Culture

Presented by:
Jeanne Balili-Falle, RN
 Culture Defined
• It is derived from the Latin word “culture”
which means ‘care’ or “cultus” meaning
‘civilization’.
• It refers to that complex whole in which
includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals,
law, customs, and any other capabilities
and habits acquired by man as a member
of society. (Sir Edward Tylor)
 Other Definitions of Culture
• It is a design for living or road map that
guides the behavior of member of a
society, permitting them to live together in
an organized, orderly manner. It is that
part of his environment which man himself
has created.
• It is man's social heritage which has been
transmitted from one generation to another
through language.
 Other Definitions of Culture
• It is the total configuration of institutions that
people in a given society share in common.
• It represents the designs or recipes for living; the
interrelated network of norms and roles.
• Consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and
for behavior acquired and transmitted by
symbols, constituting the distinctive
achievements of human groups, including their
embodiment in artifacts.
 Other Definitions of Culture
• It is therefore:
– Characteristically a product of human
interaction
– A social heritage that is complex and socially
transmitted
– Provides socially acceptable patterns for
meeting biological and social needs
– A distinguishing factor
– An established pattern of behavior
– Cumulative as it is handed down from
generation to generation
– Pure abstraction
– Meaningful to human being because of its
symbolic quality
– Learned by every person as basic
determinants of his personality
– Depends for its existence upon continued
functioning of the society but is independent
of any specific group.
 Types of Culture
• Material Culture
– Include physical objects or artifacts-things that
human beings create by altering the natural
environment.
• Non-material culture
– Consists of words people use, the habits they
follow, the ideas, customs, behavior of any
society profess and to which they strive to
conform.
 Components of Culture
• Norms
• Values
• Language
• Fashion, Fads, Crazes
 Components of Culture in Detail:
Norms
• Often described as social norms. These
are guides or models of behavior which tell
us what is proper and which are
appropriate, right or wrong
• It indicates the society’s standards of
propriety, morality, ethics and legality
 Forms of Social Norms
• Folkways
– Customary patterns of everyday life that
specify what is socially correct and proper in
everyday life.
– Example: shaking hands, bathing frequently,
not drinking liquor in church, etc.
 Forms of Social Norms
• Mores
– These are seen as extremely important and
are considered vital for the group’s welfare. It
embodies the code of ethics and standards of
morality in a society.
– Example: standards on sexual behavior,
family relations, attitudes toward authority,
religion, and unfortunate sectors of society.
 Forms of Social Norms
• Law
– These are norms that are enforces formally by
a special political organization. They are
formalized social norms enacted by people
who have been vested through machinery of
the state.
 Difference of Law from Folkways
and Mores
• It is enforced formally by a special political organization
composed of persons authorized to use force if
necessary
• The results of conscious though and deliberate planning
• More adaptable to changing conditions than are folkways
and mores
• The degree of disapproval and punishment of the violator
of a law varies according to which law is broken.
• Many mores are incorporated into law ans serve to
reinforce them.
 Components of Culture in Detail:
Values
• It represent the standards we use to
evaluate the desirability of things. It
defines what is right, good and moral.
• The values of the society shape its
normative system and guide the behavior
of its people.
 Major value orientations of
Societies
• Achievement and success
• Activity and Work
• Moral Orientation
• Humanitarianism
• Efficiency and practicality
 Values held highly by Filipinos
• Emotional closeness and security in the
family
• The authority value
• Economic and social betterment
• Patience, suffering, endurance
 Components of Culture in Detail:
Language
• It refers to a system of symbols that have
specific and arbitrary meaning in a given
society.
• Sets human beings apart from other
species.
• A means of transmission of learning from
one generation to another.
 Components of Culture in Detail:
Fashion, Fads, Crazes
• These are short-lived social norms with
which people are expected to comply with.
They may operate as forces of social
change.
– Examples: new styles of clothes, bags, shows
and hairdo; new styles of appliances, houses,
cars and even music.
 Characteristics of Culture
• Culture is learned and acquired
• Culture is shared and transmitted
• Culture is social
• Culture is ideational
• Culture gratifies human needs
• Culture is adaptive.
• Culture tends toward integration
• Culture is cumulative.
 Principal Ways of Culture
Adaptation
• Parallelism
– The independent development of a culture
characteristic in two widely separated
cultures.
• Diffusion
– It is the much more common process of
patterns and traits passing back and forth
from one culture to another.
 Principal Ways of Culture
Adaptation
• Fission
– A process that can be traced historically when
a long established society breaks up into two
or more independent units.
• Convergence
– The fusion of two or more cultures into a new
one which is somewhat different from its
predecessors.
 Functions of Culture
• Culture as a Category
• Culture as a tool in prediction.
– Culture serves as a trademark or special
feature that distinguishes one society from
another.
– Culture brings together, contains and
interprets the value o a society in a more or
less systematic manner.
– Culture provides one of the most important
bases for social solidarity
 – Culture provides a blueprint of, as well as the
materials for social structure.
– The culture of any society is the dominant
factor in establishing and molding the social
personality.
– The culture of a society provides behavioral
patterns.
• Culture provides individuals with the
meaning and direction of his existence.
 Modes of Acquiring Culture
• Imitation
– The individual imitate the things around him
• Indoctrination
– This may take the form of formal teaching or training
which may take place anywhere the individuals finds
himself interacting with his fellow humans
• Conditioning
– It is reinforced by a system of reward and
punishments found in the cultural system
 Cultural Variability
• Ethnocentrism
– This arises from the fact that cultures differ and each
culture defines reality differently.
– One culture is taken as a standard against which all
other cultures are judged
• Cultural Relativism
– There are no universal moral standards of right and
wrong and good and bad for evaluating cultural
phenomena.
– The attempt to judge behavior according to its
context.
 Other Concepts
• Subcultures
– Provide a sense of belonging and identity
– Each subculture develops unique features
– Rules of behavior are set up for dealing with
the outside world
– These guidelines support group members in
their daily activities
• Culture Shock
– the feelings of isolation, rejection, etc., experienced
when one culture is brought into sudden contact with
another, as when a primitive tribe is confronted by
modern civilization
• Culture Lag
– The dysfunctions in, or inability of a given society to
adopt a culture immediately as a result of disparity in
the rate of change between the material and non-
material elements of culture.
• Cultural Dualism
– A culture is influenced by another and they practice in
synergy.
 End of Presentation

Thank you!

Jeanne Balili-Falle, RN
http://msjclassnotes.blogspot.com/