This document defines key concepts related to culture, including definitions of culture provided by various scholars. It also discusses norms, values, folkways, mores, laws, and how culture changes over time through processes like culture diffusion, culture shock, cultural relativism, and ethnocentrism. Subcultures within a larger culture are also mentioned. Characteristics of culture highlighted include that culture is learned, varies between groups, is a group product, is transmitted between generations, and is adaptive over time.

3. EDWARD B.TAYLOR
Culture - is that complex
whole which includes
knowledge, beliefs, art, law,
morals, customs and other
capabilities acquired by man
as a member of society

4. PERSELL
Culture – is all the
socially learned
behaviors, beliefs,
feelings, and values the
members of a group or
society experiences

5. HORTON and HUNT
Culture – is an elaborate
system of standardized
expected ways of feeling
and acting which the
members of society
generally acknowledge
and generally follow

6. BRINKERSHOFF
Culture- is the total way of
life shared by members of a
society. It includes material
products as well as
patterned repetitive ways of
thinking, feeling and acting

7. NORMS
• Refer to shared rules about
acceptable and unacceptable
social behavior
• These occur in things that
people ought to do and ought
not to do, governed by rules
which society approves

8. VALUES
• Are the absolute standards of
what society considers as
proper and good
• May be defined as those
standards to which a group or
society judges the desirability
and importance of persons

9. FOLKWAYS
• These are customary ways of
thinking, feeling and acting which
usually have no particular moral
significance
• Types of behavior which have
become habitual and repetitive to a
number of individuals or a group.

10. • Example: Folkways centering
around such activities as
eating, fighting, dressing,
marriage, birth, death, art, etc.
• Americans- it is natural for them
to use their fists,
• For Latin Americans, they
would resort to the use of
knives;
• For Filipinos, they call each
other names

11. MORES
• Customary ways which take
on added importance and
become compulsive and
essential to the well-being
of a group
• Any individual who does not
conform usually suffers

12. • Respect for authority, sex
and marriage behavior,
private ownership of
property, division of labor,
anti-slavery
• Customs which seem to the
people as “right” at the time
until they are shown
otherwise

13. Example:
• Ancient Egypt allowed marriage
between brothers & sisters
among families of royal blood; in
modern time its abominable and
immoral through the influence of
Christianity

14. • Pre-colonial Filipinos
(primitive);
Women do not cover the body
from the waist upwards
• In Old China- the practice of
foot-binding

15. Laws
• Is a group expectation
which has the formal
sanction of the state
• The degree of formality
implicit in the law is greater
than that of folkways or
mores.

17. CULTURE CHANGE
• Culture is always changing as
man adds new techniques to
the old, constantly modifying
and improving them, discarding
what no longer seems useful
and acceptable.

18. • The changes that occur within
the society are brought about
by discovery and invention,
while the changes originating
from outside are a result of
culture borrowing.
• The principal source of culture
change is culture diffusion.

19. Culture Diffusion
• Is the spread of a culture
pattern from one group of
people to another people and
from one culture area to
another.

20. Culture diffusion results
take place either by:
1. accident- as when a person
migrates
2. Direction – during conquest or
assimilation

21. Culture Shock
• When people encounter a new
culture and they can sense and
feel the existence of a culture
that is different from their own,
they feel lost and confused

22. Cultural Relativism
• It is understanding the meaning of
the actions of the members of other
groups in terms of their motives,
values and habits.
• The behavior patterns of other
people should not be judged in terms
of our values and norms, but rather
in terms of their particular culture.

23. • Views culture as the result of
people’s attempt to do what is
good for them- each group’s
solutions to the task of survival
are as valid as those of others.

24. Ethnocentrism
• The belief that ones culture is
superior to other cultures. It is
the belief that one’s own culture
represents the only true and
good way and, therefore, his
own culture is the best.

25. Subcultures
• Smaller cultures within a larger
one.

26. SOCIETY
• Maybe defined as a group of
people living in a more or less
stable union, pooling their
efforts to obtain a common
objective by collective action,
and feeling that they belong
together.

27. Characteristics of
Culture
1. Culture is learned- it is not
instinctive or innate; it is
acquired by the individual
through experience

28. 2. Culture is Varied –
• All peoples have varied cultures
• Human groups of different
societies have different
cultures; all peoples have their
own cultures which vary in
numerous ways.

29. 3. Culture is a Group Product- it
results from the spontaneous
accumulation of man’s
experience in living with other
humans.
• Every generation puts its
imprint upon the culture of
subsequent one.

30. 4. Culture is Transmitted from
Generation- this is effected
consciously or unsconciously;
orally or in writing, maybe
transmitted by suggestion,
formal communication, reward
or punishment.

31. • Man through the medium of
language and writing has been
able to pass on the elements of
culture from one generation to
another.
• Culture is transmitted and
shared resulting from habits of
human experiences

32. 5. Culture is Adaptive- culture is
continually changing
• When man needs anything, he
invents ways of getting what he
wants or adapts what other men
have discovered to meet his
needs.