Elements of Culture
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
• Culture
•
– All things that make
up a person’s way of
life.
7 Elements
– Social Organization
– Customs & Traditions
– Language
– Arts & Literature
– Religion
– Forms of Government
– Economic System
1. Social Organization
• Definition: smaller units of a culture to create
social structure and help people work together
to meet basic needs
1. Social Organization
• Family-basic way to pass on culture –
– social controls: regulates individual or group behaviors
– Nuclear: immediate family
• typical for industrialized societies
• Vary in size based on culture and traditions
– Extended: several generations living in one
household
• Common agricultural/traditional societies
• Economic unit
1. Social Organization
• Social Class –
– Rank people by status
– Ways: money, education, job, heritage
– relative to culture and economy
– Social Mobility: ability to move social class
• Social Groups
– Members have similar interests
Social Organization
• The person who exercises authority, or power, in a
family varies from one culture to another.
– Most cultures are patriarchal, or cultures where the male holds
power.
– Women hold authority in matriarchal societies.
• Marriage customs can also vary.
– Commonly marriages are monogamous (monogamy), or where an
individual has only one partner during their lifetime or at any one
time.
– Polygamy is where there are multiple spouses to one person.
• Polygyny – One husband and multiple wives
• Polyandry – One wife and multiple husbands
– Some marriages can be arranged, or predetermined by the parents
of the bride and groom.
• Arranged marriages are often created for economic or political reasons.
• Dowry and Bridewealth
2. Customs and Traditions
• Def: rules for behavior/how a society
expects people to behave = social controls
– Governs behavior
• Ways to express ideas, emotions, and
pass on information
• Examples: ways you eat, sleep, greet,
wear, obtain food, prepare food
• Vary in importance
– from daily behavior to right and wrong
– (peer pressure or written law)
3. Language
• Def: ways to communicate/express thoughts,
•
•
feelings, emotions, and knowledge
Basic way to pass on culture
Helps unify and strengthen culture
– dialects is a form of a language that differs from place to place.
– Different languages can be spoken within the same society.
• All culture have language but not all develop
•
•
forms of writing
Verbal/Non-Verbal
Digital Language
Language
1. What do you call the miniature lobster that one finds in lakes or
streams?
2. How do you pronounce “crayon”?
3. Do you call coleslaw “slaw”?
4. What word(s) do you use to address a group of two or more people?
5. How do you pronounce the second vowel in “pajamas”?
6. How do you pronounce “pecan”?
7. What is your generic term for a sweetened carbonated beverage?
8. What do you call a traffic situation in which several roads meet in a
circle and you have to get off at a certain point?
9. What do you call a long sandwich that contains cold cuts, lettuce,
etc.?
10.What do you call the thing from which you might drink water in a
school?
11.What is your “general” term for rubber-soled shoes worn in gym
class for athletic activities?
Languages
• Top languages spoken in the world today (by
native speakers):
–
–
–
–
–
–
Mandarin (955 million)
Spanish (405 million)
English (360 million)
Hindi (310 million)
Arabic (295 million)
Portuguese (215 million)
4. Arts and Literature
• Def: ways to express ideas information
and emotions, teaches cultural values;
teaches basic beliefs of a society
• performing arts
• Strengthens a cultures identity
• Express cultural pride
• Examples: music, visual arts (pictures),
dance, stories
5. Religion
• Def: a person’s belief system that
helps guide behavior and teaches
basic values = social controls
– Where do we come from? How to act?
Where are we going?
Moral compass
Cosmology:
The study and
explanation of
the universe
Theology:
A system of
religious
beliefs
5. Religion
• Monotheism
– Worship one God
• Christianity, Islam, Judaism
• Polytheism
– Worship of many Gods
• Hinduism, Buddhism
• Sect: religious group, division,
“branch” or faction
6. Forms of Government
• Def: a system for making decision for a
society: order, protection, education
– people who hold power and make the laws
6. Forms of Government
• Types of Government:
– Democracy
• People have supreme power
– Republic
• Representative democracy
– Dictatorship
• Ruler or group holds power by force
– A government that officially calls itself a "democratic
republic" is usually a dictatorship
– Fascism
6. Forms of Government
• Types of Government:
– Monarchy
• power or sovereignty held by a single person for
life – inherited position - Ruling family
• Constitutional Monarchy
– has a written Constitution and has a monarch as Head of
State
– Theocracy
– type of government led by religious leaders.
– Autocratic/Authoritarian
• ruling with absolute authority
Democracies
• In a democracy, the people hold
supreme power and the
government acts by consent.
Republic
• In a republic, the people elect
representatives to serve them in
the government.
Dictatorships
• In a dictatorship, a ruler and/or
group holds power by force
usually relying on military support
for power.
Theocracy
• A theocracy is a type of
government led by religious
leaders.
Monarchy
• In a monarchy, kings and queens
rule. These monarchs will usually
claim rule by divine right and are
granted their position based on
inherence.
Economic system
• Traditional Economy
• Produce what they need
to survive
• Hunting and Gathering,
Farming, and Herding
• Surplus is traded
• Market Economy
• Buying and Selling
• Command Economy
• Government controlled
• Individuals have little
economic power
• Mixed Economy
• Individuals and
Government make
decisions
• Cars are a great
example: People pick &
Government sets
standards
7. Economic Systems
• Def: how a society obtains food, clothing,
and shelter - Distribute goods and services
• How people use limited resources to satisfy
their wants and needs
– Answers:
– What goods and services should we produce?
– How should we produce them?
– For whom should we produce them?
7. Economic Systems
• Examples of Economic Systems:
– Traditional economy
• People produce what they need to survive
• Hunting and gathering, farming, herding
– Market economy
• Free Market economy: people decided the basic
economic questions based on supply and demand
7. Economic Systems
• Examples of Economic Systems:
– Command economy
• Government controls the economy and answers
basic economic questions
• Individual has little input
– Mixed economy
• Bits of all economies
• Individual makes some economic decisions and the
government makes others
• Most countries mixed economies
Traditional Economies
• In a traditional
•
economy, people
produce most of what
they need by themselves.
Activities in a traditional
economy include hunting,
gathering, farming,
herding cattle, and/or
making their own
clothes/tools.
Market Economies
• In a market economy,
•
•
people buy and sell goods
and services.
people decided the
basic economic
questions based on
supply and demand
Usually there is no
government interference.
Command Economies
• In a command economy,
the government controls
what/how goods are produced
and what they cost.
• Individuals in a command
economy have little economic
power.
• Black markets frequently
appear in command
economies. These markets
provide illegal goods or
services which the government
has banished (often at inflated
prices.)
Mixed Economies
• In a mixed economy,
individuals make some
economic decisions and
the government makes
others.
• Government
involvement in the
marketplace often
takes the form of
regulations, rules or
laws designed to
govern conduct.
Economic Philosophies
Regarding Markets
• Socialism (L) and Capitalism (R)
– Both are ideals, frequently not purely achieved.
– Socialism is an economic system in which the
society holds control over the means of production
and the management of the economy.
– Capitalism is an economic system in which trade,
industry, and the means of production are largely or
entirely privately owned and operated for profit.
• Under capitalism, market forces determine the supply and
demand of goods and services.
What determines cultural
similarities and differences?
• Technology
• Availability of money
• History
• Relationship with nature
• Geography and climate