Culture & its Concepts

Course Code: SOC101

Course Teacher: Farhana Sultana
 What is Culture?
• Culture is the distinction between nature and
nurture.
• Culture is the sole reason we differentiate to
animals.
• Culture is the arts and other manifestations of
human intellectual achievement regarded
collectively.
 Concept of Culture
• Culture is
– the way of life
– the creation of man either material or non-material
• Culture may be defined as the sum total of man’s
efforts to adjust himself to his environment and to
improve his modes of living. [Koenig]
• It is the knowledge, language, customs, etc passed
on from one generation to another generation.
• Watch: Franz Boas on Cultural Relativism
 Changing Concept of Culture
• According to past understandings:
– “Culture is simply that which is created by the
best, that has been thought and said in this
world.”
– Civilized  cultured
– If a society is civilized, then it is ‘highly cultured’.
This concept is named the ‘cultured vs.
uncultured’.
 Changing Concept of Culture (Cont.)

• According to the understanding of 19th century

anthropologists:
– Culture is the basic description of a particular
society compromising of objects, symbols and
their given meaning, norms, values, beliefs that
encompass the social life.
– Every society is cultured. The culture in each in
each is simply different. None is better nor worse
than the other.
 Changing Concept of Culture (Cont.)

• Different cultures develop due to the fact that

people live apart from one another.
• Each culture is bounded and has to be
understood as a whole in its own terms.
 Material & Non-material Culture
• Material culture: made up of artifacts
– Artifacts are by-products of human behavior
• Related to the word ‘artificial’
– Includes all things that humans make or adapt from
the raw stuff of nature: computers, houses, forks,
bulldozer, burgers, etc.
• Non-material culture: made up of intangible or
abstract things that influence people’s behavior
– Includes five basic categories: symbols, language,
norms, values and beliefs.
 Elements of Culture
• Culture constitutes far more than objects, thus making the
term hard to comprehend.
• Culture includes:
– Norms
– Symbols & Language
– Values
– Beliefs & Ideologies
– Statuses & Roles
– Cultural Integration
• Culture is not rigid and totally uniform. Though most
elements of culture remain stable, it can also be contested.
 Norms
• the agreed-upon expectations and rules by which a
culture guides the behavior of its members in any given
situation. 
• Members of a culture must conform to its norms for the
culture to exist and function.

• Conformity:

Internalize Socialize Control

 Symbol & Language
• Symbol:
– anything that represents something
else to more than one person.

• Language: 
– a set of symbols used to assign and
communicate meaning.
– a way of signaling identity with one
cultural group and difference from
others
– a way of signaling cultural rank
– a social product, as it is not a
creation of an individual
 Values
• the general or abstract ideas about what is good and
desirable, as opposed to what is bad and
undesirable, in the society.
• things to be achieved, things considered of great
worth or value.
• can be complimentary (set of values) as well as
contradictory (equity and justice vs. compassion and
humanitarianism
 Beliefs & Ideologies
• Beliefs
– Refers to a person’s ideas about what is real and what
is not real.
– collective social agreements produced during
interaction and reified over time. What is "true" or
"factual" for a given people is what they collectively
agree to be true at that point in time.
• Ideologies
– Sets of beliefs and assumptions connected by a
common theme or focus.
 Statuses and Roles
• Status
–  a slot or position within a group or society. They
tell us who people are and how they "fit" into the
group.
– Can be ascribed or achieved
• Roles
– norms specifying the rights and responsibilities
associated with a particular status.
 Cultural Integration
• The increasing integration of the different cultures
found throughout the world and the diffusion of a
dominant “global culture”.
 Culture Redefined
• Culture is the knowledge, language, values,
customs, and material objects that are passed from
person to person and from one generation to the
next in a human group or society.
• Basic features of Culture
– Behaviors are learned and not innate.
– Because they are learned, they vary (differ or change)
across space and time.
– The use of symbolic language distinguishes human from
non-human cultures.
 Culture as per sociologists
• “Culture is the mass of behavior that human beings
in any society learn from their descendents and pass
onto their younger generation.”- Ralf Linton
• “Culture is the hard work of man and the medium
through which he achieves his ends.” – Bronislaw
Malinowski, The Theory of Culture.
 Characteristics of Culture
• Culture is the product of human behavior and gaining
knowledge through group. It is a system of learned
behavior and set procedure.
• Some of the prominent characteristics of culture are
as under:
– Culture is learned.
– Culture is shared.
– Culture is transmitted.
– Culture is changing.
 Characteristics of Culture
1. Culture is learned:
• Most of the behavior is learned in society. This learning might
be conscious or unconscious but no body can deny the
process of learning. Culture is something learnt and acquired
e.g. wearing clothes or dancing. It is not something natural to
the person.
2. Culture is shared:
• All the traits, attitudes, ideas, knowledge and material objects
like radio, television and automobiles etc is actually shared by
members of society.
 Characteristics of Culture
3. Culture is transmitted
• All the culture traits and objects are transmitted among the
members of society continually. Most of the cultural traits and
material objects are transmitted to the members of the society
from their forefathers. We learn new fashion, how to move in
society and how to behave in a particular social situation.
4. Culture is changing
• Culture never remains static but changing. It is changing in
every society, but with different speed and causes. It
constantly under goes change and adapts itself to the
environments.
 Importance of Culture (as a social being)

• We-feeling
• Seeking of Knowledge
• Existence of Social Life
• Existence of International Communities
Importance of Culture (as an individual)
• An Individual abstracted from culture is less than
human. The individual to be truly human must
participate in the cultural stream. (Professor
Bidyavhushon)
• From before he is born until after he is dead, man is a
prisoner of his culture. His culture gets into his mind
and shutters his vision so that he sees what he is
supposed to see, dreams what he is expected to
dream, and hungers for what he is trained to hunger.
(P. B. Horton; C. L. Hunt)
 Variability of Culture
• Factors that are accounted for the vast
variance of culture:
– Historical Elements
– Geographical Elements
– Dominant Culture Themes
– Organismic Change
– Individual Whims
– Discoveries and Inventions
– Changes in the Modes of Production
 Culture and Civilization
• Differences between culture and civilization:
Culture Civilization
Man-made non-material Civilization is made by man-
things make up culture. made material things.
Culture is the inward state Civilization is the outward
of an individual. behavior.
Culture can never be Civilization is possible to
measured. measure.
Culture cannot advance and Civilization is always
remains traditional. advancing.
 Different Perspectives of Culture
1. Cultural Relativism: It is the concept of cultural
relativism states that cultures differ, so that a
cultural trait, act, or idea has no meaning but
its meaning only within its cultural setting.
2. Cultural Shock: It refers to the feelings of
disbelief, disorganization and frustration one
experiences when he encounters cultural
patterns or practices which are different from
his.
Different Perspectives of Culture (Cont.)

3. Ethnocentrism: It refers to the tendency to

see the behaviours, beliefs, values, and
norms of one's own group as the only right
way of living and to judge others by those
standards.
4. Xenocentrism: It refers to the idea that what
is foreign is best and that one's lifestyle,
products or ideas are inferior to those others.
Different Perspectives of Culture (Cont.)
5. Noble Savage Mentality: It refers to the evaluation
of one's culture and that of others based on the
romantic notion that the culture and way of life of
the primitives or other simple cultures is better,
more acceptable and more orderly.
6. Subculture: This refers to smaller group which
develop norms , values, beliefs, and special
languages which make the distinct from the
broader society.
Different Perspectives of Culture (Cont.)

7. Counter Culture (or Contra-culture): It refers

subgroups whose standards come in conflict
with the oppose the conventional standards
of the dominant culture.
8. Culture Lag: It refers to the gap between the
material and non-material culture.