Sociology Lesson 7

Culture
Definition: It is the sum total of ideas, beliefs, values, knowledge, and material artefacts that are
handed down from one generation to the next in a society.

-it is all that in human society is socially transmitted

Elements of culture:

1. Material products- artefacts

2. Socio-cultural regulations of human behaviour in society- values, norms, morals...
3. Ideas- cognitive and symbolic systems: religious beliefs, ideologies...
4. Social institutions- they organise behaviour and life in society, marriage, religions,
education..

There are two basic forms of culture:

-a) material culture or artefacts- all material objects: buildings, folk costumes, jewellery, paintings,
statues

-b) the non-material or adaptive culture- transmitted by education and tradition:

-knowledge and ideas: scientific knowledge, proverbs...

-values: goals, preferences...

-symbols: 1. material- a flag, road signs..., 2. non-material- words, gestures...,3. verbal- language,

4. non-verbal- shaking a hand, nodding...,

-norms: habits, models of behaviour, morals..,

-institutions: education system, health system, banking, marriage.....

Material culture is accessible to archaeology, whereas adaptive culture/ non-material culture is

the subject of history, sociology and anthropology.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY

For 19th-century anthropologists culture was a conscious creation of human rationality: civilization
and culture, in its conception, showed a progressive tendency towards so called higher moral values.
And this enabled to construct a hierarchy of cultures or civilizations which provided a rationale
(zdôvodnenie, logický základ) for colonial activities by so believed higher-order Western civilizations.

However, each culture is different because during its historical development is influenced by
different aspects of life, behaviour, activities and experience, etc.

Contemporary ideas of culture tend towards CULTURAL RELATIVISM. The intention is to describe,
compare and construct cultures rather than rank them. We can also study the process by which
cultural traits may be borrowed or otherwise transmitted between societies.

CULTURAL RELATIVISM- ackowledges that each culture is unique.

There are cultures so different from the West that they are incomprehensible to outsiders who
therefore cannot translate them into their own terms.

To study non-Western societies we must understand patterns in their own terms,adopting an insider
´s view of the culture. This is called ETHNOGRAPHY- it is a process of uncovering the meanings by
which people construct reality and translating this knowledge into their own society.
ETHNOGRAPHY observes directly the behaviour of a social group or society and produces a written
record.

ETHNOCENTRISM (opposite to ethnography)- sometimes described as the cardinal sin of the

comparative method. It si the practice of studying and making judgements about other societies in
terms of one´s own cultural assumption or bias (zaujatosť, predpojatosť, predsudky)

Ethnocentrism often suggest that the way something is done in other societies is inferior to the way
it is done in one´s own society.

CULTURAL OR SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY- it is the study of the entire range of cultures and societies in
the world. Modern social anthropology has developed an approach which is relevant for any area,
Western or non-Western.

In cultural anthropology, analysis of culture may proceed at three levels:

1) Learned patterns of behaviour

2) Aspects that act below conscious levels- such as the deep level of grammar and syntax in
language, of which a native language speaker is seldom aware
3) Patterns of thought and perception, which are also culturally determined

Modern societies are often a conglomeration (zhluk, nahromadenie) of different, often competing,
cultures and subcultures.

Dominant culture- one whose values, language, and ways of behaving are imposed on a subordinate
culture or cultures (through economic or political power).

Subculture- culture minority within one society. It is distinct from the dominant host culture (Gypsy,
Jewish etc.) but it is not in contradiction with the dominant one

Contra-culture/ counter culture- when subcultures specifically stand in direct opposition to the
dominant culture of the society in which they are located. It rejects its most important values and
norms and endorses (podporuje) their opposites. The term was applied to the student and hippy
cultures identified with the youth conflicts around 1968.

Popular culture- an authentic expression of public taste, all the knowledge, technologies, values,
beliefs, customs, and behaviour common to people. Sociologists have become involved in the
analysis of popular culture because it provides a window into public consciousness, and is an
important element of solidarity within social classes and of division between them. Popular culture
has many meanings and layers in comparison with mass culture.

Mass culture- widespread and accessible to everyone, many times viewed as in opposition to high
culture

High culture- includes classical music, serious novels, poetry, dance, high art and other cultural
products which are usually appreciated by only a relatvely small number of educated people.