Cultural Perspectives on Time: How Culture Shapes Our Understanding of Time

Aisha Moon
Aug 20
5 min read

Life is full of phenomena that we find difficult to wrap our minds around. Time is one of them. It is an idea derived from our experience of planetary motions and the circadian rhythm, but philosophy kept asking whether time is an imaginary construct or reality. Ultimately, culture shapes our understanding of time.

Time is indeed real for us. It brackets our life on this planet; it is real because it is one of the variables against which science measures the parameters of our universe, and we measure life and death. Time is a fleeting concept, yet how we experience it has a strong subjective element.

Aren't there different versions of the experience of time for each of us? Don't we have many personal versions of time? Time rushes away if we are into something enjoyable, and if we are bored, it lags on. For the older generation, the eventful period they experienced on earth would appear brief and as if it vanished in the blink of an eye. Throughout human cultural history, people have experienced and perceived time in various ways.

Aymaras Who walked from the Future to the Past

Common sense dictates that moment by moment, we are rid of the past and heading towards the future. This notion is not necessarily universal.

The Inca civilisation in Peru held the belief that both the past and the future affected every moment of the present. The idea is that the past, present, and future coexist.

The Aymara people of the Andes view time in a way that is the reverse of our modern understanding—they see the past as being in front of them and the future as behind. They talk about the past as though it is right in front of them, and they portray the future as if it has already occurred.

This is so because, for them, time begins in the future and flows incessantly through the present into the past. As we live on, time flows back. So obviously, you have your back to the future, and the past is up ahead. They discuss their ancestors with a forward gesture of the hand, suggesting that they are talking about something in the future.

Laura Spinney, a British journalist, writes in her 2005 Guardian article quoting a scientist, Rafael Nunez, that the Aymara tribe's language also reflects this conceptual reversal. But wait, is it that much more difficult to understand this seemingly complex view of time? If one attempts to look with a fresh eye at one's view of life?

Animals demonstrate that it is possible to live in the moment spontaneously, without concern for time. Wise philosophers have also asked us to live in the moment and be carefree and without worries.

Whether the awareness of time is good or bad for us is a matter of perception. Planning life based on time is a crucial part of our survival on this planet. However, Laura Spinney observes that for the Aymaras, one value associated with their unique notion about time is patience.

The Aymara people do not bother waiting for public transport for half a day in the same spot. They do not plan their lives and are in no hurry. Anxiety about the future is probably less among them than modern humans like us.

As detailed above, tribal people across the planet are often the most patient, as they hold a significantly different conception of time compared to our own.

There are many ways culture shapes our understanding of time. For the Hopi people of the United States, time is not viewed as a linear sequence – they do not differentiate between the past, present, and future. It is logically true that if one does not believe that time is moving, rushing in life loses its meaning. There are no deadlines to meet, and death is not so concrete a concept in that mind frame.

The Hindu religion of Asia has a cyclical view of time. It is the non-stop cycle of creation and the destruction of the world, and hence, every life form gets reborn as many other life forms. The implication is that after death, an individual will be reborn and must face the consequences of their actions from past lives.

This process is visualised as a wheel, and the ultimate goal is to halt the wheel, meaning to end the cycle of rebirths and unite with the universe, a state known as 'Moksha'. Such a perception of time affects the life decisions of an individual. Everyone lives their life remembering that they will one day be answerable for the deeds of this life in another. In this frame of thought, one can also slow down, as it is an endless cycle.

For Buddhists, time is an illusion. All who seek enlightenment aim to get out of the trappings of time and enter the realm of timeless time. Buddhism teaches that all things are impermanent and that time can only be understood in relation to the constant process of change. To delve deeper, consider this: time has no independent existence apart from change.

Culture Shapes Our Understanding of Time: Warm Time, Costly Time

There is an economic dimension to time. When an economy is growing faster, time becomes a valuable commodity. This is why agrarian communities are slower than industrial ones. “Hotter places are slower,” said social psychologist Robert N. Levine (2008) in a book he wrote on the time experiences of different geographic locations and the people there.

The reasons for a distinct perception of time could be many; no one is sure. Some argue that a warmer climate makes life easier, as people can live without cold-proof houses, clothing, and similar necessities, which may contribute to a slower pace of life. Some other reasons cited include preserving energy, which is already waning due to exposure to the hot sun, and the simple psychological effect of warmth on people, which can make them sluggish. One can agree with all the reasons cited above, as it is true that by noontime, everything comes to a standstill in tropical climates, and people either stay indoors or even sleep when they can afford to.

Culture Shapes Our Understanding of Time: Strange Times

Is it worth always living in a linear notion of time? Wise people say no. There has been so much discussion about living in the present moment. In 14 BCE, the Pharaoh Akhenaton of Egypt noted that “he who neglects the present moment throws away all he has". The Arctic, being the land of the midnight sun, time plays an entirely different role there. In the Old Norse language, a word, ‘Eykt', represents “an eighth of the 24-hour long day”. Eykt, which is 3 hours, became one of the basic units of time for the Norse people because they experience time in terms of solar motion rather than sunrise and sunset.

Culture Shapes Our Understanding of Time: Science Time

Isaac Newton, regarded as a trailblazer in elucidating the physical universe for science, held the belief in a linear concept of time that applies to the entire universe. He believed that time remained unchanged and unaffected by anything in the universe. Einstein’s theory of relativity, however, suggested that time has some level of flexibility. Thus, in science, time too became relative, as it was conceived in ancient mythology but now grounded in a scientific basis and subject to revision through future research.

We might even suggest that time, much like beauty, is what the observer perceives.

The recent discovery of gravitational waves has reignited the discussion about time. In simple terms, gravity has the ability to bend space and will naturally affect linear time as well. We can wait to see what new insights time will uncover about itself.