The Concept of Culture

Objectives

• Define the concept of culture.
• Describe the importance of culture in a society.
• Describe the functions of culture in a society.
• Identify the two main components of culture.
• Identify the main elements of culture.
• Identify the different ways of how culture can be acquired.
• Identify the different ways of how cultural traits are adapted by a society.
• Identify the main driving forces for cultural change.
• Differentiate between the three perspectives in viewing other cultures.
• Define the most important terms related to culture.

Definition of Culture

• The concept of culture was defined by many anthropologists throughout history.

  • According to E.B Taylor (1860), it is a complex whole which consist of knowledge, beliefs, skills, values, norms, art, law, morals, customs, traditions, feelings, and other capabilities that are acquired, learned and socially transmitted by man from one generation to another through language and living together as members of society.

• In general, culture is a term that is used to encompass all facets of human experience that extends beyond our physical fact.

  • It refers to the way we understand ourselves both as individuals and as members of a society.
  • In short, culture can be described as the way of life in a society.

• This table encompasses how different social scientists have described their own definition of culture.

Social Scientist	Key Features of their Definition
Clifford Geertz	- a historically transmitted pattern of meanings, embodied as symbols. - a system of inherited expressions. - members of the society communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge/approaches in life.
Roy D’Andrade	- consists of learned systems of meaning. - these systems are communicated by means of natural language and other symbolic systems. - it has representational directive and affective functions. - it is capable of creating cultural entities and particular senses of reality

Why is Culture Important?

• Sociologists consider culture as one of the most important concepts in sociology as:
  • It is essential in shaping social relationships.
  • It constantly maintains and challenges our social order.
    • Social order refers to the stability of a society based on the arbitrary norms and rules we agreed as a whole.
    • These norms and rules simultaneously allow us to cooperate, function as a society and ideally live together in peace and harmony
  • It determines how we make sense of the world and our place in it
  • It shapes our everyday actions and experiences in society.

The Functions of Culture

• In the book Sociology: Exploring Society and Culture, authors David and Macaraeg (2010) gave the 12 main functions of culture in our society:
  • It serves as the “trademark” of the people in the society.
  • It gives meaning and direction to one’s existence.
  • It promotes meaning to an individual’s existence.
  • It predicts social behavior.
  • It unifies diverse behavior.
  • It provides social solidarity
  • It establishes social personality.
  • It provides systematic behavioral pattern.
  • It provides social structure category.
  • It maintains the biologic functioning of a group.
  • It can offer ready-made solutions to man’s material and immaterial problems.
  • It develops an man’s attitude and values and it gives him a conscience.

The Components of Culture

• Culture can be divided into two main components: the physical objects of the culture (material) and the ideas associated with them (immaterial/non-material).

Material Culture

• This refers to the things that can be directly touched, observed, seen, heard, smelt or tasted, which people use to define their culture.
• It is everything that mankind had created, produced, changed, and utilized.
  • In short, material culture can refer to tangible things in a culture.
• It can also help people influence and define its members’ behaviors and perceptions.
• Examples of material culture may include:
  • Spaces and facilities like homes, neighborhoods, mosques, offices, factories, and more.
  • Products of mankind such as transportation, clothing, accessories, architecture, products, or even food.

Non-material Culture

• This refers to things that people have in their culture that cannot be directly observed by the five physical senses.
  • In short, non-material culture can refer to intangible things in a culture
• They can be ideas which can then influence people into making physical objects that describe their culture.
  • This then describes how non-material culture can influence material culture.
• Non-material culture can then be subdivided into cognitive and normative culture:
  • Cognitive culture describes part of human culture that is a product of the intellectual functioning of the human mind.
    • Under this may include thoughts, ideas, concepts, designs, philosophies, etc.
  • Normative culture: describes part of human culture that aims to describe what is acceptable and the main standards for right and wrong in the society.
    • Under this may include rules, laws, expectations and standards for human behavior.

The Elements of Culture

• A culture has six of the following elements:
  • Symbols
    • It refers to anything that can be used to stand or represent for something else.
    • It is a meaning attached to a certain object, gesture, sound, or image that is shared among members of the same culture.
    • Some symbols may be considered offensive in other cultures, and some are not.
    • Some examples of common modern day symbols are:
      • Extending a middle finger is offensive in Western cultures but in some cultures around the world, it does not mean anything.
        • For example in Russia, the middle finger is used to simply point to themselves for emphasis in communication.
      • The consumption of pork is considered taboo in certain religions around the world.
        • This is because some religions symbolize pork and swine flesh as unclean and impure
  • Language
    • It is a system of words and symbols used to communicate with other culture.
    • It is also known as the “storehouse of culture”.
      • This is because most of human culture is transmitted and passed on generations through oral communication, which uses some form of language
  • Technology
    • It can refer to the application of knowledge and equipment to ease the task of living and to maintain the environment.
    • It can include artifacts, methods, or devices used and created by the people in a society.
  • Values
    • These are culturally defined standards for what is good or desirable.
    • These are things that are considered good, proper, and desirable, or bad, improper, or undesirable in a culture (Arcinas, 2016).
    • It influences people’s behavior and it also serves as the benchmark for evaluating the actions of others.
    • For example, Filipinos was taught and are known for the following values
      • compassionate
      • spirit of kinship and camaraderie
      • hardwork and industry
      • ability to survive
      • faith and religiosity
      • flexibility, adaptability, and creativity
      • joy and humor
      • family orientation
      • hospitality
      • pakikipagkapwa-tao (being social)
  • Beliefs
    • It refers to the set of ideas or conceptions that are considered true or factual inside a culture that may or may not be true.
    • These may be based on common sense, folk wisdom, religion, science, or a combination of these.
    • These may influence how people live and choose decisions in their life.
    • One example of a belief system in the Philippines is the pamahiin.
      • Some examples are
        • “It is forbidden to cut your nails off during the night”,
        • “It is forbidden to take home food from a funeral”,
        • “If the 13th day of the month is Friday, then that day is considered bad luck. ”
  • Norms
    • These are specific rules/standards to guide for appropriate behavior (Arcinas, 2016).
    • These are societal expectations that mandate specific behaviors in specific situations.
    • Violating social norms may or may not have varying degrees of consequences.
    • One good example of this is how we present ourselves that is appropriate of one’s gender in the Philippines
      • Males are expected to wear pants/shorts, not skirts.
      • Females are expected to have a long hair, not as short as masculine hair cuts.
    • Social norms has two types: proscriptive and prescriptive.
      • Proscriptive norms define and tell us things that we SHOULD NOT do.
      • Prescriptive norms define and tell us things that we SHOULD do.
    • Social norms can be classified into one of three forms: folkways, mores, and laws.
      • Folkways
        • also known as customs
        • norms that people follow for the sake of tradition, practice or convenience
        • does not have serious consequences when it is not followed
        • Example: eating with bare hands during a salo-salo
      • Mores
        • pronounced /mohr-ehs/ or /mohr-aiz/.
        • norms that control moral and ethical behavior.
        • based on the definitions of right and wrong
        • violating them may have grave consequences
        • Example: polygamy is considered taboo in Philippine society
      • Laws
        • controlled ethics that are morally and collectively agreed, and written down.
        • norms that are enforced by an official law enforcement agency.
        • institutionalized mores with stricter punishments upon disobedience.
        • ensures that people adheres to standards set by society.

Acquisition of Culture

• Culture can be acquired in three modes: imitation, indoctrination, or conditioning.
  • Imitation
    • This is when people imitate or copy certain behaviors, values, attitudes, language, and anything in their social environment.
    • As time passes, the things they imitate become internalized in their personality that it becomes a part of their behavior, character or their attitude
  • Indoctrination/Suggestion
    • It takes in the form of formal training or informal teaching
    • It is when culture is acquired by a person through schooling.
    • They may also acquire these behaviors from listening, watching, reading, attending training activities, or through interaction with someone.
  • Conditioning
    • A pattern of behavior is learned and reinforced through reward and punishment.
    • When an action is considered inappropriate in a society, punishment is enforced to ensure that people won’t engage further in that particular action.
    • When an action is considered appropriate and beneficial in a society, a reward is given to people to motivate them further into doing that particular action.

Adaptation of Culture

• There are many ways into how culture or a cultural trait may be adapted in a society.
  • Parallelism: the same cultural trait appeared in two or more different places.
    • Example: Pyramids were independently developed in both Egypt and Mesoamerica.
  • Diffusion: when cultural traits are being passed from one culture to another.
    • These may be brought to other cultures through agents of change such as travelling people or the media.
    • Example: The spread of Buddhism from India to East Asia.
  • Convergence: when two or more cultures fuse or merge into one culture.
    • Example: Alexander the Great’s conquests combined Greek and Persian cultures, resulting in the Hellenistic culture
  • Fission: when people break away from their original culture and start developing a different culture of their own.
    • Example: During the Reformation, the Protestant sect form, breaking away from Catholicism.
  • Assimilation: a smaller society gradually adopts the culture of a larger society.
    • There is no element of choice, as there may be social, economic, or political pressures to conform.
    • It may gradually lead to the loss of the minority’s original culture.
    • Example: Immigrants in the United States were pressured to adopt English and American customs, assimilating themselves in the American culture.
  • Acculturation: when individuals incorporate cultural traits of other cultures on their own
    • It can be voluntary or by force.
    • It retains the cultural identity of the original culture.
    • Example: The Spanish conquest to the Philippines resulted in a massive forced acculturation effort by the Spaniards to force Filipinos to adapt Spanish culture.
    • Example: Japanese people may incorporate Western styles of clothing and practices in day-to-day lives, resulting in voluntary acculturation.
  • Accommodation: when the larger and the smaller society are able to respect and tolerate one another’s culture.
    • Example: When French and English cultures continue to coexist in Canada.

Causes of Cultural Change

• Cultural change and reform may have several distinct causes.
  • Discovery: the process of finding a new place or an object, artefact, or anything previously existed.
    • Example: The discovery of radioactivity by Pierre and Marie Curie prompted an atomic revolution that allowed humanity to harness its power as an alternative source of energy.
  • Invention: it implies a creative mental process of utilizing and combining previously known ideas to produce a new, novel and original product.
    • They can be a social or a material invention.
      • Example: The invention of the steam engine prompted in the Industrial Revolution of the 17th century; an example of a material invention.
      • Example: The invention of various literary forms fueled a massive cultural change in Europe in now what’s known as the Renaissance; an example of a social invention.
  • Diffusion: the spread of cultural traits from a society or group to another either belonging to the same society or through direct contact.
    • It can have the following social processes:
      • Acculturation: cultural borrowing or imitation
      • Assimilation: blending/fusion of two distinct cultures through long periods of interaction.
      • Amalgamation: the biological or hereditary fusion of members from different societies:
        • Example: Marriage between a Filipino and an American.
      • Enculturation: deliberate infusion of a new culture to another.
  • Colonization: the political and social policy of establishing a colony, which would be subject to the rule and governance of the colonizing state.
  • Rebellion and Revolution: refers to a large social movements that aim to change social order and replace the leadership
    • This in turn challenges the existing customs and mores and aims to propose a new set of norms, values, and organizations.

Cultural Perspectives

Cultural Variation

• It refers to the differences in social behaviors that different cultures exhibit around the world.

  • This indicates that what may be good etiquette in one culture may be considered bad etiquette in another.

• The existence of cultural variation implies some important perspectives in viewing other cultures, namely ethnocentrism, xenocentrism, and cultural relativism.

  • Ethnocentrism
    • came from the word ethnos which means people, nation.
    • it is a perspective where one judges the values and standards of an another culture based on the values and standards of their own culture.
    • it arises from the fact that cultures differ and each culture defines reality differently.
    • it is a perspective where their culture is better than the rest.
  • **Xenocentrism
    • the prefix xeno- means strange, alien, or foreign.
    • a perspective opposite to ethnocentrism.
    • it is a perspective where their culture is much more inferior compared to others.
    • this perspective arose as an effect of globalization.
      • as people get exposed to cultures outside the realm of their society, they may prefer ideas, lifestyles, or products of the other culture.
  • Cultural Relativism
    • a perspective where one judges behavior according to its cultural context.
    • this perspective emphasizes that an individual person’s beliefs and practices should be understood by others in terms of that individual’s own culture.
    • it emphasizes that no culture is superior to any other culture.
      • this is because of the following reasons:
        • different societies have different moral codes for what is right or wrong
        • there are no moral truths that hold for all people at all times
        • the moral code of our own society has no special status.
        • it is arrogant for us to judge other cultures.

Glossary of Terms

• Here are some other important terms related to culture!
  • Cultural Diversity refers to the differentiation of culture from different societies all over the world.
  • Subculture refers to the culture of a smaller group within a larger culture.
  • Counterculture refers to cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted by society.
  • Culture Lag refers to a phenomenon where some parts of a society do not change as fast as with other parts and other parts get left behind.
  • Culture Shock refers to the inability to read meaning in one’s surroundings.
    • It is often characterized with feelings of loss and isolation and the uncertainty to act.
    • It is a consequence of being outside the symbolic web of culture that binds people together.
  • Ideal Culture refers to the social patterns mandated by cultural values and norms.
  • Real Culture refers to actual patterns that happen in reality that approximate cultural expectations.
  • High Culture refers to cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite.
  • Popular Culture refers to cultural patterns that are widespread among a society’s population.
  • Culture Change is the manner by which culture, its elements and components, change and evolve over time and under specific circumstances.