CULTURE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture

Culture (/ˈkʌltʃər/) is the social behavior and normsfound in human societies. Culture is considered a central concept in anthropology, encompassing
the range of phenomena that are transmitted through social learning in human societies. Cultural universals are found in all human societies; these
include expressive forms like art, music, dance, ritual, religion, and technologies like tool usage, cooking, shelter, and clothing. The concept of material
culture covers the physical expressions of culture, such as technology, architecture and art, whereas the immaterial aspects of culture such as
principles of social organization(including practices of political organization and
social institutions), mythology, philosophy, literature (both written and oral), and science comprise the intangible cultural heritage of a society.[1]

https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/society-and-culture/culture/a/cultural-relativism-article

Culture is the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics shared by groups of people. Given this, someone could very well say that they are
influenced by internet culture, rather than an ethnicity or a society! Culture could be based on shared ethnicity, gender, customs, values, or even
objects. Can you think of any cultural objects? Some cultures place significant value in things such as ceremonial artifacts, jewelry, or even clothing.
For example, Christmas trees can be considered ceremonial or cultural objects. They are representative in both Western religious and commercial
holiday culture.

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture

Culture is a word for the 'way of life' of groups of people, meaning the way they do things. Different groups may have different cultures. A culture is
passed on to the next generation by learning, whereas genetics are passed on by heredity. Culture is seen in
people's writing, religion, music, clothes, cooking, and in what they do.

The concept of culture is very complicated, and the word has many meanings.[1] The word 'culture' is most commonly used in three ways.

 Excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture.
 An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior.

 The outlook, attitudes, values, morals goals, and customs shared by a society.

National cultures[change | change source]

Cultures are what make countries unique. Each country has different cultural activities and cultural rituals. Culture includes material goods, the things
the people use and produce. Culture is also the beliefs and values of the people and the ways they think about and understand the world and their own
lives.

Different countries have different cultures. For example, some older Japanese people wear kimonos, arrange flowers in vases, and have tea
ceremonies. Some countries oppose some things in their culture, like discrimination or religion.

Regional or non-regional cultures[change | change source]

Culture can also vary within a region, society or sub group. A workplace may have a specific culture that sets it apart from similar workplaces. A region
of a country may have a different culture than the rest of the country. For example, in a large country like China or Canada a region may have a
distinctive ways of talking, different types of music, and different types of dances.

A group who acts or speaks differently may be said to be, or have, a subculture.

Company cultures[change | change source]

Companies or other organizations (groups of people) can have a separate culture. Japanese manufacturing companies often have a different culture to
Western companies; the workday starts with exercise, and the workers are very loyal to the company.

Companies in the high-technology sector often have a different culture than other companies. Software and computer companies sometimes allow
employees to play games during the workday, or take time off work to relax, because these companies believe that this will help the workers to think
better.

Anthropology[change | change source]

Anthropology is studying human beings and how they relate to each other. An anthropologist is a person who studies anthropology. Anthropologists
study how culture shapes people and their lives. Cultures constantly change as people move and communicate with new groups of people.

For example, immigrants (people who move from one country to another) may keep some of their customs and traditions from their old country. By
keeping their culture in this way, they bring pieces of their culture to a new place where others begin to experiences it.
ELEMENTS

https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=what+is+culture+pdf&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiNjsHH4OHeAhXBdHAKHV6oA50Q1QIoBHoECAUQBQ&biw=817&bih=647

symbols, language, norms, values, and artifacts.

Symbols

Every culture is filled with symbols, or things that stand for something else and that often evoke various reactions and emotions. Some symbols are actually types of
nonverbal communication, while other symbols are in fact material objects. As the symbolic interactionist perspective discussed in Chapter 1 “Sociology and the
Sociological Perspective” emphasizes, shared symbols make social interaction possible.

Let’s look at nonverbal symbols first. A common one is shaking hands, which is done in some societies but not in others. It commonly conveys friendship and is used
as a sign of both greeting and departure. Probably all societies have nonverbal symbols we call gestures, movements of the hands, arms, or other parts of the body that
are meant to convey certain ideas or emotions. However, the same gesture can mean one thing in one society and something quite different in another society (Axtell,
1998). 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! In the United States, if we make an “O” by putting our thumb and forefinger together, we mean “OK,”
but the same gesture in certain parts of Europe signifies an obscenity. “Thumbs up” in the United States means “great” or “wonderful,” but in Australia it means the
same thing as extending the middle finger in the United States. Certain parts of the Middle East and Asia would be offended if they saw you using your left hand to
eat, because they use their left hand for bathroom hygiene.

Other objects have symbolic value for religious reasons. Three of the most familiar religious symbols in many nations are the cross, the Star of David, and the crescent
moon, which are widely understood to represent Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, respectively. Whereas many cultures attach no religious significance to these
shapes, for many people across the world they evoke very strong feelings of religious faith. Recognizing this, hate groups have often desecrated these symbols.

As these examples indicate, shared symbols, both nonverbal communication and tangible objects, are an important part of any culture but also can lead to
misunderstandings and even hostility. These problems underscore the significance of symbols for social interaction and meaning.

Norms

Cultures differ widely in their norms, or standards and expectations for behaving. We already saw that the nature of drunken behavior depends on society’s
expectations of how people should behave when drunk. Norms of drunken behavior influence how we behave when we drink too much.

Norms are often divided into two types, formal norms and informal norms. Formal norms, also called mores (MOOR-ayz) and laws, refer to the standards of behavior
considered the most important in any society. Examples in the United States include traffic laws, criminal codes, and, in a college context, student behavior codes
addressing such things as cheating and hate speech. Informal norms, also called folkways and customs, refer to standards of behavior that are considered less important
but still influence how we behave. Table manners are a common example of informal norms, as are such everyday behaviors as how we interact with a cashier and
how we ride in an elevator.

Many norms differ dramatically from one culture to the next. Some of the best evidence for cultural variation in norms comes from the study of sexual behavior
(Edgerton, 1976). Among the Pokot of East Africa, for example, women are expected to enjoy sex, while among the Gusii a few hundred miles away, women who
enjoy sex are considered deviant. In Inis Beag, a small island off the coast of Ireland, sex is considered embarrassing and even disgusting; men feel that intercourse
drains their strength, while women consider it a burden. Even nudity is considered terrible, and people on Inis Beag keep their clothes on while they bathe. The
situation is quite different in Mangaia, a small island in the South Pacific. Here sex is considered very enjoyable, and it is the major subject of songs and stories.

While many societies frown on homosexuality, others accept it. Among the Azande of East Africa, for example, young warriors live with each other and are not
allowed to marry. During this time, they often have sex with younger boys, and this homosexuality is approved by their culture. Among the Sambia of New Guinea,
young males live separately from females and engage in homosexual behavior for at least a decade. It is felt that the boys would be less masculine if they continued to
live with their mothers and that the semen of older males helps young boys become strong and fierce (Edgerton, 1976).

Other evidence for cultural variation in norms comes from the study of how men and women are expected to behave in various societies. For example, many
traditional societies are simple hunting-and-gathering societies. In most of these, men tend to hunt and women tend to gather. Many observers attribute this
gender difference to at least two biological differences between the sexes. First, men tend to be bigger and stronger than women and are thus better suited for
hunting. Second, women become pregnant and bear children and are less able to hunt. Yet a different pattern emerges in some hunting-and-gathering societies.
Among a group of Australian aborigines called the Tiwi and a tribal society in the Philippines called the Agta, both sexes hunt. After becoming pregnant, Agta women
continue to hunt for most of their pregnancy and resume hunting after their child is born (Brettell & Sargent, 2009).
Rituals

Different cultures also have different rituals, or established procedures and ceremonies that often mark transitions in the life course. As such, rituals both reflect and
transmit a culture’s norms and other elements from one generation to the next. Graduation ceremonies in colleges and universities are familiar examples of time-
honored rituals. In many societies, rituals help signify one’s gender identity. For example, girls around the world undergo various types of initiation ceremonies to
mark their transition to adulthood. Among the Bemba of Zambia, girls undergo a month-long initiation ceremony called the chisungu, in which girls learn songs,
dances, and secret terms that only women know (Maybury-Lewis, 1998). In some cultures, special ceremonies also mark a girl’s first menstrual period. Such
ceremonies are largely absent in the United States, where a girl’s first period is a private matter. But in other cultures the first period is a cause for celebration
involving gifts, music, and food (Hathaway, 1997).

Boys have their own initiation ceremonies, some of them involving circumcision. That said, the ways in which circumcisions are done and the ceremonies
accompanying them differ widely. In the United States, boys who are circumcised usually undergo a quick procedure in the hospital. If their parents are observant
Jews, circumcision will be part of a religious ceremony, and a religious figure called a moyel will perform the circumcision. In contrast, circumcision among the
Maasai of East Africa is used as a test of manhood. If a boy being circumcised shows signs of fear, he might well be ridiculed (Maybury-Lewis, 1998).

Changing Norms and Beliefs

Our examples show that different cultures have different norms, even if they share other types of practices and beliefs. It is also true that norms change over time
within a given culture. Two obvious examples here are hairstyles and clothing styles. When the Beatles first became popular in the early 1960s, their hair barely
covered their ears, but parents of teenagers back then were aghast at how they looked. If anything, clothing styles change even more often than hairstyles. Hemlines go
up, hemlines go down. Lapels become wider, lapels become narrower. This color is in, that color is out. Hold on to your out-of-style clothes long enough, and
eventually they may well end up back in style.

Values

Values are another important element of culture and involve judgments of what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable. A culture’s values shape its norms. In
Japan, for example, a central value is group harmony. The Japanese place great emphasis on harmonious social relationships and dislike interpersonal conflict.
Individuals are fairly unassertive by American standards, lest they be perceived as trying to force their will on others (Schneider & Silverman, 2010). When
interpersonal disputes do arise, Japanese do their best to minimize conflict by trying to resolve the disputes amicably. Lawsuits are thus uncommon; in one case
involving disease and death from a mercury-polluted river, some Japanese who dared to sue the company responsible for the mercury poisoning were considered bad
citizens (Upham, 1976).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_Philippines

the culture of the Philippines is a combination of cultures of the East and West.[1] Filipino identity was created primarily as a result of pre-colonial
cultures, colonial influences and Chinese traders intermixing together; gradually evolving into a uniquely Filipino identity. In pre-colonial times, the
Philippines was a divided set of nations, islands and tribes being ruled by their own kings, chieftains, lakans, rajahs, datus and sultans. Every nation
has its own identity and some are even part of a larger empire outside of what is now the Philippines. Manila, for example, was once part of
the Bruneian Empire, while many parts of Mindanao is theorized to be part of the Majapahit Empire, with its capital being located in East Java in
modern-day Indonesia. The advent of colonial rule in the islands marked the beginning of The Philippines as a colony that would later evolved into a
country after independence, a collection of Southeast Asian countries united under Spain. Chinese influence has been felt throughout Southeast
Asia through trade, even before the colonization of the region; specifically by the Ming dynasty and other earlier Chinese dynasties, from as early as
the 9th century. But it was during Spanish colonization that Chinese-Filipino influence truly left their mark on what is now the Philippines. The blending
of indigenous, colonial and external influence is very evident in the historic arts and traditions of the Philippines.

The Philippines was first settled by Negritos; today, although few in numbers, they preserve a very traditional way of life and culture. After them,
the Austronesians arrived on the archipelago. Today, the Austronesian culture is strongly evident in the ethnicities, languages, cuisine, music, dance
and almost every aspect of the culture. These Austronesians engaged in trading with other Austronesians, particularly in the neighbouring nations
of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. They also traded with the mainland Southeast Asia, as well as Japan, China, the Indian subcontinentand Arabia. As
a result, some of these cultures marked their influences on Philippine culture.[2][3]

The Spanish Empire then gradually colonized the islands between the 16th and 19th centuries (Batanes being one of the last places to be colonized in
the mid-1800s), after more than three centuries of colonization, Roman Catholicism spread throughout the archipelago and influenced the religion of
the native people. Then, after being colonized by Spain, the Philippines became a U.S. territory for almost 50 years. Influence from the United States is
manifested in the wide use of the English language, media and in the modern culture and clothing of present-day Philippines.[4]
Definition of a Cultural Symbol
A cultural symbol is a physical manifestation that signifies the ideology of a particular culture or that merely has meaning within a
culture. What is culture, you may ask? Culture is an accumulation of the beliefs, traditions, language and values of a particular
group of people.
The Christian culture has the cultural symbol of the cross, where the Jewish culture has the cultural symbol of the Star of David.
Cultural symbols don't have to be actual symbols or signs; they can also be gestures such as hand shakes and hand signals.
Additionally, the same symbol can mean different things in different cultures. Americans should be careful in Greece, for example.
The thumbs up, which symbolizes that everything is great in American culture, is just like giving the middle finger in Greek culture.