Culture

Basic Elements
 Definition of Culture
 “… is the totality of learned, socially transmitted
customs, knowledge, material objects and
behaviour.” Schaffer, RT (2003)
 It is the all learned customs, beliefs, values,
knowledge, artifacts, and symbols that are
constantly communicated among a set of people
who share a common way of life.
 Tangible and intangible aspects: language, morality,
dancing, books.
 Definition of culture
 Sir Edward Tyler in his book ‘Primitive
Culture’ defined it “Culture is that
complex whole which includes knowledge,
belief, art, morals, law, custom and any
other capabilities and habits acquired by
man as a members of society.”
 Features of Culture
 Socially learnt, not biologically inherited.
 Develops through shared social interactions.
 Transmitted between generations: language.
 Cumulative: “social heritage”.
 Dynamic & Adaptive: responsive to changes in
social and physical world.
 Varies from society to society: cultural diversity.
 Culture and Society
 Culture refers to things  Society refers to
that a given group of network of social
people have created relationships among
and to which they those who share a
attach similar meaning.
common culture.
 People use culture to
guide and give  Culture is the product
meaning to their social of people interacting in
relations. a social system.
 Elements of
Culture:
a) Material Culture
 Consists of all the physical objects or
artifacts that people make and attach meaning
to.
 Technology is an important source of
material culture.
 E.g. TV, machine gun,
banks, mosque, flag.
b) Non-material Culture
 Ways of utilizing material objects, as well as
customs, beliefs, philosophies, governments, and
patterns of communication.
 Internal beliefs people hold,
language they speak, rituals
and practices they observe,
ways of acting etc.
 More resistant to change than material culture.
 Culture Lag
 period of maladjustment when nonmaterial
culture is still struggling to adapt to new
material conditions
 Does Cultural lag resist social change?
Development of Culture
Around the World
 Innovation:
 Process of introducing new idea or object
to a culture
 Discovery: making known or sharing
existence of an aspect of reality
 Invention: when existing cultural items
are combined into a form that did not
exist before
Development of Culture
Around the World
 Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology
 Diffusion: process by which a cultural
item spreads from group to group or
society to society
 McDonalization: process through which
the principles of the fast-food industry
have come to dominate certain sectors of
society
Culture and the Dominant
Ideology
 Dominant Ideology:
 Describes the set of cultural beliefs and
practices that help to maintain powerful
social, economic, and political interests
 Cultural Variation
 Aspects of Cultural Variation
 Each culture has unique character
 Subculture: Segment of society that shares
distinctive pattern of mores, folkways, and
values that differs from the larger society
 Argot: specialized language that distinguishes
a subculture from the wider society
 Dominant Culture &
Subcultures
 Dominant culture is the culture
practiced by the majority in a group
 When perspective and life-style of certain
subordinate group differ significantly from
the dominant culture and when they
identify themselves as different they are
said to form a subculture
 Cultural Variation
 Aspects of Cultural Variation
 Counterculture: subculture that
conspicuously and deliberately opposes
certain aspects of the larger culture
 Hippies
 Terrorist cells
 Cultural Variation
 Aspects of Cultural Variation
 Culture shock: Feeling disoriented,
uncertain, out of place, or fearful when
immersed in an unfamiliar culture
 Cultural Variation

• Aspects of Cultural Variation

 Ethnocentrism: Tendency to assume
that one’s own culture and way of life
represent the norm or is superior to all
others
 Cultural relativism: people’s behaviors
from the perspective of their own culture
Elements of Culture
 Language
 Norms
 Values
 Roles
 Status
Language

 It is an abstract system of word meanings and

symbols for all aspects of culture.
 Foundation of every culture.
 Culturally determined universal. Language
precedes thought.
 Non-verbal communication: gestures.
 Elements of Culture
 Social Norms
 Established standards of behavior
maintained by a society
 To be significant, norms must be widely
shared and understood
 Social Norms
 Norms: Types of Norms

 Formal norms
Generally written; specify strict punishments
In U.S., often formalized into laws
 Informal norms
Generally understood but not precisely recorded
 Mores
Norms deemed highly necessary to the welfare of a
society
 Folkways
Norms governing everyday behavior
Elements of Culture
(con.)
 Folkways are everyday habits and
conventions people obey without giving
much thought to the matter
 Mores are the norms people consider vital to
their well-being and to their most cherished
values
Elements of Culture
 Elements of culture are used to create, sustain
and change the way of life
 Social Values:
 A general idea that people share about what is
good or bad, desirable or undesirable
- No value applies in every situation
- Values are even reflected in seemingly trivial
day-to-day behaviors
Elements of Culture
(con.)
- Types of values:
- a. Political
- b. Economic
- c. Religious
- d. Family
- Different values are applied in different situations
- When values are in sharp conflict and reconciliation
is difficult, pressure for social change may be build
 Culture as a normative
 system
Every cultural system is normative i.e. contains a
strong requirements as to the social member what
are must and must not.
 W. G. Sumner introduced two important terms of
culture as a normative system.
 Folkways: The fairly trivial norms or conventions
shared by members of a society.
 Mores: Mores are the norms people consider vital
to their well-being and to their most cherished
values.
 Culture as a normative system
con…
 Social behavior shaped by the social sanctions. Society
practices reward and punishment to make it’s member
conformist.
 Social sanctions: Actions that reward conformity to
norms and punish nonconformity.
 Two types of social sanctions: a. Formal b. Non-formal
 By socialization we are molded all these social sanction
as a part of our personality. We not only learn how things
are done but also learn how things should be done.
 Cultural relativism
 Like culture social norms also vary from society to
society.
 There is no universal norms for all societies. Most
societies frown on incest, lying, stealing, failure to
maintain some control over ones impulses.
 Cultural relativism is the assumption that all
cultures are equally valid regardless the practices
of their culture.
 Cultural relativism
 Ethnocentrism is a habit to judge other ways
of life by the standard of our own culture.
 Tendency to view one’s own cultural patterns
as good and right and those of others as
strange or even immoral.
 Sociologists use well adapted culture or
poorly adapted culture instead of saying good
culture or bad culture.
 Exercise: Conflicts viewers explanation of
culture and society?