Culture and Civilization


Introduction

Generally speaking, the following elements of social life are considered to be representative of human culture: "stories, beliefs, media, ideas, works of art, religious practices, fashions, rituals, specialized knowledge, and common sense" (Griswold 2004:xvi). Yet, examples of culture do not, in themselves, present a clear understanding of the concept of culture; culture is more than the object or behavior.


Man is called as a culture bearing animal.
Hence understanding of human society requires the understanding of culture.
Because each and every society possesses culture and humanness only develops in a cultural framework.
Sociologists have developed the two concepts i.e. culture and society in order to account for and explain the regularities in human action and the essence of social life.
Besides the understanding of the meaning of culture is very vital to the understanding of the nature of society.
However, the term culture has for the first time coined in the eighteenth century.
Famous English anthropologist use the term for the first time in anthropology.
But the sociological meaning of the word culture sharply differs from the ordinary, common or literary meaning. Ordinarily the term culture refers to those particular traits and behavior systems that are regarded as refinements such as music, poetry, art, painting etc.
It refers to special qualities like this and persons who has acquired these qualities is considered as cultured and persons who has not acquired is called ‘uncultured’ But this is a very narrow view of culture and sociologist and anthropologist do not understand culture in this way.
But in a strict sociological sense culture refers to the totality of all those what is learned by individuals as members of society. Sociologically culture refers to acquired behavior which are shared by and transmitted among the members of society.

Culture is a way of life, a mode of thinking, acting and feeling. It is a heritage into which a child is born. Culture is manmade. Culture passes from one generation to another. It can be used both for educated and illiterate because they may have their own culture.

Culture also refers to a set of rules and procedures along with a supporting set of ideas and values.

Culture refers to the distinctive way of life of a group of people. And acquisition of a particular way of life is what is known as culture.
Thus culture is a learned behavior, it .s a social heritage, it is super organic and it is a decision for living. These are four different dimensions of culture.

Hence culture is a complex phenomenon. And to understand this complex phenomena more exactly and more accurately we must have to analyze some of it’s definitions given by different scholars.

Definitions:

(1)According to E.B. Tylor, “Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities acquired by man as a member of society”.

(2)According to H.T. Mazumdar, “Culture is the sum total of human achievements material as well as non-material, capable of transmission, sociologically i.e. by tradition-and communication, vertically as well as horizontally.”

(3)According to Maclver, “Culture is the expression of our nature in our modes of living and our thinking, intercourse, in our literature, in religion, in recreation and enjoyment.”

(4)According to S. Koening, “Culture is the sum total of man’s efforts to adjust himself to his environment and to improve his modes of living.”
Thus we conclude that culture is manmade. It is an organised system of norms and values hold by people of a society.

Culture is everything which is socially learned and shared by the members of a society.

Individual receives culture as a part of a social heritage and in turn reshape the culture and introduce changes which then become part of the heritage of succeeding generations. It is a response to human needs and is an instrumental reality and an apparatus for the satisfaction of the biologically derived needs.


Characteristics of Culture:

(1) Culture is social:
Culture does not exist in isolation. It is a product of society. It develops through social interaction. No man can acquire culture without association with others. Man becomes a man only among men.

(2) Culture is shared:
Culture is not something that an individual alone can possess. Culture in sociological sense is shared. For example, customs, traditions, beliefs, ideas, values, morale etc. are all shared by people of a group or society.

(3) Culture is learnt:
Culture is not inborn. It is learnt. Culture is often called "learned ways of behaviour". Unlearned behaviour is not culture. But shaking hands, saying thanks' or 'namaskar', dressing etc. are cultural behaviour.

(4) Culture is transmissive:
Culture is transmissive as it is transmitted from one generation to another. Language is the main vehicle of culture. Language in different form makes it possible for the present generation to understand the achievement of earlier generations. Transmission of culture may take place by imitation as well as by instruction.

(5) Culture is continuous and cumulative:
Culture exists as a continuous process. In its historical growth it tends to become cumulative. Sociologist Linton called culture 'the social heritage' of man. It becomes difficult for us to imagine what society would be like without culture.

(6) Culture varies from society to society:
Every society has a culture of its own. It differs from society to society. Culture of every society is unique to itself. Cultures are not uniform. Cultural elements like customs, traditions, morale, values, beliefs are not uniform everywhere. Culture varies from time to time also.

(7) Culture is dynamic:
No culture ever remains constant or changeless. It is subject to slow but constant change. Culture is responsive to the changing conditions of the physical world. Hence culture is dynamic.

(8) Culture is gratifying:
Culture provides proper opportunities for the satisfaction of our needs and desires. Our needs both biological and social are fulfilled in the cultural ways. Culture determines and guides various activities of man. Thus, culture is defined as the process through which human beings satisfy their wants.

(9) Culture is the total social heritage:
We know culture is a social product. It is linked with the past. Through transmission past continues to live in culture. It is shared by all.

Conclusion:
From the above discussion we are clear that each and every society has a culture of its own. Culture is not only diverse but also unequal, but is found in societies throughout the world.






Elements of Culture:

Culture also includes norms, values, beliefs, or expressive symbols. Roughly, norms are the way people behave in a given society, values are what they hold dear, beliefs are how they think the universe operates, and expressive symbols are representations, often representations of social norms, values, and beliefs themselves. (Griswold 2004:3)

To summarize, culture encompasses objects and symbols, the meaning given to those objects and symbols, and the norms, values, and beliefs that pervade social life.



Following are some of the important functions of culture:

(1) Culture distinguishes man from animal. It is the culture that makes the human animal a man. It regulates his conduct and prepares him for a group life. Without culture he would have been forced to find his own way which would have meant a loss of energy.

1. Culture is the Treasury of Knowledge
Culture provides knowledge, which is essential for the physical and intellectual existence of man. Birds and animals behave instinctively with environment. But man has greater intelligence and learning capacity. With the help of these, he has been able to adapt himself with environment or modify it to suit his convenience. Culture has made such an adaptation and modification possible and easier by providing man the necessary skills and knowledge. Culture preserves knowledge and helps its transmission from generation to generation through its means that is language helps not only the transmission of knowledge but also its preservation, accumulation and diffusion. On the contrary, animals do not have this advantage. Because culture does not exist at such human level.


1.Culture Defines Situations:
Each culture has many subtle cues which define each situation. It reveals whether one should prepare to fight, run, laugh or make love. For example, suppose someone approaches you with right hand outstretched at waist level. What does this mean? That he wishes to shake hands in friendly greeting is perfectly obvious – obvious, that is to anyone familiar with our culture.
But in another place or time the outstretched hand might mean hostility or warning. One does not know what to do in a situation until he has defined the situation. Each society has its insults and fighting words. The cues (hints) which define situations appear in infinite variety. A person who moves from one society into another will spend many years misreading the cues. For example, laughing at the wrong places.

4. Culture Decides Our Career
Whether we should become a politician or a social worker, a doctor, an engineer, a soldier, a farmer, a professor, an industrialist; a religious leader and so on is decided by our culture. What career we are likely to pursue is largely decided by our culture. Culture sets limitations on our choice to select different careers. Individuals may develop, modify or oppose the trends of their culture but they always live within its framework. Only a few can find outlet on the culture.

2. Culture defines Attitudes, Values and Goals:
Each person learns in his culture what is good, true, and beautiful. Attitudes, values and goals are defined by the culture. While the individual normally learns them as unconsciously as he learns the language. Attitude are tendencies to feel and act in certain ways. Values are measures of goodness or desirability, for example, we value private property, (representative) Government and many other things and experience.
Goals are those attainments which our values define as worthy, (e.g.) winning the race, gaining the affections of a particular girl, or becoming president of the firm. By approving certain goals and ridiculing others, the culture channels individual ambitions. In these ways culture determines the goals of life.

3. Culture defines Myths, Legends, and the Supernatural:
Myths and legends are important part of every culture. They may inspire, reinforce effort and sacrifice and bring comfort in bereavement. Whether they are true is sociologically unimportant. Ghosts are real to people who believe in them and who act upon this belief. We cannot understand the behaviour of any group without knowing something of the myths, legends, and supernatural beliefs they hold. Myths and legends are powerful forces in a group’s behaviour.
Culture also provides the individual with a ready-made view of the universe. The nature of divine power and the important moral issues are defined by the culture. The individual does not have to select, but is trained in a Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or some other religious tradition. This tradition gives answers for the major (things imponderable) of life, and fortuities the individual to meet life’s crises.

4. Culture provides Behaviour Patterns:
The individual need not go through painful trial and error learning to know what foods can be eaten (without poisoning himself), or how to live among people without fear. He finds a ready-made set of patterns awaiting him which he needs only to learn and follow. The culture maps out the path to matrimony. The individual does not have to wonder how one secures a mate; he knows the procedure defined by his culture.
If men use culture to advance their purposes, it seems clear also that a culture imposes limits on human and activities. The need for order calls forth another function of culture that of so directing behaviour that disorderly behaviour is restricted and orderly behaviour is promoted. A society without rules or norms to define right and wrong behaviour would be very much like a heavily travelled street without traffic signs or any understood rules for meeting and passing vehicles. Chaos would be the result in either case.

(5) Culture shapes personality. No child can develop human qualities in the absence of cultural environment. Culture prepares man for group life. It is culture that provides opportunities for the development of personality and sets limits on its growth.



Classifications of culture:

Material and Non-Material:
Famous Sociologist W.F. Ogburn divide culture into two types such as material and non-material culture.

Material Culture:
Material culture consists of products of human activity which is concrete, tangible and observable.
These objects are manmade and called as ‘artifacts’.
It refers to books, chairs, tables, furniture, tools, telephone.
These material culture are external and utilitarian. Material culture is invented for human convenience.
They contribute to the progress of society. It changes faster.

Non-material Culture:
Non-material culture consists of intangible and abstract things like customs, values, good will habits, beliefs, language etc. Non-material culture is something internal and they do not have physical existence. Non-material culture changes very slowly. It is created taking the psychological basis of man and reflects the inward nature of man. Non-material culture has two aspects such as cognitive and normative. Cognitive aspect deals with knowledge whereas normative aspects consist of norms, rules and values. We can’t see it and touch it.

Cultural Lag:

The Concept of cultural lag was first used by W.F. Ogburn in his famous book “Social Change”. Of course ogburn was the first sociologist to use and discuss the idea of cultural lag and formulate a definite theory. But in the writings of other famous sociologists such as W.G. summer, Herbert Spencer and Muller the existence of a cultural lag is implied.

However, it was ogburn who divides culture into two types such as material and non-material culture. By material culture he mean those things which are tangible, concrete and observable such as table, chair, utensils etc. But non-material culture refers to those things which are intangible and abstract such as good will, customs, traditions, values etc. But Ogburn opines that changes first comes into material aspects of culture and when changes occur in material aspects of culture those in turn stimulate changes in non-material aspects of culture.

But Ogburn opines that the non material aspects of culture is often slow to respond to the changes and invention made in material culture. When non-material culture fails to adjust itself to the changes in material culture it falls or lags-behind the material culture and as a result a lag or gap between the two is created. And Ogburn call this lag or gap between two inter-related parts of culture i.e. Material and non-material as cultural lag.
Defining cultural lag obgurn says, “The strain that exists between two correlated parts of culture that change at unequal rates of speed may be interpreted as a lag in the part that is changing at the lowest rate for the one lags behind the other”. Ogburn opines if society is to maintain equilibrium both the parts of culture should be properly adjusted. To remove this gap between two parts of

culture man should adopt his ways of thinking and behaving to the changes in technology. Explaining the cause of cultural lag he says that the various elements of culture posses varying degrees of changeability. It may also due to man’s psychological dogmatism. When social institutions fails to adopt to the changes in material culture it leads to cultural lag.

Obgurh cited a number of examples to explain the concept of cultural lag. He opines that people have changed their habitations and life style but not the life they lead within them. The number of police force in a country remains constant whereas population of the country increasing rapidly. As a result police force lags behind the population growth and cultural lag appears.


Subcultures & Countercultures

A subculture is a culture shared and actively participated in by a minority of people within a broader culture. A culture often contains numerous subcultures.

Subcultures incorporate large parts of the broader cultures of which they are part, but in specifics they may differ radically. Some subcultures achieve such a status that they acquire a name of their own. For example in

Pakistani society there are various sub cultures like Punjabi.Sindhi,Balochi and Pakhtoon.Then further divided like in Punjab Lahori,Saraiki,Potohari etc.

A counterculture is a subculture with the addition that some of its beliefs, values, or norms challenge those of the main culture of which it is part. Examples of countercultures in the U.S. could include: the hippie movement of the 1960s, the green movement, and feminist groups.


civilization


Defining civilization MacIver and Page (1962) said, ‘by civilization we mean the whole mechanism and organization which man has designed in his endeavour to control the conditions of life’.

Similarly, S.M. Fairchild (1908) argued that it is the higher stage of cultural development characterized by intellectual, aesthetic, technological and spiritual attainment. On the basis of this meaning, he made reference of ‘civilized peoples’ in contrast to ‘uncivilized or non-civilized peoples’.

Distinction between culture and civilization:

1. Culture is an end (values and goals) in itself while civilization is a means (tools and techniques) to an end. Cultural facts like belief, art and literature—prose, poetry or novel, etc., gives direct satisfaction to the reader while equipment’s of civilization such as cars, computers, refrigerators, etc., do not give direct satisfaction, until and unless they do not satisfy our wants. Thus, civilization is utilitarian. It just helps in achieving the end.

2. Culture has no value in itself but it is a measurement by which we can value other articles of civilization. We cannot determine the value of culture, i.e., beliefs, norms, ideas, etc., but the value of anything can be determined by its measurement standard. Culture is a measuring rod or weighing balance.

3. Civilization is always advancing but not culture. Cultural facts like dramatic plays or poems may not be necessarily better today than the plays or poems of Shakespeare?

4. Civilization is easily passed without much effort to the next generation but not culture. Cultural facts, e.g., any art or a piece of literature, cannot be learned without some intelligence. It requires a few pains to understand it. Contrary to it, the equipment’s of civilization (building, TV, etc.) can easily be inherited without much or any use of energy and intelligence.

5. Civilization may be borrowed without making any change but not culture. Borrowing any cultural fact like any political, economic or social belief requires some necessary alteration to adjust in the new cultural environment while this is not necessary to make any material change in the civilizational equipment’s such as TV, computer, etc.

6. Culture relates to the inner qualities of society like religion, customs, conventions, etc., while civilization relates to the outer form of society such as TV, radio, fans, etc.

7. Culture is more stable than civilization—cultural change takes place in years or in centuries but civilization changes very rapidly.

8. Variability of cultures may not be accompanied by variability of civilization at different places. Civilization may be similar in variable cultural areas. For instance, there is a great difference between American and Indian cultures but there are many similarities in their civilizational equipment’s.

9. Culture is a social fact, i.e., creation of the whole society while civilization, i.e., the invention of any equipment may be by a single individual. Any ordinary person can affect any change in the civilizational equipment but for any modification or alteration in any cultural fact requires the power and imagination of whole society.

There are scholars who have designated culture and civilization as the two sides of the same coin. William F. Ogburn (1964), in his theory of social change, pointed out two aspects of culture, viz., material and non-material. For him, material aspect represents civilization and the non-material aspect is the culture proper. Gillin and Gillin (1948) designated the material or tangible part of culture as civilization or culture equipment which man in his endeavor has modified from environment.