COMPONENTS OF SOCIETY:

LANGUAGE, TECHNOLOGY, IDEOLOGY, AND SECULARISM

MARC GIAN PAOLO R. CLOZA

WHAT IS CULTURE?

Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a

relatively large group of people.
Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of
knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes,
meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time,
roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe,
and material objects and possessions acquired by
a group of people in the course of generations
through individual and group striving.
WHAT IS CULTURE?

Culture is communication, communication is

culture.
WHAT IS CULTURE?

Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated

behavior; that is the totality of a person's
learned, accumulated experience which is
socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior
through social learning.
WHAT IS CULTURE?

A culture is a way of life of a group of people--

the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols
that they accept, generally without thinking
about them, and that are passed along by
communication and imitation from one
generation to the next.
WHAT IS CULTURE?

Culture is symbolic communication. Some of

its symbols include a group's skills,
knowledge, attitudes, values, and motives.
The meanings of the symbols are learned and
deliberately perpetuated in a society through
its institutions.
LAYERS OF CULTURE

The national level: Associated with the nation as a whole.

The regional level: Associated with ethnic, linguistic, or religious
differences that exist within a nation.
The gender level: Associated with gender differences (female vs.
male)
The generation level: Associated with the differences between
grandparents and parents, parents and children.
The social class level: Associated with educational opportunities and
differences in occupation.
The corporate level: Associated with the particular culture of an
organization. Applicable to those who are employed.
CULTURE

Second basic component of every sociocultural

system is culture, a societys SYMBOL SYSTEMS and
the INFORMATION they convey.
The symbol systems and store of information that
comprise a societys culture are like a FOUNDATION
laid down by previous generations.
Because each generation has this base on which to
build, it can avoid repeating many of the experiences
of earlier generations.
SYMBOL SYSTEMS AND
INFORMATION
SYMBOL SYSTEMS

Spoken language
Body language
Written language
SPOKEN LANGUAGE

The most basic symbol systems in any

society are its spoken languages.
No matter how many other symbol systems a
society creates, these are the ones its
members use in their basic thought
processes and the ones that bear the burden
of transmitting information
SPOKEN LANGUAGE

At the heart of every spoken language is an

enormous set of social conventions that
constitute its vocabulary and grammar.
In short, language reflects the needs,
concerns ,and experiences of those who use
it.
BODY LANGUAGE

Supplementing its spoken language, every

society uses conventional gestures and facial
expressions whose messages are evident to
members of the group.
Not to be confused with instinctive reactions,
body language is symbolic, for the form and
meaning of the gestures and expressions are
determined by those who use them.
WRITTEN LANGUAGE

A relatively recent development in human

history, written language has expanded our
ability to communicate information.
With the invention of the printing press and
subsequent spread of literacy, written language
steadily increased in relative importance
because it could overcome space and time (the
historic barriers of communication).
WRITTEN LANGUAGE

During the last century, because of devices such as the

telephone, radio, and television, spoken language has
overcome those barriers altering the balance once again.
More important than these shifts in relative importance of
different types of language, however, is the fundamental
trend that has persisted from early prehistoric times: the
continuing expansion of old symbol systems and the
creation of new ones have steadily increased the capacity
of human societies to handle information.
INFORMATION: CULTURAL,
IDEOLOGICAL, AND TECHNOLOGICAL
CULTURAL

Cultural information is KNOWLEDGE acquired through

EXPERIENCE and conveyed through symbols.
A societys INFORMATION is a product of its EXPERIENCES:its
experiences in the remote and recent past and its
experiences with its environment and itself.
Because every society has a unique past, every culture is
unique.
Out of diverse experiences, diverse information emerges.
Cultural experience includes everything humans are capable
of experiencing and able to convert into symbolic form
CULTURAL

All cultures include information on 7 basic

subjects:
1. Biophysical environment to which the society
must adapt
2. Groups social environment
3. The society itself, its origins, people and history
4. The ultimate causes of things and events
CULTURAL

5. Problem solving
6. Decision making
7. The desire for artistic expression and ritual
to satisfy culturally activated and intensified
needs.
IDEOLOGY

Ideology is information used to interpret

experience and help order societal life.
Much of the information in culture is
ideological and results from efforts to make
sense out of human experience
3 BASIC ELEMENTS OF IDEOLOGY

1. A system of beliefs about the kind of world

we inhabit
2. A system of general moral values that
emanate from, or justified by those beliefs
.A system of norms that apply those general
values to specific situations and spell out how
the members of the group are to act in
various circumstances
2 KINDS OF NORMS

1. Laws, regulations and rules - the official or

legal codes of conduct enforced by
authority (e.g. government, church).
2. Customs - the informal and unofficial norms
which define acceptable and unacceptable
behavior
TECHNOLOGY

Technology is information about how to use

the material resources of the environment to
satisfy human needs and desires.
MATERIAL PRODUCTS

Material products consists of the things

human society produces or obtains through
trade
These products of technology range from
perishable food to architecture
Energy is easily the most vital product of
societal activity
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Social organization refers to the network of relationships

among a societys members
It as a product of the interaction of culture and people itself
consisting of 5 elements:
(1) individuals
(2) social positions, roles & statuses
(3) groups
(4) classes
(5) stratification
SECULARISM

One manifestation ofsecularismis asserting

the right to be free from religious rule and
teachings, or, in a state declared to be
neutral on matters of belief, from the
imposition by government of religion or
religious practices upon its people.
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS &
INSTITUTIONAL SYSTEMS
These are combinations of the other four
components.
They bring together population, culture, the
material products of culture, and social
organization.
THANK YOU!
REFERENCES:

http://www2.fiu.edu/~grenierg/chapter2.htm