I knew about three forms of capital- financial, cultural and social. Capital for different people can mean different things. For me, it is something I possess and I can proudly claim to be mine. Financial capital, we all know that it is related to money and wealth. Social capital is the network of people and relationships which I have. Cultural capital is the cultural trademark which I carry with me. According to my understanding, my financial capital is the scooter I own and the bank balance in my account. My social capital, is the network of my friends, teachers, corporate mentors and colleagues. I have a rich social capital over social media as well with people with whom I have not met.
Culture is fundamentally a concept, an abstraction and a mental construct. I ponder how brands have established themselves across this abstraction. In a country like India, culturally Indian mothers favored fairer daughter in laws. In every matrimonial ad, there is a requirement for fairer brides. Culturally through years, ‘fair skin’ women were preferred over ‘dark skin’ women. One of the leading brands, Fair and Lovely, made its business capitalizing on this concept- the belief that ‘fair is lovely’. The value system of this company was challenged with the ongoing ‘Black Lives Matter’ moment (which I wrote before), which made the company rename its brand and create a new brand message- Glow and Lovely.
Now viewing this from an anthropologist’s lenses, in an organization, it is imperative to learn how people live and work in groups, how they identify values and behaviors. In a social capital, we see the shared values, norms and beliefs of a group. They level of trust and cooperation they have amongst themselves. We have always defined culture based on geography and history. Now since geographical boundaries are dissolving due to globalization and history is turning obscure, how will we define culture?
