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Culture and Socialisation Notes

The document defines culture and discusses its key characteristics and aspects. It explores cognitive, normative and material dimensions of culture. It also examines subcultures, ethnocentrism, cosmopolitanism and sources of cultural change.

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10A LAYA PRASANTH
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63 views6 pages

Culture and Socialisation Notes

The document defines culture and discusses its key characteristics and aspects. It explores cognitive, normative and material dimensions of culture. It also examines subcultures, ethnocentrism, cosmopolitanism and sources of cultural change.

Uploaded by

10A LAYA PRASANTH
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CULTURE AND SOCIALISATION

 Definitions
 Culture is, in the words of E.B. Tylor, “that complex whole which
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
 Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge,
experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies,
religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the
universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a
group of people in the course of generations through individual
and group striving.
 Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large
group of people.
 Culture is the sum of total of the learned behavior of a group of
people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that
people and are transmitted from generation to generation.
 Emergence of diverse ways of life or culture because of different
settings.

Characteristics of culture
 It is a way of thinking, feeling, believing
 It is a way of life
 It is transmitting from generation to generation
 It is Learned behaviour
 It is a storehouse of pooled learning
 It is a complex phenomenon
 It found in every society
 It is the collection of ideas, habits, custom etc.
Three Aspects / Dimensions of Culture
 Cognitive
 Normative
 Material

Cognitive Aspect of Culture


 Cognitive means Knowing, perceiving or conceiving an act.
 Cognitive Culture refers to understanding, how we make sense of
all the information coming to us from our environment
 How we learn to process, what we here to see, so as to give it
some meaning.
 Ex: identifying the ring of a cell-phone as ours, recognizing the
cartoon of a politician.
 In literate societies ideas are transcribed in books and documents
and preserved in libraries, institutions or archives.
 But in non-literate societies legend or lore is committed to
memory and transmitted orally.

Normative aspect of Culture


 This refers to rules of conduct
 It consists Folkways, mores, customs, conventions and laws.
 These values guide the social behaviour of the individuals in
different circumstances.

Material aspect of Culture


 It refers to tools, technologies, machines, buildings and modes of
transportation, as well as instruments of production and
communication.

Material and Non-Material Culture


 Material culture includes all physical things that people create and
attach meaning. o Example: - Clothing, food, tools, architecture
etc.
 Non- Material Culture include non-physical things such as rules,
mores beliefs etc.
 For proper functioning of culture, we need a joint functioning of
material and non-material aspects of culture.
 Rapid changes in material and non-material aspects lagging
behind and lead to cultural lag.
 Cultural lag (by William Ogburn) is the gap between material and
non-material culture.

Difference between Law and Norms


 Norms are implicit rules; laws are explicit rules.
 Explicit: - being aware of rules, customs. Regulations within the
culture and learning these consciously.

 Implicit: - Frequently, unrecognized by people but that give


direction of behaviour.
 Law is a formal sanction defined by government as a rule.
 Laws are applicable to the whole society and violation of the law
attracts penalties and punishment.
 Laws are universally accepted while norms are varying according
to status.

Culture and Identity


 Identities are not inherited but fashioned both by the individual
and the group through their relationship with others.
 Every person in modern society plays multiple roles.
 In a culture there can be many subcultures, like that of the elite
and working class youth.
 Sub-cultures are marked by style, taste and association

Subculture
 Subculture is a cultural group within a larger culture, often having
beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture.
 Particular sub-cultures are identifiable by their speech, dress
codes, preference for particular kind of music or the manner in
which they interact with their group members.
 Sub-cultural groups can also function as cohesive units which
imparts an identity to all group members.
 Within such groups there can be leaders and followers but group
members are bound by the purpose of the group and work
together to achieve their objectives.

Ethnocentrism
 It is the process of applying our cultural values to evaluate the
behaviour and beliefs of people from other cultures.
 Evaluation of other culture according to preconceptions
originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture.

Cosmopolitanism
 It is the opposite of Ethnocentrism
 A Cosmopolitan will not evaluate other people and their beliefs on
the basis of his own beliefs.
 He will accommodate other cultural difference as they are.
 He will encourage cultural exchange and enrich his culture with
borrowing from other cultures.
 Example: - Hindi, English Film Music
 A modern society appreciates cultural difference.
 In a global world, communications are reducing distances
between cultures.
 Cosmopolitan outlook allows diverse influence to enrich one’s
own culture

Cultural Change
 Cultural change is the way in which societies change their patterns
of culture.
 Sources of change can be Internal and External.
 Internal Factors: - New methods of farming boosting agricultural
production.
 External Factors: - War, Colonization
 Cultural change can occur through changes in the natural
environment, contact with cultures or process of adaptation.
 Culture is also changes can be initiated through political
intervention, technological innovation or ecological
transformation

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