Culture and society are complexly related. As the society changes, culturefollows and vice versa.

Today, we consider the world very complicated, henceit isvery important to pay attention to the
interplay of society and culture. Thesetwoare fundamentals in understanding human behavior,
conduct and activitiesandsocial groups against the backdrop of globalization and
industrialization.

According to sociologist, a society is a group of people with commonterritory,interaction, and

culture. Arcinas (2016) in his book, Undertanding Culture, Society, and Politics, defined society
as group of people who share a common territorysndculture.

Society comprises of a group of people who share a common culture, liveinaparticular area and
feel themselves to constitute a unified and distinct entity

It is a group of people living together in a definite territory, having asenseof belongingness,

mutually interdependent of each other, and followa certain way of life.

Society is derived from the Latin term “societas”, from socius, which means companion or
associate. Thus, it refers to all people, collectively regarded as constituting a community of
related, interdependent individuals living in a definite place, following a certain mode of life
(Ariola,

The important aspect of society is the system of relationships, the pattern of the norms of
interactionbywhich the members of the society maintain themselves.

The following are reasons people live together as a society (Ariola, 2012):

a. For survival – No man is an island. No man can live alone. Frombirth to death, man always
depends upon his parents and from others. The care, support, and protection given by them are
importnt factors for survival.

b. Feeling of gregariousness – This is the desire of people to be with other people, especially of
their own culture. People flock together for emotional warmth and belongingness. the need for
approval, sympathy and understanding to which the individual belongsisapsychosocial need.
Among Filipinos, the feeling of gregariousnessis found in all levels of society, especially among
the lower socio-econmic classess. The more the person is needy, the morehecraves sympathy and
understanding from someone else. c. Specialization – Teachers, businessmen, students,
physicians, nurses, lawyers, pharmacists, and other professionals organizethemselves into
societies or associations to promote andprotecttheir own professions

Characteristics of Societ

Society or human society is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations
such as kinship, marriage, social status, roles and social networks.
By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken
as a whole.

Society has the following characteristics:

1. It is a social system. A social system consists of individuals interactingwith rach other. A

system consists of sub-parts whereby a changeinonepart affects the other parts. Thus, a change in
one group of individualswill affect the stability of the other parts of the system.

2. It is relatively large. The people must be socialy integratedtobeconsidered relatively large than
if the people are individually scattered. Thus, the people in a family, clan, tribe, neighborhood,
communityaresocially integrated to be relatively large in scope.

3. It socializes its members and from those fromwithout. Since most of society’s members are
born to it, they are taught the basic normsandexpectations. Those who come from other societies,
before being acceptedas functioning members, are socialized and taught the basic
normsandexpectations of the society.

4. It endures, produces and sustains its members for generations. Forsociety to survive, it must
have the ability to produce, endure and sustain its new members for at least several generations.
For instance, if a society cannot assist its members during their extreme conditions of hunger and
poverty, that society will not survive long.

5. It holds its members through a common culture. The individualsinasociety are held together
because that society has symbols, norms, values,patterns of interaction, vision and mission that
are commonly sharedbythe members of such society.

6. It has clearly-defined geographical territory. The members in a society must live in a certain
specific habitat or place and have a common belongingness and sense of purpose.

Major Functions of Society

A society is important because they have the following functions:

1. It provides a system of socialization. Knowledge and skills, dominantpatterns of behavior,

moral and social values, and aspects of personalityare transmitted to each members, especially to
the young. the family, thepeer group, the school, the church and other government andnon-
government organizations play a role in the individual’s development.

2. It provides the basic needs of its members. Food, clothing, shelter, medicine, education,
transportations and communicationfacilities, among others must be provided by society to satisfy
the basic needdsof its members.

3. It regulates and controls people’s behavior. Conformity totheprevailing norms of conduct

ensures social control. The police, armedforces, law enforcement agencies and even the
churchandothergovernment and non-government organizations exist as means of social control.
Peace and order are created through a systemof normsandformal organizations.

4. It provides the means of social participation. Throughsocial participation, the individuals in a

society learn to interact witheachother,present and discuss their concerns and solve their own
problemsorrenew their commitment and values. the people are give the opportunitiesto
contribute to their knowledge and skills for the betterment of theirfamily, neighborhood and
community. religious organizations, civicorganizations, people’s organizations (PO) and non-
governmentorganizations (NGOs) do their part in community developement.

5. It provides mutual support to the members. Mutual support isprovided to the members of
society in the form of relief in any formandsolution to problems met by them. This form of
assistance maycomefrom the family, neighbors, clans, government and non-government
agencies, civic and religious organizations conditioning factors underlying behavior or in simple
terms it is the“manmade part of the environmen. – Herskovits

 A culture is the total socially acquired life-way or life-style of agroupof people. It consists of
the patterned, repetitive ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that are characteristic of the
members of a particular societyor segment of a society. – Harris

 The concept of culture as everything that people have, thinks, anddoesas members of a society.
This definition can be instructive becausethethree verbs correspond to the three major
components of culture. That is, everything that people have refers to material possessions;
everythingthat people think refers to those things they carry around in their heads, such as ideas,
values, and attitudes; and everything that people dorefersto behavior patterns. Thus all cultures
comprise (a) material objects, (b) ideas, values, and attitudes, and (c) patterned ways of
behaving. –GaryFerraro

In general, culture is a term used by social scientists, like anthropologists and sociologists, to
encompass all the facets of human experience that extend beyond our physical fact. It simply
refers to the way we understand ourselves both as individuals and as members of society, and
includes stories, religion, media, rituals, and even language itself. Irrespective of the various
definitions, conceptions and approaches to the understanding of the concept of culture, it is
however agreed that culture is a way of life and morality is a part of culture. Practically all
modern definitions share key features.

Two Components of Culture Sociologists

describe two interrelated aspects of human culture: the physical objects of the culture (material
culture) and the ideas associated with these objects(non-material culture).
1. Material culture consists of tangible things (Banaag, 2012). It referstothephysical objects,
resources, and spaces that people use to definetheirculture. These include homes, neighborhoods,
cities, schools, churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, offices, factories and plants, tools,
meansof production, goods and products, stores, and so forth. All of these physical aspects of a
culture help to define its members' behaviors and perceptions. Everything that is created,
produced, changed and utilized by menisincluded in the material culture (Arcinas, 2016).

2. Non-material culture consists of intangible things (Banaag, 2012). Non‐material culture refers
to the nonphysical ideas that people have about their culture, including beliefs, values, rules,
norms, morals, language, organizations, and institutions. For instance, the non‐material cultural
concept of religion consists of a set of ideas and beliefs about God, worship, morals, and ethics.
These beliefs, then, determine how the culture responds to its religious topics, issues, and events.
When considering non‐material culture, sociologists refer to several processes that a culture uses
toshapeits members' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Four of the most important of these are
symbols, language, values, and norms. Non-material culture can be categorized into cognitive
and normative culture. The former includes ideas, concepts, philosophies, designs etc. that are
product of mental or intellectual functioning and reasoning of the human mind. Whereas,
thelatter includes all expectations, standards and rules for human behaviour(Arcinas, 2016

Modes of Acquiring Culture

1. Imitation - Children and adults alike have the tendency to imitate the values, attitudes,
language and all other things in their social environment. Some of those things imitated are
internalized in their personality and become a part of their attitude, character and other
behavioral patterns.

2. Indoctrination or Suggestion - This may take the form of formal training or informal teaching.
Formally, the person learns from school. Informally, he may acquire those behaviors from
listening or watching, reading, attending training activities or through interaction.

3. Conditioning - The values, beliefs, and attitudes of other people are acquired through
conditioning. This conditioning can be reinforced through reward and punishment.
Causes of Cultural Change

1. Discovery is the process of finding a new place or an object, artefact oranything that
previously existed. For example, the discovery of fire led totheart of cooking; discovery of oil, of
organisms and substances; of diseases; of atoms and sources of energy.

2. Invention implies a creative mental process of devising, creatingandproducing something new,

novel or original; and also the utilizationandcombination of previously known elements to
produce that anoriginal ornovel product. It could be either social or material or it
couldalsobeinvention of new methods or techniques.
Example of social invention: invention of number system, government, language, democracy,
religion, and alphabet Example of Material Invention: invention of the wheel, machines

3. Diffusion is the spread of cultural traits or social practices froma societyorgroup to another
belonging to the same society or to another throughdirectcontact with each other and exposure to
new forms. It involves the followingsocial processes:

a. Acculturation – cultural borrowing and cultural imitationExample: The Filipinos are said to be
the best English-speaking people of Asia.
b. Assimilation – the blending or fusion of two distinct cultures throughlong periods of
interaction Example: Americanization of Filipino immigrants to the US
c. Amalgamation – the biological or hereditary fusion of membersof different societies Example:
Marriage between a Filipino and an American
d. Enculturation – the deliberate infusion of a new culture to another Example: The teaching of
American history and culturetotheFilipinos during the early American Regime

4. Colonization refers to the political, social, and political policy of establishinga colony which
would be subject to the rule or governance of the colonizingstate. For example, the Hispanization
of Filipino culture when the Spaniardscame and conquered the Philippines.
5.

Rebellon and revolutionary movements aim to change the wholesocial order and replace the
leadership. The challenge the existing folkwaysandmores, and propose a new scheme of norms,
values and organization
The Concept of Culture Meaning and Nature of Culture

It was E.B. Taylor who conceptualized the definition of culture in1860s. According to him,
culture is a complex whole which consist of knowledge, beliefs, ideas, habits, attitudes, skills,
abilities, values, norms, art, law, morals, customs, traditions, feelings and other capabilities of
man which are acquired, learnedandsocially transmitted by man from one generation to another
through languageandliving together as members of the society (Arcinas, 2016). Below are other
definitions of culture as mentioned in the book of DavidandMacaraeg (2010) entitled“ Socioloy:
Exploring Society and Culture”:

 Culture is a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodiedinsymbols, a system of

inherited conceptions expressed in symbolicformby means of which men communicate,
perpetuate, and developtheirknowledge about and attitudes towards life. – Clifford Geertz

 Culture consists of learned systems of meaning, communicatedbymeansof natural language and

other symbol systems, having representational, directive, and affective functions, and capable of
creating cultural entitiesand particular senses of reality. – Roy D’Andrade

 Culture is an extrasomatic (nongenetic,nonbodily), temporal continuumof things and events

dependent upon symbols. Culture consists of tools, implements, utensils, clothing, ornaments,
customs, institutions, beliefs, rituals, games, works of art, language, etc. – Leslie White

 Culture consists in the shared patterns of behavior and associatedmeanings that people learn
and participate in within the groups towhichthey belong. – Whitten and Hunter

 A society’s culture consists of whatever it is one has to knowor believeinorder to operate in a

manner acceptable to its members. – WardGoodenough

 Culture is an instrumental reality, and apparatus for the satisfactionof the biological and
derived need”. It is the integral whole consistingof implements in consumers’ goods, of
constitutional characters for thevarious social groupings, of human ideas and crafts,
beliefsandcustom. – Malinowski
 Culture in general as a descriptive concept means the accumulatedtreasury of human creation:
books, paintings, buildings, and the like; theknowledge of ways of adjusting to our surroundings,
both humanandphysical; language, customs, and systems of etiquette, ethics, religionand morals
that have been built up through the ages. – KluckhohnandKelly

 Culture refers to that part of the total setting [of human existence] whichincludes the material
objects of human manufacture, techniques, social orientations, points of view, and sanctioned
ends that are the immediate