Culture is a way of life. The food you eat, the clothes you wear, the language you speak in and the God you worship all are aspects of culture. In very simple terms, we can say that culture is the embodiment of the way in which we think and do things. It is also the thing that we have inherited as members of society. All the achievements of human beings as members of social groups can be called culture. Art, music, literature, architecture, sculpture, philosophy, religion and science can be seen as aspects of culture. However, culture also includes the customs, traditions, festivals, ways of living and one’s outlook on various issues of life.

1. Culture
Boutkhil Guemide
University Mohammed Boudiaf, M’sila
Algeria

2. Introduction
Definition of the Concept
The elements of culture
The importance of culture
How to recognize a culture?
The characteristics of culture
Culture & Society
Culture: An Overview

3.  The human behavior is governed by customs,
traditions, attitudes, values, norms, ideas and symbols,
 The members of society not only endorse them; they
mold their behavior accordingly,
 Through socialization, these traditions and customs
are passed down from generation to generation,
 These common patterns which human beings use in
their social relations designate culture;
 No human society can exist and develop without its
culture;
 Animal Vs. human societies;
 Animal society: No culture; They do not have systems
of learning and transmitting social experiences.
Introduction

4. What exactly is meant by culture?
 There is no fixed, universal understanding of the concept “Culture”;
 Culture is used in a special sense in anthropology and sociology;
 Culture has been defined in number of ways. There is no consensus among
sociologists and anthropologists regarding the definition of culture.
 “Culture” is applied so broadly, merely as “social pattern”.
 “A highly cultured person”: the person has certain features; such as,
speech, manner, traits, aspects, and taste for literature, or music which
distinguish him from others.
 Culture: certain personal characteristics of an individual. However, this is
not the sense in which the word culture is used and understood in social
sciences.
 Popular discourse: It refers to a celebration or an evening of entertainment;
a ‘cultural show’.
 Culture: aesthetics or the fine arts; such as, dance, music, or drama. This is
also different from the technical meaning of the word culture.
 It refers to the sum of human beings’ life ways, their behavior, beliefs,
feelings, thought; it connotes everything that is acquired by them as social
beings.

5. Edward Burnett Tylor
1832-1917
Culture or civilization, taken
in its wide ethnographic
sense, is that complex whole
which includes knowledge,
belief, art, morals, law,
custom, and any other
capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member
of society.
E. B. Tylor 1871
Definition of Culture

6. Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit,
and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols,
constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups.
The essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas,
their attached values, and systems
(Kroeber and Kluckhohn, 1952)
Culture is a complex whole that consists of all the ways we
think and do and everything we have as members of society
(Robert Bierstadt, 1974)

7. `The sum total of knowledge, attitudes and habitual behaviour
patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society'
Ralph Linton (1940).
The pattern of life within a community, the regularly recurring activities
and material and social arrangements characteristic of a particular group'.
Ward Goodenough (1957)

8. “Culture is the framework of beliefs, … and values
in terms of which individuals define their feelings
and make their judgements”
(Geertz 1957 American Anthropologist 59:32-54).
“Cultures are traditions and customs, transmitted through learning,
that form and guide the beliefs and behaviour of the people exposed to them.
Cultural traditions include customs and opinions developed
over the generations about proper and improper behaviour”
(Kottak 2008)

9. The collective programming of the mind
that distinguishes the members of
one category of people from another
(Geert Hofstede)

10. Culture is a way of life
Material
Objects
Ideas
Attitudes
Values
Behavior
Patterns
“Everything that people have, think, and do as
members of a society” (Ferraro, 2008)
Culture is not only the way we do things. It is also our
attitudes, thoughts, expectations, goals and values. It is
the rules of our society – the norms that tell us what is
and what is not acceptable in society.

11. The beliefs and behaviors of a society.
Culture consists of abstract ideas,
values, and perceptions of the world
that inform and are reflected in
people’s behavior
Culture is the lens through which we
view our world, it “invents” our reality.

12. YOU CAN SEE
WHY IS CULTURE SOMETIMES COMPARED TO AN ICEBERG ?
YOU CAN’T SEE
1. Facial expressions
2. Religious beliefs
3. Foods
4. Eating habits
5. Paintings
6. Concept of self
7. Work ethic
8. Styles of dress
9. Literature
10. Concept of fairness
11. Childraising beliefs

17. 1. Material Culture
 Material and physical objects.
 House, road, vehicles, pen, table, radio set, book etc.
 These are the products of human efforts to control
his environment and make his life conformable and
safe.
2. Non-material culture
 Non- material objects.
 For example religion, art, ideas, customs, values
system, attitudes, knowledge etc. do not have
physical shape.
 It is very important in determining human behavior
and has strong hold on an individual.
 Both parts are inter-related with each other.

18. Real Culture:
 Observed in our social life,
 The culture on which we act upon in our daily life,
 The parts of culture which the people can adopt in
their social life,
 If a person/ says that he/she is Muslim, will be,
when followed all the principles of Islam is the real
and when does not follow, is not a real one.
Ideal Culture:
 The culture which is presented as a pattern to the
people,
 It is the goal of society and never achieved fully
because some parts remain out of practice,
 This culture is explained in books, speeches etc.

19. THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE

20.  a. Importance to the individual:
(1) Culture distinguishes man from animal:
It is the culture that makes the human animal a man.
It regulates his conduct and prepares him for a group life.
Without culture he would not be able to find his own way.

21. (2) Culture provides solution for complicated situations:
Culture provides man a set of behavior for difficult situations.
In the absence of culture man would have been baffled even at
the simplest situations.
Culture not only defines but also determines what we eat and
drink, when to sleep, when to laugh etc.

22. (3) Culture provides traditional interpretation to certain
situations:
Through culture man gets traditional interpretations for many
situations according to which he determines his behavior.

23. (4) Culture shapes personality:
No child can develop human qualities in the absence of cultural
environment.
Culture prepares man for group life.
It is culture that provides opportunities for the development of
personality.

24. (1) Culture keeps social relationship intact:
Culture has importance for the group: Culture prepares man for
group life.
Group life would have been poor, nasty, and short if there had
been no cultural regulations.
Group solidarity rests on the foundation of culture.
b. Importance for the group:

25. (2) Culture has given a new vision to the individual:
Culture has given a new vision to the co-operation of
individuals.
Culture teaches an individual to think of himself as a part of the
larger whole.
It provides him with the concepts of family, state, nation etc.
and makes possible the coordination and division of labor.

26. (3) Culture creates new needs:
Culture also creates new needs and drives: Thirst for knowledge
and arranges for their satisfaction.
It satisfies the moral and religious interests of the members of
the group.

27. HOW TO RECOGNISE A CULTURE?

28. 1. Social Organization
When a culture organizes its members into smaller
groups that can be:
 Families
 Friends
 Religious groups
 Social classes
Elements of Culture

29. - family: the most important unit of social organization
 Nuclear family- husband, wife, children
 Extended family- several generations in one
household
- respect for elders is usually strong in extended
families.

30. Social classes: a way to rank people in order of status
 What can social class be based on?
 Money
 Occupation
 Education
 Race
 Etc.

31. 2. Customs and Traditions
- rules of behavior (written and unwritten)

32. 3. Language
 Important means of communication and transmitting
customs, traditions, and cultural beliefs.

33. 4. Arts and Literature
- teach about a culture’s values
- promote cultural pride and unity

34. 5. Religion
 Monotheism: belief in one god
 Polytheism: belief in more than one god
 Major World Religions
 Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism

35. 6. Forms of Government
 People form governments to provide for their common
needs
 Types
 Democracy: people have supreme power
 Republic: people choose leaders to represent them
 Dictatorship: a ruler or group holds power by force
White House
Great Britain’s
Houses of
Parliament

36. 7. Economic Systems
 Four types
1. Traditional: people produce most of what they need to survive
2. Market: basic economic questions are answered by buying/selling
goods and services
3. Command: government controls answers to economic questions
4. Mixed: individuals make some economic decisions, the
government makes others

37. CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

38.  Culture is learned.
 A child born in the Philippines but was brought to the US after birth may not develop traits
characteristics of Filipinos.
 He may learn behavior pattern characteristics of American children, including language.
1. Culture is learned

39.  For a thought or action to be considered cultural, it must be commonly shared by some
population or group of individuals.
 Even if some behavior is not commonly appropriate, it is cultural if most people think it is
appropriate.
 The idea that marriage involves only one man and one woman is cultural in our society.
2. Culture is shared by a group of people

40.  Knowledge is stored and passed on from one generation to the next, and new knowledge is
being added to what is existing.
 Each culture has worked out solutions to the basic problems of life, which it then passes on to
its children.
 The jeepers and tricycles in the Philippines are good examples of the cumulative quality of
culture.
 Their invention involved the use of materials which were invented in different places of the
world (Hunt et al, 1995).
3. Culture is cumulative

41.  All cultural knowledge does not perpetually accumulate.
 At the same time that new cultural traits are added, some old ones are lost because they are
no longer useful. For example, most city dwellers today do not have or need the skills required
for survival in a wilderness.
 Most would likely starve to death because they do not know how to acquire wild foods and
survive the extremes of weather outdoors.
 What is more important in modern urban life are such things as the ability to drive a car, use a
computer, and understand how to obtain food in a supermarket or restaurant (O’Neill,2005).
4. Cultures change

42.  This is a characteristic of culture that stems from its cumulative
quality. No culture is ever in a permanent state.
 It is constantly changing because new ideas and new
techniques are added and old ways are constantly modified
and discarded.
 This is because of the rapid changes that occur which may be
introduced from within or without.
 It also grows by the spread of traits from individual and from
one group to another which is termed as diffusion.
 One form of diffusion is the growth of language.
 Filipino vocabulary has grown because of borrowed words
from other languages like Spanish, Chinese and English.
5. Culture is dynamic

43.  Culture is an ideal pattern of behavior which the members are
expected to follow. Man assigns meanings to his environment and
experiences by symbolizing them.
 These are internalized by the individual and sees or approaches
his world from the standpoint of this culture (Panopio, 1994).
Culture is ideational

44.  The sum total of human culture consists of a great many separate
cultures, each of them different.
 Culture as a whole, is a system with many mutually independent
parts.
 For example, the choice of a marriage partner involves many
different parts of culture as religion, economic class, education, etc.
7. Culture is diverse

45. Society & Culture

46. Culture ≠ Society
 Culture: traits of a population’s behavior, values, practices,
beliefs and religion,
 Society: the environment or community that surrounds an
individual.
 Culture: the total practices of a people,
 Society: the general humanity.
 Fashion, language, traditional products, music, art and ideals
(examples of culture).
 Villages, small towns and big cities (examples of society).
 The two are not the same, not identical
 The essential difference:
 Society is composed of people;
 Culture consists of knowledge, ideas, customs, traditions,
folkways, mores, skills, institutions, organizations and
artifacts.

47. Culture = Society
 Cultural traditions, customs and rituals shape society.
 Societies are made unique by their culture.
 Culture can be seen as tradition that creates cohesion and
continuity.
 Society: our bigger, cooperating social group with an organized
sense of relationship.
 The sum of interactions and people.
 Relationship: culture can affect how the people react to ideas
and changes.
 Culture & society are co-existent: One does not or cannot exist
without the other;