Culture

Week 6
 Objec/ves of the session
I- Understanding culture and its underlying
no/ons;
II- Aspects or components of culture
III- Key constructs in culture
•  Human beings have faced similar problems of survival
across the years of human existence. Different groups
have found various answers to the ques/on, “How
shall we live?” When a group of humans successfully
found a way to survive, they began to value that
approach to life. They built beliefs around their survival
and acted on those beliefs and values. Such ac/vi/es
became normal to that group, and created their
culture. Some cultures appear quite similar to our own
while others seem extremely different.
•  Simple and complex cultures (More stuff)
 Society & Culture
A group of people who •  Culture is from la/n word ‘colere’, which
live in a par/cular means to cul/vate
territory, are subject to a •  The most complicated word in English
common system of language.
poli/cal authority, and are •  Kroeber (1952) 161 different defini/ons
aware of having a dis/nct •  “That complex whole which includes
iden/ty from other Knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law,
groups. custom and any other capabili/es and
habits acquired by man as a member of
society” E.B. Tylor (Enculturation)
•  Culture is learned (not gene/cally
acquired), symbolic (language, the
capacity for language is inherited but
not language itself), shared
(subcultures & counter cultures),
pa[erned, integrated & adap/ve
 Nurture and nature
•  People have to eat, drink, sleep, elimina/ng (Nature) but what,
how, when, where is cultural
•  E.g., What: permissible & non-permissible foods. Also taste
categories: sweet, sour, bi[er, and salty. Cross-cultural research
disproves these as universals.
•  How to eat? Which hand, silverware, earthenware, own plate etc?
•  Who cooks? Women in households, men in feasts
•  When? Food /mings
•  Where? Ea/ng places
•  Is sleep natural or cultural?
•  Cultural habits mold human nature in may ways. (defeca/on, aging,
cloning, diseases such as small pox, polio)
•  Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods other natural disaster though can’t
be averted, can be culturally challenged
 Culture is symbolic
•  A symbol is an object, word, or ac/on with a
culturally defined meaning that stands for
something else
•  Symbols are arbitrary (bearing no necessary
rela/onship to that which is symbolized),
unpredictable, and diverse. (rats are jumping in
my stomach)
•  A pet that barks (dog, chien, hund, mbwa, spey in
English, French, German, Swahili, pashto)
•  Culture as a control and rewarding mechanism
 Culture is learned
•  Because culture is based on symbols that are
arbitrary, culture must be learned anew in each
context.
•  Cultural learning begins from the moment of
birth, if not before
•  cultural learning is unconscious, occurring as a
normal part of life & transmi[ed through
observa/ons (looking glass self)
•  Hearing stories and seeing performances of
rituals and dramas are all part of cultural learning
 Culture is integrated & encompassing
•  To state that cultures are internally integrated is
to assert the principle of holism. Thus, studying
only one or two aspects of culture provides
understanding so limited that it is more likely to
be misleading or wrong than more
comprehensive approaches
•  Head-hun/ng, Banning jirga, wa[a-sa[a
•  Culture is not haphazard collec/on of customs
and beliefs but is integrated and pa[erned. If
young girls get educa/on how it will change other
aspects of home-making in this part of the world?
 Culture is shared
•  Culture not an a[ribute of individual per se
but of individuals as members of groups
•  Shared beliefs, values, memories, &
expecta/ons link people who group in the
same culture. Encultura/on unifies people
•  E.g., individualism in American culture, that
every person is unique in their own ways, is in
itself is a dis/nc/ve shared value
II- Aspects of Culture
 1- Values and Beliefs
Values Beliefs
•  Ideas held by individuals or groups about
what is desirable, proper, good, and bad. •  Specific ideas about what
•  Values are deeply embedded and cri/cal for
transmifng and teaching a culture’s beliefs. people believe to be true
•  Values portray an ideal culture, the
standards society would like to embrace and
about the world
live up to. But ideal culture differs from real
culture, the way society actually is, based on •  Democracy is a value
what occurs and exists.
•  In an ideal culture, there would be no traffic
system rooted in the belief
accidents, murders, poverty, or racial
tension. But in real culture, police officers,
that every person
lawmakers, educators, and social workers
constantly strive to prevent or repair those par/cipa/on in decisions
• 
accidents, crimes, and injus/ces.
Values are not sta/c; they vary across /me
making is good for the
and between groups as people evaluate,
debate, and change collec/ve societal
society
beliefs.
•  American culture- success, hard work,
freedom, equality, democracy, individualism,
and progress
 2- Norms
•  The visible and invisible rules of conduct through which socie/es are
structured.
•  Norms (as in NORMAL) define how to behave in accordance with what a
society has defined as good, right, and important, and most members of
the society adhere to them.
•  Formal norms are established, wri[en rules. They are behaviours worked
out and agreed upon in order to suit and serve most people. E.g, Laws,
employees manuals, university entrance requirements, no smoking signs.
•  Formal norms are the most specific and the most strictly enforced. But
even formal norms are enforced to varying degrees and are reflected in
cultural values (no smoking signs)
•  Longer list of informal norms—casual behaviours that are generally and
widely conformed to. Informal norms dictate appropriate behaviours
without the need of wri[en rules. (Use of masks)
•  It’s OK to stand in line behind someone at the ATM. It’s not OK to look
over his shoulder as he makes his transac/on. It’s OK to sit beside
someone on a crowded bus. It’s weird to sit beside a stranger in a half-
empty bus. A norm either prescribes a given type of behavior or forbids it-
varies from informal disapproval to physical punishment
•  Norms vary over /me: women wearing jeans, smoking in public areas etc
 2a- Mores
•  Norms may be further classified as either mores or
Folkways
•  Mores (mor-ays) are strongly held norms that embody the
moral views and principles of a group. Viola/ng them can
have serious consequences. The strongest mores are legally
protected with laws or other formal norms. In Pakistan, for
instance, murder is considered immoral, and it’s punishable
by law (a formal norm). But more oken, mores are judged
and guarded by public sen/ment (an informal norm).
Mumtaz Qadri, Majeed khan achakzai, Shahzaib
•  People who violate mores are seen as shameful.
•  plagiarism
•  Mores in Pashtun culture??
 2b- Folkways
•  Unlike mores, folkways are norms without any moral underpinnings.
Rather, folkways direct appropriate behaviour in the day-to-day prac/ces
and expressions of a culture.
•  They indicate whether to shake hands or kiss on the cheek when gree/ng
another person. They specify whether to wear a /e and blazer or a T-shirt
and sandals to an event.
•  In GB, women can smile and say hello to men on the street. In KP, that’s
not acceptable. In countryside Pakistan, bumping into an acquaintance
means stopping to chat. It’s considered rude not to, no ma[er how busy
one is. In urban regions, people guard their privacy and value /me
efficiency. A simple nod of the head is enough. Other accepted folkways in
the Pashtun culture may include holding the door open for a stranger or
feeding strangers. The rules regarding these folkways may change from
culture to culture.
•  Folkways in Pashtun culture?
 2c- taboos
•  The norms that are crucial to a society’s moral
center, involving behaviors that are always
nega/vely sanc/oned
•  Killing a person is a taboo?
•  Cannibalism, incest, child molesta/on
•  Taboos in Pashtun culture
 3- Symbols (& Language)
•  Humans, consciously and subconsciously, are always striving to make
sense of their surrounding world. Symbols—such as gestures, signs,
objects, signals, and words—help people understand that world. They
provide clues to understanding experiences by conveying recognizable
meanings that are shared by socie/es.
•  The world is filled with symbols. Sports uniforms, company logos, and
traffic signs are symbols. In some cultures, a gold ring is a symbol of
marriage. Some symbols are highly func/onal; stop signs, for instance,
provide useful instruc/on.
•  Some symbols are valuable only in what they represent. Trophies, blue
ribbons, or gold medals, for example, serve no other purpose than to
represent accomplishments.
•  Even the destruc/on of symbols is symbolic. Effigies represen/ng public
figures are burned to demonstrate anger at certain leaders. Modi, Macron
•  While different cultures have varying systems of symbols, one symbol is
common to all: language.
•  Language is a symbolic system through which people communicate and through
which culture is transmi[ed.
•  Socie/es oken share a single language, and many languages contain the same
basic elements. An alphabet is a wri[en system made of symbolic shapes that
refer to spoken sound. Taken together, these symbols convey specific meanings.
The English alphabet uses a combina/on of twenty-six le[ers to create words;
these twenty-six le[ers make up over 600,000 recognized English words
•  Language is constantly evolving as socie/es create new ideas. In this age of
technology, people have adapted almost instantly to new nouns such as “e-mail”
and “Internet,” and verbs such as “downloading,” “tex/ng,” and “blogging.” Thirty
years ago, the general public would have considered these to be nonsense words.
•  The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis or Linguis/c-rela/vity hypothesis is based on the idea
that people experience their world through their language.
•  unless people have access to the word “ambivalent,” they don’t recognize an
experience of uncertainty from having conflic/ng posi/ve and nega/ve feelings
about an issue. Essen/ally, the hypothesis argues that if a person can’t describe
the experience, the person is not having the experience.
•  Nonverbal communica/on is symbolic, and, as in the case of language,
much of it is learned through one’s culture. Some gestures are nearly
universal: smiles oken represent joy, and crying oken represents sadness.
Other nonverbal symbols vary across cultural contexts in their meaning. A
thumbs-up, for example, indicates posi/ve reinforcement in the US &
Pakistan, whereas in Russia and Australia, it is an offensive curse
•  Other gestures vary in meaning depending on the situa/on and the
person. A wave of the hand can mean many things, depending on how it’s
done and for whom. It may mean “hello,” “goodbye,” “no thank you”.
•  Winks convey a variety of messages, including “We have a secret,” “I’m
only kidding,” or “I’m a[racted to you.” From a distance, a person can
understand the emo/onal gist of two people in conversa/on just by
watching their body language and facial expressions. Furrowed brows and
folded arms indicate a serious topic, possibly an argument. Smiles, with
heads liked and arms open, suggest a light-hearted, friendly chat.
Key constructs in culture
 Cultural universals
•  Common features found virtually in all
socie/es
•  language, personal names, family, marriage,
religious rituals, property rights, incest, art,
dance, bodily adornment, games, gik giving,
joking, hygiene etc
•  Varia/ons: incest- ancient Egyp/ans prac/ced
it, Japan’s bodily adornment is
 Material and non-material culture
Material Non material
•  The objects or belongings of a •  Nonmaterial culture, in
group of people are
considered material culture. BRT contrast, consists of the
passes and prayer caps are part ideas, aftudes, and beliefs
of material culture, as are
automobiles, stores, and the of a society.
physical structures where people
worship, or engage in other •  Values, Norms, and symbols
recognizable pa[erns of
behaviour.

Material and nonmaterial aspects of culture are linked, and physical objects oken
symbolize cultural ideas
Clothing, hairstyles, and jewellery are part of material culture, but the appropriateness
of wearing certain clothing for specific events reflects nonmaterial culture.

 Class ac/vity
•  Examine the difference between material and
nonmaterial culture in your world. Iden/fy ten
objects that are part of your regular cultural
experience. For each, then iden/fy what
aspects of nonmaterial culture (values and
beliefs) that these objects represent. What
has this exercise revealed to you about your
culture?

 Ethnocentrism & Xenocentrism
•  ethnocentrism, or evalua/ng and judging another culture based on
how it compares to one’s own cultural norms.
•  Ethnocentrism, as sociologist William Graham Sumner (1906)
described the term, involves a belief or aftude that one’s own
culture is be[er than all others, and should therefore serve as the
standard frame of reference
•  A high level of apprecia/on for one’s own culture can be healthy; a
shared sense of community pride, for example, connects people in
a society. But ethnocentrism can lead to disdain or dislike for other
cultures and could cause misunderstanding and conflict.
•  Some/mes when people a[empt to rec/fy feelings of
ethnocentrism and to prac/ce cultural rela/vism, they swing too
far to the other end of the spectrum. Xenocentrism is the opposite
of ethnocentrism, and refers to the belief that another culture is
superior to one’s own.
 Cultural rela/vism & cultural
imperialism
•  Europe’s colonial expansion, begun in the sixteenth
century, was oken accompanied by a severe cultural
imperialism. A more modern example of cultural
imperialism may include the work of interna/onal aid
agencies who introduce agricultural methods and plant
species from developed countries while overlooking
indigenous varie/es and agricultural approaches that
are be[er suited to a par/cular region.
•  Cultural relaCvism is the prac/ce of assessing a culture
by its own standards rather than viewing it through the
lens of one’s own culture.
 High culture and pop culture
•  Do you prefer listening to opera or •  The term popular culture refers to
hip hop music? Do you like watching the pa[ern of the more accessible
horse racing or NASCAR? Do you read cultural experiences and aftudes
books of poetry or celebrity that exist in mainstream society.
magazines? In each pair, one type of Popular culture events might include
entertainment is considered high- a weekly melas, a street puppet
brow and the other low-brow. show, or the season finale of a
Sociologists use the term high television show. Rock and pop music
culture to describe the pa[ern of —“pop” is short for “popular”—are
cultural experiences and aftudes part of popular culture. Popular
that exist in the highest class culture is oken expressed and spread
segments of a society. People oken via commercial media such as radio,
associate high culture with television, movies, the music
intellectualism, poli/cal power, and industry, publishers, and corporate-
pres/ge run websites. Unlike high culture,
popular culture is known and
accessible to most people.
 Subculture and Counterculture

•  A subculture is a smaller culture within a •  Sociologists dis/nguish subcultures
dominant culture that has a way of life from countercultures, which are a type of
dis/nguished in some important way from subculture that rejects the larger culture’s
that dominant culture.. norms and values. In contrast to subcultures,
•  subcultures are united by shared which operate rela/vely smoothly within the
experiences. Hobbies: Bikers, Islamabad larger society, countercultures might ac/vely
cycling, books club IMSciences. defy larger society by developing their own
set of rules and norms to live by, some/mes
•  Some subcultures are formed by members even crea/ng communi/es that operate
who possess traits or preferences that differ outside of and apart from the larger society.
from the majority of a society’s popula/on.
e.g., The body modifica/on community It is this opposi/onal, perhaps even
antagonis/c posi/on that mainly
•  Subcultures based on age groups: dis/nguishes a counterculture from a
Genera/on Z or Ingenera/on. Teen agers subculture.
•  But even as members of a subculture band •  Religious and other “cults,” a word that
together, they s/ll iden/fy with and for the derives from the same root as “culture,” are
most part harmoniously par/cipate in the also considered counterculture groups.
larger society.
 Class ac/vity
•  Consider some of the specific issues or
concerns of your genera/on. Are any ideas
countercultural? What subcultures have
emerged from your genera/on? How have the
issues of your genera/on expressed
themselves culturally? How has your
genera/on made its mark on society’s
collec/ve culture?
 Cultural lag
•  When the pace of innova/on increases, it can
lead to genera/on gaps.
•  Material culture tends to diffuse more quickly
than nonmaterial culture; technology can spread
through society in a ma[er of months, but it can
take genera/ons for the ideas and beliefs of
society to change. Sociologist William F. Ogburn
coined the term culture lag to refer to this /me
that elapses between the introduc/on of a new
item of material culture and its acceptance as
part of nonmaterial culture (Ogburn 1957).

 Cultural change- InnovaCons
•  An invenCon refers to an object or concept’s ini/al
appearance in society. It can be thought of as the
crea/on of a product or introduc/on of a process for
the first /me. Discoveries make known previously
unknown but exis/ng aspects of reality.
•  innovaCons result when something is improved upon
or formed from exis/ng objects or concepts—when
things are put together in a new manner. For example,
in the late 1800s and early 1900s, electric appliances
were invented at an astonishing pace. Cars, airplanes,
vacuum cleaners, lamps, radios, telephones, and
televisions were all new inven/ons.
 Cultural change- interac/on
•  Cultures interact and change each other through trade
networks, interna/onal development projects,
telecommunica/ons, educa/on, migra/on, and
tourism- culture is always evolving.
•  Moreover, new things are added to material culture
every day, and they affect nonmaterial culture as well.
•  Globaliza/on does not spread evenly, and its
interac/ons with and effects on local cultures vary
substan/ally from posi/ve change to cultural
destruc/on and ex/nc/on
 MICRO Cultures
•  The term micro-culture, or local culture, refers
to dis/nct pa[erns of learned and shared
behavior and ideas found in local regions and
among par/cular groups.
•  Micro-cultures are based on ethnicity, class,
gender, age, and more.
Culture from the 3 key lenses