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SA REVIEWERChapter 3: The Study of Culture

Culture- Latin word culture = care/ cultus =

civilization- Culture consists of material things (e.g. art,

tools, weapons) and non-material aspects(e.g. general beliefs, patterns of behavior)

- Robert Redfield said: Culture is anorganized body of conventionalunderstandings manifest in art andartifacts, which, persisting throughtradition, characterizes a human group.

Types of CultureA) Material culture

- Refers to the concrete and tangiblethings that man creates and uses.

B) Non-material culture- Consists of words people use, the

habits they follow, the ideas, customs,behavior, of any society profess towhich they strive to conform.

Components of Culture1. Norms

= social norms= guides or models of behavior whichtell us what is proper and which areappropriate or inappropriate, right orwrong.= usually in the form of rules,standards, or prescriptions

a. Folkways customary/repetitivepatterns/habits of everyday lifethat specify what is sociallycorrect and proper in everydaylife.

b. Mores extremely importantand are considered vital for thegroups welfare and survival. Itdefines what is morally right and

morally wrong.c. Laws enforced formally by aspecial political organization.Regulates and controls peoplesbehavior and conduct.

2. Values= represent the standards we use toevaluate the desirability of things= defines what is right, good andmoral= Robin Williams identified the majorvalue orientations of many societies:

a. Achievement and Successb. Activity and workc. Moral Orientationd. Humanitarianisme. Efficiency and practically

= Jaime Bulatao, SJ, discovered the ff.values held highly by the Filipinos:

a. Emotional closeness andsecurity in the family.

b. The authority value.c. Economic and social

betterment.d. Patience, suffering, endurance.

3. Language= refers to a system of symbols thathave specific and arbitrary meaning ina given society.= it enables us to talk and think aboutthe past and the future

4. Fashions, fads, crazes= they are more short-lived socialnorms with which people are expectedto comply with

Characteristics of Culture1. Culture is learned and acquired.2. Culture is shared and transmitted.3. Culture is social.4. Culture is ideational.5. Culture gratifies human needs.6. Culture is adaptive.7. Culture tends toward integration.8. Culture is cumulative.

Adaptations of Culture= According to Joseph Fichter, here are fourprincipal ways in which process of cultureadaptation occurs.

A) Parallelism-Refers to the independent

development of a culturecharacteristic in two widely separatedcultures.

B) Diffusion- Common process of patterns coming

back and forth from one culture toanother.

C) Fission- A process that can be traced

historically when a long establishedsociety breaks up into two or moreindependent units.

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Functions of Culture= Culture has two major uses: (1) as acategory and (2) as a tool in prediction.= other functions:

1. Culture serves as trademark or specialfeature that distinguishes one societyfrom another.

2. Culture brings together, contains, andinterprets the values of society in amore or less systematic manner.

3. Culture provides one of the mostimportant bases for social solidarity.

4. Culture provides a blueprint of, as wellas the materials for social structure.

5. The culture of any society is thedominant factor in establishing andmolding the social personality.

6. The culture of a society providesbehavioral patterns.

= Culture provides individuals with themeaning and direction of his existence.

Modes of Acquiring Culture1. Imitation2. Indoctrination

= formal teaching or training3. Conditioning

= reward and punishments found inthe cultural system

Cultural variabilityA) Ethnocentrism

= a universal phenomenon= Dorothy Lee pointed out thatethnocentrism is a 2-way stress.

B) Cultural relativity= also known as cultural relativism= this theory was formulated byWilliam Graham Sumner in his bookFolkways= the attempt to judge behavioraccording to its cultural context

Other Concepts of Cultural SignificanceA) SubculturesB) Culture shockC) Cultural lag

= expounded by William Ogburn= inability of a given society to adopta culture immediately as a result ofthe disparity in the rate of changebetween the material and non-material elements of the culture.

D) Culture dualism

= According to Onofre D. Corpuz, onething that characterizes Filipinoculture is cultural dualism.