FUNCTIONS OF CULTURE

A Essay
By
Mr. G.L.S Anuradha
SAB/BSc/2020A14/007

Course: MGT 20225 Fundamentals of Sociology and Psychology

Mr. Sanjeewa Jayaweera
Year 2, Semester 1

School of Accounting and Business

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka
8th July 2021
Among all teams of individuals we discover wide shared beliefs, norms, values and preferences.
Since culture appears to be universal human development, it happens naturally to ponder whether
culture corresponds to any universal human wants. This curiosity raises the question of the
functions of culture. Social scientists have mentioned numerous functions of culture. Culture has
sure functions for each individual and society. every culture has several refined cues that outline
every scenario. It reveals whether or not one ought to prepare to fight, run, laugh or fuck. as an
example, suppose somebody approaches you with paw extended at waist level. What will this
mean? That he needs to recognise in friendly acknowledgement is dead obvious, obvious, that's
to anyone aware of our culture.
But in another place or time the extended hand would possibly mean hostility or warning. One
doesn't grasp what to try to to in an exceedingly scenario till he has outlined matters. every
society has its insults and fighting words. The cues that outline things seem in infinite selection.
someone World Health Organization moves from one society into another can pay a few years
mistaking the cues. as an example, riant at the incorrect places. everybody learns in his culture
what's smart, true, and delightful. Attitudes, values and goals area unit outlined by the culture.
whereas the individual commonly learns them as unconsciously as he learns the language.
perspective area unit tendencies to feel and act in sure ways that. Values area unit measures of
goodness or desirability, as an example, we tend to worth personal estate, Government and lots
of different things and knowledge.
Goals area unit those attainments that our values outline as worthy, e.g. winning the race, gaining
the affections of a selected lady, or changing into president of the firm. By approving sure goals
and ridiculing others, the culture channels individual ambitions. In these ways that culture
determines the goals of life. The customs, traditions, attitudes, values, norms, ideas and symbols
govern human behaviour pattern. The members of society not solely endorse them however
additionally mould their behaviour consequently. {they area unit|they're} the members of the
society owing to the traditions and customs that area unit common and that are passed down
from generation to generation through the method of socialisation. These common patterns
designate culture and it's in terms of culture that we tend to area unit able to perceive the
particular behavior pattern of persons in their social relations. Cultural ideas emerge from shared
social life.
Sometimes a personal is delineated as “a extremely civilized person”, that means thereby that
the person in question has sure options like his speech, manner, and style for literature, music or
painting that distinguish him from others. Culture, during this sense, refers to sure personal
characteristics of a individual. However, this can be not the sense during which the word culture
is employed and understood in social sciences. generally culture is employed in widespread
discourse to check with a celebration or a night of diversion, as once one speaks of a ‘cultural
show’. during this sense, culture is known with aesthetics or the fine arts like dance, music or
drama. this can be additionally totally different from the technical that means of the word
culture.
Culture is employed in an exceedingly special sense in social science and social science. It refers
to the total of human beings’ life ways that, their behaviour, beliefs, feelings, thought; it
connotes everything that's noninheritable by them as social beings. Culture has been outlined in
range of the way. there's no agreement among sociologists and anthropologists concerning the
definition of culture. one in every of the foremost comprehensive definitions of the term culture
was provided by Brits social scientist Edward Tylor. He outlined culture as ” that complicated
whole which incorporates data, belief, art, morals, law, custom and the other capabilities and
habits noninheritable by man as a member of society”.
There area unit some writers World Health Organization increase this definitions a number of the
vital different capabilities and habits like language and therefore the techniques for creating and
exploitation tools. Culture consists of all learned, normative behaviour patterns, that's all shared
ways that or patterns of thinking and feeling moreover as doing. The definition of culture
indicated that the learned behaviour of individuals is figured. every person’s behaviour usually
depends upon some explicit behaviour of somebody else. the purpose is that, as a general rule,
behaviours area unit somewhat integrated or organized with connected behaviours of different
persons. there's widespread error within the thinking of the many those that tend to treat the
ideas, attitudes, and notions that they need as “their own”. it's straightforward to overestimate the
individuality of one’s own attitudes and ideas. once there's agreement with others it's for the
most part ignored, however once there's a disagreement or distinction one is sometimes tuned in
to it. Your variations but, might also be cultural. as an example, suppose you're a Catholic and
therefore the different person a Protestant. The patterns of learned behaviour and therefore the
results of behaviour area unit possessed not by one or a number of person, however typically by
an outsized proportion. Thus, several several persons share such behaviour patterns as
Christianity, the employment of cars, or country language.
Persons could share some a part of a culture unevenly. as an example, as Americans do the
Christianity. To some persons Christianity is that the all vital, predominating plan in life. To
others it's less preoccupying/important, and to still others it's of marginal significance solely.
generally the individuals share totally different aspects of culture. as an example, among the
Christians, there area unit – Catholic and Protestant, liberal or conservation, as clergymen or as
laymen. the purpose to our discussion isn't that culture or any a part of it's shred identically,
however that it's shared by the members of society to a comfortable extent. Culture embodies the
ideas and norms of a gaggle. it's sum-total of the best patterns and norms of behaviour of a
gaggle. Culture consists of the intellectual, inventive and social ideals and establishments that the
members of the society profess and to that they try to substantiate.
To the human mind, symbols area unit cultural representations of reality. each culture has its
own set of symbols related to totally different experiences and perceptions. Thus, as a
illustration, a symbol's that means is neither natural nor automatic. The culture's members should
interpret and over time reinterpret the image.
Symbols occur in numerous forms: verbal or nonverbal, written or unwritten. they will be
something that conveys a that means, like words on the page, drawings, pictures, and gestures.
Clothing, homes, cars, and different client things area unit symbols that imply an explicit level of
status. maybe the foremost powerful of all human symbols is language a system of verbal and
generally written representations that area unit culturally specific and convey that means
concerning the planet. within the Nineteen Thirties, linguistic scientist and Benjamin Lee Whorf
projected that languages influence perceptions. whereas this Sapir‐Whorf hypothesis additionally
known as the linguistic relativity theory hypothesis is contentious, it licitly suggests that
someone can a lot of seemingly understand variations once he or she possesses words or ideas to
explain the variations.
Language is a very important supply of continuity and identity in an exceedingly culture. Some
teams, like like residents of Quebec in North American nation, refuse to talk English, that is
Canada's primary language, for worry of losing their cultural identity though each English and
French area unit Canada's official languages. within the us, immigrants offer abundant resistance
to creating English the official national language. Culture is that the distinctive possession of
man. Man is born and remarked in an exceedingly cultural atmosphere. Man isn't solely a social
animal however additionally a cultural being. Man cannot survive as a person while not culture.
Culture fulfils our wants and represents the complete achievements of man. E.B. Taylor outlined
culture as “that complicated whole which incorporates data, beliefs, art, morale, laws, customs
and the other capabilities and habits noninheritable by man as a member of society.”
Culture distinguishes man from animal. it's the culture that creates the human animal a person. It
regulates his conduct and prepares him for a gaggle life. while not culture he would are forced to
seek out his own manner which might have meant a loss of energy. Culture provides resolution
for classy things. Culture provides man a group of behaviour for tough things. within the absence
of culture man would are baffled even at the best things. Culture not solely defines however
additionally determines what we tend to eat and drink, once to sleep, once to laugh etc. Culture
provides ancient interpretation to sure things. Through culture man gets ancient interpretations
for several things consistent with that he determines his behaviour. as an example, if a cat crosses
his manner he postpones the journey. Culture shapes temperament. No kid will develop human
qualities within the absence of cultural atmosphere. Culture prepares man for cluster life. it's
culture that has opportunities for the event of temperament and sets limits on its growth.
Culture keeps social relationship intact. Culture has importance not just for men however
additionally for the cluster. Culture prepares man for cluster life. cluster life would are poor,
nasty, and short if there had been no cultural laws. cluster commonality rests on the muse of
culture.Culture has given a replacement vision to the individual. Secondly, culture has given a
replacement vision to the co-operation of the people. Culture teaches him to consider himself as
an area of the larger whole. It provides him with the ideas of family, state, nation etc. and makes
potential the coordination and division of labour. Culture creates new wants. Finally, culture
additionally creates new wants and drives, as an example, thirst for data and arranges for his or
her satisfaction. It satisfies the ethical and spiritual interests of the members of the cluster. From
the discussion we all know that culture is that the distinctive possession of man. nobody will
develop human qualities while not culture. Culture distinguishes, leads, changes the temperament
of the individual and structure of the cluster.