Culture

BY: AFREEN LASHARI

AROOJ FATIMA KHAKWANI
MAHNOOR NAWAZ
SALMAN ARIF
SIDRA FAROOQ
What is Culture? An Overview
• It’s a way of living that answers the questions faced by
people in their every day lives.
• Ideas, cultures, and social behavior of particular group
of people or society.
Kinds of Culture
• Home Culture
• High culture
• Subculture (Emos & skaters in UK)
• Organization culture (Japanese vs American)
• Popular culture (Pop music like K-pop)
• Counter culture (Feminist groups, Suffrage movement)
Components of Culture

• Material
• Tangible Artifacts
(trucks/rickshaws/mosques/cuisines)
• Ways of doing and being (hugs in Pakistan,
handshake in US)
(Cont…)
• Non-material
• Beliefs (Oneness of God)
• Values (Adultery)
• Norms (American vs Korean table manners)
• Mores (Saudi stealing law)
• Symbols (Have more children + mustaches is a
symbol of pride)
• Folklores (Heer Ranjha)
Cultural Diffusion
• Spread of cultural beliefs and social activities from one
group to the other

• Mixing of world cultures of different ethnicities, religions,

nationalities (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube)
3 categories of diffusion
mechanisms:
• Direct diffusion -two cultures are
very close resulting in inter-
marriage, trade
• Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik
• Forced Diffusion -one culture
subjugates another culture
• British control on the subcontinent,
spread of English
• 80% of English speakers in world are
non-native speakers shows spread
through trade, colonialism
• Indirect Diffusion -traits are
passed from one culture to
another without direct contact
• Popularity of sushi in Pakistan
(Fujiyama, Wasabi)
• Fireworks used in every kind of
celebration (Wedding, Eid) but
originated in China
• Clothing manufactured in other
countries but shipped here
Effects
• Positives: • Negatives:
• More aware of diversity • New weapons and
in society diseases brought to the
• Stops cultural Americans by Europeans
discrimination, more such as AIDS, Smallpox
respect • Loss of cultural identity
• Spread of new and traditions
technology (smart
phones, computers)
Transmission of Culture
• Culture is learnt
• Degrees of respect (Japanese)
• Linguistic relativity hypothesis
• Different culture, different worldview
• Social realities specific to culture
• Owls vs Ullu
• Products, not replicas
• Every person thinks as an individual
Attitudes to Culture
• Ethnocentrism
• Belief of superiority
• Can develop from racial or religious differences
• Nazi Germany
• Others are peculiar
• Others are bad
• Others should be erased
(Cont…)
• Reverse Ethnocentrism
• Home culture is regarded as inferior to a foreign
culture
• Pakistani culture is influenced by other cultures
• Cultural Relativity
• Understanding others from the perspective of their
culture
THANK YOU!