Culture as an Important Facet of Society

A society without culture is as good as dead. Discuss. A society according to Thomas, L (1995:25) is defined as “a group of mutually interdependent people who have organized in such a way as to share a common culture and feeling of unity”. In other ways society consists of people, and culture consists of products that people create. Culture according to Giddens (2005:45) refers to “the pattern of human activity and the symbols, which give significance to this activity”. Culture is represented through the art, literature, costumes, customs and traditions of a community.

Different cultures exist in different parts of the world. The natural environment greatly affects the lifestyle of the people of that region, thus shaping their culture. The diversity in the cultures around the world is also a result of the mindsets of people inhabiting different regions of the world. There are several components of human culture namely; symbols, language, values and beliefs, norms, and technology. Symbols are anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture. The simplest most everyday things are symbols for examples a wave of the hand can be a friendly gesture of hello.

However, if not done properly with all the fingers in the upright position it can be a rude gesture and a great sign of disrespect. The honking of a car horn is a symbol to grab someone's attention to their surroundings. Even something as common as a kiss is a symbol of love and caring. Language is a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with each other. Language can be words or sounds that are spoken or words that are written. For instance some people believe that dogs communicate with each other through barking, this may be their own language.

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Values are culturally defined standards by which people assess desirability, goodness, and beauty, and that serve as broad guidelines for social living. Beliefs are specific statements that people hold to be true. There are several examples of both that can be found by looking at the Christian religion. The Ten Commandments are a great source. "You shall have no other gods before me", for Christians this statement is both a belief and a value. "Honor you father and mother" is a statement that Christians hold true and also one that they set their standards of living by.

The other example of values and beliefs is "You shall not murder" a statement they stand by and live their lives by. Norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members. One example of a norm is not cheating on a test, we all know this is wrong and should not be done at all cost. Technology is knowledge that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings, which is reflected by material culture an example of this is Plasma TV's you can simply hang these picture perfect TV's anywhere on the wall.

It is true to say that no society exists without culture because of the following facets that culture brings to society which are as follows: The cultural values of a community give it an identity of its own; a community gains a character and a personality of its own, because of the culture of its people. Culture is shared by the members of a community. It is learned and passed from the older generations to the newer ones. For an effective transfer of culture from one generation to another, it has to be translated into symbols. Language, art and religion serve as the symbolic means of transfer of cultural values between generations.

Culture is a bond that ties the people of a region or community together; It is that one common bond, which brings the people of a community together. The customs and traditions that the people of a community follow, the festivals they celebrate, the kind of clothing they wear, the food they eat, and most importantly, the cultural values they adhere to, bind them together. Culture is seen as a system of social control, wherein people shape their standards and behavior; the cultural values form the founding principles of one's life. They influence one's principles and philosophies of life.

They influence one's way of living and thus impact social life. Culture is the Treasury of Knowledge; culture provides knowledge, which is essential for the physical and intellectual existence of man. Birds and animals behave instinctively with environment. But man has greater intelligence and learning capacity. With the help of these, he has been able to adapt himself with environment or modify it to suit his convenience. Culture has made such an adaptation and modification possible and easier by providing man the necessary skills and knowledge.

Culture preserves knowledge and helps its transmission from generation to generation through its means that is language helps not only the transmission of knowledge but also its preservation, accumulation and diffusion. On the contrary, animals do not have this advantage because culture does not exist at such human level. Culture Defines Situations; culture defines social situations for us. It not only defines but also conditions and determines what we eat and drink, we wear, when to laugh, weep, sleep, love to like friends with, what work we do, what god we worship, what knowledge we rely upon, what poetry we recite and so on.

Culture Defines Attitudes, Values and Goods; attitudes refer to the tendency to feel and work out in certain ways. Values are the measure of goodness or desirability. Goods refer to the attainments, which our values define as worthy. It is the culture, which conditions our attitude towards various issues such as religion, morality, marriage, science, family planning, positions and so on. Our values concernsing private etc. are influenced by our culture. Our goals of winning the race, understanding others, attaining salvation, being obedient to elders and teachers, being loyal to husband, being patriotic etc. re all set forth by our culture. We are being socialized on these models. Culture Decides Our Career; whether we should become a politician or a social worker, a doctor, an engineer, a soldier, a farmer, a professor, an industrialist; a religious leader and so on is decided by our culture. What career we are likely to pursue is largely decided by our culture. Culture sets limitations on our choice to select different careers. Individuals may develop, modify or oppose the trends of their culture but they always live within its framework. Only a few can find outlet on the culture.

Culture Provides Behavior Pattern; Culture directs and confines the behavior of an individual. Culture assigns goals and provides means for achieving them. It rewards noble works and punishes the ignoble ones. It assigns him status. We see dream, aspire, work, strive to marry, enjoy according to the cultural expectation. Culture not only contains but also liberates human energy and activities. Man indeed is a prisoner of his culture. Culture Provides Personality; Culture exercises a great influence on the development of personality. No child can get human qualities in the absence of a cultural environment.

Culture prepares man for group life and provides him the design of living. It is the culture that provides opportunities for the development of personality and sets limits on its growth. As Ruth Benedict has pointed out every culture will provide its special type or types of personality. Culture Makes Man a Human Being; It is culture that makes the human, a man, regulates his conduct and prepares him for group life. It provides to him a complete design for living. It teaches him what type of food he should take and in what mariner, how he should over himself and behave with his fellows, how he should speak with the people and how he should co-operate or compete with others. An individual abstained from culture is less than human; he is what we call feral, man. The individual to be truly human must participate in cultural stream without it he would have been forced to find his own way, which would mean a loss of energy in satisfying his elementary needs. Culture Provides Solution for Complicated Situation; culture provides man with a set of behavior even for complicated situation.

It has so thoroughly influenced that often he does not require any external force to keep himself in conformity with the social requirements. His action becomes automatic. Forming queues when there is rush at the booking window or driving left in the busy streets. In the absence of culture, he should have been baffled even at the simplest situations. He need not go through painful trial and error learning to know what food can be taken without poisoning himself and fellow. His culture directs and confines his behavior, limits his goals and measures his reward.

His culture gets into his mind and shutters vision so that he sees what is supposed to see in dream what he is expected to dream and hunger for what he is trained to hunger. Culture Provides Traditional Interpretations to Certain Situation; through culture men gets traditional interpretation for many situations according to which he determines his behavior. If a cat crosses his way, he postpones his journey. It may however be noted that these traditional interpretation differ from culture to culture. Among some culture owl is regarded as a symbol of wisdom and not a symbol of idiocy.

Culture Keeps Social Relationship Intact; culture has importance not only for man but also for the group. Had there been no culture there would have been no group life. Culture is the design and the prescription for guiding values and ideals. By regulating the behavior of the people and satisfying, the primary drives pertaining to hunger and sex it has been able to maintain group life. Culture has provided a number of checks upon irrational conduct and suggestibility culture aids such as in schooling or scientific training. Lessen the chances that a man will behave irrationally or irresponsibility.

The members of group characterized though they be by consciousness of kind, at once competing. They are held in line by constraints prescribed by culture. Culture Broadens the Out Looks of the Individual; culture has given a new vision to individual by providing him a set of rules for co-operation of the individuals. He thinks not only his own self but also of the others. Culture teaches him to think himself a part of the larger whole, it provides him with the concept of family, state, nation and class and make responsible the cooperation and division of labor.

Culture Creates New Needs; Culture also creates new needs and new drives, for example, thirst for knowledge and arranges for the satisfaction. In conclusion culture and society are co-existent one does not or cannot exist without the other, culture and society may have some common elements but the two are not the same they are not identical the essential difference is that society is composed of people while culture consists of knowledge, ideas, customs, traditions, folkways, mores, skills, institutions, organizations and artifacts.

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