WHAT IS CULTURE?

E. B. Taylor, an English anthropologist was the first to coin the term 'culture' in the eighteenth
century. The study of society becomes incomplete without proper understanding of culture of
that society because culture and society go together. Culture is the complex system of meaning
and behavior that defines the way of life for a given group or society. It includes beliefs, values,
knowledge, art, morals, laws, customs, habits, language, and dress. Culture include ways of
thinking a well as patterns of behavior. In any society, culture defines what is perceived as
beautiful and ugly, right and wrong, good and bad.
Culture helps hold society together. It gives people a sense of belonging, instructs them in how to
behave and tells them what to think in particular situations.
Definition: E.B. Taylor defined culture as "that complex whole which includes knowledge,
belief, art, morale, and laws, custom and any other capabilities and habits as acquired by man as
a member of society."
Macionis defined culture as “Culture is the values, beliefs behavior and material objects that
together forms a people’s way of life.”

Material and Non-material Culture:

Famous Sociologist W.F. Ogburn divide culture into two types such as material and non-material
culture.
Material culture consists of products of human activity which is concrete, tangible and
observable. These objects are manmade and called as ‘artifacts’. It refers to books, chairs, tables,
furniture, tools, and telephone. These material culture are external and utilitarian. Material
culture is invented for human convenience. They contribute to the progress of society. It changes
faster.
Non-material culture consists of intangible and abstract (theoretical) things like customs,
values, good will habits, beliefs, language etc. Non-material culture is something internal and
they do not have physical existence. Non-material culture changes very slowly.

Characteristics of Culture:

(1) Culture is social:

Culture is not individual but social in nature. As a social product culture develops through social
interaction which is shared by all. Without social interaction or social relations it is very difficult
and almost impossible to be cultured. Culture is inclusive of the expectations of the members of
the groups. It is created or originated in society. Hence it is social.
(2) Culture is shared:
Culture is not possessed by a single or a few individual. Culture is shared by majority of
individuals. For example, customs, traditions, beliefs, ideas, values, morale etc. are all shared by
people of a group or society.

(3) Culture is learnt:

Culture is a learned behavior. It is not biologically inherited but learnt socially by individuals. In
other words any behavior or quality which is socially acquired or learned is called culture.
Human beings learn or acquire culture by living in group. He learns it from society through
education.
(4) Culture is transmissive:
Culture is transmitted from one generation to another. It passes from parents to children and so
on. This transmission is a continuous and spontaneous process. It never remains constant. Man
inherits or learns culture from his ancestors and passes it to his successors. In this way culture
constantly accumulate.
(5) Culture is accumulative:
Culture is not created in one day or one year. It gradually accumulates through centuries. Beliefs,
art, morals, knowledge are gradually stored up and became part of culture. Hence culture is the
social heritage.
(6) Culture is Variable:
Culture is variable and changeable. It varies and changes from society to society. Because each
and every society has its own culture. It also varies within a society from time to time. Ways of
living of people of a particular society varies from time to time.
(8) Culture is Idealistic:
Culture is idealistic in nature. Because it embodies the ideals, values and norms of the group. It
sets ideal goals before individuals which is worth attaining. In other words culture is the sum
total of ideals and values of individuals in society.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
Culture includes within itself elements that make up the essence of a society or a social group.
The major ones include: Symbols, values, norms, and language.

1. Language:
Language is a set of symbols that express ideas and enables people to think and communicate
with one another. Verbal (spoken) language and non-verbal (written and gestured) language help
us describe reality. One of our most important attributes is the ability to use language to share
our experiences, feelings, and knowledge with others. Language can create visual images in our
head, such as “the kitten look like little cotton balls”. Language also allows people to distinguish
themselves from outsiders and maintain group boundaries and solidarity.
Language not only allows communication but is also the key to cultural transmission, the process
by which one generation passes culture to the next.

2. Symbols:
Symbols are the central components of culture. Symbols refer to anything to which people attach
meaning and which they use to communicate with others. More specifically, symbols are words,
objects, gestures, sounds or images that represent something else rather than themselves.
For example, a cross is a significant symbol to Christians. It is not simply two pieces of wood
attached to each other, nor is it just an old object of torture and execution. To Christians, it
represents the basis of their entire religion, and they have great reverence for the symbol.
Non-verbal symbols are shaking hands, gestures. However, the same gesture can mean one thing
in one society and something quite different in another society. In the United States, for example,
if we nod our head up and down, we mean yes, and if we shake it back and forth, we mean no. In
Bulgaria, however, nodding means no, while shaking our head back and forth means yes!

3. Values:
Values are essential elements of non-material culture. Values are collective ideas about what is
right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture. Values are
abstract standards that people who share a culture use to make choices about how to live. Values
do not dictate which behaviors are appropriate and which ones are not, but they provide us with
criteria by which we evaluate people, objects, and events. Values are shared and are learned in
group. They can be positive or negative. For example, honesty, truth – telling, respect for others,
hospitality, helping those in need, bravery, hard work etc are positive values. Examples of
negative values include theft, indecency, disrespect, dishonesty, coward, lazy, etc. Values are
dynamic, meaning they change over time. They are also static, meaning they tend to persist
without any significant modification. Values are also diversified, meaning they vary from place
to place and culture to culture. Some values are universal. For example, dislike for killing
people, concepts and practices of disease management, cleanliness, personal hygiene, cosmetics,
incest taboo, etc.

4. Norms:
Norms are also essential elements of culture. Values provide ideals or beliefs about behavior but
do not state explicitly how we should behave. Norms, on the other hand, do have specific
behavioral expectations. “Norms are established rules of behavior or standards of conduct”
Prescriptive norms state what behavior is appropriate and acceptable. Examples of prescriptive
norms include saying "thank you" after receiving a favor, asking for permission before smoking
around other people, obeying grammar and spelling rules, excusing oneself after burping and
shaking hands after a sporting match.
Proscriptive norms state what behavior is inappropriate or unacceptable. For example, law that
prohibits us from driving over the speed limit, not to read newspaper or use mobile during class.
Norms are derived from values. That means, for every specific norm, there is a general value that
determines its content.
Not all norms are of equal importance; those are most important are formalized. Formal norms
are written down and involve specific punishment for violators. Laws are the most common type
of formal norms: they can be enforced through sanctions. Sanctions are rewards for appropriate
behavior or penalties for inappropriate behavior. E.g. positive sanctions include praise, honors,
or medals for conformity to specific norms. Negatives sanctions range from mild disapproval to
the death penalty.
Informal Norms are unwritten standards of behavior understood by people who share a common
identity. Violation of informal norms can cause informal sanctions. Informal sanctions are not
clearly defined and can be applied by any member of a group such as frowning at someone or
making a negative comment or gesture.
Individuals may not act according to the defined values and norms of the group. Therefore,
violation of values and norms and deviating from the standard values and norms are often
common. Social norms may be divided into mores, folkways and laws.
Mores: Mores are strict norms that control moral and ethical behavior. Mores are norms based
on definitions of right and wrong. Violators are subject to more severe negative sanctions. For
examples killing someone, breaking traffic rules, cheating in school.

Taboos are mores so strong that their violation in considered to be extremely offensive.
Often times the violator of the taboo is considered unfit to live in that society. E.g. Incest taboo. And
in some Muslim cultures, eating pork is taboo because the pig is considered unclean

Laws: Laws are formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and are
enforced by formal sanctions. The strongest norms are regarded as the formal laws of a society
or a group. Formal laws are written and codified social norm. Theft, murder, and trespassing are all
examples of laws.

Folkways: Folkways are the ways of life developed by a group of people. They are detailed and
minor instructions, traditions or rules for day-to-day life that help us function effectively and
smoothly as members of a group. Here, violating such kinds of norms may not result in a serious
punishment unlike violating mores. They are less morally binding. In other words, folkways are
appropriate ways of behaving and doing things. Examples may include table etiquette, dressing
rules, walking, talking, covering your mouth when you burp/cough, etc. Conformity to folkways
usually occurs automatically without any national analysis and is based upon custom passed
from generation to generation. They are not enforced by law, but by informal social control.
 5. Belief

A belief is the mental attitude that some proposition is true. For every given proposition, every
person either has or lacks the mental attitude that it is true — there is no middle ground between
the presence or absence of a belief. In the case of gods, everyone either has a belief that at least
one god of some sort exists or they lack any such belief.

Belief is distinct from judgment, which is a conscious mental act that involves arriving at a
conclusion about a proposition (and thus usually creating a belief). Whereas belief is the mental
attitude that some proposition is true rather than false, judgment is the evaluation of a proposition
as reasonable, fair, misleading, etc.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Cultural diversity refers to the variability of cultures across societies and places. As there are
different societies, there are different cultures. The diversity of human culture is remarkable.
Values and norms of behavior vary widely from culture to culture often contrasting in radical
ways. For example, Muslims do not eat pork, while Hindus eat pork but avoid beef. Cultural
diversity or variability can be both between societies and within societies.
High Culture and Popular Culture

High culture refers to patterns associated with a society's elite while popular culture refers to patterns
widespread among a society's entire population.

Subcultures:

We use the concept of subculture to denote the variability of culture within a certain society. Smaller
cultural groups that exist within but differ in some way from the prevailing culture or dominant culture.
These groups are called subcultures. Examples of some subcultures include “heavy metal” music
devotees, body‐piercing and tatoo enthusiasts, motorcycle gang members.

Countercultures

Cultural diversity includes rejection of dominant culture. Counterculture refers to

cultural patterns that strongly oppose the norms and values of the dominant culture. Members of
countercultures—such as hippies of 1960.

Assimilation

Assimilation is a gradual process by which a person or group belonging to one culture adopts the
practices of another, thereby becoming a member of that culture. Many people see the United States as “a
melting pot” comprised of a variety of different cultural, subcultural, and countercultural groups. When
the mainstream absorbs these groups, they have undergone assimilation.
Multiculturalism

“Promoting the equality of all cultural traditions”

Multiculturalism is the view that cultural differences should be respected or even encouraged.
Sociologists use the concept of multiculturalism to describe one way of approaching cultural
diversity within a society. Underlying multiculturalism is the belief that members of different
cultures can live peacefully alongside each other; assimilation is not necessary, nor perhaps even
desirable.

Ethnocentrism:

“The practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture.”

We often tend to judge other cultures by comparison with our own. It is not logically possible
and proper to underestimate or overestimate or judge other cultures on the basis of one's cultural
standard. Ethnocentrism, in general, is an attitude of taking one's own culture and ways of life as
the best and the center of all and on the other hand, regarding other ethnic groups and cultures as
inferior, bad, full of errors, etc. A potentially problematic form of ethnocentrism is nationalism.
Nationalism often includes the notion that a particular nation has a God‐given or historical claim
to superiority.

Xenocentrism:

Xenocentrism means a preference for the foreign. It is the exact opposite of ethnocentrism. It is
the belief that our own products, styles or ideas are necessarily inferior to those which originate
elsewhere. There are many occasions when people seem happy to pay more for imported goods
on the assumption that anything from abroad is better.

Culture Relativism:

“The practice of judging a culture by its own standards”

Every society has its own culture, which is more or less unique. A culture has to be studied in
terms of its own meanings and values. Cultural relativism describes a situation where there is an
attitude of respect for cultural differences rather than condemning other people's culture as
uncivilized or backward.

Cultural Change:

Change is an inherent aspect of culture. No culture remains static. There are many reasons for

cultural change: economic, political, environmental, and, of course, technological factors often
operate concurrently to trigger cultural change.
Causes of cultural Change:

1. Invention
 Invention is the process whereby new cultural elements are created, often, out of previously
existing elements, such as the radio, the computer or the microchip.
2. Discovery
Discovery is the process whereby we recognize or gain a better understanding of already existing
elements present in the environment, usually through scientific research. Perhaps a distant star, a
medicine against severs disease.
3. Diffusion
Cultural diffusion is the process through which the cultural traits of one culture are transmitted
to another one. This can take place through trade and other forms of economic exchanges,
migration, or wars. Moreover, new technology send information around the globe in seconds.
Cultural diffusion is more likely to take place and is more intense at border areas where
populations of neighboring cultures are more likely to interact.

Cultural Lag:
“Gap between material and non-material culture.”
Cultural lag (Ogburn, 1966) occurs whenever technology allows us to engage in new behaviors
but our norms and values are lagging behind and we are not sure what to think of such practices.
Technology, and material culture, especially in post-industrial societies, tends to change faster
than mentalities and non-material culture.
Cultural Integration:
The close relationship among various elements of a cultural system.
Cultural Universals:
Although there are as many different and unique cultures as societies, there are some cultural
practices that are universal. Amid the diversity of human cultural behavior, there are some
common features that are found in virtually all societies. Cultural universality refers to those
practices, beliefs, values, norms, material objects, etc., which are observed across all societies in
the world, or across different social groups within a society.
For example, every culture has a grammatically complex language. All societies have some
recognized form of family system in which there are values and norms associated with the care
of children. The institution of marriage, religious rituals, and property rights are all cultural
universals.
Culture Shock
Culture shock is the psychological and social maladjustment at micro or macro level that is
experienced for the first time when people encounter new cultural elements such as new things,
new ideas, new concepts, seemingly strange beliefs and practices.
Highly ethnocentric people are exposed widely to culture shock. On the other hand, cultural
relativists may find it easy to adapt to new situations and overcome culture shock.