Topic 2

SOCIETY and CULTURE

Meaning, Functions,
Characteristics and Type.

By
Edgar, E
0655865909
Community Development- RIBM
Objectives:
o To enhance student’s understanding of the concept of
society and culture.
o To understand the nature and categories of society.
o To familiarize them with the various functions and
characteristics of culture.
o To highlight the types of culture.
 Meaning of Society
• The term society as mentioned earlier is derived from a
latin word socius. The term is directly mean association,
togetherness or simply group life.
• Two primary components of a society are its culture and
its social structure.
• Culture is a way of life. The food you eat, the clothes you
wear, the language you speak and the God you worship
all are aspects of culture.
• Society is one of the basic sociological terms.
• In simple sense, society is a large grouping that shares
the same geographical territory, share a common culture
and social structure, and expected to abide by some laws.
 Nature of Society
1. Society consists of people
o Society is composed of people. Without people there can be no society,
no social relationship and no social life at all.
2. Mutual awareness and interaction
o Society is a group of people in a continuous interactions with each
other. A social interaction is made possible b’se of mutual awareness.
o Society is understood as a network of social relations. Thus, social
relationship implies mutual awareness.
3. Co-operation and division of labor
o Division of labor involves the assignment to each unit or group a
specific share of a common task.
o For example: Common tasks of providing the banking service involves
counter services, accountancy, loan lending etc. division of labor is
possible because of co-operation
 Nature of Society …
4. Size
o Society is usually a relative large grouping of people in terms of
size. In a very important sense, thus society may be regarded as the
largest and the most complex social group that sociologist study.
5. Society is dynamic
o Society is not static. Changeability is an inherent quality of human
beings.
o No society can even remain constant for any length of time.
6. Social control
o Absolute freedom makes man’s life like other animal beings.
o For this, society has formal and informal means of social control.
Customs, traditions, norms are the informal means of social control,
whereas law, policy, constitution, police are the formal means of
social control.
 Categories of societies
• Sociologists classify societies into various categories depending
on certain criteria. One such criterion is the level of economic
and technological development attained by countries. Thus the
countries of the world are classified as First, Second and Third
World;
i. First World Countries/societies, are those which are highly
industrially advanced and economically rich, such as the USA, Japan,
Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Canada and so on.
ii. The Second World Countries/societies, are also industrially
advanced but not as much as the first category.
iii. The Third World Countries/society, are thus which are least
developed, or in the process of developing.
iv. Some writers add a fourth category, namely, Fourth World
countries. These countries may be regarded as the “poorest of the
poor” (Giddens, 1996)
 Categories of societies…
• Another important criterion for classifying societies may
be that which takes into account temporal succession and
the major source of economic organization (Lensiki &
Lensiki, 1995);
i. Hunting and Gathering societies. These societies depends on
hunting and gathering for its survival.
ii. Pastoral and Horticultural societies. Pastoral societies are
those whose livelihood is based on pasturing of animal such as
cattle, camels, sheep & goats. Horticultural society societies
are those whose economy is based on cultivating plants by the
use of simple tools, such as digging sticks, hoes, axes etc.
iii. Agricultural societies. This society is still dominant in most
parts of the world, are based on large-scale agriculture, which
largely depends on ploughs using animal labor.
 Categories of societies…
iv. Industrial societies. An industrial society is one in which
goods are produced by machines powered by fuels instead
of by animal and human energy.
v. Post-industrial society. This is a society based on
information, services and high technology rather than on
raw materials and manufacturing. The highly
industrialized which have now passed to the post-
industrial level include the USA, China, Canada, Japan and
Western Europe.
 Conclusion
• Society usually refers to group of people who lives
and work together or who share social norms and
values.
• It is simply a web of social relationship.
• People interact in a defined territory and share a
culture.
• Today the structure of society has been changed
from hunting and gathering societies and agrarian
societies to industrial society.
• But still we need society from birth to till death for
the performance of social values, norms etc.
 Introduction to culture
o Culture is one of the most important concepts in social
sciences.
o The study of human society immediately and necessarily
leads us to the study of its culture.
o The study of society or any aspect of it becomes
incomplete without a proper understanding of the culture
of that society culture and society go together.
o Sometimes the concepts are used synonymously to mean
all learned habits the total ways of life of a social group,
or a group’s social heritage.
o Culture is a unique possession of man.
o It is one of the distinguishing traits of human society.
 Introduction to culture …
o Every man is born into a society is the same as saying
that every man is born into a culture.
o Culture includes all that man has acquired in his
individual and social life.
o It is the entire ‘social heritage’ which the individual
receives from the group.
 Meaning and Definitions of Culture:
o All the human societies have complex ways of life that
differ greatly from one to another.
o These ways have come to be known as culture in 1871 &
Edward B. Tylor gave us the first definition of this
concept.
o Culture as defined by Edward “is that complex whole
which includes knowledge belief, art, law, morals
custom and other capabilities and habit acquired by
man as a member of society”.
o Robert Bierstedt is of the opinion that ‘’culture is the
complex whole that consists of all the ways we think and
do and everything we have as members of society’’.
 Meaning and Definitions …
o Culture is a way of life, ie. the food you eat, the clothes
you wear, the language you speak in and the God you
worship all are aspects of culture.
o In very simple terms, we can say that culture is the
embodiment of the way in which we think and do
things.
o It is also the things that we have inherited as members
of society.
 Characteristics of Culture:
i. Culture is a Learnt. These are learnt from family members,
from the group and the society in which they live. It is thus
apparent that the culture of human beings is influenced by the
physical and social environment through which they operate.
ii. Culture is social. It is a product of society. It originates and
develops through social interactions. It is shared by the
members of society.
iii. Culture is shared by a group of people. Culture is something
adopted, used, believed, practiced, or possessed by more than
one person.
iv. Culture is continuous and cumulative. Culture exists as a
continuous process. In its historical growth it tends to become
cumulative.
 Characteristics of Culture …
v. Culture changes. There is knowledge, thoughts or traditions
that are lost as new cultural traits are added. There are
possibilities of cultural changes within the particular culture as
time passes.
vi. Culture varies from society to society. Every society has a
culture of its own. It differs from society to society. Culture of
every society is unique to itself. Cultures are not uniform.
Culture elements such as customs, traditions, morals are not
uniform everywhere.
vii. Culture is transmissive. Culture is capable of being transmitted
from one generation to the other. Parents pass on culture
traits to their children, and they in turn to their children, and
so on. Culture is transmitted not through genes but by means
of language.
 Culture Contents:
o A number of sociologists have classified the content of
culture into large components ‘material culture’ and
‘non-material culture. Ogburn has even used this
distinction as the basis for a theory of cultural change.
i. Material Culture:- Consists of man-made objects such
as tools, implements, furniture, automobiles.
ii. Non-Material culture:- Consists of the words the
people use or the language they speak, the beliefs
they hold, values or virtues they cherish, habits they
follow. It also includes our customs and tastes,
attitudes and outlook.
Functions of Culture:
o Culture has been fulfilling a number of functions among
which the following may be noted.
i. Culture defines situation, ie. determines what we eat,
and drink what we wear etc.
ii. Culture provides behavior patterns, ie. Culture directs
and confines the behavior of an individual.
iii. Culture defines attitudes, values and goals, ie.
Attitudes refer to the tendency to feel and act in
certain ways, values are the measure of goodness.
iv. Culture models personality, ie. Culture exercises a
great influence on the development of personality.
v. Culture decides our career.
Pop Culture and Sub Culture:
o When a group of people within a society have a style of
living that includes features of dominant culture but also
certain cultural elements not found in other groups their
group culture is called sub culture.
o A sub culture may develop around occupations such as
those in the medical or military fields. Sub culture may
reflect a social and ethnic difference.
o Several groups have been studied at one time or another
by sociologists as examples of sub cultures.
o These can be classified roughly as follows;-
a) Ethnic sub cultures.
b) Occupational sub culture.
 c) Religious sub culture.
d) Geographical sub culture.
e) Social class sub culture.
f) Deviant sub culture. (deviant used to describe a
person or behavior that is not usual and is generally
considered to be unacceptable)
eg. prostitutes, drug users and variety of criminal group.
NB. COUNTER CULTURE:- A sub culture that is so different
from the dominant culture as to sharply challenge it is
Known as counter culture. Counter culture are typically
found among the young.
 Culture Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism,
Xenocentrism.
 Ethnocentrism
o Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view ones own culture
as the most superior.
o Here we apply our own cultural values to judge the
behavior and beliefs of people of other culture.
o Ethnic groups have certain beliefs, values, habit, customs,
norms and a common back-ground.
o They consider themselves different from others and
special because they have different cultural features like
their language, religion, historical experience, geographic
isolation, kinship, race and a common descent etc.
o Ethnocentrism is a cultural attitude that ones own culture is
the best.
o We evaluate other culture on the basis of our own cultural
perspective.
o It is the tendency to consider our cultural pattern as normal
and therefore superior to all other cultural.
o It is a value judgment about oneself and others.
o To avoid ethnocentrism, sociologists are guided by the
concept of cultural relativism, the recognition that social
group and cultures must be studied and understood on their
own terms before valid comparisons can be made, cultural
relativism frequently is taken to mean that social scientists
never should judge the relative merits of any group or culture.
Cultural Relativism
o This is under standing other cultures not from ones own
cultural standard but in the context of that culture only.
o This is trying to understand other cultures rather than
criticizing them as ‘Strange’ less civilized etc.
o Cultural relativism is value neutral and objective.
o Cultural relativism stresses the point that the variety in culture
is due to different norms and values of a society.
o Cultural relativism emphasizes that there is no cultural
superiority or inferiority but they are relative to their context.
o eg. some societies do not approve pre marital sex experience
where as some encourage it, or Killing even an enemy is crime
in our society but in some societies it is justified.
 Xenocentrism
o Xenocentrism is the opposite of ethnocentrism which
means a group of people prefers the ideas .
o “Xenocentrism” is the tendency to assume that aspects
of other culture are superior to one’s own.
o Xenocentrism is the preference for the products, styles or
ideas of someone else’s culture rather than one’s own.
o For example:- the belief that the way of dress by another culture is
significantly superior than and that those within one’s native country
should adopt that same dress.
 Cultural Change:
 Culture is not a static system, elements of culture change from
time to time.
 Cultures have evolved over thousands of years.
 Societies have abandoned many of the belief systems and cultural
practices which are not consistent with scientific evidence today.
 Empirical evidence provided by scientific investigation has
exploded many myths and under mind numerous superstitious
belief system.
 Think of how our cooking and eating habits have, changes in the
field of education and politics, the transformation in
transportation and communication system.
 Diffusion is the process by which elements of culture spread from
one society to another.
o Developments in transportation and communication
have brought the world closer together.
o Fast food, coca cola, blue jeans, and rock music have
spread to all corners of the earth.
o Democracy, freedom, equality and human rights are now
generally accepted values.
o Take the case of how mass media play an important role
in the spread of ideas and technology.
o Culture lag is a concept introduced by William Ogburn to
explain how various elements of culture change at a
different pace and with what consequences.
Components of Culture:
oCulture is often
described as the blueprint
for living of a group (or
society) whose members
share a given language
and territory, and who
recognize their shared
identity.
oWe become functioning
members of a society as
we learn the content of its
culture.
• Norms rules defining acceptable and unacceptable
behavior for a given culture. As a group develops laws
and regulations, norms change. A law that was necessary
100 years ago may not be needed in modern times.

• Values: Values are the beliefs and ideals shared by the

people of a society, for which they have great respect and
regard. They could assume both positive (do’s) and
negative (dont’s) connotations, and are indicative of
appropriate thoughts, feelings and acts of behavior.
• Language: Man is a social animal and needs to
communicate with others. Language is used as a means to
communicate with people in a social set up. It is the common
language that binds together the people in a social
structure.
• 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, while other symbols are in fact
material objects.eg. National flag.
• Technology: Technological advances also change the way
cultures behave. Traditions are norms that a culture holds
onto once the norms are no longer common. Wearing certain
clothing for a holiday is an example of a norm that has
 Factors of Cultural Change:
i. Contact:
– The contact between two societies will obviously change the
culture of both the societies through the process of “cultural
diffusion” and “acculturation”.
ii. Technology Evolution:
- Any technological evolution in the country will bring a
change their culture also.
- For example, changes in production technology, changes in the
means of communication, changes in the means of
transportation, etc.
iii. The geographical and ecological factor:
- The geographical and ecological factor is a natural or a
physical factor.
• The climate or rainfall, attitude of the place, closeness to the sea
decides the culture and lifestyle of the people. Any change in the
physical features will automatically lead to a change in their
culture, habits and way of living.

What are the

importance of
culture in our
societies?
Look at this…….