Functions of Culture in a Society

Subject Notes:  Sociology                                

Culture

• The ways of life that are common to a society make up its culture
• The culture of any society represents generalizations about the behaviour of many  mambers of that society….not the personal habits of any one individual.
• The concept of culture is basic to what anthropology is all about.
• The term culture encompases two major types of behavioural patern: the ideal and the real.  (i) Ideal cultural patterns are what the people of a society would do or say if they conformed completely to the standards of their culture.  (ii) Real behavioral patterns, on the other hand, are derived from observations of how people actually behave.
• Most anthropologists believe that various aspects of cultures are interilated – that the religious rituals, the work habits, the beliefs and ideologies, the marriage relationships form a whole system whose parts are related to and affect one another.
• Anthropologists believe that culture is learned – from one genertion to another.
• Symbolism plays a key role in culture, for it is the ability to create and use symbols – including words, pictures, and writing – that distingueshes human beings from other animals.
• It is possible to divide culture into several categories. Anthropologists commonly use the following divisions:

1. Technology:  the ways in which people create and use tools and other material artifacts
2. Economics: the patterns of behaving relative to the production, distribution,  and consumption of goods and services.
3. Social organisation: characteristic relations among individuals within a society including the divisions of labor and the social and political organization; and dthe relationships between a society and other societies.
4. Religion: ways of  life relative to the human concern for the unknown.
5. Symbolic culture: systems of symbols (such as language, art, music, literaature) used to acquire, order, and trasnfer knowledge.

The Functions of Culture

• Culture assists people in adapting to the conditions in which they live.  Even ways of life that at first glance appear to be quaint of curious may play an important role in helping individuals or societies cope with problems.
• Functionalism assumes that there are certain minimum biological needs that must be satisfied if individuals and society are to survive, as well as social and psychological needs.  Functionalists tend to examine every custom, material object, idea, belief, and institution in terms of the task or function in perfoms.
• To understand culture functionally, we have to find out how a particular institution or practce relates to the bilogical, social, or psychlolgical needs, and how it relates to other culture institutions and practices.

Authority In the Family

• The family is the principal agent of socialization into a society.  It is the most intimate and most important of all social groups.

• A cross-cultural comparison reveals that in all societies the family possesses these common characteristics:

1. Sexual mating
2. Childbearing and child rearing
3. A system of names and a method o determining kinship.
4. A common habitaion.
5. Socialization and education of the young.
6. A system of roles and expectations based on the family membership.

• Family arrangements vary.  First of all , the marriage relationship may take on such institutional forms as monogamy, poligamy, and polyandry.

The Family In Agricultural Societies

• In most agricultural societies the family is patriarchal and patrilineal….the family is an economic instirution, as well as a sexual and child rearng one;  it owns land and produces artifacts.
• Women face a lifetime of child bearing, child reating and household work.

The Family In Industrialised societies

• Industrialization alters the economic  functions of the family and brings about changes in the traditional patterns of authority.
• In industrialised societies the household is no longer an important unit of production, even though it retains an economic role as a consumeer unit.
• The number of women in the work force has increased everywhere.
• The aothority of the male as the breadwinner is also threatened by unemployment.

Stages of Development of Power Relationships

1. Societies in which there is no separate power organization outside of the family or kinship group.
2. Societies where families are organized in larger bands, tribes, or confederacies that have organised sets of power arrangements extending beyond family ties.
3. Societies that are organised as permanent states and that have a more or less well defined terriory and recognised organisation to make and enforce rules  of conduct.

SOCIAL CLASSES

1. Why do we have social classes?

There are two theories that try to explain the causes of enequality.

1. the functional theory

• certain positions are more important to a society’s survival than other positions and require special skills.  For example, in most societies, occupations such as governor, physician, teacher, and priest are considered vital.
• Only a few persons in society have the ability (intelligence, energy, personality) to perform well in these positions.
• These positions require that persons who do have ability undergo extensive training and education before they occupy these positions.
• In order to motivate able people to endure the training and sacrifice their time and energy for education, society must provide them with additional rewards.
• The result is social inequality.

1. the conflict theory

• people who possess property, income, power, or prestige – the upper classes – simply wish to protect their position in society.  Thus, the stratification system  is perpetuated.
• There are many functionally important positions in society that are not highly rewarded.
• Many persons in the lower classes have the ability to perform in high-status occupations, but because of unequal educational opportunities they never get the chance to do so.  
• Wealth is not the only way to motivate people.
• Stratification negatively affects the thinking of members of the lower class.  

Social classes are of interest to sociologists, with their concern for the relationships among individuals and groups.  

1. class as determinant of life style.

Life in each social class is different.  Differences in ways of life mean differences in culture or rather, a division of the culture into subcultures.  There are class differences in almost every aspect of life: health, hygiene, vocabulary, table manners, standards of right and wrong, recreation and entertainment, religion, sexual activity etc.