CULTURE

What is Culture?
The set of learned behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, values, and
ideals that are characteristics of a particular society or
population ( Ember,1999).
The learned
norms, values, knowledge, artifacts, language, and symbols
that are constantly communicated among people who share a
common way of life (Calhoun et.al., 1994).

The sum total of symbols, ideas, forms of expressions and
material products associated with a collective way of life
reflected in such things as
beliefs, values, music, literature, art, dance, science, religious
ritual and technology(Johnson, 1996).
The complex whole which includes
knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of
society (Panopio, 1992).

Characteristics of Culture
1. Culture is learned.
2. Culture is shared by a group of people.
3. Culture is cumulative.
4. Cultures change.

5. Culture is dynamic.
6. Culture is ideational.
7. Culture is diverse.
8. Culture gives us a range of permissible
behaviour.

Components of Culture
Communication Cognitive
Behavioral Material

Components of Culture
A. Communication Component
A. 1. Language
 It defines what it means to be human.
 It forms the core of all culture.
 They share a condensed, very flexible set of symbols
and meanings.
2. Symbols
 It forms their backbone of symbolic interaction.
 Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized
by people who share culture.
 Serve as the basis for everyday reality.

B. Cognitive Component
1. Ideas/ Knowledge/Beliefs
 Ideas are mental representations (
concepts, categories, metaphor) used to organize
stimulus; they are the basic units out of which knowledge
is constructed an a world emerges.
 Knowledge the storehouse where we accumulate
representations, information, facts, assumptions, etc.
 Beliefs accept a proposition, statement, description of
fact, etc. as true.

2. Values- Defined standards of
desirability, goodness and beauty, which serve as broad
guidelines for social living. They support beliefs, or
specific statements that people hold to be true.
3. Accounts- How people use that common
language to explain, justify, rationalize, excuse, or
legitimize behavior to themselves and others.

C. Behavioral Component ( how we act)
1. Norms
 Rules and expectations by which a society guides the
behavior of its members.
 Standards that define the obligatory and expected
behaviors of people in various situations

Types of Norms
Mores
 They are customary behaviour patterns of folkways
which have taken on a moralistic value.
Laws
 Laws constitute the most formal and important norms.
 The more deemed so vital to dominant interests that
they become translated into legal formalizations that even
non-members of society are required to obey.

Folkways
 These are behaviour patterns of society which are
organized and repetitive.
 There is no strong feeling of right or wrong attached to
them.
 They are simply the way the people usually do things.
 Commonly known as customs
Rituals
 These are highly scripted ceremonies or strips of
interaction that follow a specific sequence of actions.
 They occur at predetermined times or triggered by
specific cues.

D. Material Component
 The form and function of objects is an expression
of culture and culturally-defined behaviour.

The Organization of Culture
Cultural Traits
Material culture
 refers to the physical objects, resources, and spaces that
people use to define their culture. These include
homes, neighborhoods, cities, schools, churches,temples,to
ols, means of production, goods and products, stores, and
so forth.
Non-material culture
 refers to the nonphysical ideas that people have about their
culture, including
beliefs, values, rules, norms, morals, language, organizatio
ns, and institutions.

How is Culture Transmitted?
1. Enculturation
It is the process of learning culture of one’s own group.
2. Acculturation
It is the process of learning some new traits from
another culture.
3. Assimilation
The process in which an individual entirely loses any
awareness of hi/her previous group identity and takes
on the culture and attitudes of another group.

Importance and Functions of Culture
1. Helps the individual fulfil his potential as a human
being.
2. Through the development of culture man can
overcome his physical disadvantages and allows him
to provide himself with fire, clothing, food and shelter.
3. Provides rules of proper conduct for living in a
society.
4. Provides the individual his concepts of family,
nation and class.

Thank you!
Donna O. Fernandez