 Culture: everything that makes up a person’s

entire way of life

The least or the smallest unit of culture is called
Culture Trait

There are millions of culture traits, a trait can be

an object, a technique, a belief or an attitude
Clusters of traits is called cultural complex.

A complex is the combination of the traits

prevailing in a certain culture
When two or more complexes are combined they form
a pattern.
There is uniformity in human behavior due to pattern
e.g same kind of behavior is expected from an
individual belonging to a particular age, category
and class
The combination of two or more cultural patterns leads
to a theme.

It includes both desired and undesired elements.

Example
Postulate like all human beings are equal is an example
of theme in our culture
 When two or more cultural themes are integrated,
the product is known as configuration.

 The number of cultural configuration in a culture is

usually very limited.

 Two social systems may have one configuration.

E.g. caste system is shared by religious, economic,
family and marriage
 Cultural ethos is the central point of a culture.
 It is the ideology or philosophy of entire
culture.
 Ethos provides a rough idea of a whole
culture.
 Examples

 Pak culture is religious and Japanese is co-

operative.
 American is competitive and Russian is
accommodative.
Three phenomena promote cultural change
 Inventions, the process of creating new
cultural elements.
 Discovery, recognizing and understanding an
idea not fully understood before.
 Diffusion, the spread of cultural traits from
one cultural system to another
Three key factors are promoting this trend:

 Global economy: the flow of goods.

 Global communications: the flow of

information.

 Global migration: the flow of people.

 Ethnocentrism: judging other cultures by the
standards of your own
 Assuming your own culture to be the best

 Racism: belief that one racial group is naturally

superior to another
 Race is a culture thing. It does not actually, physically
exist.
 William G. Summer
 The tendency to assume that one’s culture and
way of life is superior to all others
 Cuber
 The tendency of persons to judge other cultures
by the standards of judgment prevailing in
their own.
  My clothes are best.
 I do things better than you

 Pakistan is better than America

etc.
 It means that ‘every culture consider itself
superior to other cultures.’
 Everyone is ethnocentric:
 Children.
 Teens.
 Adults.
 Societies.
 Nations.
 Formal method: Religious and educational
institution promotes ethnocentrism like love for our
heroes.

 Informal method: Jokes are informal way of

promoting ethnocentrism.
 Positive: It is natural that we prefer our own culture
and our styles like I love my culture.
In this level no other culture is criticize or
degraded.
 Negative: Feeling of superiority to others like my
culture is better than yours.
 Extreme negative: There is a sense of superiority
and also interference in others cultures. Like, your
culture is bad, please change this idea and do what
we say and suggest.
MERITS OF ETHNOCENTRISM
•GROUP It promotes unity
SOLIDARITY (unity):
among group and increases their bonds.
•
PROTECTION OF PEOPLE/MEMBERS: It
provides protection to weak people by
stronger people.
Example: A man with no job gets the
help from a doctor who is serving in the
hospital nearby.
 EFFECTIVE DEFENSE: As people have strong
bonds they defend their group with pride and
dignity.
 NO INTERNAL CONFLICTS: There is a sense
of love between people so no internal problems
exist.
 MAKE STANDARDS FOR GROUPS: It forms
standards and values that are healthy for
nation as well.
 MISUNDERSTANDING: It gives feelings of
making others wrong rather than different.
 PREJUDICE AND OPPRESSION (injustice &
cruelty): It leads to unfair opinions and actions
about others cultures.
 HINDRANCE IN ASSIMILATION (barrier in
adjustment): It is a hurdle for uniform/dominant
culture throughout nation.
 HURDLE IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: It
prevents people to adapt new values and stick to old
ones.
 PROMOTION OF GROUPS: It is threat to overall
unity and it divides nations into small groups.
THANKS