What is

Culture?
prepared by: Jef Lim
CONTENT OVERVIEW:
A. Meaning of Culture and Society.
B. Characteristics of Culture.
C. Functions of Culture.
D. Aspects of Culture.
E. Elements of Culture.
F. Common Reactions towards Other Cultures.
WHAT IS
CULTURE?
Meaning of Culture and Society.
Culture is a commonly know and used word that we take for
granted everyday and its meaning not often delve deeply by
most people with the thinking that they innately know its
meaning.
However, when ask its meaning most people would come up
with a vague general answer rather than a definitive one.
Meaning of Culture and Society.
According to British anthropologist Edward Taylor, “Culture is
that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art,
morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of society”.

Source:https://www.iedunote.com/culture
Meaning of Culture and Society.
While according to Ralph Linton, “A culture is a configuration
of learned behaviors and results of behavior whose component
elements are shared and transmitted by the members of a
particular society”.

Source:https://www.iedunote.com/culture
Meaning of Culture and Society.
A more simplified and more condense define:

CULTURE:
Is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs,
knowledge, material objects, and behavior.
Meaning of Culture and Society.
Members of society learn this culture and transmit it from one
generation to the next.

Culture which is learned, passes from one generation to the next

through the process of enculturation.
Meaning of Culture and Society.
ENCULTURATION:
The social process by which culture is learned and transmitted
across the generations.

This social transmission of culture is essential to pass on

previous knowledge and does not require every generation to
reinvent everything (especially technology).
Meaning of Culture and Society.
It is also important to take note that society and culture are not
one and the same.
But rather Society is “a fairly large number of people who live
in the same territory, are relatively independent of the outside it,
and participate in a common culture”.
Meaning of Culture and Society.
In short, society is referring to the collection of people practicing
or expressing a particular culture.

And culture here provides a unique characteristic or identity that

set its practitioners apart from other societies.
CHARTERISTICS OF
CULTURE
Characteristics of Culture:
1. Culture is Learned
2. Culture is Shared
3. Culture is Abstract/Symbolic
4. Culture is All-Encompassing
5. Culture is Integrated
6. Culture is Directly Affected by Nature
7. Culture can be Adaptive and Maladaptive
8. Culture is Cumulative
9. Culture is Dynamic
10. Culture is Diverse
Characteristics of Culture:
CULTURE IS LEARNED:
Social animals (namely humans) also learn from other members
of their group (may it be through observationsor direct
interaction).
Characteristics of Culture:
Cultural learning depends on the uniquely developed human
capacity to use (or develop) symbols.

On the basis of cultural learning, people create, remember, and

deal with ideas.
Characteristics of Culture:
CULTURE IS SHARED:
Culture is an attribute not of individuals per se but of individuals
as members of groups.
Characteristics of Culture:
Culture is transmitted in society.

Enculturation unifies people by providing us with common

experiences.
Characteristics of Culture:
People become agents in the enculturation of their children, just
as their parents were for them.

Although a culture constantly changes, certain fundamental

beliefs, values, worldviews, & child-rearing practices endure.
Characteristics of Culture:
We share our opinions and beliefs with many other people.

Illustrating the power of shared cultural background.

Characteristics of Culture:
CULTURE IS ABSTRACT/SYMBOLIC:
Culture exists in the minds or habits of the members of society.

.
Characteristics of Culture:
Symbolic thought is unique & crucial to humans & to cultural
learning.

Culture is the shared ways of doing and thinking.

Characteristics of Culture:
There are degrees of visibility of cultural behavior, ranging from
the regularised activities of persons to their internal reasons for
so doing.

In other words, we cannot see culture as such we can only see

human behavior.
Characteristics of Culture:
This behavior occurs in regular, patterned fashion and it is called
culture.
Characteristics of Culture:
According to Leslie White:
Culture originated when our ancestors acquired the ability to
use symbols, that is, to originate and bestow meaning on a thing
or event, and, correspondingly, to grasp and appreciate such
meanings (White 1959,p.3).
Characteristics of Culture:
These abilities are to learn, to think symbolically, to manipulate
language, and to use tools and other cultural products in
organizing their lives and coping with their environments.
Characteristics of Culture:
CULTURE IS ALL-ENCOMPASSING:
All people are “cultured.”

Everyone is cultured, not just people with elite educations.

Characteristics of Culture:
In sociological terms, culture does not refer solely to the fine
arts and refined intellectual taste.

Culture, as defined anthropologically, encompasses features that

are sometimes regarded as trivial or unworthy of serious study,
such as “popular” culture.
Characteristics of Culture:
CULTURE IS INTEGRATED:
Cultures are not haphazard collections of customs and belief.
Characteristics of Culture:
Cultures are integrated, patterned systems.

If one part of the system (e.g., the economy) changes, other parts
change as well.
Characteristics of Culture:
Culture trains their individual members to share certain
personality traits.

A set of characteristics central or core values (key, basic, or

central values) integrates each culture and help distinguish it
from others.
Characteristics of Culture:
CULTURE IS DIRECTLY AFFECTED BY NATURE:
Culture takes the natural biological urges we share with other
animals & teaches us how to express them in particular ways.
Characteristics of Culture:
People have to eat, but culture teaches us what, when, & how (to
eat).

Cultural habits, perceptions, & inventions mold “human nature”

in many direction.
Characteristics of Culture:
Our culture-& cultural changes-affects the ways in which we
perceive nature, human nature, & “the natural.”

Through science, invention, & discovery, cultural advances

have overcome many “natural” limitations.
Characteristics of Culture:
Culture, of course, has not freed us from natural threats.

Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, & other forces regularly

challenges our wishes to modify the environment through
building, development, and expansion.
Characteristics of Culture:
CULTURE CAN BE ADAPTIVE & MALADAPTIVE:
Although humans continue to adapt biologically, reliance on
social and cultural means of adaptation has increased during
human evolution.
Characteristics of Culture:
Sometimes adaptive behavior that offers short-term benefits to
particular individuals may harm the environment and threaten
the group’s long-term survival.

Example:
Economic growth may lead to depletion of resources for society
or for future generations.
Characteristics of Culture:
Despite the crucial role of cultural adaption in human evolution,
cultural traits, patterns, and inventions also can be maladaptive,
threatening the group’s continued existence (survival and
reproduction).
Characteristics of Culture:
CULTURE IS CUMULATIVE:
It has a tendency to grow and expand.
Characteristics of Culture:
Stored knowledge is transmitted from one generation to another.

Newly acquired knowledge is then added to the stock of

knowledge as it passes through the process of transmission.
Characteristics of Culture:
CULTURE IS DYNAMIC:
Change in culture is continuous, and no culture is totally fixed or
static.
Characteristics of Culture:
Culture changes from within and without.

One of the principal sources of change is diffusion, which

involves borrowing or transferring of elements from one culture
to another.
Characteristics of Culture:
CULTURE IS DIVERSE:
This means that culture is different from one another.
Characteristics of Culture:
Each people has a distinctive culture with its own characteristic
ways of gathering and preparing food, constructing homes,
structuring the family, and promoting standards of right and
wrong.
FUNCTIONS OF
CULTURE
FUNCTIONS OF CULTURE:
1. Culture helps people adapt to the demands of the
surrounding environment and compensates for many human
physical limitations.
2. Culture prescribes behavior patterns that provide ways and
means to regulate human collective existence through:
a) Conveying a Sense of Idenity.
b) Providing Roles and Bounderies.
c) Defining Attitudes, Values, and Goals.
d) Defining Space and Situations.
e) Functioning as a Social Glue.
ASPECTS OF CULTURE
ASPECTS OF CULTURE:
A. MATERIAL CULTURE
B. NONMATERIAL CULTURE
ASPECTS OF CULTURE:
MATERIAL CULTURE:
Refers to any cultural matters that we can see and touch -
physical or tanglible or at most technological.

Example: Food items, tools, shelter, and clothing.

ASPECTS OF CULTURE:
NONMATERIAL CULTURE:
Refers any cultural practices that we cannot see or touch unless
actions taken -abstract or intangible.

Example: norms, values, and beliefs expressed through art,

language, and food preparations.
ELEMENTS OF
CULTURE
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
A. SYMBOLS
B. LANGUAGE
C. VALUES
D. NORMS
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
SYMBOLS:
Refers to anything verbal or non-verbal or physical material
within a particular culture that is used to stand for (or to
represent) something else.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Every culture is filled with symbols, of things that stand for
something else and that often suggests various reactions and
emotions.

Some symbols are actually types of nonverbal communication,

while other symbols are in fact material objects.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Humans, consciously and subconsciously, are always striving to
make sense of their surrounding world.

Symbols—such as gestures, signs, objects, signals, and words—

help people understand that world.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Symbols provide clues to understanding experiences by
conveying recognizable meanings that are shared by societies.

People who share a culture often attach a specific meaning to an

object, gesture, sound, or image.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Example : (Cross or Crucifix)
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.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
LANGUAGE:
Is an abstract system of word meaning and symbols for all
aspects of culture.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Some languages contain a system of symbols used for written
communication, while others rely on only spoken
communication and nonverbal actions.

Language is primarily used for communication, and

transmitting knowledge, information, and ideas.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Societies often share a single language, and many languages
contain the same basic elements.

An alphabet is a written system made of symbolic shapes that

refer to spoken sound.
Taken together, these symbols convey specific meanings.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
VALUES:
Refers to the collection conception of what is considered good,
desirable, and proper -or bad, undesirable, and improper -in a
culture.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Values are deeply embedded and critical for transmitting and
teaching a culture’s beliefs.

Values help shape a society by suggesting what is good and bad,

beautiful and ugly, sought or avoided.

Values determine how individuals will probably respond in any

given circumstances.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
NORMS:
Refers to the established standards of behavior maintain by a
society.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Cultural norms govern socially acceptable “behaviors,” i.e., they
can be seen as rules for what is appropriate to do and what is
not.

Just like values, they also vary across societies and change over
time.

This means that following the norm of one’s own society may be
violating the norm of another society.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Values and norms are oftentimes closely intertwined.

Using the value of "time," for example, organizing an event

without caring about time can be violating a norm of middle-
class people in modern societies.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Types of Norms:
FORMAL NORMS
Laws

INFORMAL NORMS
Folkways
Mores
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
FORMAL NORMS:
Generally have been written down and specify strict
punishments for violators.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
They are behaviors worked out and agreed upon in order to suit
and serve the most people.

Formal Norms can ranged from laws, employee manuals,

college entrance exam requirements, and “no running” signs at
swimming pools.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Formal norms are the most specific and clearly stated of the
various types of norms, and they are the most strictly enforced.

But even formal norms are enforced to varying degrees and are
reflected in cultural values.
Example: Punishment of Crime (Theft).
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
LAWS:
Are social norms that have become formally inscribed at the
state or federal level and can laws can result in formal
punishment for violations, such as fines, incarceration, or even
death.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Laws are a form of social control that outlines rules, habits, and
customs a society uses to enforce conformity to its norms.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
INFORMAL NORMS:
Are generally understood but are not precisely recorded —casual
behaviors that are generally and widely conformed to—is longer.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
People learn informal norms by observation, imitation, and
general socialization.

Some informal norms are taught directly—“Kiss your Aunt” or

“Use your napkin”—while others are learned by observation,
including observations of the consequences when someone else
violates a norm.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
But although informal norms define personal interactions, they
extend into other systems as well.

In the United States, there are informal norms regarding

behavior at fast food restaurants.
Customers line up to order their food and leave when they are
done.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Most people don’t commit even benign breaches of informal
norms.

Informal norms dictate appropriate behaviors without the

need of written rules.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
FOLKWAYS:
Are norms governing everyday behavior.

Unlike mores, folkways are norms without any moral

underpinnings.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Folkways direct appropriate behavior in the day-to-day
practices and expressions of a culture.

They indicate whether to shake hands or kiss on the cheek when

greeting another person.
They specify whether to wear a tie and blazer or a T-shirt and
sandals to an event.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Many folkways are actions we take for granted.

People need to act without thinking in order to get seamlessly

through daily routines; they can’t stop and analyze every action
(Sumner 1906).
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Folkways might be small manners, learned by observation and
imitated, but they are by no means trivial.

Like mores and laws, these norms help people negotiate their
daily lives within a given culture.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
MORES (mor-ays):
Are norms deemed highly necessary to the welfare of a society,
often because they embody the most cherished principles of a
people.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
Mores are norms that embody the moral views and principles of
a group.

Violating them can have serious consequences.

The strongest mores are legally protected with laws or other
formal norms.
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE:
But more often, mores are judged and guarded by public
sentiment (an informal norm).

People who violate mores are seen as shameful.

They can even be shunned or banned from some groups.

Common Reactions
Towards Other Cultures
Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
A. CULTURE SHOCK
B. ETHNOCENTRISM
C. XENOCENTRISM
D. TEMPOROCENTRISM
Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
CULTURE SHOCK:
Refers to the feeling of surprise and disorientation that people
experience when they encounter cultural practices that are
different from their own.
Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
Culture shock is social psychological phenomenon when people
encounter an unfamiliar or foreign culture for the first time.

Example: I foreigners comes to the Philippines and got disguised

after finding out that locals eat balut (or boiled duck fetus in the
egg) which he/she would as unthinkable in their own country.
Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
ETHNOCENTRISM:
Refers to the tendency to assume that one's culture represents the
norm or are superior to all others.
Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
Ethnocentrism, as sociologist William Graham Sumner (1906)
described the term, involves a belief or attitude that one’s own
culture is better than all others.

Almost everyone is a little bit ethnocentric.

Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
XENOCENTRISM:
Refers to the tendency to value goods and culture or even
ideas from a country other than one’s own as better.

Xenocentrism is the opposite of ethnocentrism.

Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
This perception of one’s culture in comparison to other’s plays a
great role in how we perceive the individuals around us and the
groups that we are a part of.

We may often look at another culture if we perceive that it

entails something that is missing in our own culture.
Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
Example:
A teenager living in India may become aware of the existing
individualism and a sense of freedom existing in the American
society given to others his/her own age and hence will aspire to
attain that.
Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
Xenocentrism leads to cultural diffusion, which is the spread of
culture.

It may also lead to hostility towards one’s own culture, as one

may find that the other culture is superior to their own and tend
to lean more towards that culture.
Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
This plays hence a great role in how and which culture we
choose to adopt, and with which culture we relate more or adopt
its mannerisms more.

Example:
Education, political systems, and technologies.
Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
TEMPOROCENTRISM:
The belief in the inherent superiority of one’s own period of
history as the most enlightened and all previous cultures are
judged through its lens.

Temporocentrism is the temporal equivalent of ethnocentrism.

Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
Applying the context of ethnocentrism to a chronological
vantage point, then, temporocentrism is the belief, whether
consciously held or unconsciously, that one’s own time is more
important than the past or future.
Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
Individuals with a temporocentric perspective judge historical
events on the basis of contemporary standards rather than in
their own context, often resulting in fallacy.
Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
Temporalcentrism unnecessarily belittles and shames historical
figures and periods of history.

Temporalcentrism gives us an unrealistic sense of the superiority

of current day values and attitudes.
Common Reactions Towards Other Cultures:
Temporalcentrism breeds both ignorance and arrogance.

Ignorance because temporalcentrism turns a blind eye to

contemporary practices that are so pervasive they are invisible to
the mainstream of society, and, arrogant to think that current
thought trends and practices are the end all, be all of progress…
that we have somehow arrived.
Thank you
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