1 CULTURE Culture is derived from the Latin word cultura or cultus which means care or cultivation.

Culture as cultivation implies that every human being is a potential member of his own social group. He is endowed with certain innate qualities like intelligence, creativity, and resourcefulness. However, he cannot develop these inborn talents by himself alone. He needs other people who can provide him with the needed opportunities so he can translate these potentialities into realities called achievements. These accomplishments not only help him achieve self-actualization but also make him a contributing member of his society. According to Sir Edward Taylor, an English anthropologist, Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Culture is a complex whole since it is concerned with peoples life which is broad in itself multifarious aspects of life from womb to tomb. From conception, a childs life is affected by his social group through certain superstitions, and as the child grows up into adulthood, his actuations are dictated by his own cultural group. Even in death, there are some practices to be followed like the pasiyam and babang-luksa. Another important point in this definition of culture is it is something acquired by man as a member of society. It only develops as man lives with others. Society cannot be formed unless certain group of persons shares a common culture. It is not enough that men live at the same given time to create a society among them. Hence, culture is indispensable to the creation of the so-called society a group of people who share a common culture or one that is made up of people who are interacting on the basis of shared beliefs, customs, values, and activities. While society is the people and culture is their behavior patterns, it is important to remember that culture becomes a reality if it is acquired by man as a result of his being a member of his social group. ***No society can exist without culture and vice-versa. Joseph H. Fitchner wrote: A person may escape society for a while, but he can never escape culture. Even in isolation, where the person tries to get away from his social group temporarily, he thinks and acts according to the patterns of behavior with whom he grew up. Pertinent Meanings of Culture 1. Culture as a social heritage is everything that is socially learned and shared by the members of a society. It is complex and socially transmitted. It is complex since it is an organization of phenomena acts (pattern of behavior), objects (tools, things made with tools), ideas (belief, knowledge), and sentiments (attitudes, values). It is socially transmitted because it must be passed on from one generation to another. It has become an established mode of thinking and doing inherent throughout the whole history of mankind. Example: sagala during flores de mayo and celebrating fiesta. 2. Culture as a distinguishing factor is a specific or a distinctive way of life of a group of people. Any society always possesses its own culture which is more or less unique. Example: Filipino culture, Japanese culture, American culture. 3. Culture as an established pattern of behavior since society is defined as a group of individuals interacting according to a common pattern of thinking and doing; it is fairly easy to predict the behavior of each of these individuals. Culture includes the following types of behavior: (a) explicit behavior refers to the directly observable regularities in the verbal and nonverbal behavior of the individuals within a social group; (b) implicit behavior consisting of the beliefs, values, justifications, and standards commonly accepted by a society, it serves as the basis for justifying the observed typical behavior of its members.

2 Example: (a) In Filipino culture, during Christmas day, children have new shoes and dresses (b) We have a common belief that Christmas being the birthday of infant Jesus is basically for children. 4. Culture is both material and immaterial (a) the material culture is given different terms like objects, tools, things, artifacts, economic goods, property, and nonsymbolic. (b) the immaterial culture is composed of the behavior, thoughts, beliefs, feelings as well as the intellectual, artistic, and social ideals and values that the members of the society profess and to which they strive to conform. Example: (a) a stone that has been turn into a heros monument (b) the education system of the Philippines 5. Culture is a pure abstraction being the totality of the mental and physical reactions and activities that characterize the behavior of individuals comprising the social group. According to Paul B. Horton, culture is an ideation not on its visible aspect. A material object is nothing unless it is interpreted in terms of meaning and value the group attaches to it. It is not an integral element of culture but rather it is a product and adjunct to cultural behavior. Example: A ritual rain dance is meaningless unless one understands it purpose. Characteristics of Culture 1. It is universal human experience, yet its manifestations are local. All human societies have the same essential life experiences and the need for the family, a belief system, an economic system, a government, language, and a religion. Although they have these same needs, they vary in the means of satisfying them as brought about by differences in geographical environment, technological development, historical background, and ideological orientation. 2. It is stable but dynamic. Culture is preserved and accumulated: thus it is highly stable and continuous. Culture is also changing as brought about by invention or new ways of doing things, by discovery, or new knowledge obtained or arrived at, and by diffusion, or the spread of new element of culture from individual to individual or from society to another. 3. It is organized and integrated. Culture is organized from its smallest behavioral units, culture traits to culture complexes or organizations of related cultural traits, and ultimately to certain cultural complexes meaningfully interwoven into a complex whole called culture pattern. Example: a typewriter which is a part of the office a part of a company part of the business community. Culture is integrated because it shows mutual adjustment among its elements, a unit of beliefs and practices, without major conflicts and inconsistencies. Example: Filipino culture is the meeting of the sophistication from the West and the mysticisms of the East. 4. It is a social product. Originating and developing through human interaction, it is learned by each individual as a result of his experiences after birth. 5. It is cumulative. Through the ages, man is able to retain certain features concomitant with his interaction with his fellows from something old to something new with the passing of time, it grows and accumulates. Example: Variety of songs from kundiman to modern pop and raps. Functions of Culture 1. Culture provides behavioral patterns. A child after birth has ready-made set of patterns awaiting him which he needs only to learn and follow. Example: language, religion, manner of dressing. 2. Culture maintains the biologic functioning of the group. Man is a biological being for he needs material things like food, shelter, clothing and medicine including the need to reproduce. With culture, he is provided with certain

3 built-in mechanisms so he can ably survive. Through the technology of his group, he is better directed to procure all that satisfy his biological needs. 3. Culture gives meaning and direction to ones existence. Man is a curious and inquisitive being. He has a lot of questions in himself that need an answer. He is lucky for his group could provide him with explanations of his origin, the nature of the universe, and his role in that universe. 4. Culture offers ready-made solutions to mans material and immaterial problems. In order to survive, man has to cope with the complexities of life. He has to adjust to his natural environment, his fellows, and must have the assurance of abundance, security, recognition, love, achievement, and inner peace. His concern is multifarious ranging from the production and distribution of goods and services necessary to life to a kind of government that will ensure the unity and well-being of the group as well as his artistic and work opportunities to his communication with unknown forces like GOD. These material and immaterial satisfaction can only be met by culture. 5. Culture develops mans attitude and values and gives him a conscience. The values that originate from mans social a group and have become internalized in him, serve as his personal guide in making decisions as well as in judging correctness and wrongness of an act, committed either by himself or by others. Example: (1) Some of Filipino core values are being helpful, and the respect for elders if one sees an old man or woman carrying heavy loads like the pinamalengke things, he will help him to carry those even just as the elder get in an automobile. (2) We Filipinos value cleanliness especially in food handling that is why we do not spit saliva on our plate especially on public places, but other nationalities do this. Elements of Culture 1. Universals within a society, there are traits or complexes which are common to and practiced by every normal adult member of the society. If not followed, a person meets disapproval or ridicule by others. If he wants to an acceptable member of his group, he must accept and adopt all the ways which are socially acceptable. Universals are forms of behavior uniformly done by the members of a society. 2. Alternatives although individuals behave in a manner expected of them by their society, it does not mean that there could not be differences in their behavioral patterns. Example: Everyone needs to work but it is not expected that he has the same job as his neighborhood. 3. Specialties are the outgrowth of alternatives since once an individual chooses a cultural alternative, he must master the skills which that alternative demands. By becoming especially efficient in one field of activity, he makes a greater contribution to his society and makes him more a worthy member. Specialties are forms of behavior manifested by members of certain socially organized group of individuals, but which are not shared by the total population. Example: division of labor white collar, blue collar, etc. Concepts Related to Culture 1. The Mechanisms of Culture a. Folkways these are customary pattern of behavior exhibited by a social group. Customary in a sense that these behavior patterns are widely practiced, repetitive and uniform. These acts are so common that they become the habitual modes of thinking and doing of people within a group. Example: Filipinos value the importance of education that they are prone to display diplomas and graduation pictures. b. Mores all mores are folkways but not all folkways are mores. This is because mores are the must folkways since they are necessary and essential to the welfare of the group. While folkways have no moral significance, mores certainly possess such significance. If folkways are the routinary practices done by people, mores are vital to them for their continued existence. Example: It is customary for people to dress up but it is necessary that they dress up properly and decently.

4 c. Laws in order to standardize the mores and the penalties for violating them, laws are made. However, not all mores are enacted into laws and not all laws are supported by mores. Laws are formally enacted by the proper authorities so people would act accordingly. Reinforcing the folkways and mores, they are primarily needed to maintain peace and order within a social group. d. Institutions Off all the mechanisms, institutions are the most stable, uniform, formal and highly structured. They have well established social patterns, roles and relations that people are expected to carry out for the purpose of maintaining the stability of these relatively permanent structures like the family, the government, the church and the business. Institutions have the following characteristics: (1) has its objective or goal to satisfy social needs; (2) has relative permanence; (3) structured; (4) function as a unit; and (5) has uniformities or code of conducts. e. Fashion, fads, and crazes these social mechanisms although short-lived and not practiced by the whole group, represents the changing aspects of culture. Usually they are common and powerful social controls in urban industrial societies where they are highly favored because of certain factors like rapid social change, and mobility, mass communication, impersonal contacts, cultivation of individual tastes, and tolerance of social and cultural differences. Modes of Acquiring Culture a. Imitation need proper example. b. Formal and informal teaching through demonstrations and direct teaching. c. Conditioning rewards and punishment. Philippine Culture a. The Traditional View this view maintains that Philippine culture developed by different phases due to varied factors physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual went into formation. It is through the conglomeration of all these ingredients that a Filipino cultural identity arose. b. The Cultural Dualism View this view acknowledges the overwhelming and firmly established influences of the East on Philippine culture in terms of social, religious, and political values but not to the point of deemphasizing the persistent omnipresence of Western ideology on those same aspects. This gives rise to an east-west dualism that manifests itself in Filipino ideology and political orientation. Cultural Variations a. Ethnocentrism refers to the tendency to assume that ones culture and way of life is superior to others. An ethnocentric person views his own group as the center of culture and sees all other cultures as deviations from what is normal. Ethnocentrism serves to maintain a sense of solidarity to promoting group pride. b. Cultural Relativism this view peoples behavior from the perspective of their own culture. It stresses that different social context give rise as polygamy, bullfighting, cockfighting and kissing hands of elders are examined in the contexts of cultures in which they are found. Xenocentrism, an extension of cultural relativism, is the belief that the products, styles, or ideas of ones society are inferior to those that originate elsewhere. Culture Shock is the feeling of surprise and disorientation that is experienced when people witness cultural practices different from their own. It is also a feeling of displacement in foreign land. Cultural Change occurs as human needs changed. Just as no individual is immortal, no particular cultural pattern is impervious to change. The source of this change may be inside or outside the society. The new idea or behavior may originate within the society, or it may come from another society. With regard to the new idea or behavior, the people may adopt or discard such idea. Culture change can be attributed to discoveries and inventions. If a discovery or invention is ignored, no change in culture results. It is only when a society accepts and uses it regularly that we can begin to say of cultural change.

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