The Study of Culture Prof. Jayson M. Barlan

What is culture?

culture care

cultus civilization

What is Culture?

ò  It refers to that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as member of society.

Sir Edward Tylor

Other Definition

ò  It is an organized body of conventional understandings manifest in art and artifacts, which, persisting through tradition, characterizes a human group.

Robert Redfield

Various Definitions

ò  Culture is characteristically a product of human interaction;

ò  is a social heritage that is complex and socially transmitted;

ò  provides socially acceptable patterns for meeting biological and social needs;

ò  is a distinguishing factor;

ò  is an established pattern of behavior

Various Definitions

ò  Is cumulative as it is handed down from generation to generation in a given society;

ò  Is a pure abstraction;

ò  Is meaningful to human beings because of its symbolic quality;

ò  Is learned by every person as basic determinants of his personality, and

ò  Depends for its existence upon the continued functioning of society but is independent of any specific group.

Types of Culture

•  Concrete and tangible things that man creates and uses

Material Culture

•  Words, habits, ideas, customs, behavior

•  Laws, techniques, lifestyles, knowledge

Non-material Culture

Components of Culture

Norms

folkways

mores

laws

Values Language Fashions, Fads, crazes

Characteristics

Learned and acquired

Shared and transmitted social

ideational Gratifies human needs adaptive

Tends toward integration cumulative

Adaptations of Culture

Parallelism Diffusion

Fission Convergence

Functions of Culture

As a category

As a tool in prediction

Other Functions

ò  Serves as trademark or special feature that distinguishes one society from another

ò  Brings together, contains, and interprets the values of society in a more or less systematic manner

ò  Provides one of the most important bases for social solidarity

ò  Provides blueprint of, as well as the materials for social structure

ò  Serves as a dominant factor in establishing and molding the social personality

ò  Provides behavioral patterns

ò  Provides individuals with the meaning and direction of his existence

Modes of Acquiring Culture

indoctrination

conditioning

imitation

Variations in Culture

Ethnocentrism Relativity

subcultures Culture shock

Cultural lag Cultural dualism

Other Concepts