Language and Culture

What is culture?

Presented by: Dr. Hamida Bouzekria

For: Master 1 EFL learners|S1
University of Jijel
Department of English
2023\2024
 Table of contents

1 Introduction

Definition of
2 Culture

Characteristics
3 of Culture
 1
Introduction
 Interest in studying the relationship between language and culture
can be traced back at least to the eighteenth century. Wilhelm Von
Humboldt (1767–1835), Franz Boas (1858 –1942), Edward Sapir
(1884–1939), and Benjamin Whorf (1897–1941) are prominent
scholars who all emphasized the relationship between language,
thought, and culture. However, a unified subdiscipline focusing on
the relationship between language and culture has never been fully
developed.
 2. Definition of Culture
Culture is a complex and multifaceted Culture is said to exist in every human aspect.
concept that has been defined and This general ubiquity accounts for the variety
studied by various scholars from of definitions given to the construct. Damen
different disciplines. (1987) asserts that “the term culture may be
regarded by an anthropologist as a major
Samovar and Porter (2003) argue that unifying force, by a communication
scholars have attempted either to offer professional as a major variable, or by a
various definitions of the term culture psychologist as an individual mental set” (20).
or to highlight its characteristics and Similarly, Hinkel (1999) explains the situation
dimensions. succinctly saying that there are “as many
definitions of culture as there are fields of
inquiry into human societies, groups, systems,
behaviours, and activities” (1).
Culture is used to refer to all the ideas and assumptions about the nature of
things and people that we learn when we become members of social
groups.
It can be defined as “socially acquired knowledge.”
According to Tylor (1971), “culture is that complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, morality, law, practice, and other capabilities and
habits by man as a member of society”.

Franz Boas emphasized the idea that culture is unique to each society. He
defined culture as "the mental and physical reactions and activities that
characterize the behavior of individuals composing a social group."
 Mental Reactions: Culture significantly shapes individuals' mental processes,
including thoughts, beliefs, perceptions, values, and attitudes. It influences how
individuals interpret the world around them, guiding their understanding of what is
acceptable, important, or meaningful.

 Physical Reactions and Activities: Culture also influences the outward behaviors
and activities of individuals. This includes observable actions, rituals, customs,
gestures, communication styles, and practices that are prevalent and characteristic
within a specific cultural group.

 Characterizing the Behavior of Individuals: Culture is a defining factor in

shaping the behavior of people within a social group. It implies that cultural norms,
values, and traditions strongly influence how individuals within that group behave,
react, and interact with one another and the world at large.

 Composition of a Social Group: Culture isn't just an individual phenomenon; it

extends to a larger group or society. It emphasizes that cultural behaviors and
reactions are shared among members of a social group, contributing to a collective
identity and shared ways of thinking and acting.
Malinowski, a pioneering anthropologist, saw culture as "the handiwork
of man and a system of customs and institutions that help individuals
and groups in their efforts to meet their biological and social needs.“
Benedict’s (1943: 9–10) defined Margaret Mead (1995: 1) puts
culture as ‘behavior which in man is it: ‘I have spent most of my
not given at birth, which is not life studying the lives of other
determined by his germ cells as is people, faraway people, so that
the behavior of wasps or the social Americans might better
ants, but must be learned anew from understand themselves.’
grown people by each generation’
Mead and others analyzed
For many of these early researchers different social systems in
the study of cultural systems was a order to ‘illuminate the social
method to gain insights into the practices of our own times, and
ways in which our own ... show us, if we are ready to
socialization limits our self- listen to its teachings, what to
understanding. do and what to avoid’ (Boas,
1928).
 Benedict (1934: 9) remarks Our perception of the world is
that in the past ‘custom did not determined in large part by the
challenge the attention of language we speak and the
social theorists because it was socialization of our cultural
the very stuff of their own environment
thinking: it was the lens
without which they could not
see at all’.
 A very comprehensive definition adopted by the World Conference on
Cultural Policies, Mexico City (1982) considered culture as “ the whole
complex of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual, and emotional
features that characterizes a society or social group”.

According to Mazumdar, “Culture is the sum total of human achievements,

material as well as non-material capable of transmission socially, i.e., by
tradition and communication, virtually as well as horizontally”
 Material culture includes all  Non-material culture includes
tangible (visible traits) man- those intangible (invisible
made things or objects created traits) ideals, attitudes and
by human interaction such as values which bring
clothes, books, tools, vehicles, modification in behavior of an
utensils, TV, radio. Etc. individual such as language,
literature, customs, tradition,
values, beliefs, etc.
Samovar and Porter (2003:8) argued that …culture [is] the deposit of knowledge,
experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, social hierarchies, religion,
notions of time , roles, spatial relationships, concepts of the universe, and
material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of
generations through individual and group striving.

All-inclusive features that characterize culture give it the power to dictate the
way things work in any society (Peck, 1998).
 Brooks (2004: 17) pens: “Culture is the relatively stable set of inner values
and beliefs generally held by groups of people in countries or regions and
the noticeable impact those values and beliefs have on the peoples’ outward
behaviors and environment.”

 Culture encompasses a set of explicit and implicit behavioral patterns

that are learnt and acquired; and transmitted from one generation to
another.

 Culture affects all what people do in their communities, and manifests itself
in their attitudes, values, life orientations, assumptions and acquired and
learnt normative behavioral conventions. It also characterizes specific
society’s life styles and functions as a foundation for people’s rituals and
customs.
 These behavioral and functional standpoints of culture are of great
significance in the FLT context. Learners should be given the
opportunity to observe foreigners’ behavioral patterns and rituals and be
able to interpret their behaviours within the target beliefs, convictions
and values. They should be made aware of the influence people’s beliefs
and values have on their interaction with others.
 One of the main disciplines that is concerned with culture is anthropology;
a field that, in general terms, focuses on human beings, their evolution and
characteristics, and considers culture as an aspect in human beings life
(Nanda and Warms, 2007).

 The anthropologist Benedict (1959) considers culture as the glue that joins
the members of any society, while Hofstede (1994:5) describes it as “…
the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members
of one group or category of people from another”.

 Culture is significant in creating a cohesive and harmonious social fabric

among diverse individuals within a society. It has to do with all the
abstract aspects and features that characterize and unify the actions of
people belonging to the same community.
 One prominent figure From a cognitive view, culture
associated with the cognitive refers to the way people
view of culture is the organize things in their heads,
anthropologist Goodenough and on which their behaviours
(1964; in Damen, 1987: 85) are based. It is deemed as a
who defines culture as follows: sum of shared knowledge
A society’s culture consists of which is processed by
whatever it is one has to know members of a community in
or believe in order to operate in order to behave in an
a manner acceptable to its acceptable manner.
members. .
 Apart from anthropology, a Thus, two types of culture are
distinction of the notion of distinguished and called
culture was made with the ‘formal and deep culture’
emergence of cultural studies referring to Big C and small c
during 1960s and 1970s. culture respectively.
Cultural studies challenged the
commonly held views about
culture as civilization and
history, and considered the
daily life information that
typify cultures (Turner, 1996).
Formal culture, Big C culture, Deep culture ,the small c
a concept that is brought from culture, concerns the
and bears on humanities, behavioral aspect of people in
relates to the achievements of a a given group; the way they
given society or community live, their etiquette in different
(art, music, literature, among settings as well as their
others). attitudes and beliefs (Kramsch,
1996).
Culture has two facets: Objective culture and Subjective culture

Subjective culture relates to small c culture, and signifies the invisible

traits of culture. It has to do with the less tangible manifestations of culture
such as: beliefs, values, norms and assumptions. Meanwhile, all the visible,
seen and material cultural aspects are part of what is called objective
culture.

The distinction between two facets of culture was argued for by Alptekin
(2002) who states that culture is not restricted solely to civilization, but
encompasses cultural-loaded visions towards life, and which characterize
human’s behaviour and their communicative styles
Other researchers hold contrasting views of how precisely to define
culture. According to Thompson (1990:132), Culture is of symbolic
nature and function. It refers to “… the pattern of meanings embodied in
symbolic forms, including actions, utterances, and meaningful objects of
various kinds, by virtue of which individuals communicate with one
another and share their experiences, conceptions and beliefs”.

Geertz (1973) defined culture as: “It denotes an historically transmitted

pattern of meaning embodied in symbols. A system of inherited
conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men
communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about attitudes
towards life” (89).
The importance of meaning in culture is quite evident in the sense that
even the visible aspects of culture are not easily interpreted or
understood by foreigners.

Hofstede (1991: 8) reports the foreigners’ situation as follows: “their

cultural meaning … lies precisely and only in the way these practices are
interpreted by the insiders”.

While teaching culture, teachers should help learners join both the native
and the TL system, and use each in a meaningful and appropriate way.
Moran (2001:24) delineates the concept of culture in these words:
“Culture is the evolving way of life of a group of persons, consisting of
a shared set of practices associated with a shared set of products, based
upon a shared set of perspectives on the world, and set within specific
social contexts”.
 3. Characteristics of Culture

1 2 3
Man-made
Kimball Young (1939) Acquired Trait Distince Entity
argued that “ the cultural
world is the creation of Robertson (1992).
man himself as he has “Culture is that which Every society is
learned how to manage individuals, groups, and characterized by its
nature and himself societies produce and distinctive and unique
throughout his entire acquire in order to culture.
existence. function effectively”
 Material & Transmittable
Non-material
4 Intangible ideas, 5 Cultural heritage is
customs, transmitted from
traditions…. Along one generation to
with tangible another
objects …..

Utility Dynamic
6 The decay of any 7 Culture is not static
cultural pattern but dynamic.
depends upon its
level of utility.
 8 9

Social Symbolic
Culture is not an Culture and its
individual product transmission are
but a social product based on symbols
which are exclusive
to human beings
 Thanks!
Does anyone have any questions?

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