What is culture?

Culture:
Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people,
encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. It is the
beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics shared by groups of
people. Culture could be based on shared ethnicity, gender, customs, values,
or even objects. Cultural anthropology, a major division of anthropology that
deals with the study of culture in all of its aspects and that uses the methods,
concepts, and data of archaeology, ethnography and ethnology, folklore, and
linguistics in its descriptions and analyses of the diverse peoples of the world.
Example:
1. Christmas trees can be considered ceremonial or cultural objects. They
are representative in both Western religious and commercial holiday
culture.
2. Different words can be used for the same things from one region of a
country to another. For example, soda, pop and soft drinks are regional
terms for carbonated drinks.

Types of Culture

Anthropologists and sociologists, study culture to understand patterns of human

behavior. While there are unlimited ways that people can express their culture,
social scientists have developed two fundamental categories to define things
produced by a society. There are two main type of culture

 Material Culture
 Non-material Culture

1. Material Culture:

Material culture is physical things that are created by a society. In America,

we have a strong material culture based on production of certain items, like
cars. America is proud of its car culture. We make cars; we drive cars; we
use cars as symbols of our place in society, wealth, or feelings about the
 environment. Cars, plus the other things that we physically create as
Americans, define our material culture. Now, material culture does not mean
that it is an object that is bought and sold; it can also be something we all
make. For instance, macaroni art is a common thing we all did as children. It
is something that is common enough to unite us and therefore part of our
material culture.
Examples:
  For example, technology is a vital aspect of material culture in today's
United States.
  Any tools, weapons, utensils, machines, ornaments, art, buildings,
monuments, written records, religious images, clothing, and any other
ponderable objects produced or used by humans.
2. Non-material Culture:
Nonmaterial culture, or the intangible things produced by a culture. In
other words, the parts of culture you cannot touch, feel, taste, or hold.
Common examples include social roles, ethics, beliefs, or even language. As
a culture, Americans believe in equality. But you cannot hold equality, or
make it out of macaroni noodles. Equality is something that does not
actually exist; it is an idea that a culture produces about the treatment of
people. This is nonmaterial culture, and it is just as big of an influence on
our lives as material culture is.
Example:
 The non‐material cultural concept of religion consists of a set of ideas and
beliefs about God, worship, morals, and ethics. These beliefs, then,
determine how the culture responds to its religious topics, issues, and
events.
 Traffic laws, words, and dress codes

Elements of Culture

 Language:
 Every culture has a particular language which is passed by the person belongs to that
particular culture to the next generation and the following generation also has to learn the
language. The language can be defined, in a very precise manner, and can be compared.

Examples:

 A person who speaks nagamese can be judged to be a citizen of Nagaland.

 The person who speaks Hindi and having an accent like that of Indians can be
recognized easily, that he is a citizen of India 

 Norms:

This decides the rules and regulation of a society. Norms define two types of rules one of
which it must be followed by people of that particular society these rules are known as
“mos”. The other rule tells the daily habits of individual of that society it is known as
“folkways

Example:

 Norms affect the one behaves in a public. When one enters an elevator, it
is expected that one turns around to face others.
 Tipping a waitress at a restaurant, a violation of that social norm would be
not tipping the waitress.

 Beliefs:

Before the creation of any culture by a society, society decides their source of motivation,
which they considered as appropriate.

Example:

 Cross for Christians and a necklace or a cotton thread around the neck.
 Sikh wear bangle in one hand, bear a long beard, keeping a dagger.

 Symbols:

Importance of Symbols may differ for different people, belonging to a different culture.

Example:

 Sign of cross means nothing for Hindus but for Christians, this is a symbol of Lord
Christ.
 Hawaiian culture, the performance of a Lua is a symbol of their land and heritage
which is performed through song and dance.
 Values:

Anything or any material when collects importance in our daily life it starts having value.
Value of some materials, sometimes, are received and taught by parents to their children.
Some values are explained by society, in this way values of a particular society gets
accumulated and move forward from generations to generations.

Example:

 The cultural value that the Muslim man believes is to respect your ancestors and
Allah.
 Hindus cultural value is that to allow cows to have a natural death, rather than
slaughtering them.