Understanding Society and Culture

Understanding Society
and Culture
•Expected Learning Outcomes
– Evaluating typical definitions of society and culture
– Analysing the relationship and overlaps between
society and culture
– Appreciate the roles of the individual in the
development of society and culture
– Discuss the Various Caribbean portrayals of Society
and Culture
 Key terms
•Society
•Culture
•Social Institution
•Norms
•Values
•Status
•Role
The Social
•The totality of explanations describing how
people interact and makes meanings of their
experiences include

– The variety of explanations people have for the same thing

– The tendency to prefer order and precision and to feel safer

when definitions are used.

Understanding the social allows us to grasp the fact that the

there is no one meaning for the concepts of society and
culture.
 Concepts of ‘Society’
and ‘Culture’
•Concepts of society and culture have often been
cast as definitions with a precise meanings,
which is for the most part false

– Society: a collection of people living in the same area over

time
– Culture: the ways of life of a people

These definitions only become acceptable when one

understands that they are not comprehensive because
the leave out much of what they attempt to describe.
Society
Each society has a social structure - that is a network of
interrelationships among individuals and groups.
Sociologists study these various relationships in order to
determine their effects on the overall function of the
society.

1. social behavior
2. social institutions
3. cultural influences
4. social change
 SOCIETY AND CULTURE –
WHERE DO THEY OVERLAP?
•We know society to have structure. The largest units or groups
within society were called social institutions.

• Yet these were intangibles: ideas, beliefs, and values. From

these, tangible organizations were created. So, too, we should
be aware that the material products of a society are derived
from the dominant underlying values and beliefs of that society.

•Thus, the overlap between the two terms occurs at the level of
the importance of values. A society and its culture are rooted in
the same values.
 VALUES
Our values represent ‘how strongly we feel about certain
qualities and how we rank the importance of these qualities’.

• In most societies, values are cultural values, meaning that

they are collectively held by people in that society.
• For instance, there are dominant ideas in a society about
what should count as physical beauty.
• The members of that society come to value these
attributes, that is, they rank them highly (and,
consequently devalue others).
How do values originate?
They spring from the common experiences shared
by a group. Caribbean people share a common
history and geography and these factors are
undoubtedly important in fostering some of the
values that have come to shape society and
culture in the Caribbean.
Our norms (socially acceptable behaviour/rules
for living) are shaped by our values
The roles of the individual in the
development of society and culture

 Society and culture can be understood best by studying

the behaviours of people in those groups. Underlying
those behaviours may be a set of intangibles - ideas,
beliefs, or values.

 We will focus on how invisible qualities such as

values can give rise to equally invisible norms
which in turn are realized through the
behaviours of people in groups
Characteristic Caribbean
Behaviours
• making fun of others,
• camaraderie,
• celebrations,
• insularity,
• religion,
• preference for white, western culture,
• kinship bonds/family ties
• informality
Social Behaviour
•In most societies the standards of behaviour are
passed on from one generation to the next.
Sociologists and psychologists observe how
people adjust their behaviour to conform to these
standards (a process called socialization).

•Sociologists also study social roles (the function

or expected behavior of an individual within a
group) and status (a person's importance or
rank).
 Norms, Values and
Behaviours
Norms spring from the values that are cherished
in society and culture.
Values represent a ranking of certain qualities
which we feel strongly about.
For Example, if society regards highly the use of
internationally accepted English as spoken
language, then it will devalue other forms of
language.
 Norms, Values and
Behaviours
•The norm which will then arise in that society, with regard
to language, will be the expectation that persons will prefer
internationally accepted English.

•To support this expectation, rewards and punishments

(sanctions) are deemed necessary. Rewards will include
acceptance, praise, and possibly paths to advancement.

•Persons who habitually use dialects or patois will then find

themselves disadvantaged, excluded, and open to criticism
and ridicule. Punishments are, therefore, associated
with actions which go against norms.
 Norms, Values and
Behaviours
Many of us choose behaviours from a range of options that
conform to what society or our social groups will allow us
to do. While conforming behaviours help to maintain order
and cohesion in society and helps to avoid sanctions, they
also sometimes help to perpetuate undesirable or
inequitable practices.
 How Do People Learn
Values?
•Socialization is the process through which we learn the
values, norms and behaviours that are acceptable in our
society and culture.
•We learn‟ through various means – sometimes things are
caught‟, sometimes taught – formally, informally, by
imitation, or reflection. Socialization begins in the home,
where through primary socialization we learn language,
relationships and concepts, and about ourselves in relation
to others.

•When we begin schooling, secondary socialization starts

and goes on all our lives. We are being socialized every day.
Status and Roles
•All members of society occupy a number of social positions known
as statuses. In society an individual may have several statuses -
occupational, family, gender.

•Statuses are culturally defined despite the fact that they may be
based on biological factors such as sex.

•Each status in society is accompanied by a number of norms that

defines how an individual occupying a particular status is expected
to act.

•This group of norms is known as role. Social roles regulate and

organize behavior. In particular they provide means for
accomplishing certain tasks.
Latent and Manifest Acts
According to the sociologist there is a
myriad of possible effects to each action in
the society and culture
1. Latent functions refer to the
unintended, hidden or unexpected
consequences of an act.
2. Manifest functions, on the other hand,
refer to the anticipated, open or stated
goals of an act.
Social Institutions
Social Institutions are organized relationships among
people which tend to perform specific actions within the
society.

• business organizations
• churches, government
• security forces
• Hospitals
• family schools.
•Each institution, has a direct effect on the society in
which it exists.
Culture
• The term culture has been defined in
many ways whether broadly or
narrowly.
• It can be thought of in the realm of
activities such as Music, Art or
Literature, in the sense of a cultured
person has a knack for the fine arts.
• Or in a broad sense culture inclusive
of all areas of life and therefore every
human society has a culture.
Culture
1. Culture includes a society's arts, beliefs, customs,
institutions, inventions, language, technology,
norms and values. Culture produces similar
behavior and thought among most people in a
particular society.

2. Culture in the eyes of a sociologist can be defined

as “the accumulated store of symbols, ideas, and
material products associated with a social system,
whether it be an entire society or a family”.
(Johnson, 1995, p.68).
 Characteristics of
Culture
There are several important characteristics of
culture. The main ones are:

1. a culture satisfies human needs in a

particular way
2. a culture is acquired through learning
3. a culture is based on the use of symbols
4. a culture consists of individual traits and
groups of traits called patterns
Characteristics
1) Meeting Human Need
• All cultures serve to meet basic needs shared by human
beings. For example, every culture has methods of
obtaining food and shelter.
• Every culture also has family relationships, economic
and governmental systems, religious practices and
forms of artistic expression.
• Each culture shapes the way its members satisfy human
needs. Human beings have to eat but their culture
teaches them what, when and how to eat for example
many British people eat smoked fish for breakfast but
many Americans prefer cold cereals.
Characteristics
•2) Acquired through learning
•Culture is acquired through
learning not through biological
inheritance i.e. no person is born
with a culture. Children take on
the culture in which they are
raised through enculturation.

•Children learn much of their

culture through imitation and
experience.
Characteristics
1. They also acquire culture
through observation, paying
attention to what goes on around
them and seeing examples of
what their society considers right
and wrong.
2. Children may also absorb certain
aspects of culture unconsciously.
3. For example, Arabic people tend
to stand closer together when
speaking to one another than
most Europeans do. No one
instructs them to do so, but they
learn the behaviour as part of
their culture.
Characteristics
Individual members of a particular culture also share many
beliefs, values, expectations and ways of thinking. In fact,
most cultural learning results from verbal communication.
Culture is passed from generation to generation chiefly
through language.
 Characteristics
•3) Based on the use of
symbols
• Cultural learning is based
on the ability to use
symbols. A symbol is
something that stands for
something else.
• The most important types
of symbols are the words of
a language. There is no
obvious or necessary
connection between a
symbol and what it stands
for.
Characteristics
The English word “dog” is a symbol for a specific animal
that barks. But other cultures have a different word that
stands for the same animal, “mbwa” (Swahili), “perro”
(Spanish) “dawg” (Jamaican).

In the south of France it

means "worthless" or
"zero." Same thing goes
for China and Germany

Japan, it means
"money"--because the
circle formed by your
thumb and index finger
resembles a coin.
Characteristics
3) Consists of individual traits and groups of traits called
patterns.
Cultures are made up of individual elements
called cultural traits. A group of related traits or
elements is a cultural pattern.

Cultural traits may be divided into material

culture or nonmaterial culture.
 Material and Non-
Material Culture
•Material culture consists of all the tangible things that are
made by the members of a society. It includes such objects
as (architectural styles) buildings, jewelry, machines,
cuisine, forms of technology, economic organization,
paintings and artistic creations.
 Material and Non-
Material Culture
Nonmaterial culture refers to a society's norms, beliefs,
superstitions and values that guide their behaviour. A
handshake, a marriage ceremony and a system of justice
are examples of nonmaterial culture. Cultural patterns may
include numerous traits (both material and non material).
 Culture as Subculture

•Social scientists sometimes

use the term subculture to
describe variations within a
culture.
•Social groups often develop
some cultural patterns of
their own that set them
apart from the larger society
of which they are a part.
Subcultures may develop in
businesses, ethnic groups,
occupational groups,
regional groups, religious
groups and other groups
within a larger culture
 The ‘us’ and ‘them’
syndrome
•This refers to the group of social constructions
which we as Caribbean people have inherited to
keep people of different ethnic groups apart.

•This is a main feature of Caribbean society &

culture and has developed not because the
Caribbean is diverse but because we have been
socialized to behave in this ‘us vs. them’ way.
 Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is the term anthropologists use to describe
the opinion that one's own way of life is natural or correct.
Some would simply call it cultural ignorance.
Ethnocentrism means that one may see his/her own
culture as the correct way of living.
 Cultural Pluralism
•Pluralism: A society where two or more racial or ethnic
groups live together but where there is limited mixing of
cultures or intermarriage. Each culture has maintained its
own social institutions ex. Religion, family