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Culture
Culture
Culture
Culture
Culture
Culture
is series nature.
is shared.
is patterned
diversities for peoples creativity.
is adaptive
is general as specific
Development of Culture
Language is the critical element of culture that sets human apart from
other species. Members of a society generally share a common language,
which facilitates day to day exchanges with others. This is the foundation of
every culture.
Cultural Universals
all societies have developed certain common practices and beliefs.
Culture may be universal, but the manner in which they are
expressed varies from one culture to another.
CAUSES OF CULTURAL CHANGE
Innovation is the process of introducing a new idea or object to a culture.
Two types of innovation:
1. Discovery
2. Invention
Diffusion refers to the process by which a cultural item spread from group
to group or society to society. It can be achieved in a variety of means,
exploration, military conquest, missionary work, mass media and tourism.
Cultural integration the close relationship among various elements of a
cultural system.
Culture lag the fact that some cultural elements change more quickly than
others, disrupting a cultural system.
Non-verbal communicationsrefers to gestures and hand signals.
What is society?
-is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a
large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory,
subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.
- a group of people occupying a territory who are dependent on each other
for survival. The relationships that hold a society together are known so
social structure or social organization.
Other definitions of society:
Society is a system.
Society is composed of (consists only of) very many parts, which we
call members, and which are Intelligent
Systems or societies themselves.
The life span of the members of the society is appreciably shorter than
that of the society or sub society to which they belong.
Society is a group of interacting individuals sharing the same territory
and participating in common culture.
Basic features of a society
Society is the mutual interaction of individuals. It is invisible.
Active cooperation is the back bone of the society.
Liberty is regulated through the mutual agreement of individuals.
Society is universal having no boundary or limits.
Family is the force of biological interdependence of society.
Likeness of members is the essential pre-requisite for society
Origin of society
o Social contract theory.
Society is based on some original contracts between the individuals.
Society was formed to protect man against its sun bridled nature.
Society was evolved to maintain a state of peace and justice in nature
Criticism:
Society has an abstract phenomenon where as human body has
a definite form.
Individuals can work in an organic manner where as a body cell can
not.
o Organic theory.
Society is a biological system.
Society is an animal body.
Industrial and agricultural systems are the nutritional systems of
the society.
Individual persons are the cells of the society.
Communication and transport are the heart, veins and arteries of
the society.
Criticism:
Industrial societies
Emergence of modern families.
Powerful economic institutions.
Domination of management and division of labor in factories.
Social mobility and change of status prevails.
More economic avenues for women
Post Industrial societies
Refers to technology that supports an information based economy.
More and more jobs demand information-based skills using
EVOLUTION OF SOCIETY
GERHARD LENSKI
a sociologist that differentiates societies based on their level of
technology, communication and economy
Karl Marx: SOCIETY AND CONFLICT
Social Conflict struggle between segments of society over the valued
resources. The most significant form of social conflict involved classes that
arise from the way society produces material goods.
This economic system, Marx noted, transformed a small part of the
population into capitalists, people who own factories and the other
productive enterprises. A capitalists goal is profit, which results from
selling a product for more than it costs to produce. Capitalism casts most of
the population as industrial workers, whom Marx termed the Proletariat
people who provide labor necessary to operate factories and other
productive enterprises.
Marx viewed the economic system as the social infrastructure.
Marx rejected capitalist common sense as false consciousness
explanations of social problems in terms of the shortcomings of
individuals rather than the flaws of society. He said, industrial
capitalism itself is responsible for many of the social problems he saw all
around him.
Marx use the term class conflict to refer to antagonism between
entire classes over the distribution of wealth and power in society.
Class consciousness the recognition by workers of their unity as a class
in opposition to capitalists and ultimately capitalism itself. Because the
inhumanity of early capitalism seemed so obvious to him, Marx concluded
that industrial workers would inevitably rise up en masse to destroy
industrial capitalism.
Max Weber: The Rationalization of Society
Webers coined the term idealism- which emphasizes how human ideas
shape society.
PROCESS OF SOCIALIZATION
Socialization
The lifelong process in which people learn the attitudes, values, and
behaviors appropriate for members of a particular culture.
The lifelong social experience by which individuals develop human
potential and learn the patterns of their culture.
Human beings rely on social experience to learn the nuances of their
culture in order to survive.
Social experience is also the foundation of personality, which refers to
a persons fairly consistent pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Learning how to live within ones culture.
Peer groups- peers refer to the people who are roughly the same
age/or who share other social characteristics. Peers can be the source
of harassment as well as support.
Mass media
Workplace- learning to behave appropriately within an occupation is a
fundamental aspect of human socialization. Socialization in the
workplace changes when it involves a more permanent shift from an
after-school job to full-time employment.
The State- social scientists have increasingly recognized the
importance of the government as an agent of socialization because of
its growing impact on the life course. The state has had a noteworthy
impact on the life course by reinstituting rites of passage that had
disappeared from agricultural societies and during periods of early
industrialization.