Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Meaning of Culture
Components of Culture
Characteristics of Culture
Elements of Culture
Ways of Transmitting Culture
What is culture?
Comes from the Greek word cultura meaning
cultivation.
Culture is that complex whole which includes
knowledge, beliefs, art, law, custom, and any
other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of the society. Edward Tylor.
Set of patterns of human activity within a society
or a social group and the symbolic structures that
give such activity significance.
The arts, customs, and habits that characterize a
particular society or nation.
The beliefs, values, behaviour and material
objects that constitute a peoples way of life.
Components of Culture
Communication Component
I. Language
- a major symbolic system in use in all
human societies. It is thru language that we
are able to create, share, preserved, and
transmit cultural meaning such as complex
patterns of emotions, thought, knowledge
and beliefs.
II. Symbols
- anything that represent something else
Cognitive Component
Ideas/Knowledge/Beliefs
1. Ideas- mental representations use to organize
stimulus. They are the basic unit out of which knowledge is
constructed and a world emerges.
2. Knowledge- storehouse where we accumulated,
representations, information, facts, assumptions, and etc.
II. Values
- are defined as culturally defined standards or
desirability, goodness, and beauty which serve as broad
guidelines for social living.
III. Accounts
- refers to the stories, may it be written or orally passed
from one generation to another.
I.
Behavioral Component
I.
Norms
- rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of
its members.
- varying terms of the degree of importance.
- standards that define the obligation and expected behaviors of
people in various situations.
Types of Norms
1. Folkways- behavior patterns of society which are organized and
repetitive.
2. Mores- customary behavior patterns of folkways which have taken
on moralistic value.
3. Laws- the most important norm. This are the mores deemed so vital
to dominant interest that they become translated into legal
formalization that even non-members of society are required to
obey.
4. Rituals- highly scripted ceremonies of strips of interaction that
follow a specific sequence of action.
Material Component
Characteristics of Culture
Elements of Culture
Social Organization
Religion
Helps people answer the basic
questions about the meaning of life;
supports the values of culture; can
shape morals and ethics of a group of
people.
Forms of Government
Designed to provide peoples
common needs.
Designed in keeping order in
society.
Designed in protecting it from
outside threats.
Economic Systems
Helps how people use limited
resources to satisfy their wants
and needs.
1.Social Interaction
2.Language
3.Beliefs
4.Religion
5.Politics
6.Entertainment
7.Business