Culture

A way to organize people with

shared values
What is culture?
✓ 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 communication, communication is culture.

✓ Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned, accumulated
experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning.

✓ In short, A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they
accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation
from one generation to the next.
Features of culture
➢ Culture is learnt

➢ It is social

➢ Culture is shared

➢ Transmissive

➢ Continuous and cumulative

➢ Dynamic and adapted

➢ Cultures vary from society to society

Types of culture
Layers of culture

People even within the same culture carry several layers of mental
programming within themselves. Different layers of culture exist at the
following levels:
• The national level: Associated with the nation as a whole.
• The regional level: Associated with ethnic, linguistic, or religious differences that exist within a
nation.
• The gender level: Associated with gender differences (female vs. male)
• The generation level: Associated with the differences between grandparents and parents,
parents and children.
• Family Level, Personal Level
• The social class level: Associated with educational opportunities and differences in occupation.
• The corporate level: Associated with the particular culture of an organization. Applicable to
those who are employed.
Elements of culture
Cultural lag & Cultural Conflict:
• “Cultural lag" refers to the phenomenon where a society's non-
material culture (values, beliefs, norms) struggles to keep pace with
changes in its material culture (technology, tools), leading to a
disconnect and potential social conflict. Example: the early days of
automobiles when roads and traffic laws were not yet adjusted to
accommodate cars, leading to confusion and accidents,
• “Cultural conflict" describes the clashes that arise when different
cultural groups within a society have conflicting values, practices, or
interests, often due to power imbalances or competing
norms. Example: In a diverse culture, clashes between different
religious groups regarding practices like food restrictions, clothing
choices, or holiday celebrations can lead to cultural conflict.
 Social Processes
• Social processes are how individuals and groups interact, adjust,
readjust, and establish relationships and patterns of behavior which are
again modified through social interactions.

• Social processes are the patterned interactions and behaviors that

shape the structure of society. They refer to how individuals and
groups influence each other and the social norms, institutions, and
systems that evolve from these interactions.
• Examples: Changes in societal institutions, how movements (like civil
rights) evolve, or how social networks influence behavior.
Social Interaction
• Man is a social animal. It is difficult for him to live in isolation.
They always live in groups. As members of these groups, they
act in a certain manner. Their behavior is mutually affected.
This interaction or mutual activity is the essence of social life.
Social life is not possible without interactions.
• Social interactions are reciprocal relationships that influence
the interacting individuals and the quality of relationships.
• Eldredge and Merrill say, “Social interaction is thus the general
process whereby two or more persons are in meaningful
contact-as a result of which their behavior is modified, however,
slightly”.
Social Interaction
• When the interacting individuals or groups influence the behavior of
each other it is called social interaction. People in action with one
another means interaction of some kind. But not every kind of action
is social.
• When people and their attitudes are involved, the process becomes
social. Social interaction may then be defined as that dynamic
interplay of forces in which contact between persons and groups
results in a modification of the attitudes and behavior of the
participants.
The two basic conditions of social interaction are
(i) social contact and
(ii) communication.

The means of communication are essential adjuncts of social contact.

Communication may be the form of direct person to person or it may
take place through some medium of long-range contact such as the
telephone, telegraph, television, etc.

Social interaction usually takes place in the forms of cooperation,

competition, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation. These forms of
social interaction are called “social processes”.
Classification of social process
 1. Co-operation
Associative 2. Accommodation
Process 3. Assimilation
4. Acculturation

1.Conflict
Dissociative 2.Competition
Process 3.Isolation
4.Differentiation
Cooperation
• The term ‘cooperation’ has been derived from two Latin words – ‘Co’
meaning ‘together and Operary meaning ‘to work’. Hence,
cooperation means working together for the achievement of a common
goal or goals. When two or more persons work together to gain a
common goal, it is called cooperation. Boys cooperate in games, men
in business, workers in production, public officials in community
controls, and so on, in an endless variety of beneficial activities that
make possible an integrated social life.
• It is defined by Green as “the continuous and common Endeavour of
two or more persons to perform a task or to reach a goal that is
commonly cherished.
Characteristics of cooperation:
Classification of Cooperation
• Maclver and Page have divided cooperation into two main types
namely,
(i) Direct Cooperation (ii) Indirect Cooperation
• A.W. Green has classified cooperation into three main
categories such as
(i) Primary cooperation (ii) Secondary cooperation (iii) Tertiary
cooperation.
• Ogburn and Nimikoff divided cooperation into three main types
such as
i) General Cooperation (ii) Friendly Cooperation and (iii) Helping
Cooperation
Accommodation:

• Adjustment is the way of life. It can take place in two ways such as
adaptation and accommodation. Adaptation refers to the process of
biological adjustment. Accommodation, on the other hand, implies the
process of social adjustment.
• “Accommodation is the achievement of adjustment between people
that permits harmonious acting together in social situations. It is
achieved by an individual through the acquisition of behavior patterns,
habits, and attitudes which are transmitted to him socially.
• Accommodation means adjusting oneself to the new
environment.
Importance of Accommodation
Forms of Accommodation
Methods of Accommodation
1. Admission of one’s Defeat:
This method of accommodation is applicable between the conflicting
parties of unequal strength. The stronger group can pressurize the
weaker group by its strength. The weaker party submits to the stronger
one out of fear or because of fear of being overpowered.

2. Compromise:
This method is applicable when the combatants are of equal strength.
Both the combatants should make some concessions or sacrifices
voluntarily for each other because they know that conflict would cause
the sheer waste of their energy and resources.
3. Arbitration and Conciliation:
▪ Involves attempts of the third party to resolve the conflict between the contending
parties.
▪ For example, the conflict between the employer and the employee, husband and
wife, two friends, labor and management are resolved through- the intervention
of an arbitrator or a conciliator or a mediator.
▪ Differences should, however, be noted between conciliation and arbitration.
▪ The conciliator offers only suggestions to terminate a conflict. The acceptance of
these suggestions is up to the discretion of the contending parties.
▪ It has no binding force upon them. Arbitration differs from conciliation in that
the decision of the arbitrator is binding on the parties concerned.
4. Toleration:
Toleration is the method of accommodation in which there is no
settlement of dispute but there is only the avoidance of overt conflict or
open conflict. Toleration is found in the field of religion where different
religious groups exist side by side, having different policies and
ideologies.
5. Conversion
one of the contending parties tries to convent his opponents to his view
of point by proving that he is right and they are wrong. As a result, the
party which has been convinced is likely to accept the view point of
other party.
6. Rationalization:
It is a method that involves the withdrawal of a contending party from the
conflict based on some imaginary explanations to justify his action. In other
words, it means an individual or a group rationalizes his behavior by plausible
exercises and explanations.
7. Superordination and Subordination:
The most common method of accommodation which is found in each and
every society is superordination and subordination. In the family, the
relationships among parents and children are based on this method. In larger
groupings whether social or economic the relationships are fixed on the same
basis. Even under a democratic order, there are leaders who give orders and
followers who obey orders.
Assimilation:
Characteristics of Assimilation
Influencing Factors of Assimilation

Factors favoring assimilation Factors Hindering Assimilation

1. Toleration • Physical Differences
2. Close Social Contact • Cultural Differences
3. Amalgamation or • Prejudice
intermarriage • Sense of superiority and
4. Equal Economic inferiority
Opportunity • Domination and
5. Common Physical Traits subordination
6. Cultural similarity • Isolation
 Competition
• Competition is one of the dissociative from of social processes.
• It is the most fundamental form of social struggle. It occurs
whenever there is an insufficient supply of anything that human
beings desire, insufficient in the sense that all cannot have as
much of it as they wish.
• Ogburn and Nimkoff say that competition occurs when demand
outturns supply.
• As E.S. Bogardus says. “Competition is a contest to obtain
something which does not exist in quantity sufficient to meet
the demand.”
Forms of Competition
• Competition can be divided into many categories or forms. It
exists everywhere but appears in many forms. They are:

❑ economic competition,
❑ cultural competition,
❑ social competition,
❑racial competition,
❑political competition, etc.
Role of competition
Competition is considered to be a very healthy and necessary social process.
It is indispensable in social life. it performs both positive and negative
functions.
Positive functions
(i) Assignment of the right individual to the proper place
(ii) Source of motivation
(iii) Conducive to progress
Negative functions
(i) Competition may lead to frustration
(ii) Competition may lead to monopoly
(iii) Competition may lead to conflict
Conflict
Definition
• According to J.H. Fitcher, “Conflict is the social process in which
individual or groups seek their ends by directly challenging the
antagonist by violence or threat of violence”.
• As K. Davis defines, “Conflict is u codified form of struggle”.
• According to A.W. Green, “Conflict is the deliberate attempt to
oppose, resist or coerce the will of another or others”.
• Gillin and Gillin say, “Conflict is the social process in which
individuals or groups seek their ends by directly challenging the
antagonist by violence or threat of violence”.
How does conflict contribute to social change?
• Highlighting Inequities and Injustices
• Challenging Existing Norms and Institutions
• Creating Awareness and Mobilizing Groups
• Promoting New Ideologies
• Accelerating Technological and Social Innovation
• Creating New Power Dynamics
• Promoting Legal and Political Reforms
Role of Conflict
Can you think of a historical event where
conflict led to positive social change?

How?
Link of study materials
• https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/sociology/social-processes-the-
meaning-types-characteristics-of-social-processes/8545
• https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/17115/1/Unit-3.pdf