Sociology Lecture # 2 Arooj Shahzad

Year: 2018

Individual and Culture

Individual and Culture
 E. B. Taylor, an English anthropologist was the first to coin the term 'culture' in the
eighteenth century.
 The study of society becomes incomplete without proper understanding of culture of that
society because culture and society go together.
 Culture is a unique possession of man.
 Man is born and brought up in a cultural environment.
 Culture separates a man from the lower animals.
 Culture includes all that man acquires in his social life.

Definition of Culture
 E.B. Taylor defined Culture as "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief,
art, morale, laws, custom and any other capabilities and habits as acquired by man as a
member of society."

Characteristics of Culture
 Culture varies from society to society: Every society has a culture of its own. It differs
from society to society.
 Learnt: Culture is not inborn. It is learnt. Culture is often called "learned ways of
behavior".
 Social: Culture does not exist in isolation. It is a product of society. It develops through
social interaction. No man can acquire culture without association with others. Man
becomes a man only among men.
 Shared: Culture is not something that an individual alone can possess. Culture in
sociological sense is shared. For example, customs, traditions, beliefs, ideas, values,
morale etc. are all shared by people of a group or society.
 Transmissive: Culture is transmissive as it is transmitted from one generation to
another.
 Dynamic: No culture ever remains constant or changeless. It is subject to slow but
constant change. Culture is responsive to the changing conditions of the physical world.
Hence culture is dynamic.

Types of Culture
 Material Culture: The tangible things created by members of a society.

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Sociology Lecture # 2 Arooj Shahzad
Year: 2018
 Non-Material Culture: The intangible world of ideas created by members of a society

Functions of Culture
 Transfer of knowledge

 Define Situation: Culture provides individual a set of ready-made definition of situation.

Culture provides traditional interpretation to certain situations. Through culture man gets
traditional interpretations for many situations according to which he determines his
behavior. For example, if a cat crosses his way he postpones the journey.

 Provide Behavior Pattern: 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.

 Moulds 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 and sets limits on its growth.

Elements of Culture
 Norms: Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members.
o Proscriptive: Mandating what we should not do
o Prescriptive: What we should do
o Mores: The term "mores" refers to the norms set by society, largely for behavior
and appearance. Individuals who do not follow social mores are often considered
social deviants.
o Examples of Mores:
 Stealing is considered unacceptable under any circumstance.

 Normal dress for women at work excludes clothes that are highly
revealing.
 It is not considered acceptable to drive at 90 mph in a residential area.

 Using the phrase "thank you" is expected when someone has provided a
service.

o Folkways: Folkways are the customs or conventions of daily life. They are a type
of social norm
o Examples of Folkways:
 Saying bless you when someone sneezes
 Standing during the national anthem

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Sociology Lecture # 2 Arooj Shahzad
Year: 2018
o Taboos: A taboo is a very strong negative norm. It is a strict prohibition of
behavior that society holds so strongly that violating it results in extreme disgust
or expulsion from the group or society.
o Examples of Taboos:
 Cannibalism
 Eating pork flesh in Muslim culture

 Values: Values are culturally defined standards of desirability – what ought to be

o Examples of Values: Equal opportunity, Achievement and success, Material
comfort, Activity and work, Science, Freedom, Physical fitness, Health,
Punctuality, Wealth, Education, Competition, Merit, Honesty, Dignity of labor,
Patriotism, Justice, Democracy, Environmental protection, Charity, Development.

 Beliefs: Beliefs are specific statements that people hold to be true.

 Sanctions: A sanction is a reward or punishment that a norm associates with a behavior

or appearance.

o Examples: People who work hard at their job are rewarded with a salary while
those who work poorly or don’t show up for work will likely be punished.

 Customs: A custom is a cultural idea that describes a regular, patterned way of appearing
or behaving that is considered characteristic of life in a social system.
o Examples: Shaking hands and bowing all customary ways of greeting people that
distinguish one society from another.

Culture and Socialization

Socialization

 The lifelong learning experience by which individuals develop human potential and learn
patterns of their culture. Self is the product of socialization

Socialization: Understanding the Process

Sigmund Freud’s Model: Freud divided the Self into three parts:

 Id: Represents the human being’s basic drives which are unconscious and demand
immediate satisfaction. Un-socialized desires and impulses, rooted in biology.
 Ego: Person’s conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives with the
demands of society. Awareness of self (I).
 Super-Ego: An Operation of culture within individual. Ideals and values internalized
which form the conscience.

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Sociology Lecture # 2 Arooj Shahzad
Year: 2018
G.H. Mead: The Social Self

 Self, a dimension of personality composed of an individual’s self awareness

 Self a product of experience.

 Series of Steps

1. Self develops over time and only through experience. Interaction with society
provides the experience

2. Social experience is the exchange of symbols. Language as a means to

experience

3. To understand the intention one must understand the situation from another
person’s point of view.

Charles H. Cooley: The Looking Glass Self

 Others represent a mirror

 What we think ourselves depends on what we think others think of us.
 Our perception of how we look to others
 Our perception in their judgment of how we look
 Our feelings about these judgments: self-feelings, self-concept, self-image

Formal and Non-Formal Socialization

 Formal Socialization: Learning skills, values and norms with planned and organized
experiences such as in schools.
 Non-Formal Socialization: Learning without an institution or formal procedure.

Ethnocentrism
 The practice of judging another culture by the standard of one’s own culture.
 Considering one’s own culture as superior.

Xeno-centrism
 Considering other’s culture as superior to one’s own.

Cultural Relativism
 The practice of judging a culture by its own standards.

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Sociology Lecture # 2 Arooj Shahzad
Year: 2018

Cultural Lag
 Cultural elements change at different rates.

 The different rate of change in the two integrated elements of culture can result in one
element lagging behind the other, (William Ogburn).

 May disrupt the system.

Culture by Social Class

 High Culture: Cultural patterns of the Elite.
 Popular Culture: Cultural patterns which are widespread.
 Culture of Poverty: Cultural patterns shared by the poor.

Sub-culture
 Cluster of patterns which set apart some segments of society’s population.

Multiculturalism
 Recognizing cultural diversity and promoting the equality of all cultural traditions.

Assimilation
 Assimilation is the process whereby persons and groups acquire the culture of other
group in which they come to live, by adopting its attitudes and values, its patterns of
thinking and behaving—in short, its way of life.

Acculturation
 Acculturation is a process in which members of one cultural group adopt the beliefs and
behaviors of another group. Although acculturation is usually in the direction of a
minority group adopting habits and language patterns of the dominant group,
acculturation can be reciprocal—that is, the dominant group also adopts patterns typical
of the minority group.

Difference between Assimilation and Acculturation

 Acculturation is the transfer of values and customs from one group to another
while Assimilation is the cultural absorption of a minority group into the main cultural
body.