CHAPTER 1

CULTURE
( S O C S C I - 1 1 1 )

MAGNOLIA P. DE LUNA
JASPER KIM JON S. ENRIQUE
BSA 5
WHAT IS CULTURE?
• Culture refers to the values, beliefs, behavior, and material
objects that together form a people's way of life.

• Culture includes what we think, how we act, and what we

own.

• Culture is both a bridge to our past and a guide to the future.

F U N C T I O N S O F C U LT U R E
IN OUR SOCIETY
• Culture offers specific ways for people to meet general
biological needs, or drives, such as hunger and sex.
• Culture protects people from the weather.
• Because of Culture, people do not have to figure out how to
meet basic needs, accomplish tasks, or interpret the world.
MATERIAL CULTURE
VS
NONMATERIAL CULTURE
• Consist of the physical creations that members of a society
make, use, and share.
• All of these physical aspects of a culture help to define its
members’ behaviors and perceptions.
• Consist of the abstract or intangible human creations of
society that influences people's behaviour.
• Beliefs, values, rules, norms, morals, language and etc.
• FORMAL AND INFORMAL

• POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE

D E V E L O P M E N T O F C U LT U R E
AROUND THE WORLD
• All societies have developed certain common practices
and beliefs, known as cultural universals.
• Cultural universals are customs and practices that occur
in all cultures.
• These cultural practices may be found in all cultures, but
the manner in which they are expressed varies from
culture to culture.
• Takes place when a new idea or object is introduced to a
culture.
DISCOVERY. Is the process of learning about something
previously unknown or unrecognized.
INVENTION. Is a combination or new use of existing knowledge
to produce something that did not exist before. Invention may
be either material or social.
• Is the process by which culture items or social practices
spread from one society to another. Diffusion may result
from many factors, such as travel, trade, conquest,
migration, or telecommunication.
MCDONALIZATION. Is associated with the melding of cultures,
so much so that we see more and more similarities in cultural
expression.
TECHNOLOGY. Is responsible not only in accelerating scientific
innovations but also in transmitting culture.
GLOBALIZATION. Is the worldwide integration of cultures,
social movements, government policies, and financial markets
through trade and exchange of ideas.
EXPLAINING CULTURES
• The range of cultural variation is so immense that probably no
specific norm appears in every human society.
• How can we account for this variation?
• The following present certain arguments as explanations:
THE ECOLOGICAL VIEW. People create culture as a means of adapting to
the environment, and so their culture practices are necessarily affected
by the particular pressure and opportunities of the physical
surroundings in which they live.
THE FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE. Another way of analyzing specific
components of culture more closely is to look for the functions they
perform, or effects they have, in maintaining order in a society. By
showing that certain cultural elements serve to meet specific needs,
functionalist theory can help us to understand why a particular trait may
be present in one society but not in others.
THE CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE. Conflict perspectives are based on the
assumption that social life is a continuous struggle in which members of
powerful groups seek to control scarce resources. It is possible for social
leaders or the ruling class to use ideology, an integrated system of ideas
that is external to, and coercive of, people – to maintain their position of
dominance in a society. Ideas as nonmaterial components of culture are
used by agents of the ruling class to affect the thoughts and actions of
members of other classes.
VARIATIONS
AMONG CULTURES
ETHNOCENTRISM. Is based on the assumption that one's own
way of life is superior to all others, for this reason , people in every
society have some measure of ethnocentrism, the tendency to
judge other cultures by the standards of one's culture.

CULTURAL RELATIVISM. The recognition that one culture cannot

be arbitrarily judged by the standards of another. It is an attitude of
respect and understanding other cultures.
XENOCENTRISM. Is the belief that the products, styles, or ideas
of one's society are inferior to those that originate elsewhere. It
refers to the idea that what is foreign is best, that creates a
negative impact in the economy of the developing world.
VARIATIONS
WITHIN
CULTURES
• Is a category of people who share distinguishing attributes,
beliefs, values, and/or norms that set them apart in some
significant manner from the dominant culture.

ARGOT. A specialized language that distinguishes it from the

wider society.
INSIDERS. The members of the subculture.
• Is a group that strongly rejects dominant societal values and
norms, and seeks alternative lifestyles.

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