This cultural phenomenon, observed in many parts of the world, highlights the profound impact of inherited values on personal and collective actions
In India, several clans have their pedigree narratives. It is a great instrument for creating venerable ideals of behaviour and conduct and, above all, pride in their antecedents. Like many other places in the world, their pedigree is often traced to some other planet or has an anecdote or theory associated with their distinctive pedigree. Some consider themselves descendants of the Sun (Suryavanshi), others consider themselves descendants of the Moon (Chandravanshi), and so the call goes on.
The veracity of these claims is another story altogether, but invariably there is an ideal connected to them, and that is important. For example, the Suryavanshis are supposed to be very committed to their ‘word of mouth’, and they are supposed to never backtrack from what they have said or promised.
These ideals are important in identity formation and establishing a bottom line of behaviour. They also create a narrative of keeping the clan on track, such as it may be. There are fallouts for rituals, marriages, festivities, and more. Loyalty is not territorial because the clan has, often, migrated from its place of origin but the bonding is clear.
Their rituals of festivities and celebrations keep the clan together, even though technology may have played its role in the widespread celebration and observance of clan identities. The protocols are very often strictly adhered to. Often these serve as an unwritten code of behavior.
There is another anecdote linked with planets, especially the Sun. Japan is considered to be the land of the rising sun, and there are anecdotes about special places in many parts of the world related to the sun. Toledo is a good illustration of a place where the sun's rays are said to have met the Earth for the first time.
There are other rituals associated with the sun in many parts of the world as well. In India, planet worship is considered particularly venerable by many components of the population, and the steps in sun worship are a widely shared phenomenon. This practice is often accompanied by pouring water facing the sun. Celebrating obeisance to the sun is popular and has many stories spun around it.
It may be useful to remind oneself that, in the belief of many, worship of even other planets is a virtuous thing to do. The point, however, is to recognise that behaviour is determined by one’s belief, and this belief may not always be an act of choice but an act of an inherited value system and cognitive association with values that are considered virtuous. This component of tradition, which is common in many parts of the world, is now often referred to, not so complimentarily, as the Third World Phenomena. The older the community, the greater their belief and the more grounded their behaviour.
In such communities’ gender relationships have a strong overlay of traditional beliefs. Indeed, icons that grow up at times geography-wise and even climate-wise are significant factors in belief systems.
The broad takeaway from this narrative should be a realisation, that what goes into the composition of the human mind and belief system is often not only acquired from formal learning in the classroom but also by inherited and handed down beliefs.
This is an important aspect of learning which deserves far more attention even in formal learning systems. There is an obvious need to understand, all that goes into the making of one’s identity and personality make-up.
One of the important dimensions should also be to assess and evaluate the complete personality of a person when recruiting him. The identity that that person carries may have many layers that are important for his work performance. Unfortunately, not enough literature is available to convert all this into assessment instruments. This understanding would help to explain why there are so many times a situation of grief when a person is recruited on just what could be called his ‘professional knowledge’.
It will be worth remembering that professional knowledge is indeed important in the work dimension but that is not a full personality at work. To create a work identity, it is important to selectively integrate the cultural identities of individuals with a focus on the organisational identity of the enterprise concerned.
This is an important dimension of work management that both employers and employees need to pay much more attention to, more than what they have enabled so far.This will help to manage, better, group identities at work and create a culture of resonance for greater productivity and fulfilment all around. The idea of focusing on the ‘complete personality’, to the extent possible, is worth considering.
(The writer is a well-known management consultant of international repute. The views expressed are personal)
