Rural Sociology

CHAPTER TWO
CULTURE

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 At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
 Explain the concept
 Explain the type

 Describe the characteristics

 Identify Elements
 Explain the function
 Understand some attitudes of cultural variation and cultural change

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2.1. Concept of culture

In social science, the term culture refers to the shared ways of thinking
and believing.

 culture refers to the beliefs, artifacts, and ways of life that a

social group shares
The fact that you share similar culture with others helps to define the
group or society to which you belong.

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Different scholars defined culture according to their contexts :example,
Edward Taylor (1832-1917) Culture is a way of life
includes what people have, to do, and think
Puddingstone: defined culture as “the sum of total
material and intellectual equipment whereby people
satisfy their biological and social needs”
2.2. Types of Culture
 Even though, the particular content of culture varies from place to place,
sociologists commonly classified culture into two basic elements.
material (Tangible)culture
 non-material (Intangible) culture

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A. Material (Tangible) culture:
 are all products created by human interaction or those things that
humans make from the raw staff of nature, like: houses, computers,
jewelry, oil paintings, books, cloths, schools, churches etc.
Material culture refers to material objects(artifacts) that people produce
and use
from the simplest tools, utensils, furniture, and clothing
to the most complex computer systems, architectural designs, automotive
engines, and instruments used in space exploration.

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These and other material products are important for understanding the
way in which people live.
But, natural objects such as mountains, rivers are not part of material
culture.
B. Non-material (Intangible) culture:
 It consists of the intangible creations of human interaction that are not
embodied in physical objects like:
 Values, beliefs, norms, ideas,
 knowledge,
system of government, the language we speak and
other soft system of culture that govern the way of life.

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 Generally there are about five basic types of non-material culture
These are:
 Values
 Language
 Norms
 Knowledge
 Symbols
Values:
Values are judgments of what is good or bad and desirable or
undesirable
When people go against a society’s values, they are punished
Examples of values: equal opportunity, achievement or success,
freedom, punctuality, wealth, education, honesty etc.
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Certain values tend to be universal.
For example: nearly every culture values: stability and security, a strong family,
and good health.
Values are not static they undergo change as social events and circumstances
change
Beliefs are the tenets or convictions that people hold to be true.
Values are abstract standard of goodness, while beliefs are particular matters
that individuals consider true or false.
Eg.North Americans commonly believe that anyone who works hard enough
will be successful and wealthy.

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Norms:
 a rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its
members
But more often, norms are unspoken customs that people implicitly know
and follow.
Like values, norms can vary greatly
from society to society and
from group to group within a single society
Formal norms are established, written rules
Informal norms: also called folkways and customs, refer to standards of
behavior that are considered less important but still influence how we behave.

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There are four basic types of norms: These are: folkways, mores,
taboos, and laws.
1. Folkways: are standards of behavior that are socially approved but not morally
significant.

 Breaking a folkway does not usually have serious consequences.

Examples:
 In Ethiopia belched loudly while eating at the dinner table with
other people, he or she would be breaking a folkway
 Cultural forms of dress or
 eating three meals a day and
 brushing your teeth

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 There are two types of Folkways: custom and fashion.
a) Custom: - are folkways that seem relatively permanent and gradually
become accepted as appropriate modes of behavior. Example:
observing particular religious holidays,
participating in certain marriage ceremony.
Customs resist change which is how they differ from fashions.’
b) Fashions- Fashions are practices that are expected to undergo fairly rapid
change. Eg wearing miniskirt

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2. Mores: are strict norms that control moral and ethical behavior
 are associated with strong feelings of right and wrong.
 Unlike folkways, mores are morally significant. Examples:
Religious doctrines,
the prohibition against incest, cannibalism, and sexual abuse of
children.
People who violate mores are considered unfit for society and may be
ostracized, beaten, locked up in a prison or mental hospital,
exiled, or even executed.
Eg. A daughter living with her boyfriend

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• Mores are norms that embody the moral views and principles of a
group
• Violating them can have serious consequences
• Guarded by public sentiment: shame, shunning, banning result from violations

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3. Taboos: is a norm that society holds so strongly that violating it results in
extreme disgust or unfit to live in that society. For instance:
in Muslim cultures, eating pork is taboo since pig is considered as
unclean.
At the more extreme end, incest and cannibalism are taboos in most
countries.
4. Laws: is a norm written down and enforced by an official law
enforcement agency.
Driving while drunk, theft, murder, and trespassing are all examples
of laws in the USA.
 If the person violating the law could get cited, or go to prison.
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Symbols: is anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people
who share culture. For example:
Objects, gestures, sound, images that represents something.,
Whistle, flashing light, thumbs up are all symbols.
These symbols are used as a means of communication and thereby
becoming part of our language.
Geometrically for example a cross is:
merely two intersecting lines,
but for Christians a cross symbolizes sacrifices, pain and sufferings,
faith and the hope of salvation.
 Symbols are always man-made.

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Language: is an agent of culture that allows members of a society to
communicate with one another.
 Language is verbal and non-verbal.
 enables people:
to store meanings, experiences, and
to pass this heritage on to new generation.
Language is the major means of cultural transmission. We can see the
shipping qualities of language in the development of written language.

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Knowledge: is the body of facts, beliefs, and practical skills that people
acquired or accumulate overtime.
 It partly consists of procedural information such as:
 how to drive a car or operate computer.
Knowledge:. also consists of information about places, peoples, and events.
All these kind of knowledge are parts of our culture, our shared heritage.

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2.3. Characteristics of Culture
The basic characteristics of culture are:
Culture is learned
Culture is shared(the public property of a social group of people )
Culture is transmitted
Culture is symbolic
Culture is overt and covert
Culture is organic and supra-organic
Culture is explicit and implicit
Culture is ideal and actual(manifest)
Culture is stable and yet changing

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And also, culture can be characterizes as
 Universality of culture
 Generality of culture and
 Particularity of culture
 The Functions of Culture
Culture defines situation
•what we eat, and drink ,what we wear/clothing, where to laugh, express emotions
 Culture is the treasury of knowledge
Culture provides knowledge, which is important for the physical, social and intellectual
existence of man.
•Culture provides behavior patterns
•It assigns him status and roles. We see, dream, aspire, work, strive, enjoy,
•Culture defines attitudes, values and goals
•Attitudes refer to the tendency to feel and act in certain ways,
•values are the measure of goodness or desirability.
•Goals refer to the attainment which our values define as worthy.
•Culture model’s personality
•Culture exercises a great influence on the development of personality.
•No child can develop human qualities in the absence of a cultural environment
Culture decides our career
e.g., become a politician, a social worker industrialist, a religious leader and so on is
decided by our culture.

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 Cultural Variation and Change

Cultural variability refers to the diversity of cultures across societies

and places.
Cultural change: culture is always evolving, materially and non-
materially

• When something new opens up new ways of living and when

new ideas first enter a culture

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• Subculture: a smaller cultural group within a larger culture

• Part of the larger culture but also share a specific identity within a
smaller group
• Shared race/ ethnicity and customs

• Example: hipsters- unified by adopting clothes, music, styles, etc.,

before the mainstream (before “it was cool”)
• culture of university students

• Counterculture: type of subculture that rejects the larger culture’s

norms and values
Eg .gay and lesbian movements(female vs female )

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• Culture lag is the time that elapses between the
introduction of a new item of material culture and its
acceptance as part of nonmaterial culture
• The non-material culture changes slowly, this condition is termed
as culture lag.

On the other hand, in some less developed societies, the change of

non-material culture may outpace the material culture. When this
occurs, it is called culture lead.
Due to the effect of globalization and rapid assimilation processes

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Why cultures vary from society to society?

Geographical factors
Racial determination
Demographic factors
Span of interest and
 mere historic chances

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 Attitudes towards Cultural Variation and Change
Ethnocentrism
evaluating and judging another culture based on how it compares
to one’s own cultural norms
Cultural Relativism
• assessing a culture by its own standards rather than viewing it
through the lens of one’s own culture
• Open-mindedness, adaptive
Xenocentrism : opposite of ethnocentrism, belief in superiority of
another culture
Eg .Upon meeting other cultures, we may find we prefer their
lifestyles
Culture Shock
An experience of personal disorientation when confronted with an
unfamiliar way of life

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Thanks!