Culture

E,B TAYLOR DEFINED CULTURE

complex whole which consist of knowledge, beliefs, ideas, habits, attitudes, skills, abilities, values,
norms, art, law, morals, customs, traditions, feelings and other capabilities of man which are acquired,
learned and socially transmitted by man from one generation to another through language and living
together as members of the societv

According to the social scientist

simply refers to the way we understand ourselves both as individuals and as members of society, and
includes stories, religion, media, rituals, and even language itself. Irrespective of the various def nitions,
conceptions and approaches to the understanding of the concept of culture, it is however agreed that
culture is a way of life and morality is a part of culture.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

From the Perspective of Sociologists

1. Dynamic, flexible and adaptive

2. Changed and maybe challenge

3. Learned through socialization or enculturation

4.Patterned social interactions

5. Transmitted through socialization or enculturation

6. Requires language and other forms of ommunication

From the Perspective of Anthropologists

1. LEARNED
2. SYMBOLIC

3. SYSTEMATIC AND INTEGRATED

4. SHARED

5. ENCOMPASSING

Dynamic, flexible and adaptive

Culture necessarily changes, and is changed by, a variety of interactions, withindividuals, media, and
technology, just to name a few.

Cultures interact and change. Most societies interact with other societies, and as a consequence their
cultures interact that lead to exchanges of material (ex: tools and furniture) and non-material (ex: ideas
and symbols) components of culture.

All cultures change, or else, they would have problems adjusting and adapting to changing
environments.

Culture is adaptive and dynamic, once we recognize problems, culture can adapt again, in a more
positive way, to find solutions.

We need our cultural skills to stay alive.

Shared and maybe challenged

• (Given the reality of social differentiation), as we share culture with others, we are able to act in a
appropriate ways as well as predict how others will act. Despite the shared nature of culture, that
doesn't mean that culture is homogenous (the same).

It may be challenged by the presence of other cultures and other social forces in society like
modernization, industrialization, and globalization.
Learned through socialization or enculturation

Culture is not biological, people do not inherit it but learned as interact in society. Much of learning
culture is unconscious. People learn, absorb and acquire culture from families, friends, institutions, and
the media. The process of learning culture is enculturation.

Patterned social interactions

• Culture as a normative system has the capacity to def ne and control human behaviors.

Norms (for example) are cultural expectations in terms of how one will think, feel, or behave as set by
one's culture. It sets the patterns in terms of what is appropriate or inappropriate in a given setting.

Human interactions are guided by some forms of standards and expectations which in the end regularize
it.

Transmitted through socialization or enculturation

In the process of socialization /enculturation, we were able to teach them about many things in life and
equip them with the culturally acceptable ways of surviving, competing, and making meaningful
interaction with others in society.

Requires language and other forms of communication

In the process of learning and transmitting culture, symbols and language are needed to communicate
with others in society (Arcinas, 2016).

Learned

Culture is acquired by being born into a particular society in the process of enculturation. Through
language, the cultural traits of society are passed on to younger members in the process of growing up
and through teaching.

Symbolic
Culture renders meaning to what people do. Beliefs, religion, rituals, myths, dances, performances,
music, artworks, sense of taste, education, innovations, identity, ethnicity, and so on are meaningful
human expressions of what people do and how they act

Shared

• The systems of meanings and many other facets (sides) of culture such as kindred, religion, economic
activities, inheritance, and political process, do not function in isolation but an integrated whole that
makes society work.

Encompassing

Edward Tylor def nes culture as a complex whole which encompasses beliefs, practices, attitudes, traits,
values, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols, knowledge, and everything that a person learns and shares as a
member of society (David and Macaraeg, 2010).

Systematic and Integrated

The systems of meanings and many other facets (sides) of culture such as kindred, religion, economic
activities, inheritance, and political process, do not function in isolation but an integrated whole that
makes society work.

Importance /Functions of Culture

It is essential for shaping social relationship maintaining and challenging social order, determining how
we make sense of the world and our place in it, and in shaping our everyday actions and experiences in
society. Moreover, culture is important to sociologists because it plays.

The social order refers to the stability of society based on the collective agreement to rules and norms
that allow us to cooperate, function as a society, and live together (ideally) in peace and harmony (Cole,
2019)

In the book of (David and Macaraeg, 2010), the following functions of culture were given emphasis:

(1) it serves as the "trademark" of the people in the society;

(3) it promotes meaning to individual's existence;

(4) it predicts social behavior;

(5) it unifies diverse behavior;

(6) it provides social solidarity;

(7) it establishes social personality;

(8) it provides systematic behavioral pattern;

(9) it provides social structure category;

(10) it maintains the biologic functioning of the group;

(11) it offers ready-made solutions to man's material and immaterial problems; and

(12) it develops man's attitude and values and gives him a conscience