Iraq, the People and the Culture

Term culture is a borrowed word from Latin cultura which steams from colere which means cultivate. The term culture has been used to give three basic sense which are: an excellence in humanities and fine arts commonly known as high culture. Secondly, culture means a set of shared values, goals , attitudes and practices that defines a group , organization or an institution. Lastly, culture means an integrated pattern of belief, human knowledge, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for social learning and symbolic thought.Iraq has one of the oldest cultural histories in the world. The country’s culture is traced back in the times of Ancient Mesopotamia civilization which its legacy was greatly influenced by civilization of the old world. Therefore Iraq culture has a very rich heritage with prominent painters, sculptors, and poets known all over the world. The country produces fine handicraft including carpets and rugs. The architecture is superb as seen in islands of exquisite old compounds and buildings in old and modern building Yearly, Iraq celebrates and embraces its achievements of the past time during the pre-Islamic period which was then the world’s leading civilization with rich literature, art and science.

Characteristics that define a culture

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cultures share common characteristics which are copied and borrowed from each other based on symbols and its integration (Havilland, 2002). Members of a culture share values, ideas, standards and behavior and this is a set of ideas which defines a people’s lives and bond them together. Culture is a learned characteristic and not an innate sensibility. It is acquired when children start learning about their culture with the immediate family and later interacting with members of the society. They learn of ritual performance and the required dressing code among other aspects.culture to be transmitted from one generation to another, systems of symbols need to be created that will translate the ideas of the culture to its members. This is achieved through money, religion, art a language (Lee, and Searles, 2002).

For a culture to function efficiently there should be an integration of all aspects of the culture. For example in the case of language, it has to function within the culture in order for ideals and ideas passed from one person to another. Else, without the integration of language, there will be cultural confusion and dysfunction leading to cultural failure.Therefore, cultures around the world share common characteristics such as; culture is learned, culture is based on symbols, culture is shared and culture is integrated.

Iraq’s physical geography.

The Republic of Iraq is a country in western Asia that covers most parts of the north western part of Zeros mountain range, which is the eastern part of the Syrian desert, and it also covers the northern part of the Arabian desert. Iraq is bordered by Jordan Hashemite Kingdom to the West , Turkey to te North, Syria to the North west, Iran to the east , Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the south. Iraq covers a narrow section of the coastline which measures 35 miles on the Northern Persian Gulf. Baghdad is the capital city of Iraq which is located at the center East of the country.

Military conflict history

Iraq’s military conflict history dates back in the year 1980. Military conflict between Iraq and Iran started in September 22 1980 when Iraq launched a land and air invasions of Western Iran. The then President, Saddam Hussein of Iraqi said the attack was caused by territorial dispute of the waterway of Sahtt al Arab which forms the boundary of Iraq and Iran. In 1990 president Bush won the United Nation Security Council for possible use of military force against Iraq. In September, 1991, the US made an attempt to remove Saddam Hussein from power by deploying combat aircraft to Saudi Arabia which resulted in renewed military conflict with Iraq. In 1998 March 20, the United Nation Special Commissions (UNSCOM) conducted nine special impromptu inspection in Iraq which lead to the brink of military conflict with the United States and Britain but Iraq backed off in February that year. Since 2000 to 2010 there has been ongoing military wars in Iraq with US military and over the proxy war between Riyadh and Tehran.

Infrastructure

Key Infrastructure in Iraq is transport system which has 45, 550 km of the road. The pipelines are 4,350 km for crude oil and 1,360 km for natural gas. There are about 113 airports which the major ones are Baghdad International airport Basra, Mogul, Erbil among others. Energy system in Baghdad continues to suffer regular rolling power outages. The state of health in Iraq has fluctuated with the country’s turbulent history due to cut down public funding. The war also affected water supply and sanitation, and telecommunication system (Reuters, 2009).

Weather condition

The weather condition is generally warm to hot with temperature in most towns ranging from 34 degrees Celsius to forty two. Baghdad is at 35 degrees Celsius. The weather is less favorable for Iraq’s arable land cultivation and animal keeping. The country imports most of its poultry, dairy and farm products. Fishing industry has remained relatively small. During the twentieth century , shifting agriculture, human exploitation, forest fires and uncontrolled grazing has affected large areas of natural forests. Production for Iraqi oil is relatively low and the industry’s infrastructure is in a poor condition because of the three wars. These wars are the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraqi war, 1991 Gulf war and Iraq invasions of 2003,in addition to the UN sanction which lasted from 1991 to 2003 contributing to the poor condition of the Oil Industry.

The People

Iraq population is estimated to be 31, 23, 000 people. The population growth in 2007 had increased by 2.66% .Iraq has several ethnic groups with numerous Arabic speakers. Other ethic languages are Kurds, Iraq Turkmen, Chaldeans and Assyrian. Shad Islam is the prominent religion followed by Sunni Islam and Christianity.The Iraq governmental agencies and government has collapsed leading to wide spread violence and looting. People, have been forcefully displace during the war and after the wars leading to the hardship of Iraq population. The UK and the US have made efforts to restore order in ensuring there is assistance and provision of humanitarian assistance in their respective areas of control (Reconstructing Iraq, 2004).

Reference

Haviland, William A. (2002). Cultural Anthropology. (10th ed.). Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers.

Lee, Valerie L., and Searles, Richard T. (2002). Study Guide for the Telecourse Faces of Culture. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Reuters (2009) satellite broadband in Iraq. Retrieved from

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/

On June 10, 2010

Reconstructing Iraq (2004) International Crisis Group, Report,, p. 16,

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