informative for all level of students

2. CULTURE AS SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTION
BY:
ZARMEEN DURRANI

4. CULTURE INCLUDES

5. CULTURE
 Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of
knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes,
meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time,
roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe,
and material objects and possessions acquired by a
group of people in the course of generations
through individual and group striving.
 the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a
particular people or society.

7. DEFINITIONS OF CULTURE
 Culture is a complex whole which includes
knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, customs and any
other capabilities acquired by man as a member of
the society.
 It is the sum total of a given society’s way of life
molded and shaped by prevailing circumstances
and environment.
(Brown, 1990)

8.  Culture shapes the mind…it provides us with the
toolkit by which we construct not only our worlds
but our very conception of our selves and our
powers.
Jerome Bruner

9.  culture is the most powerful source of leverage for
bringing about change in a school – or any
organization for that matter.
Thomas J. Sergiovanni

16. LAYERS OF CULTURE
 People even within the same culture carry several
layers of mental programming within themselves.
Different layers of culture exist at the following
levels:

17. THE NATIONAL LEVEL CULTURE
 Associated with the nation as a whole.

18. REGIONAL LEVEL CULTURE
 Associated with ethnic, linguistic, or religious
differences that exist within a nation.

19. GENDER LEVEL CULTURE
 Associated with gender differences (female vs.
male)

20. GENERATION LEVEL
 Associated with the differences between
grandparents and parents, parents and children.

21. SOCIAL CLASS LEVEL CULTURE
 Associated with educational opportunities and
differences in occupation.

22. THE CORPORATE LEVEL
 Associated with the particular culture of an
organization. Applicable to those who are employed

23. ESSENTIAL ROLES OF CULTURE IN
SOCIETY
Man is not only a social animal but also a cultured
being. Man's social life has been made possible
because of culture. Culture is something that has
elevated him from the level of animal to the heights
of man. Man cannot survive as man without culture.
It represents the entire achievements of mankind.
Culture has been fulfilling a number of function
among which the following may be noted.
 Culture is the Treasury of Knowledge

24. CONTI…
 Culture Defines Situations
 Culture Defines Attitudes, Values and Goods
 Culture Decides Our Career
 Culture Provides Behavior Pattern
 Culture Provides Personality
 Culture Makes Man a Human Being

25. CONTI…
 Culture Provides Solution for Complicated Situation
 Culture Provides Traditional Interpretations to
Certain Situation
 Culture Keeps Social Relationship Intact
 Culture Broadens the Out Looks of the Individual
 Culture Creates New Needs

26. CULTURE IS THE TREASURY OF KNOWLEDGE
 Culture provides knowledge, which is essential for
the physical and intellectual existence of man.
 Culture preserves knowledge and helps its
transmission from generation to generation through
its means that is language helps not only the
transmission of knowledge but also its preservation,
accumulation and diffusion.

28. CULTURE DEFINES SITUATIONS
 Culture defines social situations for us. It not only
defines but also conditions and determines what we
eat and drink, we wear, when to laugh, weep, sleep,
love to like friends with, what work we do, what god
we worship, what knowledge we rely upon, what
poetry we recite and so on.

29. CULTURE DEFINES ATTITUDES, VALUES AND
GOODS
 It is the culture, which conditions our attitude
towards various issues such as religion, morality,
marriage, science, family planning, positions and so
on. Our values concerning private etc. are
influenced by our culture.
 Our goals of winning the race, understanding
others, attaining salvation, being obedient to elders
and teachers, being loyal to husband, being
patriotic etc. are all set forth by our culture. We are
being socialized on these models.

30. CULTURAL MARRIAGE, FAMILY PLANNING
,NATURE, RELIGION

31. CULTURE DECIDES OUR CAREER
 Whether we should become a politician or a social
worker, a doctor, an engineer, a soldier, a farmer, a
professor, an industrialist; a religious leader and so
on is decided by our culture. What career we are
likely to pursue is largely decided by our culture.
 Culture sets limitations on our choice to select
different careers.

32. CULTURE PROVIDES BEHAVIOR PATTERN
 Culture directs and confines the behavior of an
individual. Culture assigns goals and provides
means for achieving them. It rewards noble works
and punishes the ignoble ones. It assigns him
status.
 We see dream, aspire, work, strive to marry, enjoy
according to the cultural expectation.
 Culture not only contains but also liberates human
energy and activities; Man indeed is a prisoner of
his culture

34. CULTURE PROVIDES PERSONALITY
 Culture exercises a great influence on the
development of personality. No child can get human
qualities in the absence of a cultural environment.
 Culture prepares man for group life and provides
him the design of living.
 It is the culture that provides opportunities for the
development of personality and sets limits on its
growth.

35. CULTURE MAKES MAN A HUMAN BEING
 It is culture that makes the human, a man,
regulates his conduct and prepares him for group
life.
 It provides to him a complete design for living. It
teaches him what type of food he should take and
in what mariner, how he should cover himself and
behave with his fellows, how he should speak with
the people and how he should co-operate or
compete with others.

36. CULTURE PROVIDES SOLUTION FOR
COMPLICATED SITUATION
 culture provides man with a set of behavior even for
complicated situation.
 It has so thoroughly influenced that often he does
not require any external force to keep himself in
conformity with the social requirements.
 His culture directs and confines his behavior, limits
his goals and measures his reward.
 His culture gets into his mind and shutters vision so
that he sees what is supposed to see in dream
what he is expected to dream and hunger for what
he is trained to hunger.

37. CULTURE PROVIDES TRADITIONAL
INTERPRETATIONS TO CERTAIN SITUATION.
 Through culture men gets traditional interpretation
for many situations according to which he
determines his behavior.
 If a cat crosses his way, he postpones his journey. It
may however be noted that these traditional
interpretation differ from culture to culture.

38. CULTURE KEEPS SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP
INTACT
 Culture has importance not only for man but also
for the group. Had there been no culture there
would have been no group life.
 Culture is the design and the prescription for
guiding values and ideals.
 Culture has provided a number of checks upon
irrational conduct and suggestibility culture aids
such as in schooling or scientific training

39. CULTURE BROADENS THE OUT LOOKS OF
THE INDIVIDUAL
 Culture has given a new vision to individual by
providing him a set of rules for co-operation of the
individuals. He thinks not only his own self but also
of the others.
 Culture teaches him to think himself a part of the
larger whole, it provides him with the concept of
family, state, nation and class and make
responsible the cooperation and division of labor.

40. CULTURE CREATES NEW NEEDS
 Culture also creates new needs and new drives, for
example, thirst for knowledge and arranges for the
satisfaction.

44. THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF CULTURE
There are some social effects of culture as stated
below:
 enhancing understanding and capacity for action;
 creating and retaining identity;
 modifying values and preferences for collective
choice;
 building social cohesion;
 contributing to community development; and
 fostering civic participation.

45. INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON SOCIETY
Culture influences people’s lives in many ways,
including
 where they decide to stay
 what they do
 their perception of education
 what employment they consider suitable
 their behaviors

46.  their accent
 what they read
 what they do for entertainment
In addition, culture has a huge impact on human
lives in regard to
 what people wear , say or find humorous
 Culture also affects how the human brain responds
to different stimuli.

47. Culture refers to the characteristics of a particular
group of people, including their
 Language
 Cuisine
 social habits
 Religion
 music and arts

48.  Culture is a people’s way of life.
 Different groups of people have their own ways of
doing things.
 Through culture, people develop a sense of
belonging, personal growth and the capacity to
empathize and associate with others.
 The social environment, including many cultural
factors that impinge on development, can affect
functioning of the brain

49.  . On the other hand, direct benefits of a dynamic
culture include self-esteem, well-being, health, skills
development, economic gains and social capital.
 Creative industries and enterprises constitute useful
elements in the provincial or national economy of a
country
 A state’s historic and contemporary buildings,
monuments, museums, libraries, sacred places,
burial sites, archaeology and artifacts are important
aspects of culture and heritage.