This document discusses the concept of culture from sociological perspectives. It provides several definitions of culture, including defining it as the customary ways that groups organize their behaviors, thinking, and feelings. Culture encompasses both tangible aspects like tools and intangible aspects like norms and is shared and transmitted between generations through socialization and language. The major elements of culture discussed are knowledge, social norms like folkways and mores, beliefs, values, and material objects. Culture enables human societies to adapt to their physical and social environments.

1. CHAPTER 3:
CULTURE

2. CULTURE
This is the popular view of culture, which
refers to a state of refinement, of being
well-versed in the arts, philosophy, and
languages. To social scientists, this is a
limited view of culture. To them every
member of a society is cultured.

3. Sociologists define culture in a broader context.
The most quoted definition is that of an
English anthropologist, Edward Tylor (1871:1),
who defined culture as a complex whole
which includes knowledge, belief, art, law,
morals, customs, and any other capabilities
and habits acquired by people as members of
society.

4. Culture is a person’s social heritage or the
customary ways in which groups organize
their ways of behaving, thinking and
feeling. It is transmitted from one
generation to another through language. It
presents people with ways of relating to
others to their surroundings. Culture
represents the designs or recipes for living,
the interrelated network of norms and
roles.

5. It encompasses modes of thinking, acting and
feeling found in a society and includes
everything an individual has acquired as a
member of a society. It tells one what to do,
what not to do and how to do things. From our
culture, we learn to determine what behavior is
appropriate and what is in appropriate, what is
good and what is wrong behavior, what are
allowed and what are prohibited, and even
which smells are pleasant and which are not.

6. Unlike the lower animals which act mostly on
instinct, humans have to develop and learn their
own ways of coping with their environment and
with their fellow human beings. These ways of
adjusting to the environment interacting with
others are shared with others. Culture is unique
with humans, but culture varies from society to
society. Culture comprises all the objects, ideas,
beliefs, norms of a group of people, and the
meaning that the group applies to each cultural
element (Clark and Robley 1988:33).

7. A stone tool, a school house, a car, a ball pen, a
computer, and a spy satellite are all real things and
are part of culture. Specific human activities like
planting rice, fishing, weaving cloth, attending a
meeting, playing a sonata, or playing a project are
also part of culture. These things are readily visible
and are as real as any of the other phenomena in
nature. Likewise, culture is an abstract form of
behavior and may be observed in the activities of
people, in what people do and say, what they avoid
doing, and how they make artifacts. Implied in
hearing mass on Sundays is love for God, and implied
in sharing of goods or cash with Mt. Pinatubo victims
is love for others.

8. Language and Culture
Language is an integral part of culture and human
culture cannot exist without it. All human societies
have languages. In some simple societies where
people cannot read or write, they have a spoken
language. Through the use of language, wide vistas
of reality have been opened. What we have
observed and experienced, as well as our norms,
values, and ideas exist because we have learned to
identify or experience these things through
language. These things are shared and transmitted
from one generation to another through the
process of socialization.

9. Language enables people to transcend time
and space. Through the use of language, we can
talk about what happened in the past and what
are possibly forthcoming. Language enables us
to communicate with others, design complex
plans and projects, and develop abstract ideas
(Lindesmith and Strauss 1968:27-29).

10. As Emy Pascasio (1981:80) says,
Language is an excellent medium in which to
study the value system of any people because
it reveals choices, directions of interest, and
differences among age, sex, and occupational
groups. Language acts as a cultural marker, a
gauge of social role, indicating at the same
time the dominant social institutions involved
in the situation.

11. Culture as a Mode of Adaption
• Culture enables people to adjust to their physical as
well as social environment. Culture enables the
members of society to develop ways of coping with
the exigencies of nature as well as ways of
harnessing their environment. People also have to
learn to relate themselves with others in order to
survive. As Schwartz (1968:48) pointed out, the
culture of any society represents an adaption or
adjustment to the various conditions of life,
including their physical, social and supernatural
environment.

12. No culture is completely static. Every culture
is in constant flux, and the changes represent
adjustments to the environment. Culture
changes at different rates. The change may
occur as a result of discoveries, inventions,
and cultural borrowing. In some areas, control
of the natural environment has been pursued
to a point that the society has become
endangered.

13. Behavior as Biologically Based
Sociobiologists are biologists by training, and
the idea or view that behavior is biologically
based has been borrowed by them. A
proponent of this view is Edward Wilson. He
formulated a new theory of behavior in his
book, Sociology: The New Synthesis (1975).
He held that social behavior is determined by
inborn genetic traits on lower animals.

14. Wilson’s theory is based on Charles Darwin’s
principle of natural selection. Wilson held that
genetic traits are transmitted from generation
to generation through heredity. Biological
variations take place through mutation or
change in genetic composition. The process of
natural selection acts on this mutation and
becomes the principal factor in the origin of the
species, as well as of new patterns of behavior.

15. Wilson observed certain social traits found in all
cultures which, upon close examination, are as
diagnostic of humankind as are the
distinguishing marks of other animal species.
These behavior patterns are culture universals
which indicate that much of culture is
biologically inherited rather than learned.

16. Elements of Culture
Culture is made up of many elements which
are interrelated with each other and unified
into a whole in order for all its aspects to
function effectively. Within the culture are
various in shared expectations of how the
members should behave. The major elements
of culture are knowledge, social norms,
beliefs, values, and material thing

17. Knowledge
Culture includes natural, supernatural, technical and
magical knowledge (Richter 1987:149-50).
• Natural knowledge refers to the accumulated facts
about the natural world, including both the
biological and physical aspects.
• Technological knowledge pertains to knowledge of
nature which is useful in dealing with practical
problems, like knowledge of the methods of
acquiring food, dealing with diseases, means of
transportation, tools and implements and weapons
of war.

18. • Supernatural knowledge refers to perceptions
about the action of gods, goddesses, demons,
angels or spirits, and natural beings like
shamans, witches, or prophets who are held to
possess supernatural powers.
• Magical knowledge refers to perceptions
about methods of influencing supernatural
events by manipulating certain laws of nature.

19. Social Norms
In our ordinary everyday activities, like eating,
talking and greeting, dressing, sleeping,
cooking, courtship, rearing of children,
studying, working, spending one’s leisure
time, and in some specials occasions like
weddings, burials, Christmas or Lenten
season, there are prescriptions or standards
of behavior expected to be followed. These
are called norms.

20. A norm is an idea in the minds of the members of a group put
into a statement specifying what members of the group
should do, ought to do or are expected to do under certain
circumstances (Homans 1950:123). What is important in a
norm is that any departure from it is followed by some
punishment or sanction. Norms are usually in the form of
rules, standards, or prescriptions and socially shared
expectations. Some norms apply to everyone, like those
revolving around honesty, truthfulness, or loyalty to country.
Other norms apply to particular categories of people who
assume certain roles. There are norms for lawmakers,
doctors, teachers, law enforcers, barangay chairman, father
and son.

21. Norms define the proper ways of behaving for a
number of situations. In some situations, it is
unimportant whether norms are followed or
not, such as folkways. In other situations, it is
important that they are followed, such as the
mores. Norms pertain to society’s standards of
propriety, morality, ethics, and legality. In social
interaction, each member has expectations
about the responses of others. The norms
define tasks and expectations to make group
activity and cooperation possible.

22. Like any aspect of the culture, norms vary from
society or from group to group within a society.
Norms differ according to the age, sex, religion,
occupation, or ethnic group. Among social
norms are folkways, mores and laws.

23. Folkways are commonly known as the
customs, traditions, and conventions of a
society. They are the general rules, customary
and habitual ways and patterns of expected
behavior within the society where it is
followed, without much thought given to the
matter.
Folkways

24. Summer (1906: IV) says:
Folkways are the habits of the individual and
customs of the society which arise from efforts to
satisfy needs; they are intertwined with goblinism
and demonism and primitive notions of luck, and so
they win traditional authority.
Folkways include innumerable group expectations
like rules of eating, drinking, smoking, sleeping,
dancing, and working, forms of greetings and
farewell, ceremonies and rituals, polite behavior
and conduct in institutional settings.

25. Mores
• Mores are special folkways which are important to
the welfare of the people and their cherished
values. They are based on ethical and moral values
which are strongly held and emphasized. They are
social norms associated with strong feelings about
what is right and what is true. Having strong moral
sanctions, they are the “must” and “should” of a
society. They are the expected behavior current in a
society which individuals follow as they satisfy their
needs and desires.

26. Mores are coercive in nature as they are considered
important to societal welfare. Observance of mores is
compulsive. They embody the codes of ethics and
standards of morality in a society. Most of the mores
have been formulated into laws. Mores consist in
large part of taboos. The mores apply not only to sex
behavior but also to marriage and family relations,
physical and moral aggression against members of the
in-group, betrayal of a group, attitude towards
authority, religion and the unfortunates in society,
dealings in business and the varied professions, and
other vital matters which involve group welfare.

27. Law
Laws are formalized norms, enacted by people
who are vested with governmental power and
enforced by political and legal authorities
designated by the government. Some of the
laws grew out of the folkways and mores.
They have the strong support of public
opinion and tend to reinforce folkways and
mores. Enforcement is hard when the laws do
not reflect folkways and mores.

28. Collective Form of Behavior
Fashions, fads, crazes, and other passing fancies
operate primarily as forces of social change, yet
they may be considered short-lived social norms.
They demand compliance at the time they operate.
Styles of dresses, shoes, bags, decorative items for
dresses were fashionable years back appear funny
or ridiculous today. The same is true of styles of
houses, furniture, cars, and gadgets. Fashions or
vogues are powerful regulators of behavior in urban
areas and industrialized societies. The prestige and
status of a person depend on his or her use of these
new styles.

29. Sanctions
Sanctions are a system of reward and
punishment. Rewards are positive sanctions
for those who behave properly and
punishments are negative sanctions for those
who behave improperly (Popenoe 1977:87).
Positive sanctions may be in the form of
promotions or salary increases, merit award,
citations or medals of honor.

30. Sanctions may also be formal or informal.
Informal sanctions are gossip, unfavorable and
favorable public opinion, giving or withdrawing
affective love or friendship. Lavishing a child
with love by kissing, coddling, or verbal
admiration may be enough to keep the child to
follow what the mother would like him or her to
do. Formal sanctions are used for violations of
norms in organizations or associations.

31. Values
While norms are standards, patterns, rule and guidance of
expected behavior, values are abstract concept of what is
important and worthwhile. These values are the basic of
our judgment, of what we consider good, undesirable, ugly
and wrong. Frequently, we hear people regard other who
have done wrong as having “no sense of values” or lament
the erosion of values. Values are linked with actual events
and are often emotionally charged. They are the standards
by which persons, individually or in a groups, define their
goals, select alternatives and judge other good or bad.

32. Values indicate the social conscience internalize
and integrated by the individual member of
society and the dominant values which give
culture its unity, from, and identity at a specific
time. values depict how society change and how
they change has society change.

33. Beliefs
When one hears the word beliefs, what comes to mind
superstitious beliefs. Superstitions are just one form of
beliefs. Beliefs embody people’s perception of reality and
include the primitive ideas of the universe as well as the
society’s empirical view of the world. The result from one’s
experiences about the physical ,biological and social word
in which the individual lives. Belief’s such as superstitions,
and those that relate to philosophy, theology, technology,
art, and science, are usually incorporated into the whole
vast body of knowledge which has been accumulated
through time.

34. Technology and Material Culture
• Technology refers to techniques and know-
how in utilizing raw material’s to produce
food, tools, shelter, clothing, means of
transportation, and weapon’s. the material
object that are the product’s of technology
are called artifacts.

35. The Organization of Culture
• The elements of culture are not simply accumulated
in isolation from one another. Rather, the various
elements in culture—symbols, knowledge, norms,
values and beliefs—are organized and patterned so
that the various elements tend to fit each other and
integrate to compose a unifying theme for social
behavior. One interested in the study and analysis
of a given culture can look at its content and the
way the parts are related.

36. Culture traits do not operate singly but are
related to other traits in some kind of
meaningful relationship. They are generally
clustered and each trait in the cluster derives
meaning only on term of its dynamic
relationship with other traits. This cluster or
combination of traits from culture complex. The
traits are functionally related to each other and
revolve around certain themes.

37. An analysis of the place of culture in the life of
its members will reveal that they do not
participate in all the contents in the culture. The
levels of participation in all the content in the
culture vary, depending on age, sex, occupation,
or the demands of the culture. The levels of
cultural participation are classified by Linton
(1936:272-273) into three, namely:

38. Culture universals
Which are the culture traits, complexes and
patterns shared among all member of a given
population. They are the norms, values, beliefs,
and conditioned emotion responses common to
members of the society.

39. Specialties,
The behavior expectations confined to certain
subgroups which often require unusual skill or
training and reflect the division of labor and
hierarchy of statuses in a culture. These are not
shared by the total population. For example,
occupational and work groups impose
requirements of certain skills and attitudes for
their particular traits.

40. Alternatives,
The behavior expectations which permit a
certain range of choice in human behavior and
specify they tolerable variations in behavior.
These are shared by some individuals but are
not common to all the members of the society
or even to all members of any one group.

41. Subculture
As the society becomes more complex and industrialized,
there arise inevitably smaller groups which develop norms,
values, beliefs, and special languages which make them
distinct from the broader society. These subgroups may be
based on age; social class; occupational, political,
educational, or religious, interest or inclinations; regions;
nationality; or ethnicity. In the Philippines, there are
subgroups which reflect regional or ethnic differences, such
, the Negritos, the Cordillera group, the Muslim, Tagalogs,
Ilocanos, Visayans, Pampangos, Pangasinan, and others.
Even among the Tagalogs, there are some difference
between the Batangas, Lagunas, and Queson Tagalogs and
those coming from Rizal and Bulacan.

42. Ethnocentrism
There is a tendency for people who belong to the
same culture group to define reality from their own
point of view. One considers his or her ways as right
and normal, and the other people’s ways, if they
differ somehow, as wrong, strange, or queer. The
view to regard one’s culture as the best and better
than those of others is called ethnocentrism.
Culture traits and patterns are evaluated on the
basis of what is familiar. Considering their group as
superior, the members sometimes look with
contempt on outsider.

43. The feeling of ethnocentrism is a matter of
training and socialization. In imbuing the
individual with the ideal of loyalty of one’s
country, the ideas of national commitment and
in one’s group are enhance. The feeling of
ethnocentrism is specially strong among people
who have spent their entire lives in their own
society and have little contact with other
culture.

44. The function of ethnocentrism is to increase
one’s appreciation commitment to one’s
cultural group (Gordon 1978:27). This view
strengthens group morale, enhance group
solidarity, and individual pride and esteem of
one’s group. On the other hand, extreme
ethnocentrism block’s one’s understanding of
other cultures and lead’s to intolerance and
prejudice.

45. Xenocentrism
When some reject their group or some part of it’s
culture, we call this case reverse ethnocentrism or
xenocentrism. This is the idea that what is foreign is
best and that one’s lifestyle, products or ideas are
inferior to that of others (Eshleman and cashion
1983:95). Those coming from foreign land’s and the
exotic are particularly favored. Xenoncentrism is
centered on a product, an idea, or a lifestyle.

46. Cultural Shock
The cultural values and norms of behavior are internalized
by an individual in the socialization process; consequently,
one behaves in accordance with the expectation of his or
her culture. Now, what happen to this individual her she
goes to different society? He or she losses the familiar signs
and symbols of socials intercourse and may experience
some unpleasant sensation or frustrations. It may be a
reaction to unpalatable food which one may consider
obnoxious, the inability to perform natural function like
sleeping or moving one’s bowels, a repulsion to a norms
and values of the group, or a lack of communication with
the new society.

47. Culture shocks may be experienced by migrants
to other lands, students who study in other
countries, nuns, priests or person given foreign
assignments. Even for social scientists, some
effort is required for understanding another
culture.

48. Cultural Relativism
When people come in contact with another culture, they
observe that it’s patterns are different from their own.
Their tendency is judges to new ways strange, exotic, weird
or immoral. They tend to laugh or scoff at the cultural
norms of the other culture, and values. So we hear people
ask: why do Aetas refuse to eat canned food? Why do
mangyans workship a hierarchy of spirits? Why do muslim
refuse to eat pork? Why do muslim pray facing the east?
Why do Chinese abortion? Why do European males kiss in
greeting? Why do Americans leave their aged parents in
olds people home’s and so on. These questions bring out
the fact of cultural diversity. The cultural practices and
values of other people which we consider queer, funny, or
immoral may be consider right appropriate, and moral in

49. Culture is a relative and cultural practice is good
or bad in itself. It is good if is integrates
smoothly with the rest of the culture. This is the
concept of cultural relativism which is an
alternative perspective to ethnocentrism. The
concept of relativism states that culture differ,
so that a cultural traits, act, or idea has no
meaning or function by itself but has meaning
only within its cultural setting.

50. Thank you!