Culture

Outline
Culture and Society

Social and Cultural Development

-- Biological Factors

-- Social Evolution

-- Geographic Factors

Nonhuman Organization

Culture as a system of norms

 Culture and Society
• Culture refers to beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects
that constitute a people’s way of life.
• When studying culture, sociologists often distinguish between
thoughts and things.
• Culture is a shared way of life, or social heritage;
• Society refers to people interacting within a limited territory
guided by their culture.
• A society is an organization of people whose associations are
with one another.
• A culture is an organized system of norms and values which
people hold.
• Neither society nor culture could exist without the other.
 Introduction
• In a universe some 15 billion years old, our planet is a much
younger 4.5 billion years of age.
• Several billion more years went by before dinosaurs ruled the
earth, only to disappear.
• It was then – some 65 million years ago– that our history took
crucial turn with the appearance of the creatures we call
primates.
• Most successful of all in the last
65 million years has been the large
class of animals called mammals.
These are warm-blooded, fur-bearing
animals that nourish their young in
their mothers’ wombs and feed their
infants with mother’s milk.
 PRIMATES
• The order of mammals that are large-brained,
live mostly in trees, and have the ability to
see three-dimensionally. This order includes
humans, all hominids, apes, chimpanzees,
and monkeys.
• Primates are generally lively, clever, and very
successful at adapting to different
environmental opportunities.
• About 12 million years ago, primates began to
develop along two different lines, setting
apart humans from the great apes, our
closest relatives.
 Homo erectus Homo sapiens Homo sapiens sapiens
Australopithecus Homo habilis Neanderthalensis
robustus
 Continued…
• But our common lineage is evident in traits that
humans share today with chimpanzees and gorillas:
great sociability, affectionate and long-lasting bonds,
the ability to walk upright, and hands that can
manipulate objects with great precision.
 Continued…
• Fossil records show that, some 3 million years ago, our
distant human ancestors grasped cultural fundamentals, like
the use of fire, tools, and weapons, and were able to create
simple shelters and basic clothing.
 Biological Factors
• One of the recent discipline known as sociobiology which has
drawn attention to biological factors in human behavior.
“the systematic study of the biological basis of human behavior.”
• Culture accumulation at first was very slow.
• People lived in the open or in caves; they used simple stone
tools to skin animals and cut off chunks of meat; for digging
edible roots, they probably used pointed sticks.
• During this period humans became skilled hunters.... Hunting
and gathering societies.
• There is considerable argument that these early hominids were
humans at all.
 Biological Factors
• Their (Hominids) cranial capacity was in range of 425 to 725
cubic centimeters, which would give them a skull
measurement similar to that of the ape and far below the
1,000 to 2,000 cubic centimeters range of today– modern
man.
• An acceleration in cultural development did not take place
until the appearance of Neanderthal man about 150,000
years ago, with a cranial capacity similar to that of modern
man.
• Humans now had enough brains to build a culture, but basic
inventions such as the wheel, the plow, writing, and many
others were needed before a complex culture was possible.
 Social Evolution
• Social Evolution: The process of social development from an
early simple type of social organization to one that is complex
and highly specialized.
– Simple to complex societies
– Homogeneous to heterogeneous societies
– Traditional to Modern/Industrialized societies
• Main proponent …Naturalist Charles Darwin, he
developed theory that human race had gradually evolved
from lower orders of life.
• Literary work Origin of Species (1859)
 Social Evolution
• Auguste Comte in his Positive Philosophy wrote of three stages
through which he believed human thought inevitably moved:
– The Theological stage
– The Metaphysical stage
– The Positive (scientific) stage
• Herbert Spencer was also inspired of “Social Darwinism”.
• He saw social evolution as a set of stages through which all
societies moved from the simple to the complex and from
homogeneous to heterogeneous.
• Cultural historians such as Spengler and Toynbee claim that
societies have moved in cycles…. Growth, Boom and Decline
Social Evolution
 Geographical Factors
• Climate and geography are undoubtedly factors in cultural
development.
• Extremes of climate or topography are serious obstacles to
many kinds of cultural development.
• Great civilizations do not flourish in the frozen Arctic, the
torrid desert, the lofty mountain range or the tangled forest.
• People can live in these areas and may develop ingenious
means of coping with natural forces, but such areas do not
produced great civilizations.
• While the earliest great civilizations known to the world
developed in the lowlands of great river basins.
• Ancient civilizations: Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indus Valley …
Geographical Factors
 Nonhuman Organizations
• Many nonhuman species have an orderly system of social life.
• Many bird species mate for a lifetime and (in contrast to humans)
are for a lifetime are absolutely loyal to their mates.
• Many species of insects, such as ants and bees, have an elaborate
pattern of social life, complete with specialized occupations, lines
of authority, and detailed distribution of duties and privileges.
• Nonhuman societies show many other similarities to human
societies…
• Most important difference between humans and other animals is
the degree to which the life of other animals is based on instinct
rather tha learning.
• Language and symbolic communications……..
 Culture as a System of Norms
• Culture is normative … it includes the ways in which things
should be done or it defines standards of conduct.
• Origin of word “norm”: Latin norma
- a carpenter’s square for measuring right angles
- a pattern, rule, standard
• A culture is an elaborate system of norms – of standardized,
expected ways of feeling and acting – which the members of
society generally acknowledge and generally follow.
• Norms are of several kinds and several degrees of compulsion.

• These concepts were developed by the early sociologist William

Graham Sumner in his Folkways, published in 1906.
 Kinds of Norms
• Folkways (customs)
• Mores (strict norms)
• Taboos (forbidding certain behaviors as a form of
ritual)
• Laws (written rules and regulations)
 Folkways
• Referred to etiquettes and customs…
• They are standards of behavior that are socially approved.
• They are norms of everyday behavior.
• Breaking a folkway does not usually have serious
consequences.
• Cultural forms of dress or food habits are examples of
folkways.
• Folkways are simply the customary, normal, habitual ways a
group does things.
• Little moral significance…
 Mores

• Mores are strict norms that control moral and ethical

behavior.
• Mores are based on definitions of right and wrong.
• They are central to the functioning of society and its social
life.
• Greater significance than folkways.
• Violation can bring serious retribution.
• Religious doctrines are an example of mores.
• Like theft, drinking, gambling etc.
 Taboos
• A prohibition or ban
• Not acceptable to talk about or do
• A taboo is a norm that society holds so strongly that violating it
results in extreme disgust.
• Often times the violator of the taboo is considered unfit to live in
that society.
• For instance, in some Muslim cultures, eating pork is taboo because
the pig is unclean.
• Similarly, cannibalism….taboo in most countries.
– Food taboos
– Modesty taboos
– Language taboos
 Laws
• A law is a norm that is written down and enforced by an
official law enforcement agency.
• Rules of action or statutes established by authorities such as
state.
• Laws are thus formalized norms that specify the rules and
carry the threat of punishment.
• Examples, Traffic laws, property laws, etc
 Values
• Important and lasting beliefs or ideals
shared by the members of a society
about what is good or bad, desirable or
undesirable.
• In each society, some values are prized
more highly than others.
• Values have major influence on
person's behavior and attitude and serve
as broad guidelines in all situations.
That’s all
Folks!