Study Unit 6: Understanding the concept of culture Flashcards
discuss the concept of culture
The word culture
generally refers to all the products of the human mind and human activities.
By this we mean two things:
1 All the ideas that people think of, in order to make sense of the world
they live in. These cover a wide range of issues. There are, for example,
ideas about how we should live our lives in order to avoid evil and promote
what is good and socially acceptable behaviour. We call these ideas
or concepts “values” and “norms”, Closely related to these are our ideas about religion, art, music,
literature and science, which we call aspects of nonmaterial culture.
2 All the things (material things) that people design and produce in order to
survive or to make their lives easier. This particular meaning of the word
culture relates to material goods, that is, things that are tangible (that we
can touch), such as household implements, weapons, machinery, and
other products of technology like computers and motor cars.
provide possible definitions of culture
•• “Culture is the knowledge, language, values, customs and material objects
that are passed on from person to person or from one generation to another”
(Kendall 2002:38).
•• “Culture refers to the social heritage of a people – those learned patterns
of thinking, feeling, and acting that are transmitted from one generation
to the next, including the embodiment of these patterns in material items”
(Hughes & Kroehler 2005:43).
culture is “the continuously changing patterns of behaviour (including
attitudes, values and material objects) which are shared and transmitted among
members of society”
•• “Culture refers to shared products of a human group or society” (Popenhoe
et al 1998:23).
state what biologically programmed behaviour is
Biologically programmed behaviour* is behaviour that is genetically
fixed. It is inherited from generation to generation through codes that
are inscribed in our genes. As a result, we cannot change this type of
behaviour
define sociobiology
sociobiology refers to the application of biological principles
in explaining the social activities of all social animals, including human
beings
comment on theory of evolution
Evolution is the result of the combination
of genetic mutations (which do not occur in a random fashion over the
generations) and the process of natural selection of some of these
mutations over others. This part of evolution is essentially non-random.
Natural selection is non-random because it occurs in a specific direction:
It favours those characteristics that allow an organism to survive and
disfavours those that are a hindrance to survival. As a result, organisms
evolve to become increasingly better adapted to their environments
distinguish between culture and society
Society
refers to the system of relationships that connects individuals. Culture, on the
other hand, refers to the way of life of the members of a society or of groups
within a society. It includes the following:•• dress
•• marriage customs
•• family systems
•• work patterns
•• religious ceremonies
•• leisure pursuits
•• the goods people manufacture and use
•• dwellings
•• language
•• literature, art and crafts
what are norms
Norms refer to specific “rules” that specify moral or appropriate behaviour in
particular situations. Norms also refer to rules that prohibit behaviour that is
regarded as being socially unacceptable. Norms are the “rules” which people
in a particular society are expected to obey – they are what we call the dos
and don’ts of social life.
what are values
Values, on the other hand, refer to abstract ideals. They tend to be very general
and refer to the beliefs that are held by members of a particular society. Values
provide the criteria for defining and assessing desirable conduct
comment on counter cultures
Countercultures differ from subcultures in one important respect: they are
“cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted in a society”
(Macionis & Plummer 2005:115). Their values and norms are often in conflict
with those of the mainstream order of the dominant culture of the society of
which they form a part
define enthocenticism
The
tendency to view our own society as the best way of life, or the tendency to
judge others in terms of one’s own culture is called ethnocentrism.
ethnocentrism
is the practice of judging other cultures through the lenses of your own culture
what are cultural universals
Cultural universals are cultural features which
can be found in all types of societies. Giddens (2010:40) lists the following
examples of cultural universals:
•• some form of language
•• some form of family system
•• some form of marriage
•• some form of religious rituals
•• some form of property rights
the way in which they are expressed and
transmitted differs from one society to another, or from one culture to another
The concept of cultural universal from this point of view is an important
concept which suggests that although (1) there are common cultural features
and practices between societies, (2) there are differences between societies
in terms of how these cultural features and practices are expressed and
transmitted over time; we say that the expression of cultural universals differs
between societies and changes with time because in “each generation, and
each year for that matter, most human cultures change and expand through
the processes of innovation and diffusion
