Culture and Society

A Social Systems Perspective

 Definitions
Culture:
Those qualities and attributes that seem to be
characteristic of all humankind.
Humans evolve and adapt primarily through
culture rather than changes in anatomy or
genetics.
Culture survives if it can accommodate to
changing conditions.
Culture is viewed as a macrosystem.
Binds a particular society together, and includes
its manners, morals, tools, and techniques.
 Society:
A group of people who have learned to live
and work together.
Society is a holon and within the society,
culture refers to the way of life is followed
by the group (society).
 Nature of Culture
Culture is a group phenomenon.
Cultures evolve from the interaction of
person with others, and a persons belief
or behavior becomes part of the culture
when it is externalized and objectified.
 A culture evolves as each person encounters
four poles.
Ones own body or somatic process.
Biological constitution
Genetic endowment
Other persons or society.
Feedback cycle
The material world of nonhuman objects.
The universe of social constructed meanings.
 According to Erikson, cultures change
through the action of persons whose ideas
and behavior fit the culture.
Change can also occur as a result of
cataclysm, either physical as in famine,
war, epidemic, or disaster.
It can also change as a result of a
paradigm shift in fundamental
understandings by those in the culture.
 Unique Aspects of the Human
Species
The capacity to think.
Sets humans apart from most other forms of
life.
Humans have the capacity to externalize
the thought process.
Tools
Human reproduction
Cloning
The Family as Human Universal
The family is biologically based and is the
primary social unit.
Family is constant; the form of the family is
variable.
The development of culture exists
because culture is transmitted from one
generation to the next through education
not through the genes.
Language and Communication
Language is defined as any transfer of
meaning, but general usage refers only to
spoken and written messages.
It is essential to be attuned to unspoken
and unwritten language.
Language structures reality
Form and variability determine how members
of the culture will view reality and structure
their thoughts.
 Territoriality
Tendency of people to seek and maintain
a territory.
The definition of spatial and interactional
territories is paramount feature of any
culture.
Refers to the cultural ways people locate
themselves in their universe and establish
the boundaries of their various human
systems.
 Qualities of a Society
Culture is that complex whole that
includes knowledge, belief, art, law,
morals, custom, and any other capabilities
and habits acquired by a human being as
a member of society.
Culture is viewed as the ways of doing,
being, and explaining, as they exist in
each particular system.
 Tools
Amplifiers of human capacities:
Sensory capacity
Motor capacity
Reasoning and thinking capacity
Include devices, objects, and procedures that
are extensions of human natural capacities.
Tools of a culture include not only understanding
their built-in purpose but, their purpose for the
user.
 Social Organizations:
Society and Roles
All cultures, being social systems, have
organization.
Three aspects operating to define social class:
Economic status
Social status
Political power
Social class suggests a group consciousness on
the part of members.
Emergence of a permanent underclass in
American society.
 Role relates to and derives from status.
Total of the cultural expectations associated with
a particular status, including:
Attitudes
Values
Behavior
Role expectation are defined by the culture and
its components and incorporated by the persons
filling the role.
 All persons occupy a complex set of roles:
Parent
Child
Worker
Voter
Worshipper
The total number of roles is influenced by
the quantity of networks they are involved
in.
 Language
Transfer of meaning between systems and
between subsystems.
Composed of symbols and the meanings
are learned and transferred through social
interaction.
Communication of symbols and their
meanings represents the major form of
transaction between systems.
 Mead stated that we do not simply respond to
the acts of others; we act on our interpretations
of their intentions and judgments.
A means of setting and maintaining cultural
boundaries; also to organize the energies of the
system.
The importance of screening and interpreting
symbols in working with people is quite clear.
 Child Rearing
A major task of any culture.
As a culture becomes more complex and
differentiated, so too does child rearing,
and other social provisions appear.
These new systems arise to realize more
effectively the complex values of a culture.
Certain values are in conflict with certain
other values, leading to tension and strain
within the culture.
 Human Urge to Explain the World
Humans are congenitally compelled to
impose a meaningful order upon reality.
Religion, philosophy, science, and
superstition are some of the means.
Science continues to be the dominant
means of exploring, explaining, and
changing our world.
 Social Relations:
Caring
Cultures are marked by the style in which
they conduct social relationships.
Caring involves both an emotional
disposition and caring labor.
It is a practice in which both thought and
action are integrated around central aims
or goals.
Caring is a dimension of culture as much
as tools and language.
 A feminist critique states that caring is largely
delegated to women by a male-dominated
society.
Regardless of sex, individuals and groups who
occupy subordinate status display a responsive
orientation to others characterized by deference,
attentiveness, awareness of needs,
understanding of perspectives, moods,
intentions, and responsiveness.
 An emphasis on autonomy as a basis for
caring may be more acceptable to men.