The Concept of Culture

Introduction

Culture maintains a significant role in the lives of every individual in a certain society. No matter what kind and
nature of society this is, whether still in the condition of what many modern societies refer to as primitive or backward
community, the third world or developing countries that are economically subsisting mainly to agriculture or the
societies which have already achieved a very high degree of civilization. Sociologists are more focused with the cultures
of the industrialized society due to the beginnings and development of the discipline in the 17 and 18 th centuries. It does
not mean, however, that other types of societies are not being observed or just taken for granted. The underlying
mission and promise of sociology relates to “both the general cultural practices found in all societies and on the wide
variations that can distinguish one society from another” (Schaefer, R. T., 2012:52 – 53).

Definition of culture

Perhaps, the most widely accepted definition of culture was from the English Anthropologist Edward B. Tylor.
According to him, Culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any
other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." From this definition, we can summarize three
thoughts about culture. One is the idea of “complex whole”, culture is the totality of human behavior including material
culture since these are products of human intellect and attitudes. Another is that it is “acquired” or learned and not
inherited. Indolence, for instance, could not be due to genetic inheritance but is being learned by human beings as they
grow relative to their environment. Lastly, “as a member of society” – this means that a culture exists within a society.
Society reflects a fairly large number of people and they live in the same territory, are relatively independent of people
outside their area and participate/share in a common heritage and culture (Schaefer, R. T., 2012:53).

San Juan, W.R. and Centeno, M.L.J. (2011), in similar terms, related culture as referring to humans’ social
(behavioral) and material inventions, artificial or man – made environment including the learned ways of doing things. It
provides prescriptions and proscriptions for group life – the values, customs, norms, rules, laws, and sanctions for the
deviance.

Del Rosario, F.Y.G. (2012:34) also provided additional definitions by citing other social anthropologists; A.L.
Kroeber and Clyde Kluckon related that culture “is not an observable behavior but the values or beliefs that people use,
interpret, experience, generate behavior which that behavior reflects” and Ralph Linton stressed that culture is the total
way of life no simply to those parts which society consider higher or desirable. It refers to innumerable aspects of life.”

In yet another definition from Schaefer, R. T. (2012:53), “culture does not solely refer to the fine arts and refined
intellectual taste. It consists of all objects and ideas within a society, including slang words, ice-cream cones and rock
music. For sociologists, there is then no such words like “very cultured” of to a city as having “lots of culture”.

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Layers of Culture (Lifted from http://anthro.palomar.edu/culture/culture_1.htm)

There are very likely three layers or levels of culture that are part of your learned behavior patterns and
perceptions.

1. Body of cultural traditions that distinguish your specific society. When people speak of Italian, Samoan, or
Japanese culture, they are referring to the shared language, traditions, and beliefs that set each of these
peoples apart from others. In most cases, those who share your culture do so because they acquired it as
they were raised by parents and other family members who have it.

2. Subculture. In complex, diverse societies in which people have come from many different parts of the world,
they often retain much of their original cultural traditions. As a result, they are likely to be part of an
identifiable subculture in their new society. The shared cultural traits of subcultures set them apart from the
rest of their society. Examples of easily identifiable subcultures in the United States include ethnic groups
such as Vietnamese Americans, African Americans, and Mexican Americans. Members of each of these
subcultures share a common identity, food tradition, dialect or language, and other cultural traits that come
from their common ancestral background and experience.

3. Cultural Universals. These are learned behavior patterns that are shared by all of humanity collectively. No
matter where people live in the world, they share these universal traits. Examples of such "human cultural"
traits include:

1. communicating with a verbal language consisting of a limited set of sounds and grammatical
rules for constructing sentences
2. using age and gender to classify people (e.g., teenager, senior citizen, woman, man)
3. classifying people based on marriage and descent relationships and having kinship terms to
refer to
them (e.g., wife, mother, uncle, cousin)
4. raising children in some sort of family setting
5. having a sexual division of labor (e.g., men's work versus women's work)
6. having a concept of privacy
7. having rules to regulate sexual behavior
8. distinguishing between good and bad behavior
9. having some sort of body ornamentation
10. making jokes and playing games
11. having art
12. having some sort of leadership roles for the implementation of community decisions

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Components of Culture (Lifted from San Juan, W.R. and Centeno, M.L.J. 2011, some of the examples and notes are from
Schaefer, R.T., 2012)

1. Norms

These are guidelines people are supposed to follow in their relation with one another; they are shared
rules that specify what is right or wrong and the appropriate and inappropriate behavior. They indicate
what people should or should not do in a specific situation.

a. Folkways – these are everyday habits; customs, traditions and conventions people obey without
giving much thought to the matter. People who violate folkways are labeled slobs or eccentric but
they are tolerated.

Example: Eating with bare hands, bowing or talking and exchanging pleasant words with the people
you meet and city folks eat using spoon and fork and walk wearing slippers or shoes.
Walking up a down escalator in a department store challenges our standards, but it will not
result in a fine or a jail sentence (Schaefer, R.T., 2012)

b. Mores – These are the norms people consider vital to their wellbeing and most cherished values; they
are special customs with moral and ethical significance which are strongly held and emphasized.

1. Positive Mores
These refer to the behavior, which must and ought to be done because they are ethically
and morally good.
Example: Giving assistance to the poor and the needy; “Thou shall love
God above all”

2. Negative Mores
These refer to societal prohibition on certain acts which must not be done because they
are not only illegal, but unethical and immoral. Example: Prohibitions against incest,
cannibalism and murder.

c. Laws – These are formalized norms enacted by people vested with legitimate authority. They are
group expectations, which have formal sanction by the state.

Example: The revised Penal Code of the Philippines, Republic Acts, Statutes and Batas Pambansa

Acceptance of Norms (Schaefer, R.T., 2012) – People do not follow norms, whether mores or
folkways, in all situations. In some cases they can evade a norm because they know it is weakly enforced.
In some instances, behavior that appears to violate society’s norms may actually represent adherence to
the norms of a particular group.

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 2. Ideas, Beliefs, Values

Ideas – are non – material aspects of culture and embody man’s conception of his physical, social and
cultural world.

Beliefs – refer to a person’s conviction about a certain idea; it embodies peoples’ perception of reality
and includes the primitive ideas of the universe as well as the scientist’s empirical view of the world.

Values – are abstract concepts of what is important and worthwhile. They are general ideas that
individuals share about what is good or bad or wrong, desirable and undesirable. Values maybe specific,
such as honoring one’s parents and owning a home or they may be more general, such as health, love
and democracy (Schaefer, R.T., 2012).

3. Material Culture

This refers to the concrete and tangible objects produced and used by man to satisfy his varied
needs and wants. It ranges from prehistoric stone tools and weapons to sophisticated and modern
spaceships and weapons of mass destruction.

4. Symbols

It refers to an object gesture, sound, color or design that represents something other than itself.
People in a society must agree on the meanings of symbols if they have to be understood. From Schaefer,
R.T., (2012), symbols are the gestures, objects and words that form the basis of human communication.

Example: The thumbs – up gesture, a gold star sticker and the smiley face in an e-mail are all
symbols. Often deceptively simple, many symbols are rich in meaning and may not convey the same
meaning in all social contexts.

Other Concepts Related to Culture

Cultural Relativism (Schaefer, R.T., 2012)

This means viewing of people’s behavior from the perspective of their own culture. It places a priority on
understanding other cultures, rather than dismissing them as “strange” or “exotic”. Cultural relativism stresses
that different social contexts give rise to different norms and values. Thus we must examine practices such as
polygamy, bullfighting, and monarchy within the particular contexts of the cultures in which they are found.

Ethnocentrism (San Juan, W.R. and Centeno, M.L.J.,2011)

This refers to the tendency to see the behaviors, beliefs, values, and norms of one’s own group as the
only way of living and to judge others by those standards. It is the feeling of superiority for one’s own culture
and to consider other cultures as inferior or strange.

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 Culture Shock (San Juan, W.R. and Centeno, M.L.J.,2011)

This refers to the feeling of disbelief, disorganization, and frustration one experiences when he
encounters cultural patterns or practices which are different from his. He becomes so accustomed to his cultural
milieu that he finds himself disgusted, unsettled, troubled and disoriented when he enters another society with
a different culture.

Culture Lag (San Juan, W.R. and Centeno, M.L.J.,2011)

This relates to the gap between the material and non-material culture. Material culture advances more
rapidly and is more readily by people such that the non-material culture lags behind.

Counterculture (Schaefer, R.T., 2012)

This reflects a condition when a subculture conspicuously and deliberately opposes certain aspects of
larger culture. Countercultures typically thrive among the young, who have the least investment in the existing
culture. In most cases, a 20 – year – old can adjust to new cultural standards more easily than someone who has
spent 60 years following the patterns of dominant culture.

Some Known Characteristics of Culture (Del Rosario, F.Y.G. 2012)

1. Only humans possess culture. Culture and society are interrelated but only human beings possess culture.
The patterned behaviors of animals and other living organism may not be called culture but they have
societies like schools of fish, flocks of birds, etc.

2. Culture is learned. Human infants come into the world with basic drives such as hunger and thirst, but they
do not possess instinctive patterns of behavior to satisfy them. Culture is learned, it is not something that
we inherent; neither is it instinctive.

3. Culture is shared. Culture gives us a range of permissible behavior patterns. It commonly allow a range of
ways in which men can be women and women can be men.

4. Culture is functional. Culture is an adaptive mechanism of a certain group relative to their environment. In
most cases the aspects of their culture function for their survival.

5. Culture tends to be integrated and thus, patterned.

6. Cultures change. Not all accumulated knowledge will perpetuate in time. As people acquire new functional
traits, the old ones get discarded because they are no longer useful.

7. People usually are not aware of their culture.

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