The Cultural

Context

The Cultural Context by Dr. Shoaib Ahmed

 CONTENTS
• Introduction to Culture
• Types of Culture:
a. Non Material b. Material

• Difference b/w Society & Culture

• Social & Cultural Development:
a) Biological Factors b) Geographic Factors

• Non Human Social Organisation ( Basic differences)

• Culture as a system of Norms

(Key Components of culture)

• Real & Ideal Culture

• Ethnocentrism & Xenocentrism
 Society and Individual
Members of a society are generally
unaware that they are following belief and
custom in their behavior.
They seldom wonder why they believe and
act as they do.
Only by stepping outside one's own body of
belief and custom can one become aware
of its actual nature.
 Definition of Culture
From their life experiences people develop a set
of rules and procedures for meeting their needs.

The set of rules and

procedures, together with a
supporting set of ideas and
values, is called a culture.
"Culture ... is that complex whole
which includes knowledge, belief,
art, morals, law, custom and any
other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of
society."
Edward Tylor (1871)
Culture is everything which is socially learned
and shared by the members of a society.
The individual receives culture as part of a social
heritage and, in turn, may reshape the culture
and introduce changes which then become part
of the heritage of succeeding generations.
Kinds of Culture
1. Material culture
2. Nonmaterial culture
 Material & Non Material Culture
• NONMATERIAL CULTURE
con­sists of the words people use, the ideas,
customs, and beliefs they hold, and the habits
they follow.
• MATERIAL CULTURE
consists of manufactured objects such as tools,
furniture, automobiles, buildings, irrigation
ditches, cultivated farms, roads, bridges, and, in
fact any physical substance which has been
changed and used by people. Such manufac­tured
objects are called artifacts.
• The material culture is always the outgrowth
of the nonmaterial culture and is meaningless
without it.
• The nonmaterial culture would include the
rules of the game, the skills of the players,
the concepts of strategy, and the traditional
behavior of players and spectators.
• If the game of Cricket is forgotten, a bat
becomes just a stick of wood.
CULTURE & SOCIETY

The Cultural Context by Dr. Shoaib Ahmed

• Culture is often confused with society,
but the two words have different
meanings.
• Whereas a culture is a system of norms
and values,
• a society is a relatively independent,
self-perpetuating human group which
occupies a territory, shares a culture,
and has most of its associations within
this group.
A society is an organization of
people whose associations are with
one another.

A culture is an organized system of

norms and values which people
hold.
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
DEVELOPMENT

• Biological Factors
• Geographic Factors
1. Biological Factors

• The recent growth of a discipline known as

sociobiology has drawn renewed attention to
biological factors in human behavior.
• Socio-biology is defined by E. Wilson, 1975 as

"the systematic study of the biological

basis of human behavior."
• The interaction of biology and culture influence human
behavior, starting with the development of human
society.
• Cultural accumulation at first was very slow.
• People lived in the open or in caves, they used simple
stone tools to skin animals and cut off chunks of meat,
for digging edible roots, they probably used pointed
sticks.
• There is some evidence that fire was used, during this
period humans became skilled hunters, but there is
considerable argument as to whether these early
hominids were humans at all.
• SOCIAL EVOLUTION
• Biological evolution was one of the exciting ideas of
the 19th century. While many contribution were
made to evolutionary theory.

• CHARLES DARWIN after traveling the world and

classifying tens of thousands of present life forms and
fossil traces of earlier life forms, he developed, in his
Origin of Species (1859), the theory that the human
race had gradually evolved from lower orders of life.
This came about through the survival of those
biological forms best fitted to survive.
• AUGUSTE COMTE in his Positive Philosophy (1851-1854)
wrote of three stages through which he believed human
thought inevitably moved:
• the theological,
• the metaphysical (or philosophical), and finally
• the positive (or scientific).

• HERBERT SPENCER, of the nineteenth century, was enamored

of "social Darwinism." He saw social evolution as a set of
stages through which all societies moved from the simple to
the com­plex.
• The progress of society unfolding in a way that would
gradually end misery and increase human happiness.
2. Geographic Factors
• Climate and geography are
undoubtedly very important factors
in cultural development.
• Extremes of climate or topography
are serious obstacles to many kinds
of cultural development.
• Great civilizations do not flourish in the frozen, Arctic, the
torrid desert, the lofty mountain range or the tangled forest.
People can live in these areas and may develop ingenious
means of coping with natural forces, but such areas have not
produced great cities or highly developed civilizations.

• On the other hand, the earliest great civilizations known to

the world developed in the lowlands of great •river basins.

• Only such areas. met the requirements for an early

civilization:

(1) Fertile land which could support a dense population, with part
of the people Free to engage in nonagricultural work, and

(2) Easy transportation to link together a large area.

 Non-human Social Organization
¤ Non Human have orderly system of Social life.
¤ Many bird species mate for a lifetime and (in contrast to
humans) are absolutely loyal to their mates.
¤ Many species of insects, such as ants and bees, have an
elaborate pattern of social life, complete with
specialized occupations, lines of authority, and detailed
distribution of Duties and privileges.
 Difference b/w Human life & Non- human Life
Human Life Non- human Life

Social Life is infinitely variable and continuously Social life tends to be uniform and
changing. unchanging.

Lacking in inborn patterns of behavior In non-human species have a degree

(instincts). to which the life of other animals is
based on instinct rather than
learning.
Inherit a set of organic needs, urges and hunger No concept of trial & error
(derives) must be satisfied in someway to other.
In their trail and error efforts to satisfy their
urges, humans create culture.

Unable to rely upon instinct, human beings must No concept of culture

build culture in order to survive.
Culture is a type of substitute for instinct since
it gives humans direction and frees them from
perpetual trial and error.
 Culture as a system of Norms (Key Components of culture)

Norms Values Symbols & Language

• The term "norm" has two possible meanings.

• A statistical norm is a measure of what actually exists ,
actual conduct with no suggestion of approval or
disapproval. (Real Culture)
• A cultural norm is a concept of what is expected to exist or
a set of behavior expectations. . (Ideal Culture)
• A culture is an elaborate system of such norms of
standardized, expected ways of feeling and acting which
the members of n society generally acknowledge and
generally follow.
Kinds of Norms
i) Folkways: Folkways are simply the customary, normal, habitual
ways a group does things. Shaking hands, eating with knives and
forks, wearing neckties on some occasions and sport shirts on
others, driving on the right-hand side of the street, and eating
toast for breakfast are a few of folkways.
ii) Mores : By mores we mean those strong ideas of right and
wrong which require certain acts and forbid others. (Mores is*'the
plural of the Latin word mos, but the singular form rarely appears
in so­ciological literature.)
iii) Laws; Many people will obey mores automatically or be­cause
they want to do the "right" thing. A few people, however, are
tempted to violate mores. These people may be forced to con­form
by the threat of legal punishment. Thus, the law serves to
reinforce the mores.
ETHNOCENTRISM
&
XENOCENTRISM

The Cultural Context by Dr. Shoaib Ahmed

 ETHNOCENTRISM
• That view of things in which one's own
group is the center of everything and
all others are scaled and rated with
reference to it".
Sumner, William Graham: Folkways
• Ethnocentrism is the habit of
each group taking for granted the
superiority of its culture.

• For Example
• Our society is "progressive," while
the non-Western world 'is
"backward". Our art is beautiful,
whereas that of other societies
may be viewed as Ugly.
 Ethnocentrism a yardstick

• Ethnocentrism makes our culture into a yardstick with which to

measure all other cultures as good or bad, high or low, right or
queer in proportion as they resemble ours.
• It is expressed in such phrases as "chosen people," "progressive,"
"superior race," "true believers," and by epithets (Nickname) like
"foreign devils," "infidels," "heathen," "backward peoples,"
"barbarians," and "savages."
 Promotion of group unity, loyalty, and.
Morale.
• Ethnocentric groups seem to survive better than tolerant
groups.
• Ethnocentrism justifies sacrifice and sanctifies martyrdom.
• The attitude, "I prefer my customs, although I recognize
that, basically, they may be no better than yours," is not
the sort of faith for which dedicated believers will march
singing to their deaths.
• Ethnocentrism reinforces nationalism and patriotism.
• Without ethnocentrism, a dynamic national
consciousness is probably impossible. Nationalism is
but another level of group loyalty.
• Periods of national tension and conflict are always
accompanied by intensified ethnocentric propaganda.
• Perhaps such a campaign is a necessary emotional
preparation for the expected sacrifices.
 PROTECTION AGAINST CHANGE

• If our culture is already superior, then why tinker (Cheat) with alien
innovations?
• Ethnocentrism has been used to discourage the acceptance of alien
elements into the culture. Such efforts to prevent culture change are
never entirely successful.
• Yet if people share a serene, unquestioning faith in the goodness of
their culture—a conviction so completely accepted that no proof is
necessary—then change is delayed. In discouraging culture change,
eth­nocentrism is undiscriminating. It discourages both the changes
which would disrupt the culture and the changes which would help it
attain its goals.
• Since no culture is completely static, every culture must
change if it is to survive.
• In an age of atom bombs and pushbutton warfare, when
the nations must probably either get together or die
together, ethnocentrism helps to keep them tied to
concepts of national sovereignty.
• Under some circumstances, then, ethnocentrism promotes
cultural stability and group survival; under other
circumstances, ethnocentrism dooms the culture to
collapse and the group to extinction.
XENOCENTRISM

“a preference for the

foreign”
other than own.
• It is the belief that our own products,
styles, or ideas are necessarily inferior to
those which originate elsewhere.
• It is the conviction that the foreign has a
special charm which one familiar can never
achieve.
• It is based on the glamour of the strange
and faraway and the prestige of distant
centers, supposedly removed from the
sordid limitations of one's own
community.
• It is the belief that our own products, styles, or
ideas are necessarily inferior to those which
originate elsewhere.

• It is the conviction that the foreign has a special

charm which one familiar can never achieve.

• It is based on the glamour of the strange and

faraway and the prestige of distant centers,
supposedly removed from the sordid limitations
of one's own community.
• There are many occasions when people seem
happy to pay more for imported goods on the
assumption that anything from abroad is better.
• Are French fashions, Japanese electronic ware
really superior? Or are people inclined to assume
they are superior because of the attract of the
foreign label?
• What applies to material products is also true of
ideas and life-styles.
 Rejection of Ethnocentrism
• Those who leave their country to live
abroad are not the only ones who reject
ethnocentrism.
• In every society a few persons reject their
group or some part of its culture. There are
anti-Semitic Jews, blacks who reject black
identity, aristocrats who lead revolutions,
priests who abandon their faith, and so on.
 KEY WORDS
• Culture is everything which is socially learned and shared
by a human society.
• Material culture is made up of artifacts people make.
• Nonmaterial culture comprises the behavior patterns,
norms, values, and social relationships of a human group.
• A society is a relatively independent, self-perpetuating
human group which occupies a particular territory and
has most associations within this group.
• Culture accumulated slowly in prehistoric times; rapidly in
recent centuries.
• Sociobiology studies the biological factor in human
behavior and social development.
• Evolutionary theories of social development
were once popular and are enjoying a revival
today.
• Animal societies are base, largely upon instinct;
human societies largely upon culture.
• Folkways are the customs of a society.
• Mores are the ideas of right and wrong which
become attached to some kinds of behavior.
Mores may become sanctified by religion and
strengthened by being made into laws.
• Values are ideas about whether experiences are
important or unimportant.
• Institutions are major clusters of folkways and
mores which center on an important human
need.
• A trait is the simplest unit of culture; related
traits are grouped into culture complexes.
• A subculture is the behavior and value system of a group
which is a part of the society, but which has certain unique
cultural 'patterns.
• A counterculture is a subculture which is not merely
different from but sharply opposed to the dominant values
of the society.
• A culture is an integrated system of behavior with its
supporting ideas and values. In a highly integrated culture
all elements fit har­moniously together.
• Cultural relativism describes the fact that the function and
meaning of a culture trait depend upon the culture in which
it operates. Traits are judged "good" or "bad" according to
whether they work efficiently within their own culture.
• Every society has an ideal culture, including the patterns
which are supposed to be practiced, and a real culture,
including illicit behavior which is formally condemned but
widely practiced. Gashes between the two are evaded by
rationalization. In some cases,
• All societies and groups assume the superiority of their own
culture; this reaction is called ethnocentrism. The ideas and
customs about which people are ethnocentric vary from
society to society, but all known societies, and all groups
within a society, display ethnocentrism.
• Culture both aids and hinders human adjustment. It enables
people to survive in an inhospitable physical environment,
although in many respects it sustains habits which are
physically injurious. We could not live with­out culture;
sometimes it is not easy to live with it.