Culture and socialization

• Things we will cover in this chapter

• What is culture?
• Definitions of culture
• Dimensions of culture
I. Cognitive aspect of culture
II. Normative aspect of culture
III. Material aspect of culture
• Culture and identity
• Ethnocentrism n cosmopolitism
• Cultural change
• Revolutionary and evolutionary
• Socialisation
• Agencies of socialisation
 Culture

• The term ‘culture’ is used to refer to the acquiring of refined taste in classical
music, dance forms, painting. This refined taste was thought to distinguish
people from the ‘uncultured’ masses, even concerning something we would
today see as individual, like the preference for coffee over tea.
• By contrast, the sociologist looks at culture not as something that distinguishes
individuals, but as a way of life in which all members of society exist.
• One early anthropological definition of culture comes from the British scholar
Edward Tylor: “Culture or civilisation taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is
that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom
and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of
society”.
About culture……..
• Just like one needs a map to navigate over unknown space or territory,
s/he needs culture to conduct or behave in society.
• Culture is common understanding ,which is learnt and developed
through social interaction with others in society .
• A common understanding within a group demarcates it from others
and gives it an identity.
• Cultures are never finished products. They are always changing and
evolving.
• Elements are constantly being added ,deleted, expanded shrunk and
rearranged.
 Culture is:
• A way of thinking
• The total way of life of a people.
• An abstraction from behaviour.
• Learned behaviour.
• A storehouse of pooled learning.
• The social legacy the individual acquires from his group.
• A set of standardised orientations to recurrent problems.
• A mechanism for the normative regulation of behaviour.
characteristics of Culture

• Culture is learned. It is an acquired behaviour.

• It is shared (cannot be possessed by an individual in isolation) and
transmitted amongst.
• Culture is dynamic. It constantly changes. It makes each society and
group unique or distinct.

•
 CULTURE
NON – MATERIAL CULTURE MATERIAL CULTURE

NORMATIVE
COGNITIVE ASPECT
ASPECT
 Cognitive Aspect of culture
• Cognitive Dimension:
The cognitive dimension of culture refers to ideas which include
beliefs, knowledge, myths, superstitions etc. of a society.
• In literate society, ideas are transcribed in books and documents.
• But in non-literate societies ideas are in the form of legends and myths
which are committed to memory and transmitted orally.
• In the contemporary world ideas are also reflected in audio-visual
media [ads, films]
 Normative culture
• Normative: This dimension includes social rules and social
expectations, i.e. the norms and values of a society. Norms are socially
approved guidelines which direct behaviours of members of a society
or a social group. In other words, they are the social expectations of
proper behaviour.
Norms usually vary across societies and even within the same society
across different social groups. A social norm is not necessarily actual
behaviour. (‘Unwritten rules’) Most of human actions is norm-
governed. There are different types of norms, depending on how strict
they are.
Forms of Normative culture
• Folkways: It refers to traditional customary ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. Most people conform
to folk ways out of habit. They are the lesser order of norms, as they are not as strictly enforced as mores or
laws.
• Mores: Mores are higher order norms linked to the core values of a group. They are considered vital for the
group and are expressed as ‘must’ or ‘must not’ behaviour. They are more strictly enforced as compared to
folk ways. Violations of these are not taken lightly.
Eg: Behaving in a decent manner when you go out; not eating non-veg when visiting religious places;
maintaining silence in hospitals.
• Laws: Most formal definition of acceptable behaviour. They are the formal standardized expressions of
norms. (Laws are codified norms and have been given a sanction).
Usually those norms are qualified as laws about which society feels strongly about. Laws may be based on
customs, but they are different from customs because:-
They are upheld by the authority of the state implied to all those accepting the authority of state.
They are backed by penal sanctions. Laws are enforced by the courts.
In a few cases where laws are contrary to the folkways and mores, the enforcement of law becomes
difficult.
MATERIAL ASPECT OF CULTURE
• Material culture refers to the physical objects, resources, and spaces
that people use to define their culture. Material culture is the aspect of
social reality grounded in the objects and architecture that surround
people. It includes the usage, consumption, creation, and trade of
objects as well as the behaviors, norms, and rituals that the
objects creates. These include homes, neighborhoods, cities, schools,
churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, offices, factories and plants,
tools, means of production, goods and products, stores, and so forth.
All of these physical aspects of a culture help to define its members'
behaviors and perceptions.
CONCEPT OF CULTURAL LAG
CULTURE AND IDENTITY
CULTURE AND IDENTITY
• We live in cultures that differ from one society to the other (in one society itis common to eat with the
hand, in others you use chopsticks, etc).Difference between cultures is called: Culture Diversity.
Cultures are defined as: a life-style of a group of people that is transmitted from one generation to the
other. Cultures make us fully human. Though sometimes culture is used to refer to art, music, literature
and so on, it has a broader meaning; it refers to the things that are shared by members of a society
which make it possible to understand other people. It includes: behavior that should be needed to fit in
a society, shared norms to do things right, etc. Cultures give us something we share with other people,
but are also something that makes us different from many people. “We learn who we are not only
through what we are like, but also through what we are not like.” Cultures are learned, human beings
are not born knowing their cultures, usually the process of learning our cultures are derived from the
parents, ata very basic stage. This process of learning our culture is called socialization
• Cultural identity is the identity of belonging to a group. It is part of a person's self-conception and
self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any
kind of social group that has its own distinct culture. In this way, cultural identity is both characteristic
of the individual but also of the culturally identical group of members sharing the same cultural identity
or upbringing
cosmopolitan Outlook of culture

• Ethnocentrism is opposite of cosmopolitism.

• Cosmopolitan outlook of culture means valuing other cultures for their
differences.
• A cosmopolitan outlook does not seek to evaluate the values and beliefs of other
people according to one’s own.
• It celebrates and accommodates different cultural propensities within its fold and
promotes cultural exchange and borrowings to enrich one’s own culture.
• A modern society is appreciative of cultural difference and does not close its
doors to cultural influences from abroad.
• The absorption of diverse styles, forms, sounds and artifacts provides an identity
to cosmopolitan culture.
CULTURAL CHANGE
Cultural change is a concept that denotes some internal and external factors
leading to change in the cultural pattern of societies.

It can be material as well as non-material in nature. Cultural change may

come from many sources but most of them comes through contact with other
culture, inventions and internal adjustment of culture.
Factors of Cultural Change:
There are three main 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.
 • Diffusion and acculturation, are mostly used in relation to social change.
DIFFERENCE • As we all know, a society and its culture cannot remain the same. As time goes by,
cultural changes can be observed. However, while some cultures embrace these
BETWEEN changes, others resist any changes and use various societal mechanisms to
control change.

CULTURAL • In today’s world, along with the high tech developments and globalization, it is
very difficult for cultures to remain isolated and uninfluenced by other cultures.
DIFFUSION When a culture comes in contact with another culture both diffusion and
acculturation can take place.

AND • Diffusion is when cultural traits of a culture spread to another culture.

However, acculturation is quite different to diffusion. It is when a culture

ACCULTURAT
completely transforms and becomes accustomed to the new cultural traits.
• Diffusion takes place when the aspects of one culture spread to another

ION culture. Food, clothing, practices are some examples for cultural aspects that can
transform to another culture. Cultural diffusion can damage the traditional
culture of a society because it becomes displaced due to the spread of the new
cultural elements. For instance, intermarriage can be considered a fine
example of cultural diffusion.
• The process of transformation, when a culture adopts various aspects of
another culture on a large scale and becomes transformed, is referred to as
acculturation. Changes can occur in beliefs, customs, artifacts, language,
practices, etc. When a minority group in a society learns the dominant culture and
its various aspects, such as clothing, manner of speaking, values, the group goes
through a process of acculturation. In this context, they have to abandon their
beliefs, practices, language, clothing, etc. and embrace something new.
Example…..native Americans in European attire
• Acculturation and diffusion have to be viewed as two processes that are inter-
related even though they are different from one another.
Causes of Cultural Changes:
1. Sometimes members of a society are often confronted by customs that differ from those which they have learnt to accept. In such
a situation they adopt some of the new customs, reject others, and follow modified versions of still others. This might be called
cultural eclecticism.

2. New customs and practices are likely to be more readily adopted under two conditions

(i) If they represent what is viewed as socially desirable and useful and

(ii) If they do not clash with re-existed and still valued customs and practices.

3. Changes in culture are always super imposed on existing culture especially during cultural contact.

4. All the cultural changes are not equally important. Some changes are introduced to culture because they are considered necessary
for human survival. Some other changes are accepted in order to satisfy socially acquired needs not essential for survival.

5. It is a fact of common observation that crisis tends to produce or accelerate cultural changes. If the changes are accepted once due
to the crisis, they tend to persist. For example, women were included in military during the Second World War, and even now they
continue to be there.

6. Cultural change is cumulative in its total effect. Much is added and little is lost. It’s growth is like the growth of a tree that ever
expands but only loses it leaves, Sometimes its limbs from time to time, as long as it survives.
 AGENCIES OF SOCIALISATION

Agency # 1. The Family:

The family gets the baby first. Hence the process of socialisation begins in the family. A child is born with some basic abilities that are
genetically transmitted through germplasm. These abilities and capacities are shaped in ways determined by culture.
The mother with whom the relation of the child is the most intimate plays a significant role in the process of moulding the child in the
initial stages. Subsequently, father and older siblings transmit to the child many other values, knowledge and skill that children are
expected to acquire in that particular society.

Agency # 2. The Peer Group:

As the child grows older, his contemporaries begin to influence him. He spends most of his spare hours outside his work and study
schedule with his peers in the playground and places outside his home. The attraction of peers is virtually irresistible to him.
He learns from them and they also learn from him. With the passage of time, the peer group influence surpasses at of parents
significantly. It is not surprising that teen age is the age of parent-child misunderstanding.
In the socialisation of the child, the members of the family, particularly those who exercise authority over him, and the members of his
peer group exercise two different kinds of influence upon him. Both authoritarian relationships (typified by the former) and
equalitarian relationships (typified by the latter) are equally significant to him.
He acquires the virtues of respect, constraint and obedience from the first type of relationships, and the virtues of co-operation based
on trust and mutual understanding from the second.
 CONT…..
Agency # 3. The School:
When the child comes to the school, his formal indoctrination into the culture of the society begins. He
is exposed to a wider background than known to him. He is formally introduced to the the learning,
the arts and the sciences, the values and the beliefs, the customs and taboos of the society from a
wider circle, his teachers play a very significant role.
The child may admire, respect and love some of his teachers. The impression which they make during
this impressionable age lasts almost throughout his life.
Agency # 4. The Mass Media:
Apart from newspapers which carry printed words, the two other mass media, viz., the radio and
television, exercise tremendous influence in the socialisation process. They “assault our ears” and
communicate directly their messages and these messages also “contain in capsule form the premises
of our culture, its attitudes and ideologies”.
The role of television, in particular, is very significant. It communicates directly to both our ears and
eyes and thus leaves a strong impression.
In individual cases, of course, the importance of these influences varies. Different people react to the
same suggestion differently. Responses vary in terms of their natural predilections. “Some of us
respect tradition; others fear the opinion of their peers; and still others prefer to listen to the
‘thousand tongues’ of conscience”.
OTHER SOCIALISATION AGENCIES
•Government
•Government or state is an indirect agent of socialization. This means, though we do not come in contact with the
institution directly, it does have an impact on our social life and well-being. The government sets rules and regulations
(most of which often become laws), which the people of the state/country need to follow, and breach of them often
becomes not only a moral wrong but a social wrong as well. For instance, prohibition of drunk driving is a law passed by
the state. Any person breaking it, not only commits a punishable offense but also puts others’ lives in danger.
•Apart from setting various laws and laying sanctions on us, the government, as a socializing agent, also has a
responsibility of assuring social security for people.
•Religion
•Religion is one of the most powerful agents of socialization which is linked with concepts and values people identify
themselves with. At the same time, it is the most sensitive agent of socialization as well. People tend to develop their own
religious beliefs from their parents, right from their inception. They begin to acquire knowledge of which god to believe
in (or not?); when, where and how to pray; what rituals to follow; what to consume and what to avoid; etc., right from
infancy, and it is these belief systems that evolve further and remain with them for the rest of their lives.
•While the major function of religion in the process of socialization is teaching people, belonging to different religions, to
be tolerant and respectful towards each other, things do not always work out as desired. Therefore, the power of religion
as a socializing agent should be understood well, and any sort of misinterpretations need to be avoided.
CONT…..
• Workplace
• Workplace is another agent of socialization. Just as the children spend a significant part of day
at their school, the adults spend much of their day at their workplace. At the workplace, a
person meets people of different age groups and belonging to different social and cultural
backgrounds. This makes him come in close contact with different thought processes, belief
systems, etc. The interaction that then happens, helps a person to broaden his/her horizons in
terms of social acceptance and tolerance towards the others. It also sometimes helps in
changing the notions of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. It makes him understand the true difference
between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’. The ‘other’ is only distinct from the ‘self’ but both are still
‘right’.
• Apart from imbibing punctuality (e.g. target achievement) and following procedures (e.g.
whether to approach the boss directly or not), a person also becomes well-versed with the
importance of regularity in work and behaving mannerisms with respect to superiors as well as
juniors and subordinates.