Unit 3

Unit 3: Cultural and behavior

Culture: Concept

Culture is simply all that exists in the social functioning of a particular group of people. It refers to characteristics individuals in group have in common such as language value system, religious belief, preference, and other patterns of behavior. Culture includes the way things are done and the feelings people have about interpersonal relationships. It covers an immense number of things like concrete material objects or abstract concepts, from civil rights and justice to automobiles, and from the bow and arrow to hot dogs, baseball, jazz and Shakespeare. Finally, culture is a learned way of living transmitted socially from one person to another down through the years, not unchanged, yet with a particular fundamental underlying pattern which is identifiable.

Dynamics of culture:

Pattern of behavior built on the cultural basis are never static over a period of time. When culture is transmitted from one individual/group to another there is chance to change the culture subtly or dramatically. Thus the dynamics of culture can be analyzed in term of change and developmental process:

Culture Change

It is an inevitable fact that changes will take place in culture. The change may occur slowly or rapidly but it does occur.  Broadly change in culture can be attributed to the following factors:

a.       Contact with others

Generally, culture change has been brought about by contact with others. This may be the result of migration, war, invasion, trade, exploration etc. When people have opportunity to interact with people from other culture, there is high change for culture to change.

For example:  Pop music made its way into Nepali culture due the influence of western people who came as tourist to Nepal.

b.      Change in climate or depletion of natural resource

Looking at the history the change in climate or depletion of natural resources has also led to the change in culture.  Change in climate or depletion of natural resources causes’ movement of people which lead to interaction with new people.

c.       Innovation or technological change

The advances in technology and new innovation are regarded as one of the most important factor for culture change.  The change in technology leads to the change in social structure and functioning. The wheels, gunpowder, steam engine, telephone, automobile, and airplane have each brought about change in attitude and behavior. Similarly in recent times the use of internet, social networking site such as face-book etc. have also brought changes in the culture.

Developmental Process of Culture

Culture is effective through its pervasiveness during all phases of the development of individual within the cultural framework. The elements of culture are learned, either from early childhood or in the course of later exposure to the patterns of behavior.  There are different developmental processes of culture. They are:

-          Enculturation: The process whereby a developing person is molded by the culture. For example: we learn Nepali culture through enculturation. As we grow up our personality is molded by our culture

-          Acculturation: The process where by an individual with access to other culture tries to change toward the new culture. Example:  When a Nepali citizen goes to UK to study or settle abroad he comes into contact with western culture and he tries to acculturate with the culture. He tries to change towards the new culture

-          Assimilation: The process whereby an individual becomes integrated with a new culture.  Assimilation is more than acculturation. Example: when a Nepali citizen goes to UK and begins to follow  all the cultural pattern of that country then we can say assimilation has taken place. He begins to work, talk, travel, celebrate etc. as per the culture of UK.

-          Accommodation: The process of adjusting with another culture. In accommodation there is no attempt towards assimilation. Example: Western countries have tried to accommodate the culture of Muslim minorities because Muslim minorities are not willing to assimilate with their culture.

Culture lag

The changes that take place in the society do not come at once to all parts of the group.  A social change may come to the society but different groups in the society accept that change at different period of time.  For example, when mobile phone was introduced in the Nepali society almost all groups of the society started to use the mobile phone within short period of time.  However, even after billions of Rupees already spend by the government and decades of awareness rising, the parents in village are still not willing to send their daughters for higher education. Parents in rural areas still resist that change. Thus the cultural lag in mobile was less and the culture lag in educating daughter is  in high proportion

Thus cultural lag refers to the period of general delay in following the new culture.  Ogburn (1950) first labeled the term. One such illustration is the type writer:

Related social Constructs

Certain aspects of broader behavior in a culture sometimes create confusion of terms or concepts. While they are certainly part of the picture, the roles played by factors such as race, nationality, and ethnicity are not significantly behavioral.

1. Race:

Race and culture are not synonymous, nor are they even necessarily related. Race refers to the possession of certain biological characteristics on which a classification is made.  Or race refers to a set of common physical characteristics. Not only there is great variation in almost any trait that may be used to establish a racial classification, but there is little of value in explaining behavior on this basis once the categories are established. However it is very difficult to differentiate a person on the basis of race.  Individuals may be from different racial backgrounds but can be part of a single culture.  Sometimes we may hear the terminologies such as ‘Jewish race’ or ‘Irish race’. But this is misleading because the first ‘ jewish race’ is referred to religious group and ‘Irish race’ is confused with nationality.

2. Nationality

Nationality is a purely political concept referring to allegiance to a political entity.  An individual’s nationality may be labeled simply by identifying the boundaries of the country of which one is citizen.

3. Ethnicity

An ethnic group is one which is distinguished from the general population on the basis of difference in culture.  Many ethnic groups may exist within the boundaries of one particular country.

4. Society

A society is a large aggregate of people who have a way of life in common, a settled existence, and can be definitely located on a geographical basis. Society refers to a group while culture indicates pattern of behavior.

COMMON SOCIAL RESPONSE

Most of people have done something without realizing the reasons for doing them that they doing natural. Most of individuals’ behavior is the result of some basic and innate {inborn} predisposition, which is coming from hereditary mechanisms. Ethnocentrism gives different culture when travel in different countries.

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to their own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behavior, customs, and religion. These ethnic distinctions and sub-divisions serve to define each ethnicity's unique cultural identity. The term ethnocentrism was coined by William G. Sumner, upon observing the tendency for people to differentiate between the in-group and others. He described it as often leading to pride, vanity, beliefs of one's own group's superiority, and contempt of outsiders. Anthropologists such as Franz Boas and  Bronis law Malinowski argued that any human science had to transcend the ethnocentrism of the scientist. Both urged anthropologists to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in order to overcome their ethnocentrism. Male and female have different role and responsibility given by society and they never infringe that norms and value, which is common response toward society. For many reason study of culture is important for knowledgeable citizen. It is change agent.

Culture Patterns in Simple Societies

Anthropologists has studies about varies culture comes form course of time. Anthropologist studies many tribal people and interest in preliterate societies. History was given the sketch of culture development. Study of different peoples in different places and times give fascinating and valuable picture of the diversity and unity of human behavior pattern. Ruth Benedict focused on 3 cultures, analyzed and compared the cultural patterns of 2 Indian cultures of North America and a culture in New Guinea. In US Southwest she found the Zuni tribe to be quiet, dignified, reserved and restrained. Individualism was influenced by group considerations. There was little conflict among individuals and everyone treated with kindness, consideration and respect. Lack of competition, aggression or even leadership made them simple societies. Benedict termed this culture an Apolloman culture and pointed out that it was violent and aggressive cultural. It is known as Dionysian culture. They are aggressive and highly individualistic.

Culture Pattern in Large societies