Understanding Components of Culture

Definition of Culture

• Culture is the sum of an individual's way of life, encompassing aspects such as food, clothing, and housing.

Components of Culture

Non-Material Culture

• Social Norms: rules or expectations that define what is acceptable or required in a social situation.
• Folkways: customs, traditions, and conventions of a society.
• Mores: special folkways that are important to the welfare of people and their cherished values.
• Laws: formalized social norms enacted by political and legal authorities designated by the government.
• Values: abstract standards that persist over time and serve as guides to what is right and proper for people and society.
• Knowledge: the total range of what has been learned and perceived as true, including natural, supernatural, and magical knowledge.

Material Culture

• Material culture refers to the products of technology, such as simple tools, computers, and other artifacts.

Attitude towards Cultural Variation

• Ethnocentrism: the tendency to assume that one's culture and way of life are superior to all others.
• Xenocentrism: the belief that the products, styles, or ideas of one's culture are inferior to those of other cultures.
• Cultural Relativism: viewing people's behavior from the perspective of their own culture.

Cultural Transmission

• Enculturation: the process of learning the culture of one's own group.
• Acculturation: the process of learning new traits from another culture.