Culture

THINGS TO REMEMBER:
- Culture
o Definition
o Culture is a lens
o Ethnocentrism
- Purposes of Culture (Branislaw Malinowski)
a. Biological
b. Integrative
c. Instrumental
- Enculturation
o Formal
o Informal
- Characteristics of Culture
o Shared/ Sharable
o Learned
o Based on symbols
o Dynamic
o Integrated
 Superstructure
 Social Structure
 Infrastructure
 Environment
- Cultural Universes
- 2 kinds of culture
o Material
o Non-material
 Gestures
 Language
 Values -> Norms -> Sanctions
- Ideal Culture
- Real Culture
- Technology
o New technology
o Cultural Lag
o Cultural Levelling
- Why is there culture?
o Structural Functionalism
o Social Conflict
- Definitions:
o The ways thinking, the ways of acting and the material objects that
together form a people’s way of life (Macionis, 2018)
o The languages, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors and material objects that
characterize a group and are passed from one generation to the next
(Henslin, 2017)
o The values, norms and material goods characteristic of a given good
(Giddens, 2018)
- Humans beings are born in a culture they are used too “desensitive” which forms
our thinking and how we use it everyday causing us not too question it
- Culture is the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what’s going on
around us
- Comprises the values, belief, behaviors and artifacts that are associated with a
particular group of people
- Ethnocentrism
o A tendency to use our own group’s ways of doing thinks as yardsticks for
judging people
o How it’s done:
 Connecting with cultures different from us

- Purposes of Culture
o Branislaw Malinowski
1. Biological
 It is to preserve the life of the people who follow it
 Outlines different practices the ancestors needed to know to
survive
 Ex: eating and working
2. Integrative
 Binds people together through practices
 Ex: Family dinner, b-day, funeral, family reunion
3. Instrumental
 Convey understanding
 Helps you be identified as that culture
 Have purpose or need
 Helps you function in society and fulfill
 Ex: language, material objects

- Enculturation
o Handing down of the ways of thinking or doing of a group of people
 o Formal: codes, rules, written
o Informal: groups without a rigid standing policy
 Ex: school, government, friends, family
- Culture is a tool to get our desired results

- Characteristics of Culture
o All characterist
1. Shared/ Sharable
 It is the characteristic of culture that allows it to be
disseminated to different places and peoples
 Culture can die or not passed down if it is reevaluated as
horrendous
o Ex: Hirana, lobotomy
2. Learned
 Culture can be teached
 Ex: schools
3. Based on symbols
 Symbols with meaning
4. Dynamic
 This refers to the adaptability of culture across spatial-
temporal realities
 Culture transforms overtime or changes
 Some culture that are accepted before are now looked down
upon
5. Integrated
 This refers to the purpose of culture that instills a sense of
affiliation with the social group
 Superstructure
o perceive self, society and world around us
o Members of society espouse as a product of their
interaction with their immediate enviroment
 Social structure
o Social arrangements of people in society
 Infrastructure
o Mode of subsistence ( allows one to live or to provide
food to live)
o Ex: Jobs
 Environment
o People rely on environment
o Natural resources in a society’s habitat
 o Culture happens by interacting with environment to
survive
o Determines what kind of culture is possible in that
area

Examples:

Environment Infrastructure Social Structure Superstructure

Agriculturalism Explorers Racial Hierarchy Spaniards saw
themselves at the
top of the food
chain

- Cultural Universes
o This encompasses the entire cultural components-which are not
necessarily native to but is-available to a group of people
o Element, pattern, trait or institution that is common to all known human
cultures worldwide or by that specific cultural universe
o Ex: the importance of the family dynamic or gift-giving
o Cultural isolation may occur if the community is separated
o Practices, technology, etc that is available to you that you can acquire from
different cultures to make culture advance
o Affect of cultural universes
 Europe
o Latitude areas allow the easier spread of knowledge
due to similar climates= rapid advancement
 USA
o Longtitude areas makes it difficult to spread culture
due to different climates
 - 2 kinds of Culture
o Material culture
 material objects
 Ex: structures built, architectural feats
 Why does PH have less historic monuments from the pre-
colonial time
o Due to lack of resources and no sense of unity
between barangays to build such structures
o Non-material culture
 Ways of thinking (beliefs and values), doing, language,
gestures, taboo, laws, folkways, mores, norms and values
 Comprises the intangible aspects of a society’s way of life
 Gestures
o Ways people use their bodies to communicate with
each other
o Only used for general things or emotions but not
convey complex ideas
 Language
o System of symbols is that can be combined in an
infinite number of ways that can represent objects as
well as abstract thoughts
o Sign language is an example

NORMS SANCTIONS
VALUES
- It is a general - Expression of
- Standards by which
category of approval for
people define as Enforced
Reflected suitable upholding
desirable, through
through behaviors norms or
undesirable,
practiced by a disapproval for
superior. Inferior,
society violating the
good or bad,etc
- Expectations of norms
- Helps maintain
right behavior - Different
health of society
degrees of
- Our situation or
sanctions
personal decision
affects
prioritiazation of
values
- Ex: Faith
- Safeguarded by
body of sanctions
  Different types of norms
o Folkways
 Norms not strictly enforced
 Least sanctions
 Ex: mano po, never go out at night
o Mores (more rays)
 Norms strictly enforced cause it is
important or it is a core value
 Heavy sanctions
 Ex: Plagiarism
o Taboo
 Norms with negative sanction
 Violating value as a human
 Ex: cannibalism
o Laws
 Upheld by state agencies

- IDEAL VS REAL CULTURE

o Ideal Culture
 Represents the aspirations, goals and desires of an entire
society
o Real Culture
 Norms, values that people actually follow as opposed to the
ideal culture

- Technology
o Tools
o Skills or procedures that are necessary to make and use those tools
o New technology
 Emerging technology that have a significant impact to social
life
 Causes conflict between ideal and real culture
 Helps a society advance
 In a narrow sense, laws are technologies cause they help
achieve a purpose
o Cultural Lag
 Phenomenon when novel materials are introduced into the
society with an already stable set of social practices
 Group’s material culture evolves first than non-material culture
 It can catch up but it will take time
 o Cultural Levelling
 Observation and experience
 As migration and trade bloomed, information was made
efficient = cultures becoming similar too one another
 Ex: spread of different brands (E.g. Jolibee) across different
cultures)
 Impacts uniqueness of a culture, perception of reality, belief,
etc

- Why is there culture?

o Structural Functionalism
 It is a stable system based on values
 It stabilizes a community, survive and integrates us to the
society
 Allows society to survive longer
o Social Conflict
 Culture is a dynamic arena of inequality and conflict. All
cultural patterns benefit different categories of people in
many ways and to varying degrees