CULTURE

What is Culture?

“The way we live”

Definition
 Culture is all the ways of going and thinking of a
group.
 Each group and society has a set of behavior
patterns which are more or less common to the
members, passed down from generation and taught
to children, and which are liable to change. all
these factors, we call the culture.
 Culture is the values, beliefs, behaviours, and
material objects that together form a people’ way of
life. Culture includes what we think, how we act,
and what we own. Culture is both a bridge to our
past and a guide to the future (Soyinka, 1991. cited
in Macionis, 2006)
Characteristics
 It includes all which man has created and which
he can possibly improve upon.
 Something which is learnt and acquired. It is not
something natural to the person.
 Every introduction of a new element increases
coil complexities.
 Not an individual concept but a social concept.
 Not related to individual behavior but concerns
group behavior.
 Communicated from one generation to another in
physical form.
 Culture has a link with past. Preserves the having
eternal nature and discards what has been socially
condemned.
 Preserves the past
 Ideal and always idealized. Made efforts to achieve
that idealized target.
 Constantly changed
 Become integrated and has a definite order.
Types
 Material Culture
Tangible things created by members of the society

 Non-Material Culture
Intangible world of ideas created by members of a
society
Cultural Shock
 Personal disorientation when experiencing an
unfamiliar way of life
Components of culture
 Symbols
 “anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by
people who share a culture.”

 Language
 “a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with
one another.”
 Values and beliefs
 Values: “Culturally defined standards that people use to
decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve
as broad guidelines for social living.”
 Beliefs: “Specific thoughts or ideas that people hold to be
true.
 Norms
 Norms: “Rules and expectations by which a society guides
the behavior of its members.”
 Material Culture
Cultural Diversity?
High Culture and Popular Culture

Subculture

Multiculturalism

Counterculture: (“Cultural patterns that strongly oppose

those widely accepted within a society.”)
Cultural Change
Cultural Complex?

Cultural Growth?

Can culture be measured?

Reading
 Macionis, J. (2012). Sociology. In (14th ed.):
Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.