COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

COMMUNICATIONClick icon to add picture

*LANGUAGE

*SYMBOLS

*LANGUAGE

It forms the core of all culture.When people share a language,they share a condensed,very flexible set of symbols and meanings.

*SYMBOLSA symbol is anything that carries a particular

meaning recognized by people who share culture.Symbol serve as the basis for everyday reality,vary within cultures,cross-culturally and change over time.

COGNITIVE

*IDEAS

*KNOWLEDGE

*BELIEFS

*VALUES

*ACCOUNTS

IDEAS/KNOWLEGDE/BELIEFSIdeas-are mental

representations(concepts,categories,metaphors)used to organize stimuli;they are the basic units of which knowledge is constructed and a world emerges.

Knowledge-the storehouse where we accumulate representations,information,facts,assumptions,etc.

Beliefs accepts a proposition,statement,description of facts,etc.as true.

VALUES/ACCOUNTSValues-a culturally defined standaeds of

desirability,goodness and beauty,which serve as broad guideliness for social living.

Accounts-how people use that common language to explain,justify,rationalize,excuse,or legitimize our behaviorto themselves and others.

BEHAVIORAL

*NORMS

*MORES

*LAWS

*FOLKWAYS

*RITUALS

*NORMS

are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior if its members

MATERIALS

*TOOLS,MEDICINES

*BOOKS

*TRANSPORTATION

*TECHNOLOGIES

MORESThey are customary behavior of folkways

which have taken in a moralistic value.This includes respect for authority, marriage

and sex behavior patterns, religious rituals, and other basic codes of human behavior.

LAWSConstitute the most formal and important

norms.

FOLKWAYSThese are behavior patterns of society which

are organized and repetitive.It involves the way we eat, how we dress, and

other patterns we follow because they have been impressed upon us from the time we were born.

RITUALSThese are highly scripted ceremonies or

strips of interaction that follow a specific sequence of actions.

They occur at predetermined times or triggered by specific cues.

*MATERIAL COMPONENTRefers to physical objects of culture such as

machines, equipment, tools, books, clothing, etc.

*THE ORGANIZATION OF CULTURE While the culture of a group is an integrated

network of folkways, mores, systems of beliefs, and institutional patterns, it can be broken into simple units or elements called cultural traits.

TRANSMISSION OF CULTURE1. enculturation

It is the process of learning culture of one’s own group.

2. Acculturationthe process of learning some new traits from another culture.

3. Assimilationit is the term used for a process in which an individual entirely loses any awareness of his/her previous group identity and takes on the culture and attitudes of another group.