Lesson 4: CULTURE

Culture is the way of life of people and is a vital part of any society. Culture binds people of a
community together, offer an individual a exceptional identity, and provide as the founding principles of
one’s life. Culture is a strong element of people's lives. It has the power to influence their views, their
principles, their humor, their expectations, their allegiance, and their worries and fears. So when you are
working with the community and building relationships with them, it helps to have some viewpoint and
understanding of their cultures. But as we explore culture, it's also imperative to remember how much
we have in common. This chapter will give you practical information about how to understand culture,
establish relationships with people from cultures different from your own, recognize the rich cultural
heritage of the Philippines, and build strong and diverse communities.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After studying this chapter, the students should be able to:

1. Articulate what culture means;
2. Identify the characteristics and Elements of Culture; and
3. Suggest ways on how to protect, preserve and promote the Filipino Culture.

LECTURE NOTES

The concept of Culture

Culture describes a collective way of life, or way of doing things. It is the sum of attitudes,
values, goals, and practices shared by individuals in a group, organization, or society. Cultures vary over
time periods, between countries and geographic regions, and among groups and organizations. Culture
reflects the moral and ethical beliefs and standards that speak to how people should behave and
interact with others.
Cultural norms are the shared, sanctioned, and integrated systems of beliefs and practices that
are passed down through generations and characterize a cultural group. Norms cultivate reliable
guidelines for daily living and contribute to the health and well-being of a culture. They act as
prescriptions for correct and moral behavior, lend meaning and coherence to life, and provide a means
of achieving a sense of integrity, safety, and belonging. These normative beliefs, together with related
cultural values and rituals, impose a sense of order and control on aspects of life that might otherwise
appear chaotic or unpredictable. This is where culture intersects with ethics. Since interpretations of
what is moral are influenced by cultural norms, the possibility exists that what is ethical to one group
will not be considered so by someone living in a different culture.

The Characteristics of Culture

• Culture is shared-Culture gives the people a collective identity. It belongs to a community and
not to any single human being.
• Culture is learned- Culture is not biologically passed from older generations to the newer ones.
It is learned through experience. Culture propagates through generations, which adopt their old
customs and traditions as a part of their culture.

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 • Culture changes-Cultures undergo a gradual change. With passing time, some beliefs change,
certain traditions or rituals are eliminated, language and mannerisms of people change, and
thus their culture. Migration and globalization lead to a mixing of cultures.
• Culture takes years to form- culture evolves over time and takes years to develop. It is not a set
of rules made by one or more people and followed by generations. With passing time, a culture
develops and even changes in the process.
• Culture cannot be isolated- There is hardly any social community that is completely isolated
from the rest of the world. Every culture is mostly influenced by cultures of the surrounding
regions.
• Culture is essential- Culture gives us an identity. The art and history that we are proud of, the
literature we learn from, our education, and our upbringing shapes our personalities.
• Culture is transmitted across generations- Cultural values are transferred across generations in
the form of symbols and stories that make them easier to understand.

The Elements of Culture

Language
Language, be it spoken, written, or
gestured, is the basic means of
communication between humans. It has
evolved along with humans, originating with
a combination of basic sounds, calls, and
gestures to coherent speech, scripts,
accents, and dialects.
Social Structure
In a broad sense, social structure or
organization refers to a pattern of
relationships between and among
individuals and groups. These relationships
or groups are created to augment the
smooth functioning of society.
Customs and traditions
Customs and traditions influence and
govern each aspect of our behavior. These
may be informal or formal in nature, and
tend to vary from region to region.
Arts
Human emotions and ideas have always
found the perfect medium of expression in
the arts. Arts encompass a wide range of
forms, including literature, crafts,
architecture, music, dance, dramatics, etc.
Values
Values are another important element of
culture and involve judgments of what is
good or bad and desirable or undesirable.

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Symbols
Every culture is filled with symbols, or things
that stand for something else and that often
evoke various reactions and emotions.
Some symbols are actually types of
nonverbal communication, like material
objects.

Understanding Culture in the Filipino way

Moral values, judgment, behavior as well as moral dilemmas and how we perceive them are
largely shaped and influenced by history, power dynamics, and the religion of a society. The way we
appreciate and assess things are not created out of nothing simply out of our imagination. In other
words, culture is what shapes and influences social and personal values, decisions, behavior, and
practice. Thus, to understand how culture works and its features is to also grasp the reason why things
are done in a particular way and why we do these things the way we do them. Let us think about this
idea concretely in and through our very own context, the Philippines.

To understand Filipino values is to understand Filipino culture. However, in order to understand

Filipino culture one must recognize that it has been profoundly Christianized. After hundreds of years of
colonization by Western Christian empires, the Filipinos’ moral and ethical imagination cannot be
understood outside Christian values and morality. Christianity is pervasive in our culture so that the way
we judge and value things and how things ought to be follows the doctrinal grid of Christian theology.
An example of this pervasiveness and influence of Christianity to Filipino culture is how Filipinos value
more neighborliness (i.e., “bayanihan” or “pakikipagkapwa tao” or “pakikisama”) more than, say, the
filial piety (of Confucianism).

To conclude, let us consider a work in contemporary cultural studies particularly as it relates to

the question of religion and culture. The aim of this concluding section is to emphasize the fact that
culture is not a homogenous space nor has a singular operative logic. It is infused with “other” elements
that may have shaped its logic. This discussion highlights as well the point that a Filipino culture today is,
by and large, shaped by a religious ethos of the Christian faith. Thus, to talk about Filipino culture is to
talk about Filipino religiosity/spirituality. In this sense, Filipino culture is an expression and way of being
of the Filipino people that manifests their “ultimate concern” (Paul Tillich, 1959).

REFERENCES

Aquino, K., and Reed, A. II. (2002). The self-importance of moral identity. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 83, 1423
1440.
Chapter 8: The Characteristics of Culture. Retrieved from
http://nideffer.net/classes/GCT_RPI_S14/readings/Chap8CharacteristicsofCulture.htm
Gibbs, J. C., Basinger, K. S., Grime, R. L., and Snarey, J. R. (2007). Moral judgment development across
cultures: revisiting Kohlberg’s universality claims. Dev. Rev. 27, 443–500.
Jia, F. (2016). Moral Identity from Cross- and Bi-Cultural Perspectives (unpublished doctoral
dissertation). Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON.

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Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. Retrieved from
https://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/3-2-the-elements-of-culture/

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