Culture Case

Culture

Culture is commonly seen as a way of life of a given society, which has been acquired by man: its beliefs and its ideas, its systems and its institutions, laws and customs - that include learned behavior which aids in the adaptability of change and major influences of such change. The characteristic of culture is defined as shared beliefs and consensus to practices and the experiences which led to those practices, values and norms. Culture is an attribute not of individuals per se but of individuals as members of groups and is transmitted through society. Emile Durkheim emphasized that culture is external, exerting a strong coercive power on us. We do not always feel constraints of culture because we generally conform to the types of conduct and thought it requires.

Culture is learned. Such thoughts and or behaviours are instilled through personal experience or moral upbringing; the custom of praying before the consumption of a meal. This is considered as direct learning. Each child goes through a process of acculturation when they grow up in a culture. Learning can be acquired through mere observation, as the saying goes; "monkey see monkey do". Children learn how to respond to a situation by observing how their intermediate environment deals with a particular situation. Sometimes, these reactions are modified according to their internalization of how a society portrays the methods of which, such situation should be dealt with. Culture can be absorbed unconsciously; for instance, making the sign of the cross after surviving a close to death experience or sharing a friendly hug as oppose to a hug shared by a love one.

"It is said the significance of culture lies in the meaning it holds for people." The Essentials: Andersen, M. and Taylor H. F. (2009) pg 29. Symbols are things or objects which are given a universal term or meaning and acts as an engine room for communication, forming its own language. It can be verbal or no verbal. Hence culture is symbolic.

Culture an in numerous aspect of life. Cultural habits, ideas or perceptions, and inventions mold "human nature". Humans eat and sleep because they have too; but the period and how they eat and or sleep are learned and varies from one culture to the other. In a society in which health is continually encouraged and the protection and preservation of the environment, people modify their behavioural patterns or life