CULTURE &

SOCIETY

-- compiled by S N Azad (SNAd),

-Adjunct Faculty, PSS, NSU

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 WHAT TO KNOW ON CULTURE?
 What is culture…
 Elements of culture
 Material and non-material culture
 Characteristics of culture
 Inadequate conceptions on culture
 Sociologists on Culture
 Concepts: Sub-culture, Counter-culture, Cultural shock
 Old discourses on culture centered on divergences:
 Ethnicity, Race, Ethnocentrism, Nationalism
 Newer Ideas on culture centered on convergences:
 Globalism, Globalization, Glocalization, Globalization & Migration
 Cultural Relativism (Multiculturalism), Pluralism
 Identity, Post-colonialism, Hybridity
 Modernism & Post-modernism
 Food for thought:
 Technology and Future of culture
 Critical thoughts on culture 2
 WHAT IS CULTURE?
 Consist of values, norms (dos’ and don’ts’) people follow and the material
goods/wealth/provisions they create to sustain their way of living.

 So, it’s basically a combination of abstract ideas that are then

supported/propped up/further projected by material gains/means.

 Focuses on both individuals – households / communities – groups.

 Ritualistic elements of culture may include: attire, marriage customs,

family life, patterns of work, religious ceremonies, leisure pursuits, etc.

 Material elements of culture include: meaningful goods they create like

bows/arrows, ploughs, field organisaion, tools, wheeled carts/vehicles,
factories, machines, computers, books, dwelling (housing type),
cosmetics/jewelry, artifacts, use of colors, etc…

 Society & Culture – can’t exist without each other.

 Cultural variations/differences, appropriations: colonialism as a vehicle.

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 Material and non-material culture
 Material culture refers to the physical objects, resources, and spaces
that people use to define their culture. Eg.: homes, neighborhoods,
cities, schools, churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, offices,
factories and plants, tools, means of production, goods and
products, stores, and so forth..
 Nonmaterial culture refers to the abstract ideas and ways of thinking
that make up a culture. Eg.: traffic laws, dress codes, language,
norms, symbols, values.

 Culture has five basic characteristics:

 It is learned, shared, based on symbols, integrating & differentiating
properties, and dynamic. All cultures share these basic features.
 S0 ARE SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE UNIVERSAL ? Like via:
language, speech & writing, Semiotics and material culture, etc.

 Values in Culture: 4 Cs of culture, namely Competence,

Commitment, Contribution, and Character.
 HOW DOES THESE PROPERTIES OF VALUE BIND SOCIETIES?
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 CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE
1. Culture is manifested at different layers of depth (a) observable artifacts, (b)
values, and (c) basic underlying assumptions,
2. Culture affects behaviour and interpretations of behaviour,
3. Culture can be differentiated from both universal human nature and unique
individual personality (both converging & diverging qualities),
4. Culture influences biological processes (all that we do as living beings),
5. Culture is associated with social groups (gender, class, occupation, migrants groups,
generational groups, etc.),
6. Culture is both an individual & psychological construct and a social construct
(learned & created from experiences),
7. Culture is always both socially (socio-genic) and psychologically (psycho-genic)
distributed in a group, and so the delineation of a culture’s features will always
be fuzzy (plurality, multiplicity),
8. Culture has both universal (etic – out-groups) and distinctive (emic – in-
groups) elements – in language, Phonetics deal with sounds that occur in all languages.
Phonemics are sounds that occur in only one language.
9. Culture is subject to gradual change (discovery, invention, diffusion),
10.The various parts of a culture are all, to some degree, interrelated
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 INADEQUATE CONCEPTIONS OF CULTURE
 Culture is homogenous (not free of internal paradoxes and
contradictions),
 Culture is a thing (not an entity in itself. Eg. clash of civilisation – S
P Huntington),
 Culture is uniformly distributed among members of a
group (Intra-cultural variation is not a deviance),
 An individual possesses but a single culture (hyphenated
cultures),
 Culture is custom (structurally not undifferentiated – not a matter
of “differential etiquette – tradition is not culture – agency is down
played here),
 Culture is timeless (imputes a changeless quality to culture which
can’t be found in history of societies).

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 SOCIOLOGISTS ON CULTURE
 ‘Culture… 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.’ - Tyler (British anthropologist) 1870

 ‘Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of an for behaviour acquired

and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human
groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the essential core of culture
consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived and selected) ideas and especially
their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as
products of action, on the other, as conditional elements of future action.’ -
Kroeber & Kluckhohn 1952

 ‘[Culture] is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the

members of one group or category of people from another.’ - Hofstede 1994

 ‘Culture is fuzzy set of basic assumptions and values, orientations to life, beliefs,
policies, procedures and behavioural conventions that are shared by a group of
people, and that influence (but do not determine) each member’s behaviour
and his/her interpretations of the ‘meaning’ of other people’s behaviour.’
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 EXPERT IDEAS ON CULTURE
 Spencer & Kroeber see culture as super organic.
From inorganic to organic, then to super organic.
Example – a child’s pre-birth to birth to acquiring all sensitivities
for living, feeling and interacting through association and giving
meaning to actions.

 Marxists or structuralists see culture as a super

structure. It is founded on and/or grows out of the
economic foundation of society sustaining, nurturing a set of
beliefs.
Example – different types of States has different cultures.

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 Sub-culture
 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 even reproductive habits.
 “Subcultures are generally groups that are perceived to deviate from
the normative standards of the dominant culture, as this is variously
defined according to age, sexuality, and taste in economic, racial, and
gendered terms.” – Eg.: mafia, k-pop, Gen Z, hippies, hip-hop, punks,
goths, etc.
 In BD: Businessmen living in the old part of Dhaka, cinema artists, and
people living in the urban slums are all examples of subcultures. Islam
is the dominant religion in the culture of Bangladesh; Sunni, Shiaa,
and Baahaai, for example, may be viewed as subcultures within the
larger Muslim culture here in Bangladesh.
 Subcultures play an important role in articulating an identity,
producing a sense of belonging, and influencing members to consider
their relationship to mainstream society.
 Subcultures are different from largely recognized identity categories
such as ethnicity. 9
 Counter-culture from sociological lenses
 A counter-culture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior
differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes
diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.
 A counter-cultural movement expresses the ethos and aspirations
of a specific population during a well-defined era.
 Recent eg.: The Black Lives Matter movement
 Defines an era of: change in identity, family unit, sexuality, dress,
and the arts.
 Characteristics - experimentation with music, drugs, art, sexuality,
and spirituality.
 Synonym: Fringe culture. Anti-culture. Alternative Society.
 Opposite to CC: Culture of the masses / pop-culture.
 Which element makes a counter-culture, culture? – Universalism.

Ref.: https://helpfulprofessor.com/counterculture-examples/
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Counter-culture from socio-political lenses

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 Difference between sub-culture & counter-culture

 the main difference between subculture and

counterculture is that:
 a counterculture is always inconsistent with the ideas, beliefs
and values of the mainstream culture,
 a subculture can be consistent with the ideas of the mainstream
culture to a certain extent.
 However, both subculture and counterculture are capable
of existing as a culture within another culture.
 Examples:
 LGBT community, bodybuilders, grunge, and hip hop are some
examples of popular subcultures,
 Suffragettes, Hippies, and polygamists are some examples of
countercultures.

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13
 Cultural shock
 the impact of moving from a familiar culture to one that is unfamiliar.
Like – learning a new way in a new country…
 Eg.: shock of a new environment, meeting new people, eating new
food, or adapting to a foreign language, as well as the shock of being
separated from the important people in your life: such as family,
friends, colleagues, and teachers.
 Stages of Cultural shock:
 Honeymoon Stage. The Honeymoon Stage is the first stage of culture shock, and it
can often last for several weeks or even months. ...
 Negotiation Stage. Next is the negotiation stage which is characterised by
frustration and anxiety. ...
 Adjustment Stage. ...
 Adaptation Stage. ...
 Re-entry Shock. (reverse CS: like returning home from studying abroad)
 In summary: honeymoon, uncertainty & doubt, adaptation, and
acceptance.
 To tackle: be open-minded. Be willing to learning. Ask
questions. Travel and mix.
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 Kalervo Oberg, who coined the
term culture shock in the mid-
1950s, defines culture shock as “the
anxiety that results from losing all
our familiar signs and symbols of
social intercourse” (Oberg 1954).

Common symptoms of CS:

– Extreme homesickness.
– Feelings of helplessness
/dependency.
– Disorientation and isolation.
– Depression and sadness.
– Hyper-irritability, may include
inappropriate anger and hostility.
– Sleep and eating disturbances (too
little or too much)
– Excessive critical reactions to host
culture/stereotyping.
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Old discourses on culture centered
on divergences:
 Ethnicity,
 Race,
 Ethnocentrism,
 Nationalism

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 WHAT IS ETHNICITY & RACE?
 Ethnicity is used as a matter of cultural identity of a group, often based on shared
ancestry, language, and cultural traditions, while race is applied as a taxonomic
grouping, based on physical similarities among groups.
 For example, a person might be categorized as racially Asian and ethnically Chinese.
 Ethnicity is essentially self-defined and may change over time.
 Classification of ethnicity is essentially pragmatic, based on categories that include common
self-descriptions, are acceptable to respondents and that identify variations that are
important for research or policy.
 Increasing recognition that people may want to identify themselves with more than one
ethnic group… a mixed reality?!
 “the social group a person belongs to, and either identifies with or is identified with by
others, as a result of a mix of cultural and other factors including language, diet, religion,
ancestry and physical features traditionally associated with race”.

 The concept of race is controversial. It is difficult to define a rationale for racial

categories and there is no consistent agreement about an objective set of
categories.
 Classifying individuals by their physical appearance and skin colour is unreliable and of
questionable validity.
 Genetic studies have found some evidence of broad "continental" groups which are
genetically similar.
 There is little evidence that these correspond to commonly perceived racial categories.
 There is wider genetic variation between individuals within one "racial" group (such as
"white") than there is between such "racial" groups - indeed 93% to 95% of genetic variation
is within population groups.
 Despite these difficulties, the term race is still widely used in legal, policy contexts.
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 BANALITY OF ETHNICITY & RACE AS IDEAS
 “Race” (identified by descent, phenotype and/or skin colour) does not constitute
a social group and even less a “community.” Psychosocial and moral qualities
cannot be derived from racial signifiers.
 Weber unmasks both the so-called racial scent and the ban of interracial
marriages as recent “inventions” (i.e. introduced after the end of slavery) by
white Americans to socially distance themselves from upwardly mobile African
Americans (Weber in Winter 2004, 205):
 The horror of any sexual relationship between the two races, which [...] was recently
imposed on Blacks, is only the product of the claims of the latter – born out of the
emancipation of slaves – to be treated as citizens with equal rights. This horror is
therefore socially conditioned by tendencies to monopolize social power and honor [...]
which, in this case, is connected with race (Weber 1971, 412)

 Weber famously defines ethnic groups as “those human groups that entertain a
subjective belief in their common descent because of similarities of physical type
or of customs or both, or because of memories of colonization and migration”
(Weber 1978, 389).
 He thereby dissociates ethnicity from kinship and other biological relations, while
maintaining the myth of shared ancestry, which establishes ethnic groups as
intergenerationally sustained groups.
 Weber further insists that for ethnic communalizations to emerge “this belief [of common
descent] must be important for the propagation of group formation” (Weber 1978, 389).
 Finally, he situates the production of ethnic groups within the context of either (peaceful
or warlike) migration or expansion such as colonisation or conquest (Weber 1978, 388).
 As such, ethnic groups are to be distinguished from other cultural communities.
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 ETHNICITY – ETHNOCENTRISM
 means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to
judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead of
using the standards of the particular culture involved.
 Ethnocentrism is the measuring and judging of one culture by another
culture.
 This can be either a positive (grp. cohesion, homogeneity) or negative judgment
about the difference between the beliefs of the two cultures.
 Ethnocentrism is also believing in the inferiority of other cultures compared to the
superiority of one's own culture.
 Causes - ethnocentrism is linked to cultural blind spots. Blind spots occur
when we fail to attribute differences between our behaviours and beliefs
and those of others to differences in cultural schemas.
 recent cross-cultural measurement of ethnocentrism has suggested
that there are two kinds of ethnocentrism:
 (1) intra-group ethnocentrism, which includes a sense of strong group
cohesion and devotion to one's own ethnic group, and
 (2) inter-group ethnocentrism, which includes preference for ethnic in-
groups … 19
 NATIONALISM

 A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a

combination of shared features such as:
 language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society.
 4 elements of nation: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined
territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter relations
with the other states.
 An “imagined community”…? – Benedict Anderson

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Newer Ideas on culture centered on
convergences:
 Globalism, Globalization, Glocalization
 Globalization & Migration
 Cultural Relativism (Multiculturalism), Pluralism
 Modernism & Post-modernism
 Identity, Post-colonialism, Hybridity

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GLOBALISM & GLOBALIZATION
 Globalism (the thinner crust) –
 A creed & practice bringing about globalisation (the thicker crust) in
every field of a states and cultures/societies.
 Rolled out & dependent on intl. regime (combo of international
institutions, body of international law, practices & norms, etc.), alliance
systems – EU; agenda like customs union/ border control/openness;
phenomena like free trade, financial mobility; trends like social media,
etc.
 Speed and dynamics of interdependence, connectivity, etc…

 Globalization:
 A process where the concept of globalism is actualized.
 Theodore Levitt is often credited with popularizing the term and
bringing it into the mainstream business audience in the later in the
middle of 1980s.
 Since its inception, the concept of globalization has inspired
competing definitions and interpretations.
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 GLOBALIZATION
 Globalisation
 Globalization in business.
 Globalization in Food.
 Globalization in Culture.
 Globalization in Technology.
 Globalization decreases the

cost of manufacturing. - libs.

 What does the conservatives say?!

 three periods or “waves” of globalisation:

 1) 15th – 18th centuries (3 Gs – God, Gold, Glory) - (colonial);
 2) 19th century (until 1914) (Civilisation, Profit, Glory)-(Post-Colonial);
 3) since the 1980s (Democracy & Free Market, Profit, Glory)-(Neo-Col.).
 Each wave had its main driving forces (ideas and interests), geographical and social
centers and technologies.
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GLOCALISATION
 The term Glocalization was coined in the
Harvard Business Review by
sociologist Roland Robertson in 1980.

 Glocalization meant:
 "the
simultaneity—the co-presence—of both
universalizing and particularizing tendencies.”

 Glocalizationhappens is when an international

corporation modifies some of its offerings in
order to accommodate local consumer tastes or
preferences. It is a portmanteau of the words
"globalization" and "localization."

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 GLOBALIZATION AND MIGRATION
 Arjun Appadurai contends that Globalization
occurs at the points of rupture and disjuncture
between the different landscapes.
 He identifies five basic landscapes that are about:
 people and their migration (ethnoscapes) (peoples’ mobility),
 technology (technoscapes),
 media (mediascapes),
 ideology (ideoscapes), (eg. – democracy) and
 finance (finanscapes).

 Variable “interactions, exchange, and (cultural)

flows within contemporary global landscape are
highly intense and magnified.”
 Worldsystems theory associated this exchange largely
with capitalism.
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26
 CULTURAL RELATIVISM
 Cultural relativism is the view:
 that ethical and social standards reflect the cultural context from which they
are derived.
 that cultures differ fundamentally from one another, and so do the moral
frameworks that structure relations within different societies.

 Cultural relativism claims that there is ethically, morally, and culturally

no absolute truth, and that when observing another culture one must
suspend all judgments because those judgments are inherently
ethnocentric (Zechenter, 1997).
 Cultural Relativism is a theory of anthropology that views all cultures as equal.
Early anthropologist Franz Boas first used the idea of cultural relativism in
1887, but the concept did not have a name until Alain Locke coined the term in
1924. This concept is now accepted by anthropologists around the world.
 Relativism further flourished in the 1930s and 40s with noted anthropologists
such as Benedict and Herskovitz.
 It was during this time that relativism set forth and combined two important
principles:
 (1) skepticism of Western values, and
 (2) tolerance for other cultural practices (Hatch, 1997).

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 Multiculturalism is a politicized form of cultural relativism.
 MULTI-CULTURALISM, PLURALISM
 Large, modern nation-states reject - ethnocentrism, relativism, and
isolationism. Therefore veers towards multi-culturalism.
 But ethical diversity and disagreement and the challenges will still be
posed, especially in the culturally complex societies, large countries.
 Worthy practice must focus on: respectful, but sustained, critical reflection.
 A model of ‘multicultural citizenship’ for culturally complex liberal (secular
neutrality) democracies that is centered around formal political
accommodation of cultural minorities.
 “(1) the state of a society or the world in which there exists numerous
distinct ethnic and cultural groups seen to be politically relevant; and (2) a
program or policy promoting such a society.”
 From a cultural or sociological point of view, pluralism refers to the fact that
cultures are expressions of a variety of values, practices, and beliefs. Cultural
variations yield in turn ethical diversity.

 Cultural pluralism - smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique
cultural identities, whereby their values and practices are accepted by the
dominant culture, provided such are consistent with the laws and values of the
wider society. - Cultural variations in turn yield ethical diversity. 28
 MODERNISM
 Modernity first came into being with the Renaissance.
 It implies “the progressive economic and administrative rationalization and
differentiation of the social world” (Sarup 1993).

 Modernism - (Modernity) (since 1680…) - Steven Pinker (1954-)

 Reason – Rationality – Enlightenment – Positivism
 Open deliberation, science, history, evaluation of ideas
 Implemented in institutions:
 Liberal democracy
 Regulated markets
 International institutions
 Flourishing (as individuals focusing on):
 Life, health, sustenance, prosperity, peace, freedom, safety,

knowledge, leisure, happiness,

 As opposed to:
 Religion, romantic nationalism, authoritarianism,
zero-sum struggles, reactionary ideologies.
 Results: life expectancy, child mortality, famine deaths, extreme poverty,
great power war, democracy, slavery, judicial and extra judicial killings,
torture by state and system, literacy, basic education…
 Criticism: - where is politics? - individualistic but social beings,
- what is truth? - has war gone or localised? 29
 POST-MODERNISM
 Postmodernism basically challenges the basic assumptions of Modernism.
 The many faces of postmodernism: it collapsed the distinction between:
 high culture and mass or popular culture, between art and everyday life.
 Because postmodernism broke the established rules about style.
 It introduced a new era of freedom and a sense that 'anything goes'.
 The primary tenets of the postmodern movement:
1. an elevation of text and language as the fundamental phenomena of existence,
2. the application of literary analysis to all phenomena,
3. a questioning of reality and representation,
4. a critique of metanarratives,
5. an argument against method and evaluation,
6. a focus upon power relations and hegemony, and
7. a general critique of Western institutions and knowledge (Kuznar 2008:78).
For his part, Lawrence Kuznar labels postmodern anyone whose thinking includes most or all of these
elements.
 Key characteristics of postmodern society:
 subjectivity, diversity, skepticism & innovation.
 Logically postmodernism literally means “after modernity.”
 It refers to the incipient or actual dissolution of those social forms associated with
modernity” (Sarup 1993).
 The archaeologist Mathew Johnson has characterized postmodernity, or the postmodern
condition, as disillusionment with Enlightenment ideals (Johnson 2010).
 Jean-Francois Lyotard, in his seminal work The Postmodern Condition (1984) defines it
as an “incredulity toward metanarratives,” which is, somewhat ironically, 30 a product of
31
32
 IDENTITY
 Identity Politics
 a political approach wherein people of a particular
race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation,
social background, social class, or other identifying
factors develop political agendas that are based upon
these identities.
 Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality traits,
appearance, and/or expressions that characterize a
person or group.
 Role-behavior, group membership.
 Two important features: continuity and contrast.

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34
 HYBRIDITY, POST-COLONIALISM
 The process of the emergence of a culture, in which its elements are being
continually transformed or translated through irrepressible encounters.
 Hybridity offers the potential to undermine existing forms of cultural authority and
representation.
 In postcolonial theory, hybridity commonly refers to the creation of new
transcultural (also transnational…?!) forms within the contact zone produced by
colonization.

 Hybridization can happen in three processes: (Nestor Garcia Canclini)

 “The mixing of collections that used to organize cultural systems,

 the deterritorialization of symbolic processes, and

 the expansion of impure genres”

 Homi Bhabha:
 Hybridity as a strategy of the suppressed against their suppressors,
 mimicry as a strategy of colonial subjection,
 Third Space, postcolonial "enunciative" present.

 Postcolonialism has been defined as:

 A description of institutional conditions in formerly colonial societies.
 An abstract representation of the global situation after the colonial period.
 A description of discourses informed by psychological and epistemological 35 orientations.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT

 Technology & Future of Culture

 Technology – Practice – Sensibility
 Computer tech, Bio-tech, Info tech

 Surveillance culture – surveillance capitalism

 Ai - whither society?

 Critical Thoughts on Culture

 Education and Culture
 Media for cultural domination
 Cultural Hegemony
 Is there one and only way to think?

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 References:

 https://pediaa.com/what-is-the-difference-between-subculture-and-counterculture/
 Example of phoneme: https://study.com/academy/lesson/phoneme-definition-segmentation-
examples.html
 Example of phonetic: https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english/phonetics/
 Bhopal R. Glossary of terms relating to ethnicity and race: for reflection and debate. J Epidemiol
Community Health 2004:58:441-445,
in https://www.scotpho.org.uk/population-groups/ethnic-minorities/defining-ethnicity-and-race/
#:~:text=Ethnicity%20has%20been%20defined%20as,traditionally%20associated%20with%20race%22.%20(
 https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/cambio/article/download/10753/9805/#:~:text=Weber%20famously
%20defines%20ethnic%20groups,(Weber%201978%2C%20389)
 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/glocalization.asp#:~:text=The%20term%20was%20coined
%20in,both%20universalizing%20and%20particularizing%20tendencies.%22
 https://helpfulprofessor.com/appadurai-scapes/#:~:text=Appadurai's%20five%20scapes%20or
%20flows,the%20world%20influence%20each%20other
 https://anthropology.ua.edu/theory/postmodernism-and-its-critics/#:~:text=The%20primary%20tenets
%20of%20the,an%20argument%20against%20method%20and
 http://www.sfu.ca/~poitras/Modernism-vs-Postmodernism.pdf
 https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy
 https://newdiscourses.com/2020/11/why-world-cultural-relativism-descendents/
#:~:text=Multiculturalism%2C%20a%20politicized%20form%20of,apply%20equally%20to%20all
%20individuals.

 Next Lecture 3/5:

 Topic 5. Socialisation, Gender

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Thank you