3. THE COMPLEXITY OF CULTURE
What is culture?
“‘that complex whole which encompasses
beliefs, practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms,
artifacts, symbols, knowledge, and everything
that a person learns and shares as a member of
society.” (E.B. Tylor 1920 [1871]).
Culture is people’s way of life.
4. CATEGORIES OF CULTURE
Material Culture
Physical or tangible objects produced, shared,
and utilized within society.
Ex. House, churches, tools, artworks, toys
Non-material Culture
Abstract ideas and ways of thinking
Ex. Language, behaviors, beliefs, values
5. ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
1. Values – Shared ideas, norms, and
principles that provide members of society the
standards that pertain to what is right or wrong,
good or bad, desirable or undesirable.
2. Beliefs - The perception of accepted reality.
6. ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
3. Norms - shared rules of conduct that
determine specific behavior among society
members.
Folkways - The patterns of repetitive
behavior which becomes habitual and
conventional part of living.
Mark the distinction between rude and polite
behavior.
7. ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
Mores - The set of ethical standards and
moral obligations as dictates of reason that
distinguishes human acts as right or wrong
or good from bad.
Laws – norms that are legally enacted and
enforced
8. ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
4. Symbols – things that convey meaning or
represents an idea
5. Language – set of symbols that enables
members of society to communicate verbally
and nonverbally.
10. SOCIALIZATION
The lifelong process whereby people learn
the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate
for individual as members of a particular
society.
11. ENCULTURATION
A child’s incorporation into his or her society
through learning of the culture.
The process whereby an individual learns
and acquires the culture of the society he or
she belongs to.
12. ETHNOCENTRISM
Ethnocentrism is the regard that one’s own
culture and society is the center of everything
and therefore far more superior than others
(Kottak 2012: 39; Eriksen 2001:7).
13. XENOCENTRISM
It is characterized by a strong belief that
one’s own culture is inferior to others.
15. CULTURAL RELATIVISM
The ethical insistence that other cultures can
only be evaluated and understood in terms of
their own standards and values.
Societies are qualitatively different from one
another, such that each one has its own
“unique inner logic” (Eriksen 2001: 14).
17. CULTURAL SENSITIVITY
Advances awareness and acceptance of
cultural differences but encourages a critical
stance in dealing with issues regarding
diversity.
19. QUIZ
Identify the following norms. Write F if the behavior is a
folkway, M if it is mores, and L if it falls under the law.
___1. Murdering an enemy
___2. Saying “thank you”
___3. Talking while someone else is talking
___4. Robbing a bank
___5. Taking of illegal drugs
___6. Offering a seat to an elderly
___7. Wearing of highly revealing clothes in church
___8. Following of dress codes
___9. Living-in with a partner without marriage
___10. Eating of prohibited food
22. SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF
SOCIETY
1. Structural - Functional Approach
2. Social – Conflict Approach
3. Symbolic – Interaction Approach
4. Macro and Micro Level of Analysis
28. QUESTIONS:
1. Is it right to pass judgment on cultures not
our own as inferior, threatening, or disturbing?
2. Should we expect societies around the world
to practice the same set of cultural values and
traits?
3. How is it possible to recognize the
uniqueness of each society’s cultural traits and
not from the standpoint of one’s own society?
31. DIFFERENT VIEWS OF POLITICS
Politics as the art of government
Politics as public affairs
Politics as compromise and consensus
Politics as power and the distribution of
resources
