CULTURE:

Its Unity and Diversity

by Romyr Genesis M. Canaria

CULTURE
CULTURE
o Total and distinctive way of
life or designs for living of
any society.
o Encompasses learned
behaviors, beliefs, attitudes,
values, and ideal
characteristics of certain
societies.
o People’s social heritage
 SOCIETY and CULTURE
Society is a group of people occupying a
geographical territory, with a common
culture, and interacting with each other.
-Sociologists

The members are united by social

relationships, share a common language
and beliefs, and consume similar goods.
 SOCIETY and CULTURE

Functionalists consider society a social

system which has a set of components
related to one another in a more or less
stable fashion through a period of time.
 FAMILY

ECONOMY
RELIGION

STATE

EDUCATION
 SOCIETY and CULTURE

According to conflict theorists, wealth,

power, and prestige are scanty and
dominated by the elite and the rich. The
poor or lower class are exploited by the
dominant elite, resulting in conflict for scarce
resources.
 LANGUAGE and
CULTURE
Symbolic language is
responsible for the existence
and development of culture.
Language refers to the
systematized usage of
speech and hearing to
convey, communicate, or
express feelings and ideas.
(Eshelman and Cashion
1983:93)
LANGUAGE and CULTURE
o Language is an integral part of culture,
and human culture cannot exist without it.
o Language enables people to transcend
time and space.
Characteristics
of
Culture
 Characteristics of Culture
1. Culture is learned. The norms, skills,
values, and knowledge which constitute
one’s culture are acquired during the
course one’s life and not transmitted
genetically.
 Characteristics of Culture
2. Culture is transmitted. While all animals
are capable of learning, only humans can
transmit their acquired habits and
knowledge to their offspring
 Characteristics of Culture
3. Culture is social, collective, and
learned. It is developed through group
interaction and results from the
accumulation of knowledge and group
expectations.
 Characteristics of Culture
4. Culture is ideational. Within the culture
are group habits considered as ideal
patterns of behavior which the members are
expected to follow.
 Characteristics of Culture
5. Culture is gratifying. Culture has
provisions to satisfy the biological and
sociocultural needs of people. It allows for
the reasonably efficient and spontaneous
interaction in the group for the satisfaction of
these needs.
 Characteristics of Culture
6. Culture is adaptive. All cultures are
always changing and these changes
represent adjustments to the environment.
Culture adapts to meet specific sets of
circumstances such as climate, level of
technology, population, and geography.
 Characteristics of Culture
7. Culture is an integrated whole. The
various parts of the culture are closely
interrelated and integrated into a whole.
Culture is the product not of a single
individual but of a collective. A collective
consciousness exists beyond the individual.
 Components of Culture
1. Knowledge. The total range of what has
been learned or perceived as true is
knowledge. This body of information is
accumulated through experience, study,
or investigation. Culture includes natural,
technical, supernatural, and natural
knowledge.
 Components of Culture
2. Social norms. Norms are rules or group
expectations of how one should behave or
act in certain situations. They define what
behavior is required, acceptable, or
appropriate in particular situations.
 Components of Culture
3. Folkways. These are commonly known
as the customs, traditions, and conventions
of society. They are the general rules,
customary and habitual ways, and patterns
of expected behavior within the society
where they are followed, without much
thought given to the matter.
 Components of Culture
4. Mores. These are special folkways which
are important to the welfare of the people
and their values. They are based on ethical
and moral values which are strongly held
and emphasized.
 Components of Culture
5. Laws. These are formalized norms,
enacted by people who are vested with
government power and enforced by political
and legal authorities designated by the
government. Laws are enforced by formal
sanctions like fines, imprisonment, or death.
Collective Forms of Behavior
1. Sanctions. Despite the great influence of
culture, not all members of society follow its
norms. To ensure that the norms are
followed and expectations are obeyed,
sanctions are used. These are a system of
reward and punishment.
Collective Forms of Behavior
2. Values. While norms are standards,
patterns, rules, and guides of expected
behavior, values are abstract concepts of
what is important and worthwhile. These
values are the basis of our judgment, of
what we consider good, desirable, and
correct, as well as what is considered bad,
undesirable, and wrong.
Collective Forms of Behavior
3. Beliefs. These embody people’s
perception of reality and may include the
primitive ideas of the universe as well as the
scientist’s empirical view of the world.
Material Culture and Technology

Material culture refers to the physical objects,

resources, and spaces that people use to define
their culture.

Technology refers to techniques and know-how in

processing raw materials to produce food, tools,
shelter, clothing, means of transportation, and
weapons.
 The Organization of Culture

Culture trait, whether material or nonmaterial,

conveys some meaning and is a product of social
interaction. It is related to a particular need for a
particular situation.

Material traits are concrete or tangible objects

associated with an idea or social norm while
nonmaterial traits include folkways, beliefs or
values.
 Subculture

A subculture is a group of people within a

culture that differentiates itself from the parent
culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some
of its founding principles.
Subcultures develop their own norms and
values regarding cultural, political and sexual
matters.
 Ethnocentrism and Xenocentrism

The tendency to regard one’s culture as the

best and better than those of others is called
ethnocentrism. Simply “my culture is right and
yours is wrong.”
When people reject their own group or some
part of their culture, it is called reverse
ethnocentrism or xenocentrism. This is the idea
that what is foreign is best and that one’s life-style,
products, or ideas are inferior to that of others.
 Culture Shock

When people encounter another culture whose

patterns of behavior are different from their own,
they may get disoriented or disorganized. The
situation is brought about by unfamiliarity, lack of
understanding, and inability to communicate with
the new society. What an individual undergoes is
called culture shock.
 Cultural Relativism

The concept of cultural relativism states that

cultures differ, so that a cultural trait, act, or idea
has no meaning or function by itself but has
meaning only within its cultural setting.
A trait is good or bad only with reference to the
culture in which it functions.
 Cultural Universals

These are similarities in the general features of

society, rather than the particular or specific
cultural traits. Culture universals are accounted for
by people’s biological similarities, psychic unity,
dependence on group life, individuality, and the
limited possibilities within one’s physical and social
environment. Examples include: community
organization, cooking, division of labor, education,
ethics, language, law, music, trade, personal rights
and many more.
 Factors that promote cultural diversity:

1. Presence of social categories

2. Subcultures
3. Cultural ideas and practices towards
environment
 Cultural Variability

Cultures differ because of the great variety of

solutions evolved by people from different
societies. Huxley’s argument indicates that among
the important factors which give rise to cultural
differences are the kind of environment within
which the society lives, the human, and natural
resources available within this environment, the
extent and intensity of exposure the society has to
other people from which they can borrow ideas,
and their cultural heritage.
 Cultural Integration and Relativity

Cultures vary significantly in the consistency of

their patterns of values, belief, and behavior.
Within a society, one set of beliefs or actions can
differ from another, between institutional goals and
means.
Differences in culture also arise from the
relativity of the standards that societies uphold and
use for evaluating truth, propriety, virtue, morality,
legality, justice, and beauty and the means of
adhering to these.