Apno na teer mara gheero na lash

uthai
Jab janaza ki baat ai to dosto na
eid manai
Culture
The values, beliefs, behavior, and material objects that
together form a people’s way of life.

Nonmaterial culture – ideas created by members of a

society.

Material culture – tangible things created by members of

a society.

Only humans rely on culture rather than instinct to ensure

survival.
Culture – Nation- Society
Culture

Refers to shared way of life

Nation

A political entity, a territory with designed borders

Society

It is the organized interaction of people who typically lives in a nation

or some specific territory

Components of Culture
❖ Symbols

❖ Language

❖ Values

❖ Beliefs

❖ Norms
 1. Symbols
Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share culture.

✔ Societies create new symbols all the time.

✔ Symbolic meaning may also vary within a single society.

✔ Reality for humans is found in the meaning things carry with them.

✔ The basis of culture; makes social life possible.

✔ Not understanding the symbols of a culture leaves a person feeling lost and

isolated.

Example:

Flashing of Red light, Whistle, Winking an Eye

 2. Language
A system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another.

✔ Language allows for the continuity of culture.

✔ Cultural transmission – the process by which one generation passes

culture to the next.

✔ Every society transmits culture through speech.

✔ The Sapir-Whorf Thesis – people perceive the world through the cultural

lens of language.

✔ Languages are not just different sets of labels for the same reality.

✔ All languages fuse symbols with distinctive emotions.

 3. Values and Beliefs
Values

Culturally defined standards by which people assess

desirability, goodness, beauty and that serve as broad

guidelines for social living.

Beliefs

❑ Specific statements that people hold to be true.

❑ Values are abstract standards of goodness.

❑ Beliefs are particular matters that individuals consider true or

false.
 Values Sometimes Conflict
Sometimes one key cultural value contradicts another.

Value conflict causes strain.

Values change over time.

A Global Perspective

Cultures have their own values.

Lower-income nations have cultures that value survival.

Higher-income countries have cultures that value individualism

and self-expression.
4. Norms
Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members.
Types
▪ Proscriptive
Should not do
▪ Prescriptive
Should do
Mores and Folkways
▪ Mores (pronounced "more-rays")
Widely observed and have great moral significance
▪ Folkways
Norms for routine and causal interaction

Most important norms in a culture apply everywhere and at all times. (Obedience)
 Social Control
Various means by which members of society encourage conformity to norms
✔ Guilt
A negative judgment we make about ourselves
✔ Shame
The painful sense that others disapprove of our actions

Ideal Versus Real Culture

✔ Ideal culture
The way things should be
Social patterns mandated by values and norms
✔ Real culture
They way things actually occur in everyday life
Social patterns that only approximate cultural expectations
Material Culture and Technology
Culture includes a wide range of physical human
creations or artifacts.

A society's artifacts partly reflect underlying cultural

values.

In addition to reflecting values, material culture also

reflects a society's technology or knowledge that people
use to make a way of life in their surroundings.
 Cultural Diversity
Many Ways of Life in One World
▪ Cultural diversity can involve social class.
▪ Many cultural patterns are readily accessible to only some members of a society.
High culture – cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite.
Popular culture – cultural patterns that are widespread.
Subculture – cultural patterns that set apart some segment of
society’s population.
Counterculture
Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a
society.

Dominant culture
A set of patterns favored by powerful segments of the population.
 Multiculturalism
Recognizing the cultural diversity and promoting the equality of all

cultural traditions.

Eurocentrism

The dominance of European cultural patterns.

Afrocentrism

The dominance of African cultural patterns.