2ND CHAPTER

DEFINING CULTURE AND

SOCIETY FROM THE
PERSPECTIVES OF
ANTHROPOLOGY AND
SOCIOLOGY
Guide Question:
How are culture and society defined from the
perspectives of Anthropology and Sociology?
• People rarely distinguish the difference
between the terms “culture” and “society”,
but for sociologists, the two terms have
different meanings and the distinction is
important.
• A society describes a group of people who
share a common territory and a culture.
• By “territory”, sociologists refer to a
definable region – as small as a
neighborhood to as large as the global
regional context.
• While “culture” refers to “that complex
whole which encompasses beliefs, practices,
values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts,
symbols, knowledge, and everything that a
person learns and shares as a member of
society.” (E.B. Tylor 1920 [1871]).
THE CULTURE WEB
To clarify, a culture represents the beliefs,
practices, artifacts of a group, while society
represents the social structures and
organizations of the people who share those
beliefs and practices. Neither society nor
culture could exist without the other.
 TYPES OF SOCIETY
Sociologists have classified the different
types of societies into six categories:
 Hunting and gathering societies
- the earliest forms of society
- these are small and generally
with less than 50 members and is
nomadic.
- the members survive primarily by
hunting, trapping, fishing and
gathering edible plants
 Pastoral societies
- rely on products obtained
through the domestication and
breeding of animals for
transportation and food.
- these are common in areas
where crops cannot be
supported and only have to
move when the land in which the
animals graze is no longer usable.
 Horticultural societies
- these societies rely on the
cultivation of fruits, vegetables
and plants in order to survive.
- they are often forced to relocate
when the resources of the land
are depleted or when the water
supplies decrease.
 Agricultural societies
- they rely on the use of
technology in order to cultivate
crops in large areas, including
wheat, rice, and corn.
- productivity increases, and as
long as there are plenty of food,
people do not have to move.
- this time, towns form, and cities
emerged, job specialization
increases, and the economy
becomes more complex.
 Industrial societies
- they use advanced sources of
energy to run large machinery
which led to industrialization
- innovations in transportation led
people to travel, work in factories
and live in cities.
- occupational specialization
became even more
pronounced, and a persons
vocation became more of an
identifier than his or her family ties,
as was common in non
industrialization societies.
 Post industrial societies
- their economy is based on
services and technology, not
production.
- the economy is dependent on
tangible goods, people must
pursue greater education and
the new communications
technology allows work to be
performed from a variety of
locations.