Culture

What is Culture? What is Civilization?

Major Components of Culture Cultural Diversity Cultural Change Muslim Culture

Functions of Culture Global Culture

Postmodernism and New Culture

What is Culture?• Culture(as designs for living): the values, beliefs, behavior

practices and material objects that constitute a people’s way of life. It is a bridge to the past as well as a guide to the future.

• Non-material culture: (Art-thoughts) the intangible world of ideas created by members of a society, e.g. ideas, beliefs, values, etc

• Material culture : (artifacts-things) the tangible things created by members of society, e.g. mobile phones to pottery.

• Cultural practices: the practical logic by which we both act and think in a myriad of little encounters of daily life. Several species display a limited capacity for culture, but only human beings rely on culture for survival.

Culture and Intelligence• As the human brain evolved, the first elements of

culture appeared some two million years ago• With larger brains, modern Homo sapiens produced

culture at a rapid pace .• The development of culture reached the point we

call “the birth of civilization” approximately 12,000 years ago.

• Gradually, culture pushed aside the biological forces and gained mental power to fashion the natural environment for themselves.

What is Civilization?• Civilization: is the most comprehensive cultural entities, e.g.

Egyptian, Islamic, Western, Indian civilizations. • A civilization is a culture writ large. They have no clear cut

boundaries but is long lived• Civilizations of the past include the Ancient Sumerian,

Egyptian, Christian and Islamic• Contemporary civilizations are: Chinese, Japanese, Indian,

Western and African• Religions are one of the key defining features of civilizations.

Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Confucianism are 4 leading religions linked to civilization. In 21st century a new global culture emerging “universal civilization” – a contested idea.

What is Civilization?• Culture and civilization are two terms used

interchangeably.

• Culture represents what we are whereas civilization is what we have and will accumulate.

• Culture represents the end (values and goals) and civilization represents the tools and techniques that help in achieving the end.

Major components of Culture• Symbols: anything that carries a particular meaning recognized

by people who share culture. E.g. Jeans –inexpensive clothing for workers; in 1960s Jeans popular among affluent students; today designer Jeans emerged as high-priced status symbol.

• E.g., winking an eye, in some cultures this action conveys interest; in others, insult.

• We are so dependent on our culture that we take things for granted. Other concepts: cultural shock

• In sum: symbols allow people to make sense of their lives, and without them human existence would be meaningless. Meanings are constructed around people through a series of practices. The study of symbols and signs is called semiotics.

Language• Language: is a system of symbols that allows members of a society to

communicate with one another. These symbols take the form of spoken and written words. Western societies write from left to right, people in northern Africa & western Asia write from right to left and people in western Asia from top to bottom.

• The three major world languages: Chinese (1.2 billon -20% of the people); English (600 million- 10%); and Spanish (350 million- 6 %). English is becoming the global tongue.

• Cultural reproduction: the process by which one generation passes culture to the next. Symbols carry our cultural heritage.

• Oral cultural tradition: transmission of culture through speech.• In sum: a system of language guides how we understand the world but does

not limit how we do so. Language skills not only link us to others and with the past, but also set free the human imagination.

Values• Values: are culturally defined standards that people use to decide

what is desirable, good and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living.

• Values are standards that people who share a culture use to make choices about how to live.

• Familiar examples are loyalty, equality, justice, friendliness, honesty, etc. Value systems can differ from culture to culture.

• European values? : 1) Values of rationality, science and progress; 2) Judeo-Christian religion and struggle with secularization -the calendar year , key holidays –Christmas, Easter- are bound up with Christian values.; 3) Core values of rights and obligations; 4) principle of hierarchy –recognize their superiors and inferiors.

Values (cont.)• Asian values: east differ from the west in key values such as:• Belief in strong families• Reverence for education• Hard work a virtue• Virtue of saving• A social contract between the people and the state• East Asians practice national teamwork• Governments should maintain a morally wholesome

environment• Collective values and rejection of extreme forms of

individualism.

Values (cont.)• World Values?• Two important values: traditional versus secular-rational,

and survival versus self-expression.• Traditional societies appeal to an authority rooted in the

past-often via religion or through autocratic leaders.• Secular-rational societies less religious and have rules that

are much more individualistic.• The survival/ (low income societies) self expression (young

age groups) is linked to the arrival of so-called postmodern or post materialist societies.

• Value inconsistency reflects the cultural diversity of society.

Beliefs

• The mental act, condition, or habit of placing trust or confidence in a person or thing;

• Values are broad principles that underlie beliefs, specific statements that people hold to be true. Values are abstract standards of goodness, and beliefs are particular matters that people accept as true or false. Belief has long become a socially acceptable form of thinking in science as well as religion.

• Beliefs in religions, political ideologies, and philosophies.

Norms• The term "Norm” refers to rules of behavior that

develop out of a groups values or that which is “normal”. • Norms are rules and expectations by which a society

guides the behavior of its members. Norms specify how people should and should not behave in various situations.

• Laws, dress codes, rules of sports and games – all express social norms.

• Norms are relative. It may differ from community to community, change from time to time and society to society.

Mores• William Sumner used the term mores to refer to

society’s standards of proper moral conduct. It is widely observed and is the strongest of the social Norms. It applies to everyone, everywhere, all the time. It distinguishes between right and wrong.

• For example, A person who steals, rapes or kills has violated some of society’s most important mores.

• Violations of mores inspire intense punishment. The punishment may involve expulsion from the group, harsh imprisonment, etc.

Folkways• Folkways simple means “ways of the folks”. These are

not strictly enforced. They are the customary, normal and habitual ways of the group to meet certain needs or solving day-to-day problems.

• Example, how to worship; how to treat fellow human beings, proper dress, etc.

• Folkways are the basis of culture. It designates a society’s customs for routine, casual interaction. They are regulative and exert pressure upon the individual and the group to conform to the norms.

Cultural Diversity• High culture: refers to cultural patterns are accessible to

some but not all members of a society, they distinguish a society’s elite. E.g. French cuisine better than fish fingers.

• Popular culture: designates cultural patterns that are widespread among a society’s population.

• Cultural capital (Pierre Bourdieu): used to designate the practices where people can wield power and status because of their educational credentials, general cultural awareness and aesthetic preferences. It is distributed very unevenly in societies.

Sub and Countercultures• Subcultures: refers to distinctive cultural patterns that may be

part of any distinctive community or group in society. E.g. frequent flyer executives, jazz musicians, adolescents, homeless people, people in old age homes, etc.

• Countercultures: is used to describe certain other cultures within the dominant societal culture. The counterculture rejects the central values of the culture. E.g. Hippies of the 1960s, youth culture. They separate themselves from the larger society and pursued radically different values.

• Cultural diversity: cultural variety has characterized most of the world. E.g. historical isolation makes Japan the most monoculture of all industrial nations and makes the United States over centuries the most multicultural nation

Cultural Change• Cultural changes occur in three ways:• Invention• Discovery• diffusion• Change in one dimension of a cultural system usually

sparks changes in others. E.g. women working has changed family patterns, including age at marriage, rising divorce rate, etc . Such connections illustrate Cultural Integration: the close relationship among various elements of a cultural system. But all elements do not change at the same speed.

Cultural Lag

• When non-material culture does not adjust itself readily to the material changes it falls behind and the result is a lag between the two. This lag between non-material and material culture has been called Cultural Lag by William Ogburn.

• Examples: • Test-tube babies• Computer diagnosis & recommend course of

treatment

Cultural Patterns

• Eth- group thinking they are righteous and better than another group. People use their own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of others.

• Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge other cultures exclusively by the standards of one’s own culture.

• For example, my religion is better than somebody else’s; left hand driving is good; army is the best (extreme loyalty)

Cultural Relativism• The alternative to ethnocentrism is Cultural Relativism,

the practice of understanding and judging a culture by its own standards. It requires that we not only understand the values and norms of another society but also suspend cultural standards that we have know all our life.

• Examples: eating frog legs; eating ants or beetles; raw camel liver, etc.

• IBM, for example , now provide technical support for its products using websites in twenty –two languages.

Muslim Culture

• Core cultural elements: • Key text Koran• Rules: 1) The Shahada; 2) Salat; 3) Sawn; 4)

Zakat; 5) Hajj• Material culture: art, architecture, typical

cultural dress and appearance.• Islam: is monotheistic religion.• Variations and divisions: Sunni & Shi’at

Functions of Culture

• Binding together members of society and family. It operates as an integrated system for meeting human needs.

• Cultural universals: refers to traits that are part of every known culture. E.g. family, funeral rites, jokes, etc.

• From the conflict perspective as a web of inequality, mass culture and hegemony, the means by which a ruling/dominant group wins over a subordinate group through ideas.

Global Cultures• It is a perspective recognizing the cultural diversity and

promoting respect and equal standing for all cultural traditions, also called pluralism, encourages racial-ethnic variation. Today, we can observe many of the same cultural patterns the world over.

• Example: • 1) The Swiss population includes 4 ethnic groups: French,

Italians, Germans and Romansh. They kept their own languages, live peacefully in political and economic unity.

• 2) businesses are learning the value of marketing to a culturally diverse population.

Global Cultures• The global economy: The flow of goods. E.g.

consumer goods from cars to TV shows to T-shirts – the world over

• Global communications: the flow of information. E.g. satellite based communication system.

• Global migration: The flow of people. E.g. transportation technology, tourism.

• Cultural hybridization: the ways in which parts of one culture (language, symbols) get recombined with the cultures of another.