Characteristics of Culture
What is Culture?

Culture: A society’s shared and socially
transmitted ideas, values, and
perceptions, which are used to make
sense of experience and which generate
behavior and are reflected in that
behavior.

Every culture is learned, shared, based on
symbols, integrated, and dynamic.
Cultural Identity

The (feeling of) identity of a group or
culture, or of an individual as far as he or
she is influenced by her belonging to a
group or culture.

Culture, as a social practice, is not
something that individuals possess.
Rather, it is a social process in which
individuals participate.
E.B. Tylor
Sir Edward Tylor
 1871 first definition of
‘culture’
 Culture ‘spectrum’

Enculturation

The process by which a society’s culture is
transmitted from one generation to the
next and individuals become members of
their society.

It establishes a context of boundaries and
correctness that dictates what is and is
not permissible within that society's
collective framework.
Society

An organized group or groups of
interdependent people who generally
share a common territory, language, and
culture and who act together for collective
survival and well-being.

What are some examples of a global
society?
Gender

The cultural elaborations and meanings
assigned to the biological differentiation
between the sexes.

Hijra, Berdache, Trasngendered
Thomas Beatie



Was born a woman
named Tracy Lagondino
Had reassignment
surgery to appear as a
man outwardly and had
chest reconstruction and
began taking
testosterone.
He is legally married to
his wife Nancy, and they
share the full
entitlements and
protections that marriage
affords.