DEFINING

CULTURE
DEFINITION:

• Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience,

belief, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time,
roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects
and possessions acquired by a group of people in the cpirse of
generation through individual and group striving.
CHARACTERISTICS
OF
CULTURE
SHARED
• Common practices and belief are
shared a with others in a cultural
group.

• Circumcisions are common practice

within the Caucasian culture.
LEARNED
• It is taught to others.

• Children learn patterns by

imitating adults and developing
attitudes accepted by others.
SOCIAL NATURE

• Individuals in the group understand

appropriate behavior based on
traditions that have been passed down
from generation to generation.
DYNAMIC & CHANGING

Cultures are not fixed or static. Cultural

change a rises as a response to changing
Circumtances, and as a result of the
influence of other cultures. The outer,
Visible layers of the culture will change
faster than the culture’s core values and
belief which are more resistant to change.
FUNCTIONALISM
FUNCTIONALISM
• Functionalism says that the
individual is the product of society.

• Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) was one of

the founder of sociology. In his view,
society is made up of various Institutions,
each of which has a useful function. So
Durkheim and his followers are known
as functionalists.
FUNCTIONALISM
• Functionalists looked at how institutions
in society work and how they affect
individuals;
• The Family – has the function of
socializing children.
• Education – has the function of
preparing young people for adult
society.
• Religion – has the function of uniting
society through shared beliefs.
STRUCTURALISM
STRUCTURALISM

• Structuralist investigation of literature seeks

to identify the systems of conventions
underlying literature
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS;
• Language needs to be studied “in itself” rather than
in its connection with other things.

• Language is not a naming process, each word

corresponding to the thing it names.

• Language (as a opposed to speech) is “outside of

the individual who can never create nor modify it by
himself.
STRUCTURALISM
MAIN FIGURES:
FERDINAND DE
SAUSSURE (1857-1923)
Ferdinand de Saussure was
effectively the founder of modern
linguistics, as well as of structuralism.
It was his lectures in general
linguistic, posthumously compiled
by his colleagues as Course in
General Linguistic (1916), that
prove to be seminal influence in a
broad range of fields.
FERDINAND DE
SAUSSURE (1857-1923)
• As a opposed to a diachronic
approach which studies changes in
language over a period of time,
Saussure undertook a synchronic
approach which saw language as
a structure that could be studied
in its entirety at a given point in
time.
RONALD BARTHES
(1915-1980)
• Ronald Barthes’ theoretical
development is often seen as
embodying a transition from
structuralist to poststructuralist
perspectives.
ROLAND BARTHES
(1915- 1980)
• Barthes effectively
extended structural analysis
and semiology (the study of
signs) to broad cultural
phenomena.

• His renowned essay “The Death

of the Author” appeared in 1968.
5 ELEMENTS
OF
CULTURE
 KNOWLEDGE

1.) KNOWLEDGE - It is the total range of what has

been learned or perceived as true. This body of
information as accumulated through experience,
study, or investigation.

a. Natural Knowledge – refers to the accumulated facts about

the natural world, including both the biological and physical
aspects.
b. Technological Knowledge – pertains to knowledge of nature
which is useful in dealing with practical problems, like knowledge
of the methods of acquiring foods, dealing with diseases, means of
transportation, tools and implements, and weapons of war.

c. Supernatural Knowledge – refers to perceptions about the

actions of gods, goddesses, demons, angels or spirits, and
natural beings like shamans, witches, or prophets who are held
to possess supernatural powers.
d. Magical Knowledge – refers to perceptions about methods of
influencing supernatural events by manimulating certain laws of nature.
 SOCIAL NORMS

2. Social Norms – A norm is an idea in the minds of the members of a group

put into a statement specifying what members of the group should do, ought
to do, or are expected to do under circumtances. Norms are usually in the
form of rules, standards, or prescriptions and socially shared expectation.
Norms pertain to society‘s standards of propriety, morality, ethics, and
legality.
NORMS
• Norms differ according to the age, sex, religion,
occupation, or ethnic group.

• Among social norms are folkways, mores, and

laws.
 TYPES OF NORMS

a. FOLKWALK

• They are commonly known as the customs, traditions, and

conventions of a society.

• They are the general rules, customary and habitual ways and patterns
of expected behavior within the society where it is followed, without much
thought given to the matter.
• Folkways are norms governing everyday behavior whose voilation
might cause a dirty look, rolled eyes, or disapproving comment.

EXAMPLE: Walking up a “down” escalator in a department store

challenges our standarrs of appropriate behavior.
 MORES
b. Mores

• They are special folkways which are important to the welfare of the
people and their cherished values.

• They are based on ethical and moral values which are strongly held
and emphasized.

EXAMPLE: murder, child abuse

 LAWS

c. Laws

• They are formalized norms, enacted by people who are vested with
govermental power and enforced by political and legal authorities
designated by the government.
 VALUES
3. Values – They are concepts of what is important and worthwhile.
These values are the basis of our judgement, of what we consider good,
desirable, and correct as well as what is considered bad, undersirable,
ugly and wrong.

• Values influence people‘s behavior and serve as criteria for evaluation

the actions of others.
 BELIEFS

2. Beliefs – They embody people‘s perception of reality and include the

primitive ideas of the universe as well as the scientist’s empirical view of
the world. They result one’s experiences about the physical, biological,
and social world in which the individual lives.

Example are superstitions, and those that relate to philosophy, theology,

technology, art, and science.
 TECHNOLOGY AND MATERIAL
CULTURE

5. TECHNOLOGY AND MATERIAL CULTURE – Technology refers to

techniques and know-how in utilizing raw materials to produce food, tools,
shelter, clothing, means of transportation, and weapons. The material objects
that are the products of technology are called artifacts.