Lesson THE CONCEPT, ASPECTS AND CHANGE IN/OF

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

1

What is Culture?
According to Edward Tylor, “Culture refers to that complex whole which includes
knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of society”. It is also defined a set of practices and
traditions that define a specific society. Wherein Society Constitution of social actors in
constant interaction.
According to Robert Redfield, “Culture is an organized body of conventional
understanding manifest in art and artifacts, which, persisting through tradition,
characterizes a human group”.
Types of Culture
 Material culture refers to the concrete and tangible things that man creates and
uses. They range from the prehistoric stone tools of primitive man to the most
advanced computer of the modern man
 Non-material culture consists of words people use; the habits they follow; the
ideas, customs, and behavior that any society professes and to which they strive
to conform. Laws, techniques, lifestyle, and knowledge are included, too.
Aspect of Culture

 Culture is learned and acquired - not instinctive acquired through the senses and
from experience habits, skills, values, and knowledge. It may be acquired
through imitation, conditioning, suggestion, formal or informal instruction, or mass
media
 Culture is shared and transmitted - transmission through ideas, passed on to
generations using language and other symbolic means of communication
 Culture is social – due to man natural tendency to socialize.
 Culture is Ideational – Formation of ideas and use of the same assign meaning to
his environment and experiences
 Culture gratifies human needs – culture’s provision to satisfy biological and
sociological needs of people such as food, clothing, shelter, protections, love,
security etc.
  Culture is adaptive – Dynamism of culture and adaptiveness of customs.
 Culture tends toward Integration – elements or traits that make up culture are
(custom) mostly adjusted to or consistent with one another.
 Culture is cumulative – accumulation of certain features of culture over time.

Component of Culture

Norms - These are the guidelines people are supposed to follow in their relation with

one another. They indicate what people should or should not do in specific situation. It

indicates the standard of propriety, morality, legality, and ethics of a society that are
covered by sanctions when violation is made.

Social Norms

a. Folkways – these are everyday habits; customs, traditions and conventions

people obey without giving much thought to the matter

b. Mores- these are the norms people consider vital to their wellbeing and most
cherished values; they are special customs with moral and ethical significance,
which are strongly held and emphasized.

c. Laws- these are formalized norms enacted by people vested with legitimate
authority.

Ideas are non-materials aspects of culture and embody man's conception of his
physical, social and cultural world.

Beliefs refer to a person's conviction about a certain idea.

Values are abstract concepts of what is important and worthwhile, they are general
ideas that individuals share about what is good or bad.
 Symbols - It refers to an object, gesture, sound, color or design that represents
something “other that itself”.

What is Human Cultural Variation?

Human Cultural Variation refers to the differences in social behaviors that
different cultures exhibit around the world. What may be considered good etiquette in
one culture may be considered bad etiquette in another.
Cultural Variation Between Cultures - If human cultures modify the natural environment,
it is also true that the natural environment initially shaped, and still shapes to some
extent, the culture of society.
Variation within Culture
1. Subcultures - A segment of society which shares a distinctive pattern of mores,
folkways, and values which differ from the pattern of larger society. It is a culture within a
culture.
2. Counter Culture - is a group whose values and norms place it at odds with
mainstream society or a group that actively rejects dominant cultural values and norms.
3. High Culture – consist of activities patronized by elite audiences, composed of
member of the upper-middle and upper class.
4. Popular Culture – consist of activities, products and services that assumed to appeal
to member of the middle and working classes.
5. Ideal Culture – is the way people describe the standard of behavior- the blueprint
which provides the directions and guidelines in relating either others or doing things.
6. Real Culture – refers to how one behaves in an actual situation within the context of
what may be regarded as acceptable by other members of society.

WHAT IS IT
What have you noticed on the pictures above? These have
something to do with culture.
❖ Culture refers to a group or community which shares
common experiences that shape the way its members
understand the world. It includes groups that we are
born into, such as race, national origin, gender, class, or religion. It can also
include a group we join or become part of.
❖ Culture is a strong part of people's lives. It influences their views, values,
humor, hopes, loyalties, worries and fears. It helps to have some perspective
and understanding of their cultures.
❖ Culture and society defined, culture consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects,
and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group
or society.
❖ Through culture, people and groups define themselves, conform
to society's shared values, and contribute to society.
❖ The major elements of culture are symbols, language, norms, values, and
artifacts.
1. A symbol is anything that is used to stand for something else.
People who share a culture often attach a specific meaning to an
object, gesture, sound, or image. For example, a cross is a significant symbol
to Christians. It is not simply two pieces of wood attached to each other, nor is
it just an old object of torture and execution. To Christians, it represents the
basis of their entire religion, and they have great reverence for the symbol.
2. Language is a system of words and symbols used to communicate with
other people. This includes full languages as we usually think of them,
such as English, Spanish, French, etc. but, it also includes body language,
slang, and common phrases that are unique to certain groups of people.
3. Systems of values are culturally defined standards for what is good or
desirable. Members of the culture use the shared system of values to
decide what is good and what is bad. Lanuza M. Gerry and Raymundo S. Sarah
Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics. 151 (2016).

WHAT I LEARNED
Let Us Remember
⚫ Cultural artifact or artefact is a term used in the social
sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology, and
sociology for anything created by humans which gives
information about the culture of its creator and users.
• Artifacts are such valuable tools for exploring the past and using them
to understand the past.
• Human values are essential in our life because they help us to grow
and develop. It is a person's standards of behaviour, principles and
own judgment. Some of the values, human treasures are honesty,
love, happiness, and integrity.
• Social and cultural norms are rules or expectations of behaviour and
thoughts based on shared beliefs within a
specific cultural or social group.
• Social change - variations or modifications in the patterns of social
organisation of sub groups within society
• Cultural change - refers to all alterations affecting new traits or trait
complexes and changes in a cultures content and structure.
What is Cultural Relativism?
 The concept of cultural relativism underscores the idea that the culture in every
society should be understood and regarded on its own terms. Societies are
 qualitatively different from one another, such that each one has its own “unique
inner logic” (Eriksen 2001: 14) Cultural traits can only be known and valued in the
context of the society by which they emerge and are practiced.
 Cultural relativism promotes the idea that a society must be viewed from the
inside so that inner logic can be better explained. A society’s idea of a good life
will not likely be shared by another society that interprets the notion of “good”
from a sharply different social perspective. In other words, each society has a
different yardstick in appreciating the value of its own cultural trait. Cultural
relativism, however, cannot be regarded as the flip side of ethnocentrism. The
concept of cultural relativism is more analytical and methodological rather than
being a moral principle. Anthropologists apply the concept of cultural relativity in
investigating and comparing societies without declaring one being better or
preferable to the other.
Moreover, appreciating and accepting the uniqueness of one society’s cultural trait
does not mean that universal human moral traits of right or wrong no longer apply. For instance,
cultural traits that promote subjugation of women by hurting or killing them do not necessarily mean
that they are right by virtue of one society’s inner logic.
There are underlying patterns of human cultural traits that are common and universally
acceptable to humanity. The violent subjugation and elimination of human life or traits are broadly
unacceptable to the rest of humanity. Through a relativist approach consciously balanced by a
universalist understanding of what is humanely acceptable, the dangers of ethnocentrism can be
addressed.
How Cultural Relativism is different from Ethnocentrism?
Cultural Relativism is a principle that an individual person's beliefs and activities should be
understood by others in terms of that individual's own culture, rather than judge against the criteria of
another. Culture in every society should be understood and regarded on its own terms. It is also a
view that no culture is superior to any other culture when comparing system of morality, law, politic
etc. In philosophical notion all cultural belief is equally valid and truth itself is relative, depending on
the cultural environment. While Ethnocentrism is the regard that one’s own culture and society is
the center of everything and therefore far more superior than others. It is understandable that people
laud and hold importance to the cultural values that were taught them by their parents, elders, and
other institutions of their society. The problem is when a person or groups of people regard their own
society’s set of cultural values as the only agreeable, acceptable, and highly respectable set of
convictions. Such a perspective can harden into chauvinism, a position that everything about the
other culture is wrong, unreasonable, detestable, and even wicked. From this perspective, the
practices, and institutions of people from other societies are regarded as inferior, less intelligent, and
even vicious. An ethnocentric attitude can be an obstacle to understanding each other culture and
foster tensions within or between societies.

What is Ethnocentrism?

The usual definition of the term is "thinking one's own group's ways are superior to others" or "judging
other groups as inferior to one's own"

What is Xenocentrism?

Xenocentrism is the preference for the cultural practices of other cultures and societies, such as how they
live and what they eat, rather than of one's own social way of life.

❖ Cultural relativism is the ability

to understand a culture on its own terms and not to
make judgments using the standards of one's
own culture.
❖ The goal of this is to promote understanding of cultural practices that are
not typically part of one's own culture.
❖ Cultural Relativism is important to anthropology and one of the things that
makes anthropology unique because it is a tool, a method for attempting to
see things from a multiplicity of viewpoints so as to better understand
them.
❖ Cultural Relativism does not mean that anything a culture does is good or
moral. This is one of the ones that confuse people.
❖ Cultural relativism teaches us that, marriage patterns are cultural options,
not objective truth.
❖ Cultural Relativism doesn’t mean that cultures can’t be compared.
There is sometimes a strange notion that there are no commonalities
between cultures.
❖ This is one of the reasons why those trained in cultural anthropology
are often great problem solvers for complex issues.