Definition, aspects, and elements of culture

CULTURE

Definition:

Culture is the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together form a people’s way of life. For example, chairs, buildings, road, say hi or bidding good-bye to your peers, ideas, customs, beliefs, values, superstitions, myths. etc. Culture is the epicenter of a human society and without culture no human society can even exist. It is the main difference between human beings and animals.

Paradigms of sociology and culture

• ·         According to Structural-functional approach culture is a system of behavior by which members of societies cooperate to meet their needs. Cultural patterns are rooted in a society’s core values and beliefs.
• ·         Social-conflict approach sees Culture as system that benefits some people and disadvantages others. Cultural patterns are rooted in a society’s system of economic production.
• ·         Symbolic interactionism: It creates group identity from diverse cultural meanings. In addition, culture changes as people produce new cultural meanings. Furthermore, culture is socially constructed through the activities of social groups
• ·         Sociobiology approach: Culture is a system of behavior that is partly shaped by human biology. Cultural patterns are rooted in humanity’s biological evolution.

Globally, experts document almost 7,000 languages, suggesting the existence of just as many distinct cultures. Yet with the number of languages spoken around the world declining, roughly half of those 7,000 languages now are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people

Cultural Aspects or Types of Culture

1. Material culture: It refers to the physical things created by members of a society for example; chairs, buildings, road, art, tools, toys, print and broadcast media, and other tangible objects etc.
2. Non-material Culture: It is the ideas created by members of a society for example say hi or bidding good-bye to your peers, ideas, customs, beliefs, values, superstitions, myths, etc.
3. Ideal culture: It refer to the cultural patterns that should be adopted by the society for example, value time, respect elders and women, affection for younger, etc.
4. Real Culture: It refer to the cultural patterns that are actually adopted by the society, for example devaluing time, harassment to women in public sphere, etc. We must remember that ideal culture always differs from real culture, which is what actually occurs in everyday life.

Cultural Elements or Components

1. Symbols: It refers to anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture. Like all creatures, humans use their senses to experience the surrounding world, but unlike others, we also try to give the world meaning. Similarly, cyber-symbols” have been developed along with our increasing use of computers for communication. Furthermore, now emoji are widely used in WhatsApp during communication among youth. In addition to symbolic elements such as values and norms, every culture includes a wide range of physical human creations called artifacts.
2. Languages: It is a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another. Humans have created many alphabets to express the hundreds of languages we speak. Language not only allows communication but is also the key to cultural transmission, the process by which one generation passes culture to the next. Throughout human history, every society has transmitted culture by using speech, a process sociologists call the “oral cultural tradition.” Some 5,000 years ago, humans invented writing, although at that time only a privileged few learned to read and write. Language plays many functions;

a.       Language affects people’s perception of reality.

b.      Language reflects the social and political status of different groups in society.

c.       Groups may advocate changing language referring to them as a way of asserting a positive group identity.

d.      The implications of language emerge from specific historical and cultural contexts.

e.       Language can distort actual group experience.

f.        Language shapes people’s perceptions of groups and events in society.

g.      Terms used to define different groups change over time and can originate in movements to assert a positive identity.

3. Values: It refers to the culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living. People who share a culture use values to make choices about how to live. Values can sometimes be in conflict with one another. Lower-income countries have cultures that value survival; higher-income countries have cultures that value individualism and self-expression. Enlist some of key values that are central to Pakistan culture.
4. Beliefs: specific thoughts or ideas that people hold to be true. Values are broad principles that support beliefs. In other words, values are abstract standards of goodness, and beliefs are particular matters that individuals consider true or false.
5. Norms: It refers to the rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members. In everyday life, people respond to each other with sanctions, rewards or punishments that encourage conformity to cultural norms.

a.       Mores: (pronounced “MORE-ayz”) The term of mores was coined by William Graham Sumner. It refers to norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance. Mores, which include taboos, are the norms in our society that insist, for example, that adults not walk around in public wearing immodest clothes.

b.      Folk ways: It refers to the norms for routine or casual interaction. Examples include ideas about appropriate greetings and proper dress. In short, mores distinguish between right and wrong, and folkways draw a line between right and rude. A man who does not wear a tie to a formal dinner party may raise eyebrows for violating folkways.