Culture

1. Culture

2. What is culture? • Culture • The values, beliefs, behaviors, and material objects that together, form a people’s way of life. • Non-material culture: The intangible world of ideas created by members of a society. • Material culture: The tangible things created by members of a society. • Cultural shock • Personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life.

3. What is culture? • Nation • A political entity that is, a territory with specific borders, like Pakistan etc • Society • The organized interaction of people in a nation or within some other boundary. • Relatively independent human group which occupies a territory, shares a culture, and has most of its associations within the group.

4. Non-human Social Organization • Different from human society • Non-human social life tends to be uniform and unchanging whereas human social life is constantly changing • Non-human social life is based on instincts whereas human social life is based on drives • Non-humans use sounds but humans use language for communication

5. Components of Culture • Symbols • Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share culture. Symbols vary with culture. • Language • System of symbols that allow people to communicate with one another. • Means of cultural transmission, Distinctive feature of humans, Language shapes perception of reality • Values, beliefs • Values: Culturally defined standards which serve as broad guideline for social living. Ideas about importance and unimportance of experiences • Beliefs: specific statements that people hold to be true. • Value conflicts

6. Components of Culture • Norms • Generally acceptable ways of doing things. Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members. • Classification of norms • Folkways: norms for routine, casual interactions, which are followed as a matter of good manners and polite behavior. • Mores: Strong ideas of right and wrong which require certain acts and forbid others (taboos). Those which must be followed because they are believed essential to group welfare.

7. Components of Culture • Ideal culture • What is expected to exist • What should be there • Real culture • What actually exists • What is there • Social Control • Various means by which members of society encourage conformity to norms. • Material culture & technology • Artifacts reflect cultural values.

8. Cultural Diversity • High culture • Cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite. • Popular culture • Cultural patterns that are wide spread among a society’s population. • Subculture • Cluster of patterns which are both related to the general culture of the society and yet are distinguishable from it • Counter culture • Subcultures which are in active opposition to the dominant culture • Multiculturalism • Recognizing cultural diversity and promoting the equality of all cultural traditions.

9. Cultural Change • Causes of cultural change • Invention, discovery, diffusion • Social institutions • Organized clusters of folkways and mores dealing with highly important activities are called social institutions • Basic institutions • Family, Religion, Government, Education, Economy • Cultural integration • Closed relationship among various elements of the cultural system. • Culture is an integrated system in which each part fits into the rest of the culture • Cultural lag • The fact that some cultural patterns change more quickly than others, which may disrupt a cultural system.

10. Cultural Change • Ethnocentrism • Practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture. • Effects of Ethnocentrism: • Promotes nationalism, patriotism, loyalty, unity and boosts morale. • Protects against change (negative or positive) • Xenocentrism • Preference for the foreign. Exact opposite of ethnocentrism • Cultural relativism • Practice of evaluating a culture by its own standards.

11. Global Culture • Global economy • Global communication • Global migration • Limitations to global culture • Culture and human freedom • Culture as constraint • Culture as freedom