Chapter VIII: Culture and Society

In this chapter we will focus on

 What is culture?
 What is society?
 Development of culture around
the world
 Elements of culture
 Cultural Variations: Aspects of
cultural variations
What is Culture?

Culture is the totality of

 Learned
 Socially transmitted customs
 Knowledge
 Material objects and
 Behavior

It includes the
 Ideas
 Values of groups of people.
Each people has a distinctive culture with its own
characteristic ways of
 Gathering and preparing food
 Constructing homes
 Structuring the family and
  Promoting standards of right and wrong

Culture is what we are

According to Jhon Dewey

“Culture means at least something cultivated, something ripened; it is oppose to raw and
crude".

B. Malinowski

“Culture is the cumulative creature of man”.

E.B. Tylor

“Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law,
custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”.

The term culture comes from the Latin word 'colere' which means to cultivate. Culture is
the entire social heritage, which the individual receives from the group. It is the process
through which people become able to know how to adjust with all social situations.

Or in other words...

Culture is an essential part of all people and consists of the behavioral patterns, values,
beliefs, and other components of society. Culture is the sum total of ways of living:
including values, beliefs, esthetics standards, linguistic expressions, patterns of thinking,
behavioral norms, and styles of communication which a group of people has developed to
assure its survival in a particular physical and human environment.

Culture is:

1. Dynamic, complex, meaningful and quite recognizable.

2. Continuously undergoing significant cultural changes.
3. Learned, shared and transmitted from generation to generation.
4. Habits, behavior, ideas, values shared by people.
5. Represented and transmitted through verbal language, written language, and non-
verbal language.
6. The lenses through which people interpret ideas and feelings.
7. Learned through observing of individual students.
 8. Creative and meaningful to our lives
9. Symbolically represented through language and people interacting
10. That which guides people in their thinking, feeling and acting

What is Society?
Society is a fairly large number of people when
they live in the
 Same territory and
 Participate in a common culture.
A society is the
 largest form of human group.
It consists of people who share
 A common heritage and
 Culture.
Transmition of culture
Members of the society learn this culture and transmit it from one generation to the next.
They preserve their distinctive culture through
 Literature
 Art
 Video recordings and
 other means of expression.

Impact of Geographical/Biological Factors on Society

The natural objects which surround human beings and phenomena related to them
constitute the geographical Environment. In this way, the surface of the earth, minerals,
water, mountains and plains, trees and plants, animals, climate, electricity, the sun, the
moon, the storm, cyclones, oceans, river, waterfalls, forests etc. are all included in the
geographical environment.

According to MacIver and Page, “the geographical environment consists of those

conditions that nature provides for human beings.” According to Sorokin, by
geographical environment, “We mean all cosmic conditions and phenomenon which
exist, independent of man’s existence and activity, which are not created by man, and
which change and vary through their own spontaneity independent of man’s existence
and activity.”

Kinds of Environments:

A. Physical Environment

 Effects of Plains:
 Effects of Hills:
 Effects of Deserts:

1. Population
2. Economy
3. Means of communication
4. Social Life
5. Political life
6. Cultural life
7. Religious life
B. Biological Environment

C. Social Environment
 Economic Environment
 Cultural Environment
 Psycho-Social Environment
 Super-Social Environment
According to Odum, “Man is the child of the earth. They cannot be separated.” In the
words of Brunhes, “because man lives on the earth, he depends on the earth.” The effect
of geographical conditions, climate and topography upon human life is apparent in the
following conditions or factors:

 House
 Food and drink
 Dress
 Animal husbandry
 Trees and plants
 Occupations
 Physical characteristics (Race)
 Human activities (Suicide, death rate, etc.)
 Human energy and skills
 Health
 Marriage
 Family
 Crime etc.

Why is it Important to Know about Culture?

1. Culture is a means of survival.

2. All people are cultural beings and need to be aware of how culture affects people's
behavior.
3. Culture is at work
4. Culture affects how learning is organized, how school rules and curriculum are
developed, and how teaching methods and evaluation procedures are implemented.
5. Schools, Colleges and Universities can prepare students for effective citizenship in
dealing with the cultures of the world.
6. Culture can help solve problems and conflicts in the community.
In brief the characteristics of culture

1. Culture is learnt
2. Culture is social
3. Culture is shared
4. Culture is transmissive
5 Cultures is continuous and cumulative
7 Cultures is dynamic and adaptive
8 Cultures is gratifying
9. Culture varies from society to society
10. Culture is super organic and ideational

Functions of culture

Culture creates human beings. It performs number of such functions that make the
distinction between human species and animal species. The important functions of
cultures are as follows:

1. Culture is the treasury of knowledge. It preserves and provides knowledge. It

accumulates the necessary knowledge for survival over thousands of years and
when we face any problem, it supplies us the knowledge to overcome.

2. Culture helps us by defining the situations we encounter in our daily living and
thus enables us to make efficient and effective communication with others.

3. Culture defines goals and provides us with the appropriate means to achieve those
goals.

4. Culture guides us in determining the future career goals, too.

5. Culture informs us the most appropriate patterns of behavior and thus helps us
have sound interactions with others.

6. Culture moulds personality: culture makes us aware of what is desirable and good
and what is undesirable and bad, and thus helps us develop an acceptable
personality.
Development of Culture around the World

What is Cultural Universals?

 common practices and beliefs in all societies
Universal Cultural Practices varies
 from culture to culture

Example: Marriage system in different

society

Innovation
The process of introducing
 a new idea or
 object to a culture is known innovation.

Two forms of Innovation

 Discovery and
 Invention
Discovery involves making known or sharing the
existence of an aspect of reality.
Invention results when existing cultural items are
combined into a form that did not exist before.

Globalization

What is globalization?
It is a process to
 Inter link the state
 Territory of the state has been demolished
 Authority of the state has been terminated
 Glocal (Global + Local)

While people in Asia are beginning to drink coffee,

People in North America are discovering sushi.

Diffusion

Diffusion to refer to the

 process by which a cultural items

spreads from group to group or
society to society.

Diffusion can occur through a variety of means such as

 Military conquest
 Missionary work
 The influence of media
 Tourism and
 The internet

Technology: the Speed of Cultural diffusion

What is Technology?

Technology is defined as “cultural information about how to use the material resources of
the environment to satisfy human needs and desires.”
 Elements of Culture

Language
Language is in fact the foundation of every
culture.
Language is an abstract system of word meaning and symbols for all aspects of culture.
It includes
 Speech
 Written characters
 Numerals
 Symbols
 Nonverbal gestures
 Expressions

Language Precedes Thought

According to Sapir-Whorf since people can conceptualize the world only through

language, language precedes thought.

Language color how we see the world,

Language can shape how we

  See
 Taste
 Smell
 Feel and
 Fear
It also influences the way we think about
 the people
 Ideas and
 Objects around us.
Nonverbal Communication
Like other forms of language nonverbal communication is not the same in all cultures.

Norms

Norms are the established standards of behavior

maintained by society.

For a norm to become significant, it must be widely shared and understood.

Types of Norms
  Formal Norms
 Informal Norms
Formal norms generally have been written down and specify strict punishments for
violators.
Laws are formal norms enforced by state.
Informal norms are generally understood but not precisely recoded.

Sanctions
Sanctions are penalties and rewards for conduct concerning
a social norm.
Conformity to a norm can lead to positive sanctions such as a
 pay rise
 a medal
 a word of gratitude etc.
Negative Sanctions includes
 Fines
 Threats
 Imprisonment
 Stares of contempt.

Values
Values are these collective
conceptions/considerations/understand
ing of what is considered good, desirable and proper or
bad, undesirable and improper in a culture.

Of course, the members of a society do not

uniformly share its values.

For Example, if a culture places a high value on the institution of marriage, it may have
norms and strict sanctions that prohibit the act of adultery or make divorce difficult.
 Cultural Variation
Cultures adapt to meet specific sets of circumstances such as
 Climate
 Level of technology
 Population and
 Geography.
This adaptation to different conditions shows up in differences in all elements of culture

including norms, sanctions, values, and

language.
Thus despite the presence of cultural universals such as courtship and religion great
diversity exists among the worlds many cultures.
Aspects of Cultural Variation

1. Material Culture
2. Non-material Culture

Material and nonmaterial culture

Material culture refers to

 the physical or technological aspects of our
daily lives.

Nonmaterial culture refers

 ways of using material objects and customs, beliefs, philosophies, governments

and patterns of communication.

Cultural Lag

 the period of maladjustment when the non

material culture is still
 struggling/conflict/confusion to adapt to new
material conditions/material.
Ref. Schaefer 51-58

The theory of cultural lag has been given by sociologist Ogburn . Ogburn divided
culture into two parts: Material and Non material culture. Material culture includes
manufactured goods, factories, and houses cars- in short all material objects, as well as,
inventions and technological changes. Non-material; culture which Ogburn termed
adaptive culture , includes social institutions , such as families, churches, and schools ,
values system, such as laws religion, customs, mores, and folkways and political
institutions, such as governments, lobbies, and political clubs.

Ogburn’s basic thesis is that adaptive culture tends to change more slowly than material
culture. Ogburn assumed that in one part of society –specially a technological advance –
requires a corresponding change in other parts .Until such an adjustment is made the
society, or at least certain parts of it , will feel a variety of problems- which he called
cultural lag.

One cause of cultural lag is habit and inertia. It’s often hard to get people to adopt new,
more efficient behaviors. Ogburn felt that cultural lag has become a problem in modern
society. Today material change occurs often rapidly. In earlier periods societies had more
time to adapt to innovations and to test different ways of making that adaptation. The
swift spread of nuclear weapons is an example of the problems we face today. The
capacity to destroy much of the life on earth has existed for a generation, but we have not
invented international political institutions to control the spread and prevent the use of
this capacity.
Subculture
is segment of society that shares a
distinctive pattern of norm, values and
folkways that differ from the pattern of
larger society.

In a sense, a subculture can be thought of as culture existing within a larger, dominant

culture.

A subculture will develop an argot or specialized language that distinguishes it from

wider society.

Counterculture
By the end of 1960s, an extensive
subcultures had emerged in the
United States
 Composed of young people
 Those were turned off by society
 They were too materialistic and
technological
 Radical
 Drop out from school

Hippi Culture
What is counterculture?
When a subculture conspicuously
and deliberately opposes/
challenges/ threats to certain
aspects of the larger culture, it is
known as counterculture.

Cultural Shock

Any one who feels

 Disoriented
 Uncertain
  Out of place or even fearful when
immersed in an unfamiliar culture
may be experiencing cultural shock.

Cultural Universal
All societies have developed certain common practices and beliefs, known as cultural universals. Many
cultural universals are, in fact, adaptations to meet essential human needs, such as the need for food,
shelter, and clothing.

Ethnocentrism
Sociologist William Graham Sumner(1906) coined

the term ethnocentrism to refer to the tendency to

assume that one’s own culture and way of
life represent the norm or are superior to
all others.

Cultural Relativism
While ethnocentrism means evaluating
foreign cultures using the familiar
culture of the observer as a standard of
correct behavior, cultural relativism
means viewing people’s behavior from
the perspective of their own culture.
Ref. Schafer pp 58 - 68