CHAPTER 3:CULTURE

CULTURE

This is the popular view of culture, which refers to a state of refinement, of being well-versed in the arts, philosophy, and languages. To social scientists, this is a limited view of culture. To them every member of a society is cultured.

Sociologists define culture in a broader context.

The most quoted definition is that of an English anthropologist, Edward Tylor (1871:1), who defined culture as a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by people as members of society.

Culture is a person’s social heritage or the customary ways in which groups organize their ways of behaving, thinking and feeling. It is transmitted from one generation to another through language. It presents people with ways of relating to others to their surroundings. Culture represents the designs or recipes for living, the interrelated network of norms and roles.

It encompasses modes of thinking, acting and feeling found in a society and includes everything an individual has acquired as a member of a society. It tells one what to do, what not to do and how to do things. From our culture, we learn to determine what behavior is appropriate and what is in appropriate, what is good and what is wrong behavior, what are allowed and what are prohibited, and even which smells are pleasant and which are not.

Unlike the lower animals which act mostly on instinct, humans have to develop and learn their own ways of coping with their environment and with their fellow human beings. These ways of adjusting to the environment interacting with others are shared with others. Culture is unique with humans, but culture varies from society to society. Culture comprises all the objects, ideas, beliefs, norms of a group of people, and the meaning that the group applies to each cultural element (Clark and Robley 1988:33).

A stone tool, a school house, a car, a ball pen, a computer, and a spy satellite are all real things and are part of culture. Specific human activities like planting rice, fishing, weaving cloth, attending a meeting, playing a sonata, or playing a project are also part of culture. These things are readily visible and are as real as any of the other phenomena in nature. Likewise, culture is an abstract form of behavior and may be observed in the activities of people, in what people do and say, what they avoid doing, and how they make artifacts. Implied in hearing mass on Sundays is love for God, and implied in sharing of goods or cash with Mt. Pinatubo victims is love for others.

Language and Culture Language is an integral part of culture and human

culture cannot exist without it. All human societies have languages. In some simple societies where people cannot read or write, they have a spoken language. Through the use of language, wide vistas of reality have been opened. What we have observed and experienced, as well as our norms, values, and ideas exist because we have learned to identify or experience these things through language. These things are shared and transmitted from one generation to another through the process of socialization.

Language enables people to transcend time and space. Through the use of language, we can talk about what happened in the past and what are possibly forthcoming. Language enables us to communicate with others, design complex plans and projects, and develop abstract ideas (Lindesmith and Strauss 1968:27-29).

As Emy Pascasio (1981:80) says, Language is an excellent medium in which to

study the value system of any people because it reveals choices, directions of interest, and differences among age, sex, and occupational groups. Language acts as a cultural marker, a gauge of social role, indicating at the same time the dominant social institutions involved in the situation.

Culture as a Mode of Adaption• Culture enables people to adjust to their physical as

well as social environment. Culture enables the members of society to develop ways of coping with the exigencies of nature as well as ways of harnessing their environment. People also have to learn to relate themselves with others in order to survive. As Schwartz (1968:48) pointed out, the culture of any society represents an adaption or adjustment to the various conditions of life, including their physical, social and supernatural environment.

No culture is completely static. Every culture

is in constant flux, and the changes represent adjustments to the environment. Culture changes at different rates. The change may occur as a result of discoveries, inventions, and cultural borrowing. In some areas, control of the natural environment has been pursued to a point that the society has become endangered.

Behavior as Biologically Based

Sociobiologists are biologists by training, and the idea or view that behavior is biologically based has been borrowed by them. A proponent of this view is Edward Wilson. He formulated a new theory of behavior in his book, Sociology: The New Synthesis (1975). He held that social behavior is determined by inborn genetic traits on lower animals.

Wilson’s theory is based on Charles Darwin’s principle of natural selection. Wilson held that genetic traits are transmitted from generation to generation through heredity. Biological variations take place through mutation or change in genetic composition. The process of natural selection acts on this mutation and becomes the principal factor in the origin of the species, as well as of new patterns of behavior.

Wilson observed certain social traits found in all cultures which, upon close examination, are as diagnostic of humankind as are the distinguishing marks of other animal species. These behavior patterns are culture universals which indicate that much of culture is biologically inherited rather than learned.

Elements of Culture Culture is made up of many elements which

are interrelated with each other and unified into a whole in order for all its aspects to function effectively. Within the culture are various in shared expectations of how the members should behave. The major elements of culture are knowledge, social norms, beliefs, values, and material thing

KnowledgeCulture includes natural, supernatural, technical and

magical knowledge (Richter 1987:149-50). • Natural knowledge refers to the accumulated facts

about the natural world, including both the biological and physical aspects.

• Technological knowledge pertains to knowledge of nature which is useful in dealing with practical problems, like knowledge of the methods of acquiring food, dealing with diseases, means of transportation, tools and implements and weapons of war.

• Supernatural knowledge refers to perceptions about the action of gods, goddesses, demons, angels or spirits, and natural beings like shamans, witches, or prophets who are held to possess supernatural powers.

• Magical knowledge refers to perceptions about methods of influencing supernatural events by manipulating certain laws of nature.

Social Norms In our ordinary everyday activities, like eating,

talking and greeting, dressing, sleeping, cooking, courtship, rearing of children, studying, working, spending one’s leisure time, and in some specials occasions like weddings, burials, Christmas or Lenten season, there are prescriptions or standards of behavior expected to be followed. These are called norms.

A norm is an idea in the minds of the members of a group put into a statement specifying what members of the group should do, ought to do or are expected to do under certain circumstances (Homans 1950:123). What is important in a norm is that any departure from it is followed by some punishment or sanction. Norms are usually in the form of rules, standards, or prescriptions and socially shared expectations. Some norms apply to everyone, like those revolving around honesty, truthfulness, or loyalty to country. Other norms apply to particular categories of people who assume certain roles. There are norms for lawmakers, doctors, teachers, law enforcers, barangay chairman, father and son.

Norms define the proper ways of behaving for a number of situations. In some situations, it is unimportant whether norms are followed or not, such as folkways. In other situations, it is important that they are followed, such as the mores. Norms pertain to society’s standards of propriety, morality, ethics, and legality. In social interaction, each member has expectations about the responses of others. The norms define tasks and expectations to make group activity and cooperation possible.

Like any aspect of the culture, norms vary from society or from group to group within a society. Norms differ according to the age, sex, religion, occupation, or ethnic group. Among social norms are folkways, mores and laws.

Folkways are commonly known as the customs, traditions, and conventions of a society. They are the general rules, customary and habitual ways and patterns of expected behavior within the society where it is followed, without much thought given to the matter.

Folkways

Summer (1906: IV) says: Folkways are the habits of the individual and

customs of the society which arise from efforts to satisfy needs; they are intertwined with goblinism and demonism and primitive notions of luck, and so they win traditional authority.

Folkways include innumerable group expectations like rules of eating, drinking, smoking, sleeping, dancing, and working, forms of greetings and farewell, ceremonies and rituals, polite behavior and conduct in institutional settings.

Mores• Mores are special folkways which are important to

the welfare of the people and their cherished values. They are based on ethical and moral values which are strongly held and emphasized. They are social norms associated with strong feelings about what is right and what is true. Having strong moral sanctions, they are the “must” and “should” of a society. They are the expected behavior current in a society which individuals follow as they satisfy their needs and desires.

Mores are coercive in nature as they are considered important to societal welfare. Observance of mores is compulsive. They embody the codes of ethics and standards of morality in a society. Most of the mores have been formulated into laws. Mores consist in large part of taboos. The mores apply not only to sex behavior but also to marriage and family relations, physical and moral aggression against members of the in-group, betrayal of a group, attitude towards authority, religion and the unfortunates in society, dealings in business and the varied professions, and other vital matters which involve group welfare.

Law Laws are formalized norms, enacted by people

who are vested with governmental power and enforced by political and legal authorities designated by the government. Some of the laws grew out of the folkways and mores. They have the strong support of public opinion and tend to reinforce folkways and mores. Enforcement is hard when the laws do not reflect folkways and mores.

Collective Form of Behavior Fashions, fads, crazes, and other passing fancies

operate primarily as forces of social change, yet they may be considered short-lived social norms. They demand compliance at the time they operate. Styles of dresses, shoes, bags, decorative items for dresses were fashionable years back appear funny or ridiculous today. The same is true of styles of houses, furniture, cars, and gadgets. Fashions or vogues are powerful regulators of behavior in urban areas and industrialized societies. The prestige and status of a person depend on his or her use of these new styles.

Sanctions Sanctions are a system of reward and

punishment. Rewards are positive sanctions for those who behave properly and punishments are negative sanctions for those who behave improperly (Popenoe 1977:87). Positive sanctions may be in the form of promotions or salary increases, merit award, citations or medals of honor.

Sanctions may also be formal or informal. Informal sanctions are gossip, unfavorable and favorable public opinion, giving or withdrawing affective love or friendship. Lavishing a child with love by kissing, coddling, or verbal admiration may be enough to keep the child to follow what the mother would like him or her to do. Formal sanctions are used for violations of norms in organizations or associations.

Values While norms are standards, patterns, rule and guidance of

expected behavior, values are abstract concept of what is important and worthwhile. These values are the basic of our judgment, of what we consider good, undesirable, ugly and wrong. Frequently, we hear people regard other who have done wrong as having “no sense of values” or lament the erosion of values. Values are linked with actual events and are often emotionally charged. They are the standards by which persons, individually or in a groups, define their goals, select alternatives and judge other good or bad.

Values indicate the social conscience internalize and integrated by the individual member of society and the dominant values which give culture its unity, from, and identity at a specific time. values depict how society change and how they change has society change.

Beliefs When one hears the word beliefs, what comes to mind

superstitious beliefs. Superstitions are just one form of beliefs. Beliefs embody people’s perception of reality and include the primitive ideas of the universe as well as the society’s empirical view of the world. The result from one’s experiences about the physical ,biological and social word in which the individual lives. Belief’s such as superstitions, and those that relate to philosophy, theology, technology, art, and science, are usually incorporated into the whole vast body of knowledge which has been accumulated through time.

Technology and Material Culture

• Technology refers to techniques and know-how in utilizing raw material’s to produce food, tools, shelter, clothing, means of transportation, and weapon’s. the material object that are the product’s of technology are called artifacts.

The Organization of Culture• The elements of culture are not simply accumulated

in isolation from one another. Rather, the various elements in culture—symbols, knowledge, norms, values and beliefs—are organized and patterned so that the various elements tend to fit each other and integrate to compose a unifying theme for social behavior. One interested in the study and analysis of a given culture can look at its content and the way the parts are related.

Culture traits do not operate singly but are related to other traits in some kind of meaningful relationship. They are generally clustered and each trait in the cluster derives meaning only on term of its dynamic relationship with other traits. This cluster or combination of traits from culture complex. The traits are functionally related to each other and revolve around certain themes.

An analysis of the place of culture in the life of its members will reveal that they do not participate in all the contents in the culture. The levels of participation in all the content in the culture vary, depending on age, sex, occupation, or the demands of the culture. The levels of cultural participation are classified by Linton (1936:272-273) into three, namely:

Culture universals Which are the culture traits, complexes and patterns shared among all member of a given population. They are the norms, values, beliefs, and conditioned emotion responses common to members of the society.

Specialties, The behavior expectations confined to certain subgroups which often require unusual skill or training and reflect the division of labor and hierarchy of statuses in a culture. These are not shared by the total population. For example, occupational and work groups impose requirements of certain skills and attitudes for their particular traits.

Alternatives, The behavior expectations which permit a certain range of choice in human behavior and specify they tolerable variations in behavior. These are shared by some individuals but are not common to all the members of the society or even to all members of any one group.

Subculture As the society becomes more complex and industrialized,

there arise inevitably smaller groups which develop norms, values, beliefs, and special languages which make them distinct from the broader society. These subgroups may be based on age; social class; occupational, political, educational, or religious, interest or inclinations; regions; nationality; or ethnicity. In the Philippines, there are subgroups which reflect regional or ethnic differences, such , the Negritos, the Cordillera group, the Muslim, Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Visayans, Pampangos, Pangasinan, and others. Even among the Tagalogs, there are some difference between the Batangas, Lagunas, and Queson Tagalogs and those coming from Rizal and Bulacan.

EthnocentrismThere is a tendency for people who belong to the

same culture group to define reality from their own point of view. One considers his or her ways as right and normal, and the other people’s ways, if they differ somehow, as wrong, strange, or queer. The view to regard one’s culture as the best and better than those of others is called ethnocentrism. Culture traits and patterns are evaluated on the basis of what is familiar. Considering their group as superior, the members sometimes look with contempt on outsider.

The feeling of ethnocentrism is a matter of training and socialization. In imbuing the individual with the ideal of loyalty of one’s country, the ideas of national commitment and in one’s group are enhance. The feeling of ethnocentrism is specially strong among people who have spent their entire lives in their own society and have little contact with other culture.

The function of ethnocentrism is to increase one’s appreciation commitment to one’s cultural group (Gordon 1978:27). This view strengthens group morale, enhance group solidarity, and individual pride and esteem of one’s group. On the other hand, extreme ethnocentrism block’s one’s understanding of other cultures and lead’s to intolerance and prejudice.

XenocentrismWhen some reject their group or some part of it’s

culture, we call this case reverse ethnocentrism or xenocentrism. This is the idea that what is foreign is best and that one’s lifestyle, products or ideas are inferior to that of others (Eshleman and cashion 1983:95). Those coming from foreign land’s and the exotic are particularly favored. Xenoncentrism is centered on a product, an idea, or a lifestyle.

Cultural Shock The cultural values and norms of behavior are internalized

by an individual in the socialization process; consequently, one behaves in accordance with the expectation of his or her culture. Now, what happen to this individual her she goes to different society? He or she losses the familiar signs and symbols of socials intercourse and may experience some unpleasant sensation or frustrations. It may be a reaction to unpalatable food which one may consider obnoxious, the inability to perform natural function like sleeping or moving one’s bowels, a repulsion to a norms and values of the group, or a lack of communication with the new society.

Culture shocks may be experienced by migrants to other lands, students who study in other countries, nuns, priests or person given foreign assignments. Even for social scientists, some effort is required for understanding another culture.

Cultural RelativismWhen people come in contact with another culture, they

observe that it’s patterns are different from their own. Their tendency is judges to new ways strange, exotic, weird or immoral. They tend to laugh or scoff at the cultural norms of the other culture, and values. So we hear people ask: why do Aetas refuse to eat canned food? Why do mangyans workship a hierarchy of spirits? Why do muslim refuse to eat pork? Why do muslim pray facing the east? Why do Chinese abortion? Why do European males kiss in greeting? Why do Americans leave their aged parents in olds people home’s and so on. These questions bring out the fact of cultural diversity. The cultural practices and values of other people which we consider queer, funny, or immoral may be consider right appropriate, and moral in other cultures.

Culture is a relative and cultural practice is good or bad in itself. It is good if is integrates smoothly with the rest of the culture. This is the concept of cultural relativism which is an alternative perspective to ethnocentrism. The concept of relativism states that culture differ, so that a cultural traits, act, or idea has no meaning or function by itself but has meaning only within its cultural setting.

Thank you!