DEFINING CULTURE

AND SOCIETY

LESSON 1
 CULTURE is all around us, an inherent part of our
social life as well as our personality and sense of
subjectivity.
CULTURE is a quality that some people have more of
than others how “cultured” someone is depends on social
class, education, tastes in music or film, and speech
habits.
By attending symphonies, play, operas, and poetry
readings, a few people show they “appreciate culture”
more than most.
Sometimes we visit museum and art galleries to increase
our “cultural awareness”.
 Rock Music Tatoos
Cultural
Elite

Violent Computer Game Movies

Pierceing
 Raymond Williams
Culture is popularly used to denote a
narrow sense that is usually related to the
arts and humanities.

Denotes the practice, beliefs, and perceptions of a given

society.
Often opposed with “savagery” relating to something
which is “cultured” as a product of a certain evolvement
from a natural state.
CULTURE define:
Descriptive definition of culture which view culture as a
total system of customs, beliefs, knowledge, laws, means
of expression, and so forth.

Historical definition of culture which view culture as the

continuation of generations.
Normative definitions of culture which relate to value
system that construct social and personal behavior.(pag
uugali)
Psychological definitions of culture which stress culture’s
role in interpersonal relations.
(older marriage)
Structural definitions of culture that focus on relational
aspects of cultural components through abstraction.
(reunion with relatives)
Socio-genetic definitions of culture which focus on the
genesis and continued existence of a culture.
Activity: Submit the names of your member

 CHARADE
 Group into 5 and show each
one of you by
action/demonstrations and the
audience will guest what
culture is that.
 Elite Culture or popular
Culture
ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF
CULTURE AND SOCIETY

ELITE POPULAR
CULTURE CULTURE

Largely irrelevant
and it is meaningless to say that
one group of people has more
culture than another.
is learned form other people
while growing up in particular
society or group.
Is widely shared by the
members of that society or
group.
So profoundly affects the thoughts,
actions, and feelings of people in that
group that anthropologist say
“individuals are a product of their
culture” and “learning a culture is an
essential part of human development.
In large part accounts for the
differences between groups of people
in how they act, think, and feel.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF
CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Society = is a group of people living in a

given territory who share a culture and who
interact with people of that territory more than
people of other territories.
Culture = is what people share with one
another within a society.
SOCIETY FAVORITE
PAINTING
FOOD

TAGLISH K-POP SONG

PENOY / COMPUTER
BALOT MACHINE
MAJOR SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE

FUNCTIONALISM

CONFLICT THEORY

SYMBOLIC INTERACTION
FUNCTIONALIST VIEW OF CULTURE

Societies can operate smoothly only if

their members are able to meet the
demands and challenges of the
environment in effective, coordinated
ways.
Example:

1. LANGUAGE – performs an important

function such that it gives people a sense of
unity and to link them to one another so that
cooperation will be possible.
2. CONFLICT – miscommunication and chaos
are prevented with the use of language shared
within the groups.
CONFLICT VIEW OF CULTURE

Conflict theorists are concerned with how the

groups that control the means of material
production impose their products, values and
norms on other groups.
The famous Conflict theorists Karl Marx – who
believes that those “who have” own the means
of production are powerful enough to force and
manipulate those who “have not”.
SYMBOLIC INTERATIONIST VIEW OF
CULTURE
Culture is Symbolic
 Culture is based on symbols, including
 Language
 Objects with meaning
 Events with Significance
 What do these items have in common?
 That is where our definition of symbols rests
What is a Symbol?
 Definition: Object or event that is
Intrinsically unrelated to another object
or event to which it refers
 Example: Ask yourself some questions
about this U.S. flag: What do the stars
represent? The U.S. states, of course.
What do the stripes represent? The 13
original colonies
 Does that mean we confuse the stars
with the U.S. States or the stripes with
the 13 colonies??
 So both the stars and stripes are
symbols; they are not intrinsically
related to either states or colonies.
 Sociological strengths weaknesses
ccomplish Perspective on
culture

Functionalist
Conflict
Symbolic
interactionist