Culture

Why culture is so important?

The need to understand our own culture and other cultures has never been greater.
Cross-culture contacts are becoming an everyday event. Culture is a design for living: the shared understandings that people use to coordinate their activities. Human beings learn to be human through socialization process, but the content of socialization varies from one culture to another, and these differences reflect the content of culture. Culture refers to an appreciation of the finer things in life. Social scientists use the term to describe a people’s entire design for living. Much of what we take for granted, as part of human nature, is actually the result of enculturation: immersion in a culture to the point where that particular design for living seems “only natural”.

Definition of Culture:

1. B. Malinowski has defined culture as the “cumulative creation of man”. He also regards culture as the handiwork of man the medium through which he achieves his ends.
2. Graham Wallas has defined culture as an accumulation of thoughts, values and objects; it is the social heritage acquired by us from preceding generations through learning, as distinguished from the biological heritage which is passed on to us automatically through the genes.
3. C.C. North is of the opinion that culture “consists in the instruments constituted by man to assist him in satisfying his wants”.
4. Robert Bierstedt is of the opinion that “culture is the complex whole that consists of all the ways we think and do and everything we have as members of society”.
5. E. V. de Roberty regards culture as the “body of thoughts and knowledge, both theoretical and practical, which only man can possess”.
6. Edward B. Taylor has defined culture as “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”.

Considering all above definition, culture can also be defined as “all the modes of thought, behavior and production that are handed down from one generation to the next by means of communicative interaction – that is, by speech, greetings, writing, building and all other communication among humans – rather than by genetic transmission or heredity”.

What are the basic elements of culture?

Although the contents differ, all cultures consist of six basic elements:

 Beliefs
 Values
 Norms and sanctions
 Symbols
 Language
 Technology

A. Beliefs: All cultures are grounded in a set of beliefs, or shared knowledge and ideas about the nature of life.
B. Values: All cultures set values, or shared standards for what is right and desirable.
C. Norms and sanctions: Norms translate beliefs and values into specific rules for behavior. Norms vary in intensity from sacred taboos to everyday habits (folkways). Norms also vary according to the actor and the situation. Sanctions are punishments and rewards that people use to enforce norms.

The Sociological Perspective

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction

The sociological perspective is defined by three philosophical traditions (or "paradigms"): the functionalist perspective (i.e., "consensus"), Marxism ("conflict"), and symbolic interactionism. Functionalist perspective focuses on how society is organized and how social institutions meet the needs of people living within a collectivity.
The Marxian paradigm guides inquiries into the use and misuse of power within and across social systems. Symbolic interactionism focuses on how individuals influence and are influenced by society.

Functionalism:
The functionalist perspective based on the view that societies are made of specialized structures (the family. religion, economy, politics, education etc.) and that each of these structures performs a vital function in maintaining the whole. These specialized structures are interdependent. Under normal conditions, they work together to promote harmony and stability. Functionlists emphasize the importance of consensus among members of a society and the potentially harmful effects of sudden change on groups or society. Functionalism has criticized for supporting the status quo.

Functionalists hold that in order to understand why a behavior pattern exists in a society, one must examine the consequences of that pattern; this may be done by analyzing the latent (unintended) functions as well as the manifest (intended) functions.

Conflict theory:
Conflict theory is based on the view that the structure of society is the result of competition for scarce resources. Marx held that capitalism divides society into two opposing classes; those who control capital/own the means of production and those who must sell their labor. Contemporary conflict theorists have broadened this scenario to account for the cross-cutting interests of diverse groups in society today and for the emergence of a world capitalist system.

Conflict theorists maintain that in order to understand why a behavior pattern exists in society, one must determine who benefits from that pattern and how such persons maintain their positions of power.

Symbolic interactionism:
Symbolic interactionism focuses on the cumulative effects of individual actions and interpersonal relationships in everyday behavior. This theoretical perspective is premised on the principle that everyday interaction is determined by the way people interpret events and relationships. The emphasis is on the symbolic meanings that people attach to encounters.



Subject-matter of sociology

Sociology has been striving to analyze the dynamics of society in terms of organized patterns of social relations. It may be said that sociology seeks to find explanations for three basic questions: (a) How and why societies emerge? (b) How and why societies persist? How and why societies change?

A general outline of the fields of sociology could be gives as follows:

01. Sociological analysis: The major concern of sociology is sociological analysis that means the sociologist seeks to provide an analysis of human society and culture with a sociological perspective.
02. The study of primary units of sociology: Sociology is concerned with social acts and social relationships, individual personality, groups of all varieties, communities (urban, rural and tribal), associations, organizations and populations.
03. Development, structure and function of basic social institutions: Sociology is concerned with the development, structure and function of a wide variety of social institutions like family and kinship, religion and property, economic, political, legal, educational and scientific, recreational and welfare, aesthetic and expressive institutions.
04. Fundamental social process: The social processes such as co-operation and competition, accommodation and assimilation, social conflict including war and revolution; communication including opinion formation, expression and change; social deviance including crime, suicide, social integration and social change assume prominence in sociological study.
05. The method of research: Contemporary sociology has tended to become more and more rational and empirical rather than philosophical and idealistic. Sociologists have sought the application of scientific method in social researches.
06. Formulating concepts, propositions and theories: Sociological theories are mostly rooted in factual than philosophical. The sociological perspective becomes more meaningful and fruitful when one tries to derive insight from concepts, propositions and theories.
Concepts are abstracted from concrete experience to represent a class of phenomena.
A proposition “seeks to reflect a relationship between different categories of data or concepts”.
Theories represent systematically related propositions that explain social phenomena.
07. Specialization: The field of sociological inquiry is so vast that is requires specialization like sociology of knowledge, sociology of history, sociology of literature, sociology of culture, sociology of religion, sociology of family etc.