ASPECTS OF CULTURE

E.B TAYLOR (Edward Burnett Tylor)

an English
anthropologist, the
founder of cultural
anthropology
Was the first to coin
the term “culture” in
18th century
WHAT IS CULTURE?
CULTURE

A complex whole which

encompasses beliefs, practices,
values, attitudes, laws, norms,
artifacts, symbols, knowledge and
everything that a person learns and
shares as a member of society.
Culture is the social behavior and
norms found in human societies.
Culture is considered a central
concept in anthropology,
encompassing the range of
phenomena that are transmitted
through social learning in human
societies
CLASSIFICATION OF
CULTURE
Material Culture
Cultural components that are visible and
tangible which include all material objects
or those components or elements of
culture which physical representation such
as tools, furniture, buildings, bridges,
gadgets, etc.
NONMATERIAL CULTURE

Components of culture that are

nontangible or without physical
representation.
Categorized into cognitive and normative
nonmaterial culture.
Cognitive Culture
Includes the ideas, concepts,
philosophies, designs etc. that are
products of the mental or intellectual
functioning and reasoning of human mind
Normative Culture
Includes all the expectations, standards
and rules for human behaviour
Connecting Culture Iceberg
The material and non material cultures are
always interlinked. The existence of material
culture is justified by nonmaterial culture. Any
form/ element of material; culture will be
meaningless and will cease to exist without
the ideas and normative expectations that
support it.
ELEMENTS OF
CULTURE
 BELIEFS
Are conceptions or ideas people have about
what is true in the environment around them
like what is life, how to value it, and how one;s
beliefs on the value of life relate with his or her
interaction with others and the world. These
may be based on common sense, folk wisdom,
religion, science or a combination of all of
these.
VALUES
Describe what is appropriate (good or
bad; desirable or undesirable; worthy or
unworthy) in a given society or what
ought to be. These are broad, abstract,
and shared to influence and guide the
behaviour of people.
LANGUAGE
It is shared set of spoken and
written symbols. It is basic to
communication and transmission
of culture. It is known as the
storehouse of culture.
TECHNOLOGY

Refers to the application of

knowledge and equipment to ease
the task of living and maintaining the
environment. It includes all artifacts,
methods and devices created and
used by people.
 NORMS

Are specific rules/standards to

guide appropriate behaviour.
Societal norms are of different
types and forms.
 TYPES OF NORMS
1.Proscriptive – defines and tells us things
not to do
2. Prescriptive – defines and tells us things
to do
 FORMS OF NORMS
1. Folkways – Also known as customs, these
are norms for everyday behaviour that
people follow for the sake of tradition or
convenience. Breaking a folkway does not
usually have serious consequences.
 FORMS OF NORMS
2. Mores – these are strict norms that control
moral and ethical behaviour. Mores are
norms based on definitions of right and
wrong.
 FORMS OF NORMS
3. Taboos - these are norms that society holds
so strongly that violating it results in extreme
disgust. Often times the violator of the taboo
is considered unfit to live in the society.
 FORMS OF NORMS
4. Law - these are the codified ethics, and
formally agreed, written down and enforced
by an official law enforcement agency.
CHARACTERISTICS OF
CULTURE
 DYNAMIC, FLEXIBLE AND ADAPTIVE

This basically means that cultures interact and

change. Most societies interacts with other
societies, and lead to exchanges of materials
and non material components of culture.
All cultures change, or else, they would have
problems adjusting and adapting to changing
environments.
 SHARED AND MAY BE CHALLENGED

As we share culture with others, we are able to

act in an appropriate ways as well as predict
how others will act. Despite the shared nature of
culture, that doesn’t mean that culture is
homogenous(the same). It may be challenged
by the presence of other cultures and other
social forces in society like modernization,
industrialization, and globalization.
 LEARNED THROUGH SOCIALIZATION OR
ENCULTURATION
It is not biological, we do not inherit it but learn
as we interact in society. Much of learning
culture is unconscious. We learn, absorb, and
acquire culture from families, peers, institutions
and the media.
Enculturation - the process of learning culture
PATTERNED SOCIAL INTERACTIONS.

Culture as a normative system has the capacity

to define and control human behaviours. Norms
are cultural expectations in terms of how one will
think, feel, or behave as a set by one’s culture. It
sets the pattern in terms of what is appropriate or
inappropriate in a given setting. Human
interactions are guided by some forms of
standard and expectation which in the end
regularize it.
INTEGRATED
This is known as holism, or the various parts of
culture being interconnected or interlinked. All
aspects of a culture are related to one another
and to truly understand a culture, one must learn
about all of its parts, not only in few.
Transmitted through socialization/
enculturation
As we share our culture with others, we were
able to pass it on to the new members of the
society or the younger generation in different
ways. In the process of socialization/
enculturation, we were able to teach them
about many things in life and equip them with
the culturally acceptable ways to surviving,
competing, and making meaningful interactions
with others in society.
REQUIRES LANGUAGE AND OTHER
FORMS OF COMMUNICATION
In the process of learning and transmitting culture, we
need symbols and language to communicate with
other in society. A symbol is something that stands for
something else. Symbols vary cross-culturally and are
arbitrary. These only have meaning when people in a
culture agree on their use. Language, money, and art
are all symbols. Language is one of the key elements of
culture needed for people in one culture to interact or
for one to interact with one other cultures.
 FUNCTIONS OF CULTURE
1.Culture defines situations
2.Culture defines attitudes, values and
goals.
3.Culture defines myth, legends and the
supernatural
4.Culture provides behaviour patterns.
ETHNOCENTRISM/XENOCENTRISM
AND CULTURAL RELATAVISM AS
ORIENTATIONS IN VIEWING OTHER
CULTURES
ETHNOCENTRISM
 A view of things in which one’s own group is the center
of everything and all others are scaled and rated with
reference to it. Each group nourishes its own pride and
vanity, boast itself superior, exalts its own divinities, and
looks with contempt on outsiders. (William Graham
Sumner)
 A term coined by William Sumner, is a tendency to see
and evaluate other culture in terms of one’s own race,
nation, or culture.
 XENOCENTRISM
 giving preference to the ideas, lifestyle, and
products of the cultures
People who usually experience xenocentrism
came from a country with lower economic
position as compared to the one preferred.
This may be triggered by comparison wherein
the person sees one’s position as inferior and
would like to improve one’s status or experience
a better condition compared to his/her current
position.
 XENOPHOBIA

Is the fear of what is perceived as foreign or

strange.
It may include fear of losing identity, suspicion
of the other group’s activities, aggression and
the desire to eliminate the presence of the
group to secure a presumed purity.
 CULTURAL RELATIVISM

The principle that an individual human’s belief

and activities should be understood by others in
terms of that individual’s own culture.
Highlights the perspective that no culture is
superior to any other culture when comparing
systems of morality, law politics, etc.
Culture is seen to have equal value.
WHAT LEARNING/S YOU HAVE GAINED
AS TO HOW THE UNDERSTANDING OF
THE INTERPLAY OF SOCIETY AND
CULTURE WILL HELP IN ADDRESSING
SOCIAL PROBLEMS/ISSUES THAT WE
HAVE IN OUR SOCIETY?