Understanding the Dynamics of Culture in Society
1. Universal Character of Culture
If we say that culture has a universal character, what does that mean? All human populations have culture because it is a widespread or universal conquest of mankind. The emergence and cultural evolution result from the genesis or partnership of the humanization process. In this sense, culture is seen as a second human nature because the survival of the species has depended on the existence of culture. The human is a constitutive and cultural concept. Culture is necessarily linked with that of society. All human societies, from the most primitive to the most advanced, have culture.
2. Culture as Learned Behavior
Why do we say that culture is learned? Culture is always learned. Not everything that is shared in a society is cultural. Hair color or eye color is not a cultural fact, nor is the fact of eating or drinking in itself. Nature and culture are contradictory terms. Nature is what is innate or born with it, as that system is endowed with instincts within a species. What identifies a culture is that its characteristics (traits, complexes, and institutions) are learned by example: how we cut our hair or paint our eyes, the kind of meat we eat, and the wine with which we accompany it. Learning is not an exclusive characteristic of man, as many shapes or forms of learning (repetition, trial and error, conditioning) we share with animals. For example, lions learn hunting strategies by observing other group members. Social learning (the rightful position in the hierarchy of the group). The characteristic of cultural learning is its symbolism.
3. Symbolic Character of Culture
Why does culture have a symbolic character? A symbol is a sign that has no necessary or natural connection but a conventional one (the result of an agreement) with the reality it represents: a code of smoke signals, a totem, a map of the tribe, a ritual to avoid certain diseases, or painting conducive to hunting, among many others, are symbolic systems. Actually, each culture has its own. Of all the symbolic systems of the human being, language is primary since all symbolic systems of culture are translated into linguistic symbols. The emergence of culture is the result of the emergence of different phylogenetic or evolutionary intelligence: practical, symbolic, abstract, and social.
4. Shared Culture and Uniformity
Does the fact that culture is shared by a society also mean that it is uniform? Explain properly. It is clear that if only one individual thinks or does one thing, this idea or action is itself an afterthought to a personal habit, not a cultural trait. For an idea or a behavior pattern to be considered cultural, it must be common to a comprehensive policy to a wider group of people. A cultural trait must be known, accepted, and practiced in varying degrees by a large number of individuals in society. Cultural discontinuity in the same society is reflected in the nations of subculture and counterculture. A subculture is defined as a set of cultural characteristics that, although shared with the common core of a culture, differ significantly. For example, Latin American immigrant groups in the U.S. and Spain joined the culture of acceptance. Their culture has its own characteristics. Sociologists speak of subcultures even associated with the profession, such as the subculture of miners or doctors, age (youth subculture), or social class (upper-class subculture). Countercultures are those subcultures that are manifestly divergent or challenging to the common or shared core of a culture.
5. Plurality of Culture
Why do we say that culture is plural? Provide examples. The first cultural diversification phenomena already occurred in prehistory. From the primitive cultural events, culture tends to be characterized by the variety of traits, complexes, and institutions. Every society has had and has its own culture that differs in degree or shares with others. Cultural plurality is based on the adaptive nature of culture. By adaptive, we mean that no other cultural characteristics allow a population to survive in their environment. Certain cultural traits are functional in one environment and not in another. Courtship and engagement as a means of access to marriage may be functional in European society but not in the Hindu. By arbitrary, we mean that no cultural characteristics can be considered more natural or necessary than others. All cultural features are the result of a collective agreement. Chinese culture supports the consumption of dog meat with great delight, while it is hard for us to digest.
6. Normative Nature of Culture
Why does culture have a normative nature? Illustrate your answer. Conveniently, culture is essentially a reality of rules. It tells us how to do things, i.e., patterns of action, and provides ideal patterns of behavior. A culture is a comprehensive system of rules established and shared by members of a society, which they interpret individually, making cultural statistical standards theoretical expectations or standards of conduct in actual behavior. Obviously, not all students are good students, and not all soldiers are brave.
7. Dynamic Nature of Culture
Why do we say that culture is changing? Culture is always in flux, varying according to needs. Since a culture is a learned pattern of collective life, cultural traits can be ignored when they become dysfunctional and replaced with new ones that are adaptive. A culture undergoes profound changes when changes occur in its basic institutions: family and kinship, economic structure, political power, and the educational system.
8. Strong Regulatory Systems of Conduct
What is the strong regulatory system of conduct? Explain properly. Its significance is high because it defines what a society considers right or normal, good or right in the moral sense, and legal in the legal sense. It includes uses and traditions, mores or moral customs, and laws. Social or traditional uses are the normal, correct, and usual ways of doing things in a given society. They also include ways or lifestyles and fads. Mores are what the social moral majority defines as what the members of a society consider good and just in a moral sense. We may assume, for example, that the cultural norm in our country is not considered morally acceptable in statistical terms. A breach of the rule includes a penalty, gradually increasing as the actual content of the transgression. A proportion of the mores is especially important for the integration, cohesion, and stability of a society. Laws are objective standards of performance that are imperative based on the universality of the rule of law. They come from the legislature and are implemented and sanctioned by the judiciary in a democratic society under the law.
9. Weak Regulatory Systems in Culture
What is the weak regulatory system of culture? It designates the regulatory systems of a culture that are less mandatory to varying degrees. For example, scientific ideas are more regulatory than philosophical and religious beliefs, and religious beliefs are more so than fashion. Its normative meaning prescribes what we know, think about politics or believe in religion, what is considered valuable or a priority in our life, and what we choose, do, and feel. Normative force is based on two aspects: the optional nature and the limited extension of rules. The first aspect is based on the plurality of alternatives and even the possibility of dispensing with all. For example, in most European societies, one can choose between various religious beliefs or choose none. The second aspect is based on the lower limits of the population covered by the obligation of the rule. For example, scientific knowledge is highly normative due to the objectivity of its approach and results. The weak regulatory system includes the following elements: knowledge, ideology, politics, and idiosyncrasies.
10. Basic Normative System of Culture
What is the basic normative system of culture? Explain. This is the institutions. Figuratively, institutions are considered the pillars supporting the entire social edifice. So when one of the institutions enters a crisis because of functional adjustment or true change (e.g., a new law on the definition and dissolution of the marriage bond), society is particularly concerned, and the temperature of public opinion is maximized. Institutions are defined as cultural universals. In our society, institutions are as follows: 1) family, marriage, or kinship, 2) the economy, 3) political power, 4) the educational system, 5) religion, 6) science and technology, 7) armed forces, 8) sports, and 9) medicine are also highly institutionalized in our society.
11. System of Interaction in Culture
What is the system of interaction of a culture? Explain it properly and provide examples. Every culture shares and transmits a regulatory system that governs social interaction or action, that is, how its members relate. This system includes many behavioral patterns that occur among individuals in a society. These guidelines explain the interaction of a culture’s innumerable positions, statuses, and roles in a society. For example, how a soccer referee or a plumber should behave. The social members of a shared culture understand the action system from the concepts of status and role. Status is identified and valued according to criteria and rank or hierarchy. The role is defined as the conduct expected of one who occupies a particular status. A role is a set of expectations of social action. A physician is a status from which we expect certain standards of conduct.
12. Ethnocentrism and Its Disadvantages
What is ethnocentrism? Does it have disadvantages? It is defined as the tendency to evaluate the elements and cultural patterns of oneself as good and correct and those of others as strange, inappropriate, absurd, and even immoral. Most Americans view the British and the Latino family (e.g., Spanish) in this way. The problems of ethnocentrism are cultural intolerance, misunderstanding, and excess cohesion around one’s own regulatory systems. Ethnocentrism, in its most radical versions, generates attitudes such as racism, xenophobia, fanaticism, patriotism, and acculturation.
13. Cultural Relativism and Its Disadvantages
What is cultural relativism? Does it have disadvantages? For cultural relativism, all cultures have equal value (no culture is above or below another). Social scientists argue that to understand a culture, one must consider the elements of that culture on its own terms and from within its own context and meaning. It has certain disadvantages, such as neutrality or excessive tolerance toward certain traits, complexes, and institutions that are inexcusable and definitely unacceptable.
14. Interculturalism and Universalism
What are interculturalism and universalism? Are there any problems? Interculturalism, as well as respect and tolerance for other cultures, suggests the meeting, ongoing communication, and open dialogue with other cultures on a completely equal footing. The problem of interculturalism is a certain relativism that falls excessively tolerant of certain cultural practices contrary to freedom, equality, dignity, and respect for human rights.