A blueprint for living

Weeks 3 at 4
 the set of learned behaviors,
beliefs, attitudes, values and ideals
that are characteristics of a
particular society or population.
 Is the learned norms, values,
knowledge, artefacts, language and
symbols that are constantly
communicate among people who share
a common way of life.
 Is the sum total of symbols ideas,
forms of expressions and material
products associated with a system.
 Defined culture as 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
 The entire way of life of people and
everything learned and shared by
people in the society.
 Relationship Between Culture
& Society.

1
 What is
2
Society?
Society is the bigger, cooperating social
group with an organized sense of
relationship.
It is the sum of interactions and people.
3
What is
Culture?
Culture can be seen as tradition that creates cohesion and
continuity.
It has a lot of different meanings
It is the traits of a populations behavior, values and
beliefs.
 Difference b/w society and
4
culture

🠶 Base
🠶 Culture is based off of historical precedence
🠶 society is an agreement on how each member
should behave.
🠶 Scope
🠶 Society is the overall bigger picture
🠶 Culture is a part of society
 Difference b/w society and
5
culture

🠶 Flexibility
🠶 Culture is changing constantly and exclusive
🠶 Society is more stable and inclusive
🠶 Examples
🠶 Examples of culture are fashion, language,
traditional products, music, art and ideals.
🠶 Examples of society are villages, small towns and
big cities
 Relationship b/w culture and
6
society
🠶 Present and continuous movement
🠶 Society and culture are closely related and interlinked
🠶 But they are “Not Interchangeable”
🠶 culture plays a key role in the formation of a society
🠶 Characteristics of relationship b/w culture and society
🠶 Mutual existence
🠶 Not Identical
🠶 Essential Difference
7 Mutual
Existence
🠶 Culture and society are co-existent.
🠶 No culture could exist without society and
equally no society could exist without culture
8 Not Identical

🠶 Culture and society may have the some common elements

but the two are not the same; they are not identical.
9
Essential
difference
🠶 Society is composed of people
🠶 Culture consists of knowledge, ideas, customs, traditions,
mores, beliefs, skills, institutions, organizations and artifacts.
10 Major cultures within
a society

🠶 Universal Culture
🠶 Subcultures
🠶 Countercultures
🠶 Material Culture
🠶 Nonmaterial culture
11
Cultural
Universals
🠶 Cultural traits shared by nearly all societies
🠶 Arts and Leisure activities
🠶 Basic Needs
🠶 Clothing, cooking, Housing
🠶 Communication and Education
🠶 Family Courtship
🠶 kin groups, marriage
🠶 Government and Economy
🠶 Calendar, division of labor, government, law, property rights, status
differentiation, trade
🠶 Technology
🠶 Medicine, tool making
12 Subcultures

🠶 Groups that share values, norms, and behaviors that are not
shared by the entire population.
13 Countercultures
🠶 Groups that rejects the major values, norms, and
behaviors that is practiced by larger society.
(Terrorism)
15
Material
Culture
🠶 Material culture includes all the physical things that people
create and attach meaning to
🠶 Clothing, food, tools, architecture etc.
16
Nonmaterial
culture
🠶 Nonmaterial culture includes creations and abstract ideas
that are not embodied in physical objects.
🠶 Any intangible products created and shared between the
members of a culture
🠶 Social roles, rules, ethics, and beliefs are just some
examples.
19 Cultural
deviance
🠶 Deviance describes an action or behavior that
violates social norms of a society
🠶 Formal deviance: crime, Legal action
🠶 Informal deviance: Ethical violations, Taboo
🠶 Positive deviance
20
Evolution of
culture
🠶 Human culture
changes
🠶 Similar to Darwinian
theory of evolution
🠶 New traditions,
customs and rituals are adopted
by society
🠶 The ability of societies to
adapt is critical to long
term survival
🠶 Flexible cultures
survive
 CULTURE
....ALL THE BELIEFS, VALUES, BEHAVIOR, AND
MATERIAL OBJECTS THAT DEFINE A PEOPLE’S
WAY OF LIFE AND ARE PASSED ON.

KINDS OF CULTURE:
– 1) MATERIAL CULTURE
• ALL THE TANGIBLE PRODUCTS OF A SOCIETY
• EXAMPLES: HOUSING, AIRCRAFT,
CLOTHING, ETC.
– 2) NONMATERIAL CULTURE
• ALL THE INTANGIBLE PRODUCTS OF A
SOCIETY
• EXAMPLES: LAWS AND PUNISHMENTS, IDEAS,
VALUES, BELIEF SYSTEMS, NORMS, ATTITUDES
TRAVELING TO A NEW AND DIFFERENT
LOCATION CAN CAUSE SOME PEOPLE TO
EXPERIENCE SEVERE, PERSONAL
DISORIENTATION, OFTEN REFERRED TO AS....

CULTURE SHOCK
ONE REASON FOR SUCH A
REACTION....THE FACT THAT
PEOPLE INTERNALIZE THE
ELEMENTS OF THEIR OWN
CULTURE AND THEN COME TO
KNOW THE WORLD ONLY BY
THOSE STANDARDS.
THE ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
ELEMENTS OF CONSTRAINT OR FREEDOM?

I WONDER
• SYMBOLS IF HUMANS
HAVE CULTURE

• GESTURES
TOO????

• LANGUAGE
• VALUES AND BELIEFS
• SOCIAL NORMS
LET’S EXAMINE EACH ONE.....
SYMBOLS
ANYTHING THAT CAN 1. SYMBOLS ARE
CARRY A MEANING. OFTEN TAKEN FOR
GRANTED
- THEY’RE ALL OVER.
2. SYMBOLS CAN
BIND PEOPLE
TOGETHER OR
SEPARATE THEM.
3. SYMBOLS
ALLOW PEOPLE
TO MAKE SENSE
OF THEIR LIVES.
 GESTURES
USING ONE’S BODY TO COMMUNICATE

• GESTURES ARE “CULTURE SPECIFIC”

• WE KNOW WHAT THE ABOVE GESTURES INDICATE
BECAUSE OUR CULTURE TEACHES US TO APPLY
CERTAIN MEANINGS TO THEM.
 LANGUAGE
....A SYSTEM OF SYMBOLS THAT ALLOWS
MEMBERS OF A SOCIETY TO COMMUNICATE
WITH ONE ANOTHER.
LANGUAGE ALLOWS “CULTURAL TRANSMISSION” OR
THE PASSING ON OF CULTURE OVER GENERATIONS.
LANGUAGE PROVIDES A PRESENT, PAST AND FUTURE.
LANGUAGE ALLOWS FOR UNDERSTANDING.
LANGUAGE ALLOWS GOAL-ORIENTED BEHAVIOR.

IS IT THE MOST IMPORTANT

ELEMENT OF CULTURE?
 VALUES & BELIEFS
....CULTURALLY DEFINED STANDARDS BY
WHICH PEOPLE JUDGE DESIRABILITY,
GOODNESS, AND BEAUTY, AND WHICH SERVE
AS BROAD GUIDELINES FOR SOCIAL LIVING.

SOCIAL VALUES AND GENERAL BELIEFS ARE

REFLECTED IN THE NORMS FOUND IN A SOCIETY
SUCCESS, HARD WORK, PROGRESS, FREEDOM,
EQUALITY
 SOCIAL NORMS
....RULES AND EXPECTATIONS BY WHICH A
SOCIETY GUIDES THE BEHAVIOR OF ITS MEMBERS.

• TYPES OF NORMS:
– PROSCRIPTIVE (WHAT NOT TO DO!)
– PRESCRIPTIVE (WHAT TO DO!)
• OTHER WAYS TO BREAK DOWN NORMS:
– MORES (OF GREAT MORAL SIGNIFICANCE)
– FOLKWAYS (OF LITTLE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE)
– TABOOS (VIOLATIONS WHICH ARE HORRIFIC)
Elements of Culture
Norms

o Norms – rules and

expectations by which a
society guides the
behavior of its members.
o Most important norms in
a culture apply
everywhere and at all
times.
 Elements of Culture
Norms
Mores – norms that are widely
observed and have great moral
significance.
Folkways –
norms for
routine, casual
interaction.
 Elements of Culture
Norms
Mores Societal taboos such as:
 Murder
 Treason
 Child sexual abuse

Inspire intense
reactions
Punishment
( Right vs. wrong) inevitably follows
 Elements of Culture
Norms
Folkways (polite vs. rude) –
 People chew quietly with mouths closed

 Accepting one’s place in line

 People avoid facing each other in elevators

No written rules
No one physically
harmed
 Cultural Diversity
High culture – cultural
patterns that distinguish
a society’s elite

Popular culture –
cultural patterns
that are
widespread among
a population.
 Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism – an educational
program recognizing the cultural
diversity of the United States and
promoting the equality of all cultural
traditions.
 Multiculturalism
Afrocentrism – the
dominance of
African cultural
patterns.

Eurocentrism – the
dominance of
European cultural
patterns.
ETHNOCENTRISM:
THE TENDENCY TO JUDGE
OTHER CULTURES BY THE
STANDARDS OF ONE’S OWN
CULTURE
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
 SOCIAL CONTROL
WHY DO WE CONFORM?
• SOCIAL CONTROL - MEANS BY WHICH MEMBERS
OF SOCIETY ENCOURAGE CONFORMITY TO NORMS.
SOCIAL CONTROL UPON US
• THE ROLE OF SOCIAL SANCTIONS:
– POSITIVE SANCTIONS (REWARDS)
– NEGATIVE SANCTIONS (PUNISHMENTS)
– FORMAL AND INFORMAL AS WELL
• HOW DO WE KNOW THAT SOCIAL
CONTROL IS IN EFFECT?
– GUILT (PERSONALIZED DISCOMFORT)
– SHAME (PUBLIC DISAPPROVAL)
– “DEGRADATION CEREMONIES”
 SOCIAL CONTROL:
HOW IT IS CARRIED OUT?
FORMAL INFORMAL
POSITIVE

RECEIVING A A FAVORING
REWARD OR LOOK, OR AN
AN AWARD IN INFORMAL
PUBLIC COMMENT
NEGATIVE

THE COURT WAVING OF

SYSTEM; A FINGER; A
PRISON “LOOK”
 IN A DIVERSE CULTURE....
THERE WILL BE DIFFERENCES IN DEGREES OF ACCEPTANCE AND
CONFORMITY WITH WIDER HELD NOTIONS

• SUBCULTURES
– groups whose members are
different enough to set
themselves apart from the
wider society
– not necessarily bad, but just
different
– clubs, youth groups,
bodybuilders, etc.
 IN A DIVERSE CULTURE....
THERE WILL ALWAYS BE DEEP DIVISIONS AMONG
SOCIAL GROUPS

• COUNTERCULTURES
– groups whose specific culture
components are often at great
odds with the wider society,
often resulting in conflict
– often perceived as threats to the
social order
– the KKK, some Skinhead
groups, and so forth
 IDEAL VS. REAL CULTURE
WE TEND TO IDEALIZE AMERICAN CULTURE WHICH ACTUALLY
DISTORTS SOCIAL REALITY.....BUT THINGS SELDOM ARE THAT GOOD!

• IDEAL CULTURE
– CULTURAL IDEALS HELD OUT AS
EXAMPLES OF HOW THINGS SHOULD
(OR COULD) BE.
• REAL CULTURE
– WHAT THINGS ARE REALLY LIKE FOR
A PEOPLE IN A GIVEN CULTURE.
• EXAMPLES:
– MARRIAGES OFTEN FALL SHORT FROM
WHAT WE HAVE BEEN TAUGHT TO
BELIEVE
– FRIENDSHIPS OFTEN FAIL US WHEN
MOST NEEDED
– EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IS A VALUE, BUT
SELDOM REALITY WHEN EXAMINED
 CULTURE CHANGE
• INVENTION
– PROCESS OF CREATING NEW CULTURE
• DISCOVERY
– UNDERSTANDING SOMETHING NOT FULLY
UNDERSTOOD BEFORE
• DIFFUSION
– SPREAD OF ELEMENTS FROM ONE
CULTURE TO ANOTHER
CULTURAL LEVELING - PROCESS IN WHICH CULTURES
BECOME SIMILAR DUE TO EXPANDING INDUSTRIALIZATION
AND THE SPREAD OF TECHNOLOGY.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF
CULTURE
Characteristics of culture are as under:
• Culture is learned.
• Culture is shared.
• Culture is transmitted.
• Culture is changing.
 CULTURE IS LEARNED
• Culture is learned. It is not biological; we do not inherit it.
Much of learning culture is unconscious. We learn culture
from families, peers, institutions, and media.

•
• The process of learning culture is known as
enculturation. While all humans have basic
biological needs such as food, sleep, and sex,
the way we fulfill those needs varies cross-
culturally.

•
• Culture is socially transmitted through
language- It is transmitted from one
generation to another through the
medium of language, verbal or non-
verbal through the gestures or signs,
orally or in writing.
 SHARED
• Culture is shared. Because we share culture with
other members of our group, we are able to act in
socially appropriate ways as well as predict how
others will act.

•
 SHARED CONT..
• Despite the shared nature of culture, that doesn’t
mean that culture is homogenous (the same). The
multiple cultural worlds that exist in any society are
discussed in detail below.

• All the traits, attitudes, ideas, knowledge and

material objects like radio, television and
automobiles etc is actually shared by members of
society.
 SYMBOLS

• Culture is based on symbols. A symbol is something that

stands for something else.

• Symbols vary cross-culturally and are arbitrary. They only

have meaning when people in a culture agree on their use.

• Language, money and art are all symbols. Language is the

most important symbolic component of culture.
 INTEGRATED
• Culture is integrated. This is known as holism, or the
various parts of a culture being interconnected.
INTEGRATED (Pangkalahatan)

• All aspects of a culture are related to one another and to truly

understand a culture, one must learn about all of its parts, not
only a few.
 CULTURE IS DYNAMIC
(Pagbago-bago)
• Culture is dynamic. This simply means that cultures
interact and change. Because most cultures are in contact
with other cultures, they exchange ideas and symbols.

• All cultures change, otherwise, they would have

problems adapting to changing environments. And
because cultures are integrated, if one component in the
system changes, it is likely that the entire system must
adjust.
•
CULTURE IS TRANSMITTED
• All the culture traits and objects are transmitted among the
members of society continually. Most of the cultural traits
and material objects are transmitted to the members of the
society from their forefathers. We learn new fashion, how to
move in society and how to behave in a particular social
situation
 CULTURE IS CHANGING
• Culture never remains static but changing.
It is changing in every society, but with
different speed and causes. It constantly
under goes change and adapts itself to the
environments
 TYPES OF CULTURE

• • Material Culture
• • Non-material Culture
• • Real Culture
• • Ideal Culture
 MATERIAL CULTURE

• From material culture we understand material and

physical objects. For instance, house, road, vehicles, pen,
table, radio set, book etc.

• these are the products of human efforts to control his

environment and make his life conformable and safe.
 NON-MATERIAL CULTURE
• In non-material culture we include non material objects.
For example religion, art, ideas, customs, values system,
attitudes, knowledge etc. it does not have physical shape.

It is very important in determining human behavior and has

strong hold on an individual. Both parts are inter- related
with each other
 REAL CULTURE
• Real culture is that which can be observed in our social life.
The culture on which we act upon in our daily life is real
culture.

• It is that parts of culture, which the people adopt in their

social life, for example. If a person/ says that he/she is
Muslim, will be, when followed all the principles of Islam is
the real and when doesn’t follow, is not a real one.
 IDEAL CULTURE
• The culture which is presented as a pattern to the
people is called ideal culture.

• It is the goal of society and never achieved fully

because some parts remain out of practice.

• This culture is explained in books, speeches etc.

 CULTURAL TRAITS
(katangian)
• The examples of cultural traits are almost infinite.
Because every culture has its own traits.

• A cultural trait is a characteristic of human action that's

acquired by people socially and transmitted via various
modes of communication.

• Cultural traits are things that allow for a part of

one culture to be transmitted to another.
 EXAMPLE
• For example; a pencil is a culture trait, football, bat,
fishhook, keeping cattle, handshake, gestures, and house.

• Culture traits are interrelated with each other, their

collective function forms culture complex.

• Such as a football is a culture trait, and the football

match is a cultural complex.
 CULTURAL COMPLEX
• a group of culture traits all interrelated and dominated by
one essential trait: Nationalism is a culture
complex.
 CULTURAL PATTERN
• cultural pattern is the way of behavior of the people. ...
This rule of social life is pattern of culture.

• It is that ideal which is presented as an example to the

people. These people are expected to behave according to
cultural patterns. A culture develops patterns of
behavior in all social situations.
 CULTURAL LAG
• Culture lag It refers to the gap between the material and
non-material culture.
Thank Very Much