the Organization of culture in Socialogy

1. Definitions of culture
Man made part of environment.
The totality of learned ,socially
transmitted customs,knowledge,material
objects, and behaviour.

2. Definition of culture

4. characteristics of culture
 Adaptation….. Biological adaptation in humans is important but
humans have increasingly come to rely upon cultural adaptation
 Transmitted….one generation to another.
 Dynamic…continuously changing
 Gratifying…satisfies many biological and social needs
 Learned…through socialization
 Historical back ground
 Shared…it belongs not to single individual or group but belong to all
members of society
 Accumulative….it goes on increasing in size
 Social…not inherited
 Universality…all societies has culture but may be different only
human being posses not animals

5. Types of culture
Material culture
Non material culture

6. Cultural lag
A period of maladjustment
when non material culture is
still struggling to adapt to new
material conditions.

7. Elements of culture
o The major aspects of culture that shape the
way the members of a society live;
o Language
o Norms
o Sanctions
o Values
o beliefs

8. Language
Language is in fact , the foundation of
every culture.
Language is an abstract system of words ,
meanings and for all aspects of culture.
It include speech , written characters ,
numerals , symbols and gestures and
expressions.

9. Continued---
 Language reflects the priorities of a culture.
Examples;
 In the old west , words such as gelding , stallion,
mare, piebald , sorrel , etc were all used to describe one
animal – horse.
Slave Indians of north Canada who lived in a frigid
climate have 14 terms for ice, including 8 for different
kinds of “solid ice” and other for “seamed ice” ,
“cracked ice” and “floating ice”.
• Cold war era(1950 – 1975s) study of Russian language
by Americans
• After sept.11, 2001 (learning Arabic by Americans)

10. Social Norms
Established standards of behavior
maintained by a society.
Expected pattern of behavior in a
particular situation.

11. Types of Norms
Formal
Law
Informal
Folkways
Mores

12. Law
It refers to the Governmental social
control.
Formal social norms.
Parliament make laws, judiciary explain
them and administration implements the
laws.

13. Folkways
A norm governing everyday
behavior whose violation
raises comparatively little
concern.

14. Mores
Norms highly necessary to the
welfare of a society

15. Social Sanctions
• Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning
a social norms

16. Formal Informal
Negative Positive
Social
Sanctions
Types of Sanctions

17. Types of Sanctions
Formal:
Rewards or penalties on conformity or non-
conformity of laws
Informal:
Rewards or penalties on conformity or non-
conformity of informal norms
Negative:
Penalties imposed on “non-conformity “to a norm.
Positive:
Rewards given on “Conformity “ to a norm.

18. Social Values
• Collective conceptions of what is considered
good, desirable and proper in a culture

19. Beliefs
• Holding a statement true without any
verification

20. Organization of culture
A given culture can be classified in
to different parts.
These parts are integrated with
each other to give a specific shape
to a culture.

21. Organization of Culture
• Cultural Traits
• Cultural Complex
• Cultural Pattern
• Ethos/Core culture

22. Cultural complex
A number of traits when organized
together make a cultural complex.
For example; prayer , fast, cricket match
, motor vehicle etc

23. Cultural pattern
A specific combination of two or
more cultural complexes is called
cultural pattern.
Actually it is that kind of relationship
between traits and complexes which
shows the dominant and prominent
characteristics of a culture.
For example; pattern of transport ,
pattern of religion , pattern of sports
etc

24. ethos
It is the flavor or the central point of a culture.
It is the philosophy or the ideology of entire culture
around which the entire society rests. For example;
•Pakistani culture is attributed as religious.
•American culture is competitive.
•Japanese culture is cooperative.
•Russian culture is accommodative.

25. Theme
The combination of two or more cultural patterns
result in a theme. It is the public declaration to control
or encourage a given human activity.
For example , all human beings are equal in a culture.

26. Ethnocentrism
•The belief that one’s own culture is superior to all others
and is the standard by which all other cultures should be
measured.
•The tendency to judge the other cultures by the standards
of one’ own culture -- Ian Robertsons.
•The tendency to assume that one’s own culture and way of
life are superior to all others – W.G Sumner.

27. Merits of ethnocentrism
•1-unity and loyalty
•2-patriotism
•3-integration

28. Demerits of ethnocentrism
1-grouping
2-injustice
3-non-cooperation
4-intolerance
5-hinderance in the way of social change

29. Cultural relativism
“Right” and “Wrong” are culture-specific,
what is considered moral in one society
may be considered immoral in an other
society and , since no universal standard of
morality exist , no one has the right to
judge an other society’s customs………
Horton and Hunt – the function and
meaning of a trait are relative to its
cultural setting.

30. Contin………
The central point in cultural
relativism is that in a particular
cultural setting ,certain traits are ”
right ” bcuz they work well in that
setting, while other traits are” wrong
”bcuz they would clash …

31. Contin…………..
Painfully with parts of that culture.
For example; premarital pregnancy in
Bontocs tribe

32. Sub-culture
•A segment of society that shares a
distinctive pattern of mores , folkways
and values that differs from the
patterns of larger society.

33. Contin………
In a sense, a sub – culture can be a
culture existing with in a larger ,
dominant culture.

34. Contin……
•The existence of many sub-cultures
is a characteristic of complex
societies like U.S.A ,India etc.

35. Contin…….
•Members of sub-culture participate in
the dominant culture while at the same
time engaging in unique and distinctive
forms of behavior

36. Contin…….
•Frequently , a sub-culture will develop
an “argot” or specialized language ,that
distinguishes it from larger society.

37. Contin……..
For example , New York city , s sanitation
workers have developed a humorous argot for
use on a job.
• Airmail (trash thrown from an upper story
window)
• Urban whitefish(used condom)

38. Prominent sub-cultures in Pakistan
• Punjabi
• Sindhi
• Blochi
• Pashtun
• Balti

39. Bases of sub- culture
According to Sutherland , Woodward
and Maxwell , the main bases of sub-
culture are,

40. Contin……
1-regional
2-ethenic
3-urban and rural
4-Class and occupation
5-religion

41. Counter culture
The culture and life style of those
people , especially among the young
who reject or oppose the dominant
values and behavior of society.

42. Example of counter-culture
• Hippies – these young men and women rejected
the pressure to accumulate more and more cars ,
larger and larger homes and an endless array of
material goods.
• They expressed a desire to live in a culture based
on more humanistic , values such as sharing , love
and coexistence with the environment.
• They opposed the U.S involvement in the war in
the Vietnam

43. Cultural shock
• The feelings of surprise and disorientation
that people experience when they encounter
cultural practices that are different from their
own.
• For example , a Pakistani visiting Korea asked
a special dish for dinner--------dog meat

44. xenocentrism
• Xenocentrism is the preference for the
products , styles, or ideas of some one else’s
culture rather than of one’s own.
• Pakistani women belief that European
cosmetics are far superior to those produced
domestically.
• Americans belief that Europeans produce
superior automotive vehicles .

45. Consequences of xenocentrism
• Loss of business in the home country.
• Loss of jobs in the home country.
• Overall reduction of moral with in the nation.
We can say xenocentrism is the killer of culture.

46. Cultural uniformities and variability
• Among the societies there are certain
common traits which have biological ,
geographical and social background.
• On the same ground , a similarity among all
the cultures is found . This similarity among all
the cultures is called cultural uniformity.
• Due to this uniformity , cooperation among
societies develop in different fields.

47. Contin………
• All the things are not alike in all the cultures of
the world societies . There are also differences
in elements of culture among the world’s
many nations ’even with in a single nation,
which is called cultural variability.
• Cultural variability create differences in
economic , political and general social ways of
life. These differences lead to conflict and
wars.

48. exemples
• Language
• Family and marriage
• Social institutions
• Social norms
• Social values
• Social groups
• Agriculture
• Transport and communication

49. Causes of cultural uniformity and
variability
• The geographical environment.
• The social needs.
• The capacity to learn.
• The materials available.
• The cultural values , beliefs ,sentiments and
attitudes.
• The techniques and technology available.