SOC SCI 4

Chapter 3
Society and Culture
By: Juville Anne Carlet
Sanctions

While norms are the guidelines for behavior, not all members of society follow
them. This results from the ignorance or lack of knowledge about the norms, the
tendency to follow the norms of one’s subgroups, or personal reasons or
principles. To ensure that the members of society conform or behave in ways
prescribed for them, there are ways and means to make them do so. Conformity is
attained through the use of sanctions, which are the socially imposed rewards and
punishment. Rewards are for those who behave properly, and punishments are for
those who behave otherwise. Sanctions may also be formal or informal.
 Informal sanctions are gossip, unfavorable or favorable
public opinion, giving or withdrawing of friendships,
affection or love.

 Formal sanctions may be getting high grades or awards

in school, promotion or salary increase in one’s place
of work, medals of honor, merit awards, and citations.
Material Culture and Technology

Material culture refers to the physical, tangible, and concrete

objects produced by man.

Behind the artifact or material object is the pattern of culture

that gave form to the idea or the artifact, its use or function
and the techniques of using or applying it.
Language and Culture

It was once believed that people were the only animals that use
language and therefore possessed culture, but zoological research has
questioned this assertion, although human language is unusual as it is
complex and has written form. Anthropologists maintain that
symbolic language is the foundation upon which human cultures are
built. Language is an integral part of culture and human culture
cannot exist without it.
Subculture

When a society becomes industrialized or complex, differences in

ways of doing things, believing, and thinking arise. Diverse
groupings of persons are formed on the basis of age, sex, social class,
occupation, profession, religion, or ethnicity. While these subgroups
still follow the dominant values and norms maintained by the broader
society, they develop a distinctive or unique set of norms, attitudes,
and values that make them different in some important way.
Culture Shock

This feeling of unpleasantness or disorientation experienced

when one goes to an unfamiliar setting is called culture shock.
The symptoms are feelings of loneliness, fear of being alone,
and fear of being cheated, laughed at, or being contaminated
by viruses (Bassis, Gelles, Levine 1991:74).
Culture Universals and Culture Diversity

Culture universals refer to the broad areas of social living, the

patterned and recurrent elements common to all cultures. Social
science research shows that humans do not have a common
unchanging culture.

Diversity in culture is brought about by differences in the way

people meet and respond to their biological and psychological
needs and the manner by which people adapt to their environment.
Ethnocentrism

One looks at the other cultural ways as strange, queer, funny, or

wrong and considers his or her ways as right, rational, and normal.
The view to regard one’s culture as right and normal, with a
superior attitude, is called ethnocentrism. Literally, ethnocentrism
means a belief that one’s group is the center of the universe and
one scales and rates other cultures with references to it (Sumner
1906). It is judging the behavior of others in relation to one’s own
cultural values and tradition (Howard and Hattis 1992).
Cultural Relativism

The opposite view of ethnocentrism is cultural relativism,

which is based on the notion that culture is relative and no
cultural practice is good and bad in itself. It is good if it
integrates smoothly with the rest of the culture. Cultural
relativism is the evaluation of cultural patterns within the
context of the history, environment, and social circumstances
of the people (Howard and Hattis 1992:7).