Categories: Sociology

Culture and its Characteristics

&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad1" id&equals;"quads-ad1" style&equals;"float&colon;left&semi;margin&colon;0px 0px 0px 0&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">Culture is the totality of life which is comprised of knowledge&comma; beliefs&comma; art&comma; morals&comma; customs&comma; and habits of the people&period; People receive culture as a part of heritage and may bring changes in the culture later on&period; There are two types of culture i&period;e&period; material culture and non-material culture&period; Material culture consists of buildings&comma; roads&comma; furniture&comma; automobiles&comma; weapons and uniforms etc&period; On the other hand&comma; the ideas&comma; customs&comma; beliefs&comma; habits&comma; norms&comma; rules and regulations of the society are non-material culture&period; For example&comma; a man goes into the temple to worship&semi; in this case the temple is the material culture while the act of worshiping is the non material culture of individual and society&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Significance of Culture<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">A man learns the total way of life with the help of existing culture&period; Culture is being transmitted from one generation to another&period; If the culture was not transmitted from the past&comma; then it would have been difficult for us to survive in the society&period; Culture teaches us everything about the life and it makes an individual as the member of society&period; For example&comma; the custom of marriage is a cultural heritage which has provided us the institution of family&period; Society and culture are interlinked with each other and without culture the existence of society is difficult&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> &&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Language<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad2" id&equals;"quads-ad2" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px 0 0px 0&semi;text-align&colon;center&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">Language is an important part of culture through which people communicate with each other&period; There are thousands of languages in the world&period; Animals can communicate with sounds&comma; gestures&comma; and touch etc&period; Human beings use the most developed form of languages to share ideas&comma; beliefs&comma; thoughts and knowledge with each other&period; Language is being learnt by the member of society in his&sol;her family&period; Similarly he&sol;she also learns language from his&sol;her neighbors and classmates&period; Culture could not exist without language&period; Thus&comma; we become cultured and complete human beings with the help of language&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Cultural Change<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">No one can say that culture is static&period; It always changes according to the time and circumstances&period; The new discoveries and inventions brought great deals of change in almost every society of the world&period; People use to give up old ways of life and adopt new ones&period; Today the world became global village due to which every society is related with each other&period; Media promotes the foreign culture and people adopt new things of foreign culture abruptly because of the higher influence of electronic media&period; Thus&comma; it is concluded that cultural change is inevitable&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Culture as a system of norms<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">Culture is normative because every culture has its norms to be confirmed&period; Shaking hands is a common norm in all the societies&period; Norms are expected to be followed by the member of society&period; Nobody is permitted to practice the polygamy in the United States because it is one of their norms to be married with only one person at a time&period; Students have to confirm their norms in the schools whereas waiters are bound to follow the norms of restaurants&period; So&comma; every group and community has to obey the norms of society which are the part of their culture&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Folkways<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">Folkways are the common usages of life&period; Conformity of folkways is expected but violation of folkways does not harm a person or make him&sol;her liable for any kind of punishment&period; Staring at the strangers&comma; scratching in the public&comma; and spitting on the roads etc are some of the violations of folkways in United States&period; These kinds of acts are considered odd in the society but laws do not punish the person who violates the folkways&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Mores<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">Mores are much stronger norms than the folkways&period; Every society has strict punishments for the person who violates the mores of the society&period; Wearing shorts in a street is violation of folkways while roaming naked in the street is violation of mores&period; Hence&comma; one can say that norms&comma; folkways and mores are important traits of the culture and individual is bound to follow these traits of society&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Ethnocentrism<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">Ethnocentrism is the process of thinking in which the members of a group think that their culture is superior to the others&period; They think that their way of life is better than the others&period; The sense of ethnocentrism is common in the world&period; People are strongly attached to their own culture and always favor their culture as compare to the cultures of other people&period; For example the Mughals of Indo – Pakistan Subcontinent thought that their art&comma; architecture&comma; kingdom and way of living were far better than the others&period; On the other hand&comma; the Russian thought that their culture is the best&period; Every group gives priority to their own culture because they are emotionally attached with it&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Xenocentrism<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">The word Xenocentrism is opposite of ethnocentrism&period; It is the process of thinking in which the members of group think that the foreign cultures are superior to ours&period; For example the people of Australia think that the French fashions&comma; Japanese automobiles and Chinese food are superior&period; In xenocentrism&comma; the people are attracted by the glamour and charm of the foreign cultures which bring cultural change within the society&period;&&num;160&semi; People adopt the lifestyles of other group in the form of their dressing&comma; styles&comma; housing and ways of living&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Are we prisoners of Culture&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">Our personalities are influenced by the behavior&comma; values and attitudes of the society in which we are born&period; Our culture teaches us about the reward and punishment of the society&period; It bounds us to do those things which are allowed in our culture and prohibits us from the things which are against our culture&period; Culture sets limitations on us but it cannot control us completely because culture makes us and we also make culture&period; Culture provides the total guidelines of way of life&period; Thus&comma; some of the people follow their culture while others follow the culture of foreigners&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">&&num;160&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Summary <&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p> &&num;160&semi;&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad3" id&equals;"quads-ad3" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;

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adam kasia

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