Aspects of Culture and Society PDF

ASPECTS OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY Culture is a defining element of society. Culture is everything that is made, learned, or shared by the members of a society, including values, beliefs, behaviors, and material objects. Five Components of Culture 1. Technology is o...

ASPECTS OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY Culture is a defining element of society. Culture is everything that is made, learned, or shared by the members of a society, including values, beliefs, behaviors, and material objects. Five Components of Culture 1. Technology is one component that makes our life easier. We can have volume production of goods that can be used by us through this component. 2. Symbols are cultural representations of reality. They give meanings toevents and things like a statue, handshake, college ring, flag etc. 3. Language is the most powerful of all human symbols as it allows us to communicate with one another. It also conveys our beliefs and culture. 4. Values are ideas. They determine our character. They are the standards by which we assess goodness, acceptability, beauty or desirability. 5. The fifth component is norm. Norm is a rule that guides our behaviour. It gives concrete terms how we should behave–what we should do and what we should not do. Classification of Norms: 1. Mores distinguish right from wrong. 2. Folkways distinguish between right and rude. They are referred as customs. They are measurements of behavior but not approved by society. 3. Laws are written rules of conduct enacted and enforced by government. 4. Taboo is an activity that is forbidden or sacred based on religious beliefs or morals. Breaking a taboo is extremely objectionable in society as a whole. Around the world, an act may be taboo in one culture and not in another. Explore The word deviance connotes odd or unacceptable behavior, but in the sociological sense of the word, deviance is simply any violation of society’s norms. Deviance can range from something minor, such as a traffic violation, to something major, such as murder. This is what we are going to discuss in this lesson, including crimes and social control. Deviance is defined as a violation of the standards of behavior of a society. Each society defines what is deviant and what is not, and definitions of deviance differ widely between societies. For example, in the Philippines, when a man cries in public in the 1950s, it would have been considered deviant. Today, men who cry in response to extreme emotional situations are acting within society’s norms. Male politicians cry when announcing defeat, male athletes cry after winning a championship, and male actors cry after winning an award. By today’s standards, none of these men is committing a deviant act. Social Control and Sanctions Social control Social control is the regulation and enforcement of norms to maintain social order - an arrangement of practices and behaviors on which society’s members base their daily lives. Rules are enforced to those who violate guidelines. The way to enforce these guidelines is called sanctions which would either be positive or negative. Positive sanctions are rewards to those who conform to the norms like an employee who is promoted in his work for working hard. Negative sanctions are punishments for violating norms like arresting a person for shoplifting. Sanctions are also classified as informal or formal. Informal sanctions happen in face-to-face interactions. When people frown at a lady burping loudly in the party; or a pat on the back when they see you help an old woman carry a large grocery bag across the street. Formal sanctions are officially recognizing and enforcing norm violations. For example, a student who violates her college’s code of conduct may be expelled; or an employee who speaks inappropriately to the boss Social bonds are based on common sentiment and shared moral value that are strong among members of industrial societies To Organic solidarity, social bonds are based on specialization and interdependence that are strong among members of industrial societies He said that key to change is an expanding division of labor –a specialization of economic activity. Gerhard Lenski -He said that sociocultural evolution is the change that occurs as a society acquires new technology - Societies range from simple to the technologically complex -Societies that are simple in technology tend to resemble one another -More complex societies reveal striking cultural diversity. Socio-cultural evolution It is the change that occurs as a society acquires new technology Technology shapes other cultural patterns and that simple technology can only support small numbers of people who live simple lives The greater amount of technology a society has within its grasp, the faster cultural change will take place High-tech societies are capable of sustaining large numbers of people who are engaged in a diverse division of labor. Types of Society The term “society” came from a latin word societas, which in turn was derived from the noun socius ( comrade, friend and ally) used to describe a bond of interaction between parties that are friendly or at least civil. According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, human beings are zoon politikon or political animals. That is, human beings are creatures whose nature is for them to live in a society or group. The society we live in did not spring up overnight. Human societies have evolved slowly over millions of years. However, throughout history, technological developments have sometimes brought about dramatic change that has boosted human society into its next age. 1. Hunting and Gathering stage During this stage, man used simple tools to hunt animals and vegetation. The hunting and gathering societies characteristics are: The primary institution is the family, which decides how food is to be shared and how children are to be socialized, and which provides for the protection of its members. Number of families in this society tend to be small with fewer than fifty members.They were nomadic in search of food. Society members have very high level of interdependence 2. Horticultural and Pastoral Societies use hand tools to raise crops. People started to stay in one place and grow their own food. Pastoral societies started the domestication and breeding of animals for food. Agricultural Societies -the invention of the plow led to the establishment of agricultural societies. Members of these societies tend crops with an animal harnessed to a plow. The use of animals to pull a plow eventually led to the creation of cities and formed the basic structure of modern societies. Enrichment According to Talcott Parsons ( American Sociologist- author of the Theory of Structural Functionalism) all societies will have to take care of its own reproduction if they are to persist across time and space. He listed four general functional prerequisites that all societies must attend in order to survive. 1. Adaptation is the capacity to society to take resources from society and distribute them accordingly. This function is carried out by the economy which includes gathering resources and producing commodities to social redistribution. 2. Goal attainment is the capability to set goals and mobilize the resources and political subsystem. 3. Integration or the harmonization of the entire society to achieve consensus. By integration meant coordination, adjustment and regulation of the rest of the subsystem so that the society will continue to function smoothly. 4. Latency or latent pattern maintenance, requires that society is able to constantly produce and socialize actors who will follow the norms and the roles given to them by the society. This means institutions like Family and School, which mediate belief system and values between an older generation and its successor. Moreover, Louis Althusser, no society can endure over time if does not support its very own reproduction. To do this, all societies require the creation of institutions to perpetuate the existence of society.