Culture: Understanding Culture, Society and Politics - SSC121

Culture
Understanding Culture, Society and Politics – SSC121

Defining the terms…
Culture – is the totality of learned, socially

transmitted, customs, knowledge, material objects
and behavior. It includes the ideas, values and artifacts
of groups of people.
Sociological Perspective – scientific study of social
interaction/behavior and social organization.
Anthropological Perspective – study that deals with the

origin of man and society.
Classification of Culture
1. Material Culture – cultural components that are visible and tangible.

It includes all materials objects of culture with physical
representation such as tools, furniture, buildings, bridges and etc.
These are components in which it is being created, produced,
changed and utilized by men.
2. Non-Material Culture – cultural components in that are intangible or
without physical representation. It can be categorized into cognitive
and normative non-material culture.
a. Cognitive Culture – include the ideas, concept, philosophies,
design and etc. that are product of mental or intellectual functioning an
reasoning out of the human mind.
b. Normative Culture – includes all expectations, standards and rules
for human behavior.
Classification of Culture
Note:
The material and non-material cultures are always interlink.
The existence of material culture is justified by the
non-material culture. Any form of material culture will be
meaningless and will cease to exist without the ideas and
normative expectations that support it.
Example: A chair will be a piece of wood or metal without the

function that it serves in society and its worth or value varies
depending who created it, who will seat on it or use it.
Connecting Culture to Iceberg
Adapted from Kohl’s Cultural Iceberg

Elements of Culture
Conceptions or ideas of people based on common sense, folk, wisdom,

▪ Beliefs religion, science or a combination of all these.
Describes what is appropriate and inappropriate in a given society.
▪ Values They are broad, abstract and shared to influence and guide behavior of
people.
▪ People Lives in a culture where in symbols are used to understand each other.
Symbols can be verbal or non-verbal.
▪ Language Shared set of spoken and written symbols. It is basic to

communication and transmission of culture.
▪ Technology Application of knowledge and equipment to ease the task of

living and maintaining the environment.
▪ Norms Specific rules or standards to guide appropriate behavior.

Elements of Culture
Societal norms have different types and forms.
Types Forms
Proscriptive – defines and tells us things Folkways - they are norms for everyday behavior that people
NOT to do. follow for the sake of tradition convenience. Breaking a
folkway does not usually have serious consequence.
Prescriptive – defines and tells us things
to do. Mores – strict norms that control moral and ethical behavior.
Mores are norms based on definitions id right and wrong.
Taboos – norms that society holds so strongly that violating it
results in extreme disgust. Often times the violator of the
taboo is considered unfit to live in that society.
Laws – codified ethics and formally agreed, written down and

enforced by an official law enforcement agency.
Note:
Norms are guidelines for human behavior. Sanctions are encourage conformity to norms. Sanctions are
socially imposed rewards and punishments in society which maybe formal or informal.
Characteristics of Culture
1. Dynamic, Flexible and Adaptive

2. Shared and Challenged
3. Learned through socialization or enculturation
4. Patterned social interations
5. Integrated
6. Transmitted through socialization or enculturation
7. Requires language and other forms of communication
Culture is dynamic, flexible and Adaptive
It means that culture interact and change. Most

societies interact with other societies and as a
consequence their culture interaction, it leads to
changes of material and non-material components of
culture. Once we recognize problems, culture can adapt
again in a more positive way to find solutions.
Culture is shared and challenged.
As we share culture with others, we are able to act in

appropriate ways as well as predict how others will act.
Despite the shared nature of culture, that doesn’t mean
that culture is homogenous. It may be challenged by the
presence of other culture and other social forces in society
like modernization, industrialization and globalization.
Culture is learned through socialization.
Much of the learning is unconscious. We learn, absorb

and acquire culture from families, peers, institutions
and the media. The process od learning is known as
enculturation.
Culture is a patterned social interactions.
Culture as a normative system has the capacity to define and

control human behaviors. Norms are cultural expectations in
terms of how one thinks, feels or behaves as set by one’s
culture. It sets the pattern in terms of what is appropriate in a
given setting. Human interaction are guided by some forms
of standard and expectation which in the end it regularize.
Culture is integrated.
It is know as holism or the various parts of the culture being

connected or interlinked. All aspects of culture are related to
one another. To truly understand the culture, one must learn
about all of its parts, not only a few.
Culture is transmitted through socialization.
As we share our culture with other, we were able to pass it on

the new members of society or the younger generation in
different ways. In the process of socialization, we were able
to teach them about things in life and equip them with the
culturally acceptable ways of surviving, competing and
making meaningful interactions with others in society.
Culture requires language and other forms of
communication.
We need symbols and language to communicate with others

as we interact in society. It is something that stands for
something else. It vary cross-culturally and are arbitrary. It
only has meaning when people in a culture agree on their
use. Language, money, and art are all symbols.

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Culture

Understanding Culture, Society and Politics – SSC121

Culture – is the totality of learned, socially

Anthropological Perspective – study that deals with the

1. Material Culture – cultural components that are visible and tangible.

Example: A chair will be a piece of wood or metal without the

Adapted from Kohl’s Cultural Iceberg

Conceptions or ideas of people based on common sense, folk, wisdom,

▪ Language Shared set of spoken and written symbols. It is basic to

▪ Technology Application of knowledge and equipment to ease the task of

▪ Norms Specific rules or standards to guide appropriate behavior.

Laws – codified ethics and formally agreed, written down and

1. Dynamic, Flexible and Adaptive

It means that culture interact and change. Most

As we share culture with others, we are able to act in

Much of the learning is unconscious. We learn, absorb

Culture as a normative system has the capacity to define and

It is know as holism or the various parts of the culture being

As we share our culture with other, we were able to pass it on

We need symbols and language to communicate with others

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