Key concept
Belief and
knowledge
Change
Culture
Identity
Materiality
Power
Social
relations
Society
Definition
Belief and knowledge is a set of convictions, values and viewpoints regarded as
“the truth” and shared by members of a social group. These are underpinned and
supported by known cultural experience.
Change refers to the alteration or modification of cultural or social elements in a
society. Change may be due to internal dynamics within a society, or the result of
contact with another culture, or a consequence of globalization.
Culture refers to organized systems of symbols, ideas, explanations, beliefs and
material production that humans create and manipulate in the course of their
daily lives. Culture includes the customs by which humans organize their
physical world and maintain their social structure. More recent approaches to
culture recognize that cultures are not static, homogenous or bounded but
dynamic and fluid. Culture refers to the shared social construction of meanings,
but simultaneously culture is often also a site of contested meanings. These
recent formulations of the concept recognize that culture may be the subject of
disagreement and conflict within and among societies and this disagreement may
include the definition of culture itself.
Identity can refer either to the individual’s private and personal view of the self
or to how an individual is viewed from the perspective of a social group. In
addition, identity may also refer to group identity, which may take the form of
religious identity, ethnic identity or national identity, for example.
Objects, resources and belongings have cultural meaning, described by Arjun
Appadurai as “the social life of things” (Appadurai 1986). They are embedded in
all kinds of social relations and practices. Some anthropologists seek to
understand human experience through the study of material objects. This occurs,
for example, in contemporary approaches that focus on the materiality of the
body.
Power is an essential feature of social relations and can be considered as a
person's or group's capacity to influence, manipulate or control others and
resources. In its broadest sense, power can be understood as involving
distinctions and inequalities between members of a social group. Some
approaches to power focus on structural power and understand power to be
everywhere and to contribute in the production of reality.
Social relations refer to any relationship between two or more individuals in a
network of relationships. Social relations involve an element of individual
agency as well as group expectations, and form the basis of social organization
and social structure. They pervade every aspect of human life and are extensive,
complex, and diverse.
Society refers to the way in which humans organize themselves in groups and
networks. Society is created and sustained by social relationships and institutions.
The term “society” can also be used to refer to a human group that exhibits some
internal coherence and distinguishes itself from other such groups.
Symbolism
Symbolism is the study of the significance that people attach to objects, actions,
and processes, creating networks of symbols through which they construct a
culture’s web of meaning.