Culture

Culture is a major discipline within the ambit of sociology. Every society is

subject to a peculiar culture that covers its socio-economic, political and
religious aspects. Human beings learn behavior in society and when that
behavior is demonstrated it becomes culture.

What is Culture?
"Culture is an accumulation of thoughts, values and objects." (Graham
Wallas)

Characteristics of Culture
Culture has been generally characterized with several features. A culture is:

Adaptive
Culture has the capacity to adapt to the new social circumstances created by
man. Another side of this characteristic is that human beings are adaptive to
the culture. They adopt the changing culture.

Transmissive
It can be transmitted from one society to another society; similarly from one
generation to another generation.

Explicit and implicit

Cultural traits can be explicit in shape of actions and can be implicit behind
the actions we perform.

Shareable
A cultural trait is shareable. It can be shared by people of the same or
different society.

Learnable
Man is dependent on socialization which actually teaches it culture of living
in society. Culture is learnable when an individual goes to live in a different
society from that of his own.

Evolved or evolving
Most of the time a culture is evolving as human beings never stop practicing
new things in society. Sometimes a culture is already evolved in centuries
i.e. a rich culture.

Observed and practiced

Cultural practices are established by one generation after it observes the
preceding generations following them.

Dynamic
Culture is dynamic in its approach. It is forceful and adaptable. It is
versatile. It is comprehensive mostly.

Variable
Culture is not same all the time. It feels change in the thoughts and
expectations of people which ultimately come in their actions. This sets new
practices bringing a change to the old culture. 'sub-Culture' is the term used
to denote a small variable part of cultural practices in a major culture.

Types of Culture
Culture has broadly been classified into two types which are discussed
below.

A. Material Culture
Material culture is the name of physical, tangible and explicit type of culture.
It is the culture which has material evidence of its existence. Examples in
this type may include;
 Infrastructure of a culture
 Clothing and food in a culture
 Literature of a culture
To elucidate this point further we can take example of Cuba. In this island
country the 'cars' are a bit old fashioned. Despite political reasons for this,
this thing is taken as a part of Cuban culture. Any documentary on Cuba
doesn't complete without showing the old models cars as part of Cuban
culture. Similarly, we eat burger at multinational fast food chains. Basically
this denotes the Western food culture. Another manifestation of material
culture is Gothic style buildings usually built in European countries.

B. Non-Material Culture
This type reflects non-tangible, immaterial and implicit culture. It is not
apparent in the infrastructure or other material objects of a society. It is to
be found in thoughts, ideas, values and rituals of a society. They affect the
actions of human beings in society. This type of culture includes:
 Norms
 Customs
 Values
 Folkways
 Language

Functions of Culture
A culture plays vital role in the society. Being an important ingredient of
society, culture has following important functions to materialize in a society:

A. Transfer of Knowledge
Culture is Transmissive in nature. It helps in transmission of customs, rituals
and the knowledge behind everything it bears.

Transfer of knowledge becomes possible as a function of culture when a

young generation conceives cultural practices from the preceding
generation. The young ones of a society see cultural practices being
observed. This makes them ask about the rationale and reason behind the
acts of their elders. In this way transfer of cultural knowledge takes place.

Another manifestation of transfer of knowledge in culture is when

socialization takes place in a peculiar culture. This socialization transfers the
knowledge of that specific culture to the individuals being socialized.

Culture transfer knowledge form one society into another society as well.
This happens when people from one culture go to live in another culture.
They carry with them the cultural knowledge to share with others which
might be accepted or rejected.

The folk-tales produced by a specific culture also transfer as knowledge to

the generations coming. Similarly, cultural history is transferable.

B. Define Situation
A culture plays role in defining a situation. Human being faces several
scenarios in a day. Culture defines those scenarios and situation by;
 Giving him knowledge about it
 By teaching him how to behave and act in that situation
 By telling what the situation means to the society
 By giving him a comparative view of situation
 By bringing forth how others act during such situation
Take a common example that there has arisen a dispute between two
families in a traditional village. Now what their culture normally defines this
situation is that they would go to the elders of the village. The elders will call
a meeting to hear both the sides and decide the matter. In this way culture
defined a conflicting situation.

Similarly, culture defines the situation of a wedding ceremony, a funeral, a

public gathering etc. Defining a situation by culture helps the culture itself in
establishing concrete cultural practices and regulating the social setup.
Gradually, the defined situations become customs of a society.
C. Provide Behavior Pattern
Behavior is manner of action and reaction by human beings in society.
Culture in itself is learned and demonstrated behavior which sets the pattern
of human conduct. Culture teaches man how to behave for a particular
situation. For instance, it is behavior pattern that a person who becomes
father distributes sweet among his co-villagers. Similarly, it is a behavior
pattern taught by culture that people share happiness on a wedding and
share sorrow on a funeral in a society.

D. Molds Personality
Culture molds personality. Its manifestation can be seen in two important
cases. First is a child who is brought up in a specific culture. Gradually
culture molds him into a person with common behavior and practices in
society.

Similarly, a person who leaves his country to go and live in abroad for the
sake of earning money adapts to the foreign culture. This molds his
personality to the new customs and circumstances. He begins to practice the
behavior pattern taught to him by the new culture.

Besides these functions, some other functions of culture include;

 Socialization of human being
 Interprets society
 Creates needs and methods to achieve them
 Regulates social relationships

Elements of Culture
Culture is composition of following major elements:

A. Norms
Norm is defined as 'informal understandings that governs individuals'
behavior in society'. It is one of the cultural products along with being an
important element of culture.

Norm is observed by the individuals of a culture who if deviate from it are

taken as victim of deviance and anomy. An example of norm is handshaking
between the contesting and competing players after game. Norm is also
referred as something usual, typical or standard.

B. Values
'Values are general standards and may be regarded as higher order norms.'
Cultural values vary from society to society just like norms. Values of a
culture has shaped by religion, morality and ethics observed by the people of
those culture. History also puts considerable influence on values of a society.
Usually norms are specific, values are not. This defines the relationship
between them. Values are often attributed with the measures of goodness
and desirability.

C. Beliefs
Belief is mental representation of an attitude positively oriented towards the
likelihood of something being true. Belief in a culture can be of superstitious
as well as religious nature. Beliefs erupt from the religious teachings most of
the time but that not always the case. A culture might have beliefs which are
based on historical practices and folkways of a society. A common example
comes from the traditional Hindu societies which are considered full of
people with strict belief in superstitions.

D. Sanctions
Any kind of means by which conformity to socially approved standards is
enforced, is called social sanction. Sanctions can be negative as well as
positive. They can be formal as well as informal.

E. Customs
Custom is a traditional and widely accepted way of behaving or doing
something that is specific to a particular society. Customs constitute an
important part of any culture.

Culture and Socialization

1. What is Socialization?
Socialization refers to the means of bringing the individuals into the social
and cultural world thus making them social animal and a part of regular
society.

2. Why Socialization is Necessary?

Socialization is inevitable because of the following reasons;
 Child requires to be socialized to make them a part of social environment

 Continuous dependence of children upon adults makes it necessary to

socialize them
 For learning language, culture, skills and making oneself acquaint with the
social setup
3. Link between Socialization and Culture
Socialization and culture are definitely linked in a sense that the former is a
way to instruct the latter. Socialization is in fact a set of means and modes
which enable an individual to learn the culture of a society he or she is part
of.
Socialization and culture are dependent on each other. When one says that
an individual is being socialized it does mean that that individual is being
made familiar with the cultural norms, values and customs of his society.

4. Modes of Socialization

A. Formal Socialization
Formal socialization refers to the planned and organized ways of socializing
an individual. This is done through proper institutions. For instance, early
schooling of a child is a formal way to socialize him.

B. Informal Socialization
Informal socialization is unplanned. In this mode a family socializes its young
ones with the traditions and customs it respects as part of its culture. A
mother for example emerges to be a primary institute of socializing her child
in an informal way. Similarly, the childhood friends, playgrounds and siblings
all help in socializing the young one in an informal way.

5. What Agencies Socialize an Individual to Culture?

The agents which helps socialization of children to the culture include;
 Family
 School and other Educational Institutes
 Friends and Playmates
 Religious Seminaries
 Media
 State
6. What is taught in Socialization of Culture?
Socialization of culture actually teaches;
 Social customs
 Social norms
 Social ethics
 Social sanctions
 Social expectations
 Social behavior patterns
7. Conclusion
Socialization is inevitable for instructing culture not only to the young
generation but also the elder one in process of re-socialization. Culture acts
as the chief subject of socialization.

Important Terms of Culture

In this sections several important terms as mentioned in the syllabus shall
be defined and explained. All these terms are somehow related to the
subject of culture.

1. Transmission of Culture
Transmission of culture means moving of cultural traits from one generation
to another generation or from one culture into another culture.

Transmission is in the shape of ideas if they are norms and values. And if the
culture is material then this transmission could be seen in actions as well as
material objects.

Causes
Cultural transmission occurs because;
 It's a characteristic of culture
 It's result of socialization
 It's a product of individual interaction
Necessity
Cultural transmission is an inevitable and natural process that lays positive
impact on the social setup. It is one of the means of spreading the culture
among the young people as well as the people of other cultures.

2. Cultural Relativism
People either like their culture very much or abhor it. In between the two
kinds of people, a third category exists inspired by cultural relativism. This
aspect teaches to respect the cultural differences instead of condemning
them. This concept is contrary to both ethnocentrism and Xenocentrism. It
amounts for;
 Appreciation of cultural diversity
 Logical understanding of all cultures
 Respect for all cultures
3. Sub-Cultures
A sub-culture can be defined as a cultural group within a larger culture,
often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture
but still a part of it in the broader understanding. Sub-cultures are formed as
a result when a major culture begins to host people of diverse thoughts and
also when the larger culture fails to agree with the new social practices of a
group of people living in it.

4. Ethnocentrism
It accounts for two things;
 Taking one's culture superior to others
 Taking other cultures as inferior to one's own
Ethnocentrism is based on the perceptions of the people who do not like
change. They think what they have been practicing in their culture is the
only right way and others are wrong.
5. Xenocentrism
Xenocentrism contrary to the ethnocentrism advocates the superiority of
other cultures on one's own culture. People under this idea are inspired by
the other cultures. For instance, it is common in the youth of South Asian
cultures to get inspired by the Western cultures and abhor their own.

6. Cultural Lag
When the material conditions change but these changes in the adaptive
culture do not synchronize exactly with the change in the material culture,
this delay is the culture lag. In easy words, the culture often takes its time
to catch up with the material advancement which is rapid in the modern
societies. Contrary to that the norms and customs lag behind the
development in materialism.

7. Cultural Lead
This concept is opposite to that of cultural lag. In here, the non-material
culture leads and the material culture lags behind. This happens in the
developing countries where the societies are mostly rich in culture but they
are not developed materially.

8. High Culture
High culture refers to a culture which is comparatively rich than the rest of
the cultures. It is most of the times taken in terms of richness in arts and
literature produced by a culture. In sociology, High Culture accounts for
richness in customs and cultural norms most of the times. Usually the
Western countries which hosted ancient civilization have comparatively high
cultures and centuries old traditions.

9. Popular Culture
Popular culture is defined as the culture that is "left over" when we have
decided what high culture is. It is modern term originated with the rise of
mediums like sports, music, politics, fashion etc. The role of internet and
media is enormous in coining the term of popular culture. It is also called
'Pop Culture'.

10. Multiculturalism
It is an association of several cultures in one society. This normally happens
when a society begins to welcome the aliens to live in it. They bring with
them their own cultures which usually grow on the sidelines of the main
culture. Its example come from the US, Canada and India which are the
giant centers of multiple cultures.

11. Assimilation
Cultural assimilation refers to the process of gradual adaptation of a culture
by a minority group living under it and which was aboriginally not a part of
it. This assimilation enhances the circle of a culture bringing new people into
it. This assimilation is common to be seen when migrants move to live
abroad and gradually adapt themselves to the new cultural norms.