Aspects of Culture Quiz

Sociological and Anthropological Perspectives on Society

• Society is defined as a population that occupies the same territory, subject to the same political authority, and participates in a common culture.
• Anthropologists view society as a group of people sharing a common culture within a territory.
• Sociologists view society as an association organized by men with a territory.

Definition of Culture

• Culture has two notions: individual taste, inclination, and interest in the fine arts, and being civilized.
• Culture is a complex whole that encompasses beliefs, practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols, knowledge, and everything that a person learns and shares as a member of society.
• Anthropological perspective views culture as a unique character of every human society, including how we think, act, and what we own.
• Sociological perspective views culture as the imprint made by people.

Anthropological Perspectives on Culture

• Unilineal Evolutionism states that new cultural forms emerge from the past, passing through similar stages of development (e.g., from Animism to Monotheism).
• Cultural Diffusionism asserts that culture originates from one or more culture centers, resulting from borrowed elements of the new culture (e.g., Filipino culture influenced by Western civilization).
• Historical Particularism believes that each group of people has its own unique culture influenced by its history, geography, and environment (e.g., Filipino people influenced by superstitious beliefs).
• Anthropological Functionalism believes that cultural elements and practices are interrelated and interdependent, persisting because they have a purpose (e.g., Filipinos' actions influenced by their religion).
• Anthropological Structuralism conveys that cultural phenomena and practices have a relationship to one another, by which human organize and structure their experiences (e.g., Father and Son; Husband and Wife).
• Cultural Materialism considers the idea that culture is influenced by technology, resources, economic values, and the utilization of things (e.g., pork prohibited in the Muslim diet).

Aspects of Culture

• Aspects of culture are defined as parts or features of culture, characterized as dynamic, flexible, and adaptive; shared and contested through time; learned through socialization or enculturation; patterned social interactions; and integrated and at times unstable.
• Examples of aspects of culture include:
  • Artifacts – Objects made by human beings, either hand-made or mass produced.
  • Arts and Recreation – Arts, Music, Drama, and Literatures, Games and Sports, and Use of Leisure Time.
  • Clothes – The people usually wear in the community.
  • Customs and Traditions – The things we do.
  • Food – The staple food that the people in the community often eat.
  • Government – The one that implements rules, keeps peace and order, and addresses conflicts in the community.
  • Knowledge – The psychological result of perception, learning, and reasoning.
  • Language – The mental faculty or power of vocal communication.
  • Religion – A strong belief in a supernatural power that controls human destiny.
  • Shelter – A structure that provides privacy and protection from danger.
  • Tools – Objects used to improve the performance of a task.
  • Values – The morals that we live by.

Orientations in Viewing Other Cultures

• Cultural relativism views culture as having meaning only when taken into context, meaning it is wrong to compare, apply, and/or judge one's own culture from another culture.