of the things we do as a member of society and most of the things we refrain from doing are cultural in character. The category of norms, as the second largest components of culture, includes rules, expectations, and standardized procedures- in short, ways of behaving in almost all of the situation that we confront and in which we participate. By and large, whatever we do, falls in certain patterns that are set for us by the society. We have norms for meeting people and norms for taking leave of them.

The Zomis for example, in the days of our forefathers, offered rice beer or Zupi to the weary travelers. Tuibuk, a mouth freshener is another item to show intimacy to dear ones.

The material culture preceding the birth of a given individual in that society asked for him to adjust with it. For instance, our children of today learn to drive a bicycle or a tricycle or even have a flair for modern gadgets like mobile phones and computers. These technologies are presented to them by the society who itself accultured these technologies as a part of the culture.

It is necessary to recognize, however, that culture is not a simple, monolithic entity that is transmitted en masse and all of a piece to every new human individual who is exposed to it. Culture is a complex and variable thing- flexible, loose, not always integrated, sometimes rigid, sometimes permissive, sometimes inconsistent in its parts, and in truth amorphous. A culture would have to be much less variable than it is, and social situations would have to be much more consistent, in order to construct this basic structure. We conclude, briefly, with an emphasis upon the following line,” Change is the unchangeable law of nature” suggesting as old a culture and a new one needs to exist along side by side and how each contributes its share to the never-ending process that begins with the human infant, only barely qualified for admission to the human race, and ends with acceptable members of the society.