UNIT THREE: CULTURE

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 Definition of culture, types of culture

 Characteristics and elements of culture
 Cultural concepts ie universality, generality and particularity, sub-
culture, cultural lag
 Ethnocentrism, cultural relativism and human rights
 Socialisation process and their agents

Culture can be defined as mutually shared products, knowledge and beliefs of a human group
or society. It is not limited to art, literature, classical music but all aspects of life in a given
society. It may be taken as constituting a way of life of an entire society and this will include
codes of manners, dress, language, rituals, norms of behavior and systems of belief. Human
behavior is primarily a result of nurture rather than nature. Humans are different from
animals because they can construct and transmit symbolic meaning.

Ralph Linton (1940.) defines culture as the total sum of knowledge attitudes and habitual
behavior patterns shared and submitted by members of a particular society.

Tylor (1871) defined culture as the complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art,
morals, law customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of
society.

Though humans do have instincts to direct their actions, their behavior must be based on
guidelines that are learned, these must be shared by all members without which there would
be no communication and cooperation resulting in confusion and disorder would result.
Humans devise way of adapting to the environment and solving basic problems. Such
methods with time become patterned and shared within a population; they become a way of
life that is passed on from generation to generation as a design for living. Succeeding
generation may modify and add to the design. It resides in non-tangible forms like language,
values and symbolic meaning, includes technology and material objects.
Culture determines how members of society think and feel, it directs their actions and defines
their outlook on life. It is usually taken for granted because it becomes so much a part of
them that they are often unaware of its existence.

The concept culture is very significant in sociology as a discipline and social life in general;
culture enables humans to modify the natural environment. A shared culture is what makes
social life possible.

Types of Culture
Material culture- this involves objects used by the people to accomplish their goals e.g.
tools and machinery used in construction, spears, hoes, gourds, calculator. Material culture
physical objects found within a society, machines, tools, books, clothing. These are elements
of the environment that the society uses for survival and to enrich their lives. The nature of
the material culture produced by a given society is a function of the level of technology,
resources available to the society and the needs of the people. People develop material culture
and can change it; it’s part of social life to which forms of non-material culture must adapt.

Non material culture includes values, norms, language, world views and other symbolic
representations of the social and physical world like fairy tales, myths, skills, customs, music,
ideas, and complex legal codes. The material component of culture is shaped by the non-
material.

Characteristics of a culture
Culture is learned; Learned through the socialization process; directly or indirectly in the
social interaction process. Socialization plays an important role in what we all become.
Everything in culture is learned; culture is thus a substitute for 'instinct' as a means of
responding to the environment and it provides superior way of doing so. Culture frees us
from reliance on the slow, random accidental process of physical evolution by offering us a
new purposive, efficient means of adapting changing conditions

Culture is dynamic; it is not static; it is ever changing in different ways at different rates
although it tends to be inherently conservative e.g. non-material aspects (value and customs).
Culture is diverse with different aspects across different societies, like languages, dances,
artifacts, music etc.
Culture is universal but may differ from one society to another.
Transmitted from generation to generation
It is socially shared
Represents ideal forms of behavior

Elements of culture
Beliefs are conceptions that people accept as true concerning the operation of the world and
where the individual fits in relationship to others. They can be rooted in blind faith,
experience, tradition or the scientific method. Beliefs exert powerful influences on actions as
they are used to justify behavior that may be generous or violent.

Values generally are shared conceptions of what is good, right, appropriate, worthwhile and
important with regard to conduct, appearance, and states of being. Values are shared ideas
about desirable goals. After language, values are the most central and distinguishing aspect
of culture. Some cultures may value tenderness, cooperation competition, roughness.
Because all human populations face common dilemmas, certain values tend to be universal
e.g. stability and security, strong family, good health. There are strong differences in the
guidelines that each society offers for pursuing these goals. These guidelines are called
norms.

Norms: written and unwritten rules that specify behaviors appropriate and inappropriate to a
particular social situation. Some norms are considered more important than others and these
have more severe penalties, response to infraction of the norms can vary from a frown to
death. Norms are the shared rules of conduct, specify what people ought or not to do, culture
provides a blue print for living, a pattern to follow.
Norms and values are connected; norms specify the means for achieving socially valued
goals. Norms vary enormously in their importance both to individuals and society, some like
fashion norms are powerful while they last but are not central to society’s values, some like
those pertaining to marriage are central to cultures. There are two categories of norms basing
on the strength of enforcement: folkways and mores. Folkways describe norms that are
simply the customary, normal, habitual ways that a group does things, there is no strong
feeling about right or wrong attached to them. They are simply the way people do things like
table manners or rules of etiquette, punctuality. Conformity to folkways is expected but not
absolutely insisted upon like mores.

Mores are norms are associated with strong feelings of right or wrong. Violation of mores
may result in legal punishment or will result in informal reprisals like ostracism, shunning,
reprimand. Such punishments reduce the likelihood of people violating more.
Mores are considered almost sacred and violating them is likely to result in serious
consequences e.g. when a person takes the life of another, this will not be overlooked. Such
norms are considered essential and are strictly enforced. Overall, norms can either be
prescriptive or proscriptive, a particularly strong proscriptive is referred to as a taboo. For
example incest is a strong universal taboo.
The norms of a society are ultimately an expression of its values. The difference between
value and norms is that values are abstract, general concepts while norms are behavioral rules
or guidelines for people in a particular kind of situation.

Symbols- any kind of physical or conceptual phenomenon- a word, an object, a sound, a

feeling, a gesture or bodily movement- to which people assign a name and meaning.The
existence of culture depends on people ability to create and use symbols. A symbol is
anything that a group people have agreed upon as a way of meaningfully representing
something other than itself. Humans can exchange information with others and can learn a
great deal from each other, this is facilitated by symbols, and through these people can make
sense of reality and transmit information. Symbols can help in comprehending abstract
concepts like love, God, and justice.

Language- a system of symbols involving the use of sounds, gestures, and / characters to
convey meaning. When people learn languages they must learn a system symbol. Learn
agreed upon sounds that convey words, they must learn the rules that specify relationships
among chosen words. Learning a language and its rules is the key to human development.
The complexity of the human language sets people apart from other animals. It facilitates
interaction and communication. The essence of culture is sharing meanings among members
of a society; the chief mechanism for this sharing is language.
Language is a carrier of culture; it embodies the values and meanings of society as well as its
rituals, ceremonies, stories, prayers. To participate in a culture you must share the language of
that culture.Language gives us capabilities, it shapes and confines us. The grammar, structure
and categories embodied in a language affect how its speakers see reality and reality is
different for people that speak different languages. As a symbol, a common language is the
most obvious symbol that people share a common culture. A distinctive language symbolizes
a group’s separation from others while it simultaneously symbolizes unity within the group of
speakers.
The genes give us the physical human characteristics but not the social. The brain gives
people the ability to learn a language spoken around them, through such learning, people can
appreciate culture which gives them a tool to think about the world, interpret experiences,
maintain and establish relationships, and convey information.
Every society has some form of communication. Communication take place through either
written or spoken, but also a large amount takes place through symbols. Of all the symbols
used to communicate meanings, language is the most powerful and complex. Though many
animal species might use some form of language, human language is undoubtedly the most
complex and most sophisticated. It is so complex that most people spend a considerable
portion of their lives learning how to use it correctly.

Social control
If a society is to operate, it must have some way of enforcing its norms and values. People
must be made to conform or behave in socially acceptable ways. Violation of the norms of a
society is called deviance. Conformity is encouraged through the pressure of sanctions.
Sanctions can be either negative or positive. A positive sanction is a reward for behaving as
expected and desired in a given society. While a negative sanction is a punishment for
violating significant norms of a society. Sanctions range from formal such as one imposed by
an authority to informal such as applied by friends or peers. Thus, social control is a set of
means of ensuring that societal members generally behave in expected and approved ways.

Laws are rules that are enforced and sanctioned by the authority of government. These can
derive from the important mores and are enforced by agencies of the government. Laws are
formal norms that have been enacted by the state to regulate human conduct.
For a society to operate it must have some way to enforce its norms. People must be made to
conform even when it is unpleasant to do so, violation of social norms is termed deviance,
and conformity is encouraged through the pressure of sanctions. (Positive and negative,
formal, informal)

Why culture?
Because human beings are not programmed biologically or psychologically for any one set of
responses, each group must work out its own solutions basing on the resources at hand and
attempt to control themselves and their environment, thereby creating a culture.If a group
cannot create and maintain a viable culture then it will not survive overtime. There is need for
technology to provide for food, self-control to ensure order, care for children to ensure
continuity, common beliefs and ceremonies for unity and a sense of responsibility

Culture hence consists of solutions to the problem of survival which include the ideals and
values that shape rules of conduct, tools and other human made objects. The important
aspects of culture are language, beliefs, rituals (art forms) and the customs of daily living.
Members use these to understand what is happening to them and to choose appropriate ways
of responding.

Culture has been contrasted with nature; the things that humans produce or do are cultural,
while the things that exist or occur without human intervention are part of the natural word.
Humans discuss their world, learn about their world and teach what they learn; with culture
they are able to understand what they and others are doing and are supposed to do. Culture
distinguishes groups of people e.g. Baganda, Basoga, Bagishu etc.

Culture is a tool for solving problems- it provides formulae that enables the individual to
adjust to the problems of living, there are a number of challenges that develop from our
biological make up like emotional experiences, hunger, thirst, sexual desire, aging and death.
All cultures develop ways of helping members to respond to the biological needs like
satisfying the need for food, drink, sex, channeling and displaying emotion. For example,
culture influences how people will define edibility of food that is available, insects like
grasshoppers may be a source of nutrition but not everyone chooses to eat them. Culture will
influence what can be eaten and how it should be prepared or who should prepare it,
frequency of eating, how food should be served.

Culture also provides the formulas for expressing emotion i.e. the body sensation experienced
in relationship with other people e.g. Love, empathy, jealousy, guilt, grief. There are rules that
specify appropriate ways to express emotions towards other people.

The key to culture is the human capacity to use symbols. Social life can exist without
symbols for example animals are social but only human beings have culture because they are
able to create symbols.
People borrow material and non-material culture from other societies. The process by which
an idea, invention or any other cultural item is from another culture is called Cultural
diffusion. This occurs when people from different cultures make contact, face to face,
television, internet. Borrowing of ideas is selective, people can chose aspects of a certain idea
or practice that they will adopt.

Most people come to learn and accept the ways of their culture as natural and when they
encounter others cultures they can experience mental and physical strain cultural shock. The
intensity of the shock depends on the extent of the difference between cultures, the level of
preparation for or knowledge about the new culture, the circumstances surrounding the
encounter.

Some Cultural Concepts

Ethnocentrism
One reason why people experience cultural shock is that they hold the viewpoint of
ethnocentrism- using one culture as a standard to judge the desirability/ worth of other
cultures. One’s culture is used as a standard for judging the other culture and these are seen as
strange or inferior. Various levels of ethnocentrism exist, defining foreign culture as strange,
the most extreme and destructive form of ethnocentrism is cultural genocide in which people
of one culture judge that of others as so offensive and intolerable that they attempt to destroy
it.

Xenocentrism
Xenocentrism is belief that other cultures are better than one’s own. Xenocentrism is
something referred to as “reserve ethnocentrism’. Like ethnocentrism, this too should be
avoided.

Cultural relativism
Cultural relativism runs counter to ethnocentrism: it means that another culture should not be
judged by the standards of one’s culture and that behavior and way of thinking must be
judged in its cultural context- terms of the society’s values, norms, beliefs, environmental
challenges and history. Cultural relativism as a perspective aims at understanding not to
condone or discredit another people way of behavior.
Subcultures
Sharing a culture does not mean complete homogeneity. When segments of society face
substantially different kinds of social environments, subcultures develop to help them adapt
these unique problems. A Subculture shares in the overall culture of society but also maintain
a distinctive set of values, norms, lifestyles and even language. Subcultures may contribute an
appearance of non-conformity when people conform to the norms of subcultures. A group can
be identified as a subculture depending on whether they share a language, symbol system,
values and norms or territory, or whether they interact with one another than people outside
the group. Central to a subculture is that its members are cut off or separated from other
people in the larger culture. Separation may be with regard to selected aspects of life like
work, school, recreation, and religion, health care, housing- this separation may be voluntary
or geographical or imposed by the dominant group. Certain categories of people may feel
excluded from the personal social relationships of the bigger group; this may force then into
their own support groups, study groups.
Countercultures describe subcultures in which norms, values, symbols and language the
members emphasize conflict or oppose the dominant culture, rejection of the dominant
cultures values is central to understanding a counterculture. Counter cultures are groups that
have values, interests, beliefs and lifestyles that conflict with those of the larger culture.
These reflect radical revisions in and taken for granted ways of life.

There is a relationship between culture and society; culture consists of the shared products of
society while society consists of the interacting people who share a culture. However, the two
are closely interrelated; a society could not exist without culture and without culture, neither
individual human beings nor human society could survive.

Cultural Universality:
All societies are different, but all face many broadly similar problems e.g. all societies must
confront the issue of human origins and mortality. There are a number of general cultural
universals, but they do not seem to be any specific one, e.g. every culture has norms
prohibiting murder, but different cultures have different ideas about which homicides
constitutes murder and which do not, ( all societies have ways of greeting and marriage).
Cultural universality implies that there are general traits; their specific content varies from
one culture to another.

Cultural integration
A culture does not consist of a random collection of different elements, the customs, values,
beliefs, practices and other characteristics of a culture tend to complement one another, i.e. to
be integrated into a complex whole. Integration pertains to how interconnected,
complimentary, mutually supportive the various elements of a culture are. If a culture is to
survive, it must be integrated to a considerable extent, although in practice some cultures are
more integrated than others. The fact that culture tends to be integrated is often not apparent
until change occurs in one part, throwing other parts into disorganization (generating
widespread resistance)

Cultural Lag
There are several changes in contemporary times and this is illustrated by how development
in technology often out paces development in values, norms and ideology. Cultural lag refers
to the time between the appearance of a new material invention and the making of the
appropriate adjustments in the corresponding area on non-material culture. It occurs when
one of two parts of a culture which are correlated changes before or in greater proportion than
the other part thereby causing less adjustment between the two parts.