Culture is a complex concept that refers to the shared beliefs, values, customs, and behaviors of a society or group. It includes both material and non-material aspects that are learned and transmitted between generations. Some key aspects of culture discussed in the document include definitions of culture, characteristics of culture, elements of culture such as symbols and values, and concepts like cultural universals, cultural lag and lead, global culture, and cultural imperialism.

1. CULTURE
-By Group 1

2. Introduction to Culture
■ Culture is derived from the English word ‘Kulthra’ and Sanskrit word ‘Samskar’
which denotes social channel and intellectual excellence. Culture is a way of life.

3. What is Culture?
■ Culture is a term that refers to a large and diverse set of mostly intangible aspects of
social life.
■ Culture is one of the important concepts in sociology.
■ No human society can exist and develop without its culture. The main difference between
the animal and human societies is of culture only.
■ animal societies have no culture because they do not have systems of learning and
transmitting social experiences.
■ Sociologists are keenly interested in the study of culture because the study of human
society is incomplete without it.

4. Edward Tylor
■ Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge,
beliefs, art, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as member of the society.

5. Some Definitions
■ Taylor: “Culture is the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals,
law, customs and habits and any capabilities acquired by man as a member of society”.
■ Linton: “Culture is social heredity, which is transmitted from one generation to another
with the accumulation of individual experiences”.
■ John Beattee: “Culture is the way of life which is transmitted from generation to
generation”.

6. Characteristics of Culture
■ Culture is a learned behavior not inherited.
It is learned through experience, imitation,
communication, concept, thinking and
socialization process. Culture is something
learnt and acquired e.g. wearing clothes or
dancing. It is not something natural to the
person.
■ Culture is socially transmitted through
language: It is transmitted from one
generation to another through the medium of
language, verbal or non-verbal through the
gestures or signs, orally or in writing.

7. Characteristics of Culture
■ Culture is changing: Culture never remains static but changing. It is changing in every
society, but with different speed and causes. It constantly under goes change and adapts
itself to the environments.
■ Culture is shared: All the traits, attitudes, ideas, knowledge and material objects like
radio, television and automobiles etc. is actually shared by members of society.
■ Culture is transmitted: All the culture traits and objects are transmitted among the
members of society continually. Most of the cultural traits and material objects are
transmitted to the members of the society from their forefathers. We learn new fashion,
how to move in society and how to behave in a particular social situation.
■ Culture is overt and covert
■ Culture is ideal and manifest (actual): Ideal culture involves the way people ought to
behave or what they ought to do. Manifest culture involves what people actually do.
■ Culture is organic and supra-organic: It is organic when we consider the fact that
there is no culture without human society. It is supra organic, because it is far beyond
any individual lifetime. Individuals come and go, but culture remains

8. Material and Non-Material Aspects of Culture
■ Material culture refers to the physical objects, resources, and spaces that people use to
define their culture.
■ These include homes, neighborhoods, cities, schools, churches, synagogues, temples,
mosques, offices, factories and plants, tools, means of production, goods and products,
stores.
■ Non‐material culture refers to the nonphysical ideas that people have about their culture,
including beliefs, values, rules, norms, morals, language, organizations, and institutions.

9. Material and Non-material Culture
Material Culture
■ I - Pods
■ Cars
■ Books
■ Clothing
■ Weapons of war
Non-material Culture
■ Human Rights
■ Beauty
■ Deferring to Elders
■ Religion
■ Patriotism

10. Elements of culture
1. Symbols:
 Basis of human culture
 Anything to which people attach meaning and which they use to communicate with
others
 These are words, gestures, sounds ,images, objects that represents something else
rather than themselves
 Different culture use different symbols

12. 2) Language:
 Organization of written or spoken symbols into a standardized system
 Can be used to express ideas
 Convey symbols into complex meanings
 Culture can be transmitted to future generation

13. 3) Values:
 Essential part of non material culture
 Values are shared beliefs
 General guidelines for life, decisions, goals
 Helps to distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad, desirable and undesirable
 Can be positive values or negative values
 May be dynamic, static and diversified
 Values varies from time to time and place to place

14. 4) Norms:
 Shared rules of conduct in specified situation
 Derived from values
 Principles for social life, relationship, and interaction
 Divided into two:
 Mores
 Folkways

15. Mores:
 Social norms that are established for safety, existence , well being and continuity of the society
 Carries moral and ethical significances
 Types of mores:
 Formal laws which are written and codified rules
 Convention are established rules governing behavior
Folkways:
 These are everyday habits, culture, convention people obey without giving much thought to the
matter
 Examples shaking of hands, eating styles, saying excuse me, talking , walking
 Not enforced by law but by informal social control

16.  Folkways in turn may be divided into two sub types:
 Fashion and Custom
 Fashion:
 Type of folkway that is socially approved at a given time but subject to change at a given period of
time
 Varies according to the norms of different groups
 Custom:
 Form of social behavior having persisted for a long period of time
 Custom is a pattern of action shared by most or all members of a society
 Custom changes at slower rate whereas fashion changes in a faster rate

17. Cultural Variability and Explanations
• Cultural variability refers to the diversity of cultural and social areas as different
companies have different cultures.
• The diversity of human culture is remarkable. Values ​​and customs vary across cultures
behavior is often radically contrasting ways (Broom and Sleznki, 1973). For example,
Jews eat pork, while Hindus eat pork, but avoid beef. Cultural diversity or variation
exists both between and within societies society.
• Cultural variability between society- can lead to various health conditions and
diseases. Thus, variations in dietary habits is closely associated with these types of
diseases. The spread of tapeworms in raw-meat-eating people can be a good example.
• Cultural variability within society- variabilities of culture within a specific society can
be identified by using a concept called subculture.

18. Sub culture is a culture that is shared by a group within a society (Stockard, 1997). We call this sub
cultural groups (and their subcultures) exist within and as a smaller part of the larger, dominant culture.
Examples of sub culture is the university students, street children, the culture of medical professionals,
etc.
Why culture is different from company to company?
■ Sociologists, anthropologists, cultural geographers and other social scientists to study the causes of
cultural differences (between) society.
■ Many arguments were given the diversity, including geographical factors, race determination,
demographic factors span of interest and purely historical opportunity.

19. ■ Geographical factors include: climate, altitude, etc. Along with the demographic factors are
changes in the structure of population, population growth, etc., while overvoltage important goal
culture varies from person to person interested life also varies.
■ Cultural diversity is due to the almost historic opportunity; a certain group of people can develop
a culture when exposed to certain historical events and opportunities.
■ However, no explanation is sufficient in itself; anthropologists reject now very deterministic
explanations, such as those based on race; rather than cultural differences are explained by more
holistic statement.

20. Ethno-Centrism and Cultural
Relativism and Culture Shock.

21. Ethno-Centrism.
Ethnocentrism is the act of judging another culture based on preconceptions that are found
in values and standards of one's own culture.
Ethnocentrism is the technical name for the view of things in which one's own group is the
center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it.
-William G. Sumner.

22. Sumner characterized ethnocentrism as often leading to pride, vanity, belief in one's own
group's superiority, and contempt for outsiders

23. The term "ethnocentrism" was coined by Ludwig Gumplowicz and subsequently employed
by William G. Sumner. Gumplowicz defined ethnocentrism as the reasons by virtue of
which each group of people believed it had always occupied the highest point not only
among contemporaneous peoples and nations but also in relation to all peoples of the
historical past
Ethnocentrism can be explicit or implicit. Explicit ethnocentrism involves the ability to
express the feelings about outsiders (people from other groups), and implicit ethnocentrism
refers to the inhibition of the feelings for outsiders.

24. Cultural Relativism
Cultural relativism is the idea that a person's beliefs, values, and practices should be
understood based on that person's own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of
another.
It was established as axiomatic in anthropological research by Franz Boas in the first few
decades of the 20th century and later popularized by his students. Boas first articulated the
idea in 1887: "civilization is not something absolute, but ... is relative, and ... our ideas and
conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes".

25. If anyone, no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the
nations in the world the set of beliefs which he thought best, he would inevitably—after
careful considerations of their relative merits—choose that of his own country. Everyone
without exception believes his own native customs, and the religion he was brought up in, to
be the best; and that being so, it is unlikely that anyone but a madman would mock at such
things. There is abundant evidence that this is the universal feeling about the ancient
customs of one's country.
— tr. Aubrey de Selincourt

26. ■ He mentions an anecdote of Darius the Great who illustrated the principle by inquiring
about the funeral customs of the Greeks and the Callotian, peoples from the extreme
western and eastern fringes of his empire, respectively. They
practiced cremation and funerary cannibalism, respectively, and were each dismayed and
abhorred at the proposition of the other tribe's practices.
■ The epistemological claims that led to the development of cultural relativism have their
origins in the German Enlightenment. The philosopher Immanuel Kant argued that
human beings are not capable of direct, unmediated knowledge of the world. All of our
experiences of the world are mediated through the human mind, which universally
structures perceptions according to a priori concepts of time and space.

27. ■ Although Kant considered these mediating structures universal, his student Johann
Gottfried Herder argued that human creativity, evidenced by the great variety in
national cultures, revealed that human experience was mediated not only by universal
structures, but by particular cultural structures as well. The philosopher and
linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt called for an anthropology that would synthesize Kant
and Herder's ideas.
■ Although Herder focused on the positive value of cultural variety,
the sociologist William Graham Sumner called attention to the fact that one's culture can
limit one's perceptions. He called this principle ethnocentrism, the viewpoint that "one's
own group is the center of everything", against which all other groups are judged.

28. Cultural Shock
Culture shock is an experience a person may have when one moves to a cultural
environment which is different from one's own; it is also the personal disorientation a person
may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new
country, a move between social environments, or simply transition to another type of life.
One of the most common causes of culture shock involves individuals in a foreign
environment. Culture shock can be described as consisting of at least one of four distinct
phases: honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment, and adaptation.

29. Honeymoon
During this period, the differences between the old and new culture are seen in a romantic
light. For example, in moving to a new country, an individual might love the new food, the
pace of life, and the locals' habits. During the first few weeks, most people are fascinated by
the new culture. They associate with nationals who speak their language, and who are polite
to the foreigners. Like most honeymoon periods, this stage eventually ends.

30. Negotiation
After some time (usually around three months, depending on the individual), differences between the
old and new culture become apparent and may create anxiety. Excitement may eventually give way
to unpleasant feelings of frustration and anger as one continues to experience unfavorable events that
may be perceived as strange and offensive to one's cultural attitude. Language barriers, stark
differences in public hygiene, traffic safety, food accessibility and quality may heighten the sense of
disconnection from the surroundings.

31. Adjustment
Again, after some time (usually 6 to 12 months), one grows accustomed to the new culture
and develops routines. One knows what to expect in most situations and the host country no
longer feels all that new. One becomes concerned with basic living again, and things
become more "normal". One starts to develop problem-solving skills for dealing with the
culture and begins to accept the culture's ways with a positive attitude. The culture begins to
make sense, and negative reactions and responses to the culture are reduced.

32. Adaptation
In the mastery stage individuals are able to participate fully and comfortably in the host
culture. Mastery does not mean total conversion; people often keep many traits from their
earlier culture, such as accents and languages. It is often referred to as the bicultural stage.

33. Reverse Culture Shock
Reverse culture shock (also known as "re-entry shock" or "own culture shock") may take
place—returning to one's home culture after growing accustomed to a new one can produce
the same effects as described above.
These are results from the psychosomatic and psychological consequences of the
readjustment process to the primary culture.
The affected person often finds this more surprising and difficult to deal with than the
original culture shock. This phenomenon, the reactions that members of the re-entered
culture exhibit toward the re-entrant, and the inevitability of the two are encapsulated in the
following saying, which is also the title of a book by Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home
Again.

34. Cultural universals
■ A cultural patent extant in every known society
■ Seven cultural universals are:
1) Environment: Dresses and foods
2) Economics: Trade, jobs, communication etc.
3) Institutions: Government, family etc
4) Beliefs: Moral values , customs or religion
5) Language: Spoken/written words or symbols like emojis
6) Art: Literature, paintings and music
7) Recreation: Holidays and means of entertainment.

35. Cultural alternatives and specialties
Cultural alternatives:
■ Many different options of doing the same thing
■ Acceptable behaviors in a society at a particular situation
Cultural specialties:
■ Specific skills, training, knowledge etc. which is limited to a group or specific members
of society.
■ Not shared by the whole population.
■ Causes behavioral differences in people as opposed to cultural universals.

36. Cultural LagAnd Lead
Cultural Lag:
■ The notion that culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations which
causes social conflicts and problems.
■ Such lag are caused in non-material culture rather than material culture
Cultural lead:
■ When non-material culture outpaces material culture.
■ People in third world are adapting to changes in non-material culture despite lacking in
material culture

37. Global Culture and Cultural
Imperialism

38. Global Culture
• Today’s communications and technologies allow a more open spread of culture around the
world – people in far corners of the globe are able to be aware of and share each others culture.
• It is a view that sees global culture as generally positive – something that encourages diversity
and a mixing of culture and has enabled people around the world to overcome national
boundaries to embrace common causes.
• The more common perception of global culture is that of a Western, predominantly American
culture gradually imposing itself around the world, often to the detriment of long established
local cultures.
• For analysts opposed to globalisation this type of global culture is slowly killing diversity and
devastating traditional ways of life.

39. Contd…
• A global culture involves the spread of popular cultural icons around the globe, often
diluting and overriding local cultures with the threat that the vast cultural diversity that
the world offers will one day be submerged beneath a dull uniformity.
• Advances in technology and communications have helped propagate cultural
globalisation.
• Globalization has affected cultures in two ways: Firstly, it has tried to homogenize the
cultures. We can see this in dress pattern such as pant and shirt and to some extent in
food recipes—pizza, Chinese noodles, etc.
• On the other hand, globalization has helped in the resurgence of local culture. This we
can observe in the revival of traditional cultures and reforming of the identity.

40. Cultural Imperialism
• Cultural imperialism is the idea of the culture of one
powerful civilization, country, or institution having
great unreciprocated influence on that of another,
less powerful, entity.
• It can also be said as cultural “domination.”
• The cultural part of the term refers to local customs,
traditions, religion, language, social and moral
norms, and so on—features of a way of life that are
distinct from, though often closely related to, the
economic and political systems that shape a
community.
• The imperialism part of the term indicates that the
imposing community forcefully extends the
authority of its way of life over another population
by either transforming or replacing aspects of the
target population's culture.
• It manifest itself mainly through media especially
mainstreams and mass media.

41. Examples of Cultural Imperialism

42. REFERENCES
• https://prezi.com/gbrjabdvpqrg/how-cultural-imperialism-effects-the-
world/
• https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter3-culture/
• https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Sociology/Culture
• https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-sociology/chapter/culture-
and-society/

43. ThankYou
Any
Queries?