Concepts in Culture

Ethnocentrism:
Literally, ‘ethno’ mean people. Hence, sticking or centring of people to certain attitude or
thing is called ethnocentrism. This term was coined by an eminent American sociologist
W.G. Sumner in 1906, used to describe prejudicial attitudes between in-groups and out-
groups. Anthropologists used this term to analyse the bent of mind of the people towards
other cultures in terms of their own culture using one’s own rating scales.

It is ‘a tendency to evaluate the culture of others in terms of own culture’ Accordingly,

people often evaluate their own culture (beliefs, values, behaviour patterns, and ways of
living) superior to others. Outsiders or others are thought of as aliens, barbarians or morally
and mentally inferior.

When we call ‘primitives’ as barbarians or compare other societies in terms of one’s own
cultural assumptions or bias, we are in reality governed by this very feeling of
ethnocentrism. This feeling gives rise to blindness, narrow and parochial judgments. Many
wars were fought or aggression took place because of this feeling of ethnocentrism.

Ethnocentrism can also be looked at as the sociological counterpart to the psychological

phenomenon of egocentrism. The difference is that in the egocentrism individuals are at the
centre of the universe while in ethnocentrism an entire culture is placed in this exalted
position.

Sociologists and anthropologists attempt to view all behaviours, lifestyles and ideas in their
own context and not from ethnocentrism, though at many times they unknowingly become
the culprit of ethnocentric feeling when they believe that their methods are the best to
approach problems.

2. Cultural Relativism:
While ethnocentrism evaluates foreign cultures using the familiar culture of the observer as
a standard of correct behaviour, cultural relativism views people’s behaviour from the
perspective of their own culture. The belief that cultures must be judged on their own terms
rather than by the standards of another culture is called cultural relativism.

Thus, from this perspective, an act, idea, form of dress or other cultural manifestation is not
inherently good or bad, right or wrong, correct or incorrect. It does mean that the behaviour
appropriate in one place at one time may and may not be appropriate everywhere or every
time.

Several examples can be given from our day-to-day behaviours; for example, nudity in the
bathroom is appropriate but not in the office or at the public place. Anthropologists have
documented many such examples from different societies. For instance, the deliberate
killing of a child is considered murder in almost all societies, but in Brazil’s Tenetehara
society, it is a legitimate practice.

Cultural relativism is based on the philosophy that denies the existence of truth
independent and outside of itself. It maintains that beliefs, values and theories are relative
to time and place that produced them and not valid outside those circumstances.

Accordingly, culture (ways of life) can only be judged in the context of age or society that
has produced them. Some theories in sociology of knowledge are relativistic in that they
suggest that all knowledge is socially produced.

Cultural relativism stresses that different social contexts give rise to different norms and
values. As such, practices like polygamy, bullfighting and monarchy should be examined
within the particular context of the cultures in which they are found.

Cultural Shock

Culture shock is a term used to express a negative feeling experienced by persons moving
from one society to another or within one’s own society.

Such persons find that the culture in which they move is not only different to their own but
see things which are quite strange and opposite to the culture in which they have been
brought up experience a feeling that is termed as culture shock. People feel horrified to see
the custom of ‘head hunting’ as found in some tribes of Nagaland, and a custom of mixing of
blood of two persons to make them blood brothers.

4. Xenocentrism:
Xenocentrism is a culturally based tendency to value other cultures more highly than one’s
own. On the basis of this feeling, the products, styles, ideas and values of one’s society are
regarded as inferior to that of other societies.

For example, people in India often assume that British lifestyle (dress pattern, etc.), French
fashion or Japanese electronic devices (TV, tape recorders, mobile set, washing machines,
etc.) and Swiss watches are superior to their own.

This is why people give preference to foreign goods while purchasing. In brief, xenocentrism
is the belief that what is foreign is best. It is interesting to note that xenocentrism on the
one hand is an extension of cultural relativism and on the other hand, in a sense, it is a
reverse ethnocentrism.
5. Xenophobia:
Xenophobia is a culturally based fear of outsiders. It is often seen with the immigrant people
into societies and communities. It is based on the genuine or sometimes fictitious fear of the
strangers for competition of jobs, or ethnic, racial, or religious prejudice.

This feeling has given rise to anti-immigration movements in many countries of Europe, USA
and Australia. Recently, these countries have enacted many stringent laws to discourage
people to come to their country.

6. Cultural Diversity:
Culture differs greatly from one another. The focus of behaviour varies widely from culture
to culture. The Indian ways of living and behaving are quite different from the
Western/Arab/Chinese societies.

In the West, for example, the marital partners are chosen through the practice of dating,
while in India, till today, living aside a few, this is done by parents. Jews do not eat pork,
while Hindus eat pork but avoid beef. Westerners regard kissing as normal part of behaviour
in public places while in India it is refrained or avoided.

Universality of Culture:
Despite differences in cultures, all societies have attempted to meet basic human needs
(sex, shelter or protection and hunger). These needs are found, notwithstanding time and
places, all over the world. In order to survive man has devised various cultural responses to
fulfill these basic needs.

These responses are shared, learned behaviour known as cultural universals. Behind the
seemingly endless diversity in culture patterns, there is a fundamental uniformity in these
universals. Anthropologists have termed them as cultural constants or common
denominators.

Cultural universals are believed to exist among all men and attributed in most cases to the
necessity of meeting needs, as said above, common to all men. Famous American
anthropologist George P. Murdock (1965) has given a list of such universals. Some such
universals are marriage, family, food habits, food taboos, funeral ceremonies, games, sexual
restrictions, language, housing, myths, religion, medicines, cultural practices (gift giving,
cooking, dancing, etc.).

Temporocentrism

is the belief that your times are the best of all possible times. All other times are thus
inferior.
Ideal culture includes the values and norms that a culture claims to have. It involves an
idealized, uncompromising value system that dictates perfect behavior.

Real culture, on the other hand, includes the values and norms that are actually followed by
a culture. It involves an adaptable value system that is used mostly as a set of guidelines for
preferred behavior.

Subculture and Counterculture

A subculture is just what it sounds like—a smaller cultural group within a larger culture;
people of a subculture are part of the larger culture but also share a specific identity within
a smaller group.

Thousands of subcultures exist within the United States. Ethnic and racial groups share the
language, food, and customs of their heritage. Other subcultures are united by shared
experiences. Biker culture revolves around a dedication to motorcycles. Some subcultures
are formed by members who possess traits or preferences that differ from the majority of a
society’s population. The body modification community embraces aesthetic additions to the
human body, such as tattoos, piercings, and certain forms of plastic surgery. In the United
States, adolescents often form subcultures to develop a shared youth identity. Alcoholics
Anonymous offers support to those suffering from alcoholism. But even as members of a
subculture band together, they still identify with and participate in the larger society.

Sociologists distinguish subcultures from countercultures, which are a type of subculture

that rejects some of the larger culture’s norms and values. In contrast to subcultures, which
operate relatively smoothly within the larger society, countercultures might actively defy
larger society by developing their own set of rules and norms to live by, sometimes even
creating communities that operate outside of greater society.

Cultural Traits
Cultural traits are the single elements or smallest units of a culture. They are “units of
observation” which when put together constitute culture. According to Hoebel cultural trait
is “a repeatedly irreducible unit of learned behaviour pattern or material product there of”.
Any culture can be seen as to include thousands of such units.

Thus shaking hands, touching the feet, tipping hats, the kiss on the cheeks as gesture of
affection, giving seats to ladies first, saluting the flag, wearing white ‘sarees’ at mourning,
taking vegetarian diets, walking barefooted, drinking water on the idols, carrying ‘kirpans’,
growing beard and hair, eating in brass utensils etc. are cultural traits.
Thus traits are the elemental units of a culture. It is these traits which distinguish one
culture from another. A trait found in one culture may have no significance in other culture.
Thus offering water to sun may have significance in Hindu culture but none in the western
culture.

Cultural Complex
Cultural complexes are nothing but larger clusters of traits organized about some nuclear
point of reference. Cultural traits, as we know, do not usually appear singly or
independently. They are customarily associated with other restated traits to from cultural
complex.

The importance of a single trait is indicated when it first go in to a cluster of traits, each one
of which performs a significant role in the total complex.

Thus, kneeling before the idol, sprinkling sacred water over it, putting some food in its
mouth, folding hands, taking ‘prashad’ from the priest and singing ‘arati’ form a religious
complex.

Cultural Pattern
A cultural pattern is formed when traits and complexes become related to each other in
functional roles. Each cultural complex has a role to play in society. It has got definite place
within it. The cultural pattern of a society consists of a number of cultural complex.

Thus the Indian cultural pattern consists of Gandhism spiritualism, joint family caste, system
and ruralism. So there is a cultural complex consisting of a numerous cultural traits.

Cultural diffusion describes the spread of one culture's practices, beliefs, and/or items, like
food, music, or tools. This spread can be among members of the same culture or to
completely different cultures around the world.

Acculturation

Acculturation is a process through which a person or group from one culture comes to
adopt the practices and values of another culture, while still retaining their own distinct
culture. This process is most commonly discussed regarding a minority culture adopting
elements of the majority culture, as is typically the case with immigrant groups that are
culturally or ethnically distinct from the majority in the place to which they have
immigrated.

However, acculturation is a two-way process, so those within the majority culture

often adopt elements of minority cultures with which they come into contact. The process
plays out between groups where neither is necessarily a majority or a minority. It can
happen at both group and individual levels and can occur as a result of in-person contact or
contact through art, literature, or media.

Acculturation is not the same as the process of assimilation, though some people use the
words interchangeably. Assimilation can be an eventual outcome of the acculturation
process, but the process can have other outcomes as well, including rejection, integration,
marginalization, and transmutation.

Acculturation is a process of cultural contact and exchange through which a person or group
comes to adopt certain values and practices of a culture that is not originally their own, to a
greater or lesser extent. The result is that the original culture of the person or group
remains, but it is changed by this process.

When the process is at its most extreme, assimilation occurs wherein the original culture is
wholly abandoned and the new culture adopted in its place. However, other outcomes can
also occur that fall along a spectrum from minor change to total change, and these include
separation, integration, marginalization, and transmutation.

Cultural Lag

The cultural lag concept was first theorized and the term was coined by William F. Ogburn,
an American sociologist, in his book "Social Change With Respect to Culture and Original
Nature," published in 1922. Ogden felt that materiality — and by extension, the technology
that promotes it — advances at a rapid pace, whereas societal norms tend to resist change
and advance much more slowly. Innovation surpasses adaptation and this creates conflict.

Elements of Culture
Language: – Every culture has a particular language which is passed by the person belongs
to that particular culture to the next generation and the following generation also has to
learn the language. The language can be defined, in a very precise manner, and can be
compared, in the best way, with a vehicle. Language is a medium or an instrument which is
used to express one’s view and to keep forward one’s opinion.

Language is the most basic and most important element in a culture. For example, a person
who speaks nagamese can be judged to be a citizen of Nagaland. The person who speaks
Hindi and having an accent like that of Indians can be recognized easily, that he is a citizen
of India and likewise person speaking other languages can be recognized that to which
culture he/she belongs.

Norms: – The very important element of a culture is this norms. This decides the rules and
regulation of a society.
Beliefs:- Before the creation of any culture by a society, society decides their source of
motivation, which they considered as appropriate. For example god Shiva to Hindus, Sikh
wear bangle in one hand, bear a long beard, keeping a dagger. Cross for Christians and a
necklace or a cotton thread around the neck.

Symbols:- Importance of Symbols may differ for different people, belonging to a different
culture. For example sign of cross means nothing for Hindus but for Christians, this is a
symbol of Lord Christ.

Values:– Anything or any material when collects importance in our daily life it starts having
value. Value of some materials, sometimes, are received and taught by parents to their
children. Some values are explained by society, in this way value of a particular society gets
accumulated and move forward from generations to generations.

Cognitive elements:- Cognitive elements are that element of culture which deals with the
management of difficult times or natural calamities. Cognitive elements of culture are
those through which an individual learn how to cope with an existing situation whether
natural or social. These qualities are learned by children and taught, to them, by their
parents, so that their son/daughter can live with peace in a particular situation

Culture is a symbolic continuous, cumulative and progressive process.