Components of Culture

COMMUNIATIONLanguage

It forms the core of all culture. When people share a language, they share a condensed, very flexible set of symbols or meanings. That makes communication possible.

Symbols Symbols form the backbone of

symbolic interaction. They condense very complex ideas and values into simple material forms so that the very presence of the symbol evokes the signified ideas and values.

A symbol is anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share culture.

COGNITIVE COMPONENTIdeas/Knowledge/Beliefs

Ideas- are mental representations (concepts, categories, metaphors) used to organize stimulus; they are the basic units out of which knowledge is constructed and a word emerges.

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

ValuesValues are defined as culturally

defined standards of desirability, goodness and beauty, which serve as a broad guidelines for social living.

The values people hold vary to some degree by age, sex, race, ethnicity, religion, and social class.

AccountsAccounts are how people use a

common language to explain, justify, rationalize, excuse, or legitimize our behavior to themselves and to others.

Motives are another type of account. They are verbalizations that lay out the “why” of our behavior.

BEHAVIORAL COMPONENTNorms

Norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members.

Norms are standards that define the obligatory and expected behaviors of people in various situations.

Types of NormsMores

They are customary behavior patterns or folkways which have taken on a moralistic value.

LawsLaws are the mores deemed so vital to

dominant interests that they become translated into legal formations that even nonmembers of society are required to obey.

FolkwaysThese are behavior patterns of society

which are organized and repetitive.

Folkways are commonly known as customs.

RitualsThese are highly scripted ceremonies or

strips of interaction that follow a specific sequence of actions.

MATERIAL COMPONENT

Human make objects, sometimes for practical reasons, and sometimes for artistic ones. The form and function of these objects is an expression of culture and culturally defines behavior often depends on the presence of specific objects. We call such objects material culture.

THE ORGANIZATION OF

CULTURE