Presenter: Ms. N. Lewis

The pattern of living that directs human social life.

Everything that humans learn and the things they
learn to use.
◦ language, religions, science, art, notions of right
and wrong, explanations of the meaning of life

According to Ralph Linton ( 1945) “ the culture of
the society is the way of life of its members; the
collection of ideas and habits which they learn,
share and transmit from generation to generation"
 According
to Jennifer Mohammad (2007) the culture being
the “Way of life of a people” is limited and must be
deconstructed. This is so because culture imbues all patterns
and processes in which people engage. For example, the
way of life could be worshipping, voting, earning a living and
interacting with different social groups. However, if we should
look at worshipping this is not the way of life for all.

Values - standards for assessing good and
bad

Norms – behavioral expectations

Role – norms associated with a particular
position
 Culture
is shared among a group. It is not
peculiar to one or a few persons, but it is
common to all members of society.
 Culture
is learnt- learning plays a key role in
transmission of culture from one generation
to the other.
 Culture
is transmittable- culture comes down
from the past, is not created by any one
person or generation, and continues beyond
the individuals lifespan.
 Culture
is dynamic- it varies overtime and
place.
 Culture
is symbolic- it is meaningful to
people. Symbols are things or behaviours to
 Culture
is adaptive- in order to survive,
culture must adapt to changes in societies.
 Culture is dynamic- it is varies over time and
place. It is not static
CULTURE
MATERIAL
CULTURE
Music, dance festivals, food, artefacts,
r
technology, places of worship, architecture
NON MATERIAL
Norms , values, beliefs,
languages



Popular Culture, high culture, mass culture
and global culture are examples of cultural
products.
Popular Culture- refers to music, visual and
performing arts, literature, festivals, cuisine,
poetry, artistic and designer creations that
are promoted through the efforts of the mass
media and foreign media.
Mass culture- refers to the lifestyle and
values promoted through the mass media.
 Global
Culture- this refers to culture which
has become popular with the use of ICTs
during the era of globalization.
 Cyberculture-
refers to the culture that has
emerged or emerging, from the use of
computer networks for communication
network entertainment and business.




This view of culture was put forward by Raymond
Williams in 1958.
He opposed the notion of the “ way of life” and
“cultural products” and argued that culture is the
process by which common meanings come to be
accepted, debated and modified by people in society.
Culture is ordinary because it develops in every
individual according to his or her experience.
It is not something that has a tangible existence.

Culture is the meaning people have for
something are those meaning are
represented in ordinary life through
behaviours, acts rituals and norms and so on.
Thus, one can say culture is symbolic.


It focuses not on the specific patterns of
behaviour but on how people come to
develop those sense of behaviour in the first
place.
People live together and develop symbols
which have significant meaning. Languages,
gestures, habits, religion, marriage,
aspirations act as symbols for a set of shared
meaning and values.



Culture is created and maintained through communication.
For a society cultural reproduction becomes a major goal and
this ensured through different ways of teaching the culture to
members so that the shared values and norms are constantly
reproduced.
Culture is learnt through the process of socialization which is
part of Enculturation.
Culture is learnt via cultural diffusion that is the culture is
spread from one society to the other.

A popular way of using culture is to refer to a
characteristic set of values and attitudes
shared by a specific group or subculture
within a larger group.

Complete activities 2.8 & 2.15 on pages 43
and 54.