What is culture?
Culture is the whole way of life of a group of people. It includes their ideas, beliefs, language, rules, food, clothes, tools and art.
- Culture is learned. We are not born with it. A child born in Kerala and raised in Punjab will speak Punjabi.
- Culture is shared. It belongs to a group, not to one person.
- Culture is passed on. Each generation hands it to the next.
- Culture changes. Mobile phones have changed how families talk.
In daily talk people say 'cultured' to mean 'refined'. In sociology everyone has culture. There is no 'uncultured' person.
Culture also helps people cope with nature and with each other. Different groups find different ways to live in the same kind of place, so cultures are different, but no culture is 'higher' than another.
Dimensions of culture
Culture has three sides (dimensions):
- Cognitive: how we understand the world. Knowledge, beliefs, language, stories. Example: knowing that the monsoon brings rain in June.
- Normative: rules of behaviour. Norms, values and customs. Example: speaking softly in a hospital.
- Material: things people make and use. Tools, houses, clothes, machines, phones.
Norms, folkways, mores and laws
- Norms are unwritten rules of what is proper.
- Folkways are small everyday habits (how to eat, how to greet). Breaking them gets a laugh or a frown.
- Mores are strong moral rules (do not steal, respect parents). Breaking them brings anger.
- Laws are formal rules made by the state. Breaking them brings official punishment.
Material and non-material culture, cultural lag
Material culture (things) often changes faster than non-material culture (ideas, rules). The gap is called cultural lag. Example: phones arrived fast, but manners about phone use at dinner are still being worked out.
Ethnocentrism and cosmopolitanism
Ethnocentrism means judging other cultures by the standards of your own and thinking yours is best. Cosmopolitanism means respecting and enjoying many cultures. Groups within a society that have their own style (for example, a college hostel crowd) form a subculture.
Socialisation
Socialisation is the process by which a helpless baby learns the culture of its society and becomes a member of it.
- Primary socialisation: in early childhood, mostly in the family. Language, basic habits, love and trust.
- Secondary socialisation: later, in school, work and wider society. Rules of offices, teams and strangers.
Socialisation goes on all life. A new employee, a new bride in a joint family, a retired person: all learn new roles. We learn our status (position) and the role (expected behaviour) that goes with it.
Socialisation is not like stamping a copy. People are not empty pots. They can question, choose and change what they learn.
Agencies of socialisation
- Family: the first and strongest agency. Language, food habits, values, gender roles. Families differ: joint, nuclear, rural, urban.
- Peer group: friends of the same age. Here children learn equality, sharing, fashion and slang. Peers can support or pressure.
- School: formal learning, discipline, time-keeping, competition. It also has a hidden curriculum: lessons taught without a textbook, such as who sweeps the class or who leads.
- Mass media: TV, films, newspapers, social media. They spread ideas, fashions and news quickly, even to villages.
- Other agencies: workplace, religion, caste and community groups, political parties. They teach adult roles and group identity.
Agencies can pull in different directions. Parents may want one thing and friends or media another. The person balances them.
Key formulas and definitions
- Culture: the learned, shared way of life of a group.
- Cognitive dimension: knowledge and beliefs.
- Normative dimension: norms, values, customs, laws.
- Material dimension: tools and objects.
- Folkways: small habits. Mores: strong moral rules. Laws: state rules.
- Cultural lag: material culture changes faster than non-material culture.
- Ethnocentrism: judging others by your own culture.
- Socialisation: learning the culture of your society, from birth to death.
- Primary socialisation: early childhood, family. Secondary: school, work, wider society.
- Agencies: family, peer group, school, mass media, work, religion, community.
Worked examples
1. Classify each into cognitive, normative or material culture: (a) a tractor, (b) the belief that the earth goes round the sun, (c) removing shoes before entering a temple.
(a) Material, it is an object. (b) Cognitive, it is knowledge. (c) Normative, it is a rule of behaviour.
2. Ravi talks loudly on his phone in a library. People frown. Which kind of norm did he break?
A folkway. It is a small everyday habit. Breaking it brings a frown, not police action.
3. A village gets smartphones within two years, but elders still think girls should not use them. What idea explains this?
Cultural lag. The material culture (phones) changed quickly, while the non-material culture (ideas about who may use them) is slower to change.
4. Meena, a new doctor, learns hospital rules, how to talk to patients and how to wear the white coat. Is this socialisation? Which type?
Yes. It is secondary socialisation, because it happens in adult life at the workplace, after childhood learning in the family.
Common mistakes
- Thinking 'cultured' means 'rich or refined'. In sociology every group and every person has culture.
- Thinking culture is born with us. It is learned through socialisation.
- Mixing up folkways and mores. Folkways are small habits; mores are strong moral rules.
- Thinking socialisation ends in childhood. It goes on all through life.