THE CONCEPT OF CULTURECulture can also refer to expressive culture, which includes plastic and graphic arts, such as sculpture and painting, and language when utilized as an artistic medium. Sociologists and anthropologists define culture in a broader context. Culture refers to the total and distinctive way of life or designs for living of any society. It encompasses learned behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, values, and ideals characteristic of certain societies. Weinstein defines culture as a human invention that has a fundamental role in the population’s adaption to its environment. Its essential features found in the people’s collective life include norms, values, language, tools and other material objects. Culture is the sum total of human creations- intellectual, technical, artistic, physical, and moral. It guides social life, the things generation must follow and to which they may eventually add. Language, religion, science, art, notions of right and wrong, and explanations of the meaning of life are all parts of culture. Culture is a people’s social heritage;it refers to customary ways in which groups organize their ways of behaving, thinking, and feeling. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE1. Culture is learned. The norms, skills, values, and knowledge which constitute one’s culture are acquired during the course of one’s life and not transmitted genetically.
3. Culture is social, collective, and learned. It is developed through group interaction and results from the accumulation of knowledge and group expectations. 4. Culture is ideational. Within the group habits considered as ideal patterns of behavior which the members are expected to follow 5. Culture is gratifying. Culture has provision to satisfy biological and socio-cultural needs of people. 6. Culture is adaptive. All cultures are always changing and these changes represent adjustments to the environment. 7. Culture is an integrated whole. The various parts of the culture are closely interrelated and integrated into a whole. COMPONENTS OF CULTUREThe two major aspects of culture are material and non-material culture. Material culture refers to the concrete and tangible objects that human create, use, and share. Non-material culture consists of knowledge, social norms, beliefs, and sanctions which are abstract and intangible creations that influence human behavior. RACE AND ETHNICITYrefers to the classification of humans according to physical characteristics. Ethnicity refers to culturally defined differences between ethnic groups in society. Race refers to physical characteristics transmitted at birth to a group of people. This is manifested in the shape of the head and face, the shape and the color of eyes, the shape of the nose, lips, and ears, the texture and color of hair, the skin color, height, blood type and other biological characteristics. An ethnic group refers to a group of people within common cultural background. G. Thomas theory of the “definition of the situation" in ethnic group relations implies that, what is important is not the physical characteristics that identify a group but how such relationship determine the feeling of belonging to each other. Minority group refers to a group of people that is numerically lesser than the rest of the population. These groups are in non-dominant position, whose members possess ethnic, religious, or linguistic characteristics which distinguish them from the rest of the population. Its members share a sense of solidarity and a desire to preserve their culture, traditions, religion or language. ETHNIC GROUPS IN THE PHILIPPINESThe indigenous peoples in the Philippines number 7 million. The two main groups are Moros, and the Igorots because of their numerical size, demographic concentration, and political organization. Note: The distribution of ethnic group by provinces is available in our reference.
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SOCIOLOGYThe study of humankind's most important creation- the social group. Archives
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