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Culture and Society Defined
Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to
the members of a particular group or society. Through culture, people and groups
define themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society. Thus,
culture includes many societal aspects: language, customs, values, norms, mores,
rules, tools, technologies, products, organizations, and institutions. This latter
term institution refers to clusters of rules and cultural meanings associated with
specific social activities. Common institutions are the family, education, religion, work,
and health care.
Popularly speaking, being cultured means being well‐educated, knowledgeable of the
arts, stylish, and well‐mannered. High culture—generally pursued by the upper class—
refers to classical music, theater, fine arts, and other sophisticated pursuits. Members
of the upper class can pursue high art because they have cultural capital, which
means the professional credentials, education, knowledge, and verbal and social skills
necessary to attain the “property, power, and prestige” to “get ahead” socially. Low
culture, or popular culture—generally pursued by the working and middle classes—
refers to sports, movies, television sitcoms and soaps, and rock music. Remember that
sociologists define culture differently than they do cultured, high culture, low culture,
and popular culture.
Sociologists define society as the people who interact in such a way as to share a
common culture. The cultural bond may be ethnic or racial, based on gender, or due
to shared beliefs, values, and activities. The term society can also have a
geographic meaning and refer to people who share a common culture in a particular
location. For example, people living in arctic climates developed different cultures from
those living in desert cultures. In time, a large variety of human cultures arose around
the world.
Culture and society are intricately related. A culture consists of the “objects” of a
society, whereas a society consists of the people who share a common culture. When
the terms culture and society first acquired their current meanings, most people in the
world worked and lived in small groups in the same locale. In today's world of 6 billion
people, these terms have lost some of their usefulness because increasing numbers of
people interact and share resources globally. Still, people tend to
use culture and society in a more traditional sense: for example, being a part of a
“racial culture” within the larger “U.S. society.”
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/sociology/culture-and-societies/culture-andsociety-defined
Cultural Norms
Norms are the agreed‐upon expectations and rules by which a culture guides the behavior of its
members in any given situation. Of course, norms vary widely across cultural groups. Americans, for
instance, maintain fairly direct eye contact when conversing with others. Asians, on the other hand,
may avert their eyes as a sign of politeness and respect.
Sociologists speak of at least four types of norms: folkways, mores, taboos, and laws. Folkways,
sometimes known as “conventions” or “customs,” are standards of behavior that are socially approved
but not morally significant. For example, belching loudly after eating dinner at someone else's home
breaks an American folkway. Mores are norms of morality. Breaking mores, like attending church in
the nude, will offend most people of a culture. Certain behaviors are considered taboo, meaning a
culture absolutely forbids them, like incest in U.S. culture. Finally, laws are a formal body of rules
enacted by the state and backed by the power of the state. Virtually all taboos, like child abuse, are
enacted into law, although not all mores are. For example, wearing a bikini to church may be
offensive, but it is not against the law.
Members of a culture must conform to its norms for the culture to exist and function. Hence, members
must want to conform and obey rules. They first must internalize the social norms and values that
dictate what is “normal” for the culture; then they must socialize, or teach norms and values to, their
children. If internalization and socialization fail to produce conformity, some form of “social control” is
eventually needed. Social control may take the form of ostracism, fines, punishments, and even
imprisonment.
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/sociology/culture-and-societies/cultural-norms
Cultural Values
A culture's values are its ideas about what is good, right, fair, and just. Sociologists disagree,
however, on how to conceptualize values. Conflict theory focuses on how values differ between groups
within a culture, while functionalism focuses on the shared values within a culture. For example,
American sociologist Robert K. Merton suggested that the most important values in American society
are wealth, success, power, and prestige, but that everyone does not have an equal opportunity to
attain these values. Functional sociologist Talcott Parsons noted that Americans share the common
value of the “American work ethic,” which encourages hard work. Other sociologists have proposed a
common core of American values, including accomplishment, material success, problem‐solving,
reliance on science and technology, democracy, patriotism, charity, freedom, equality and justice,
individualism, responsibility, and accountability.
A culture, though, may harbor conflicting values. For instance, the value of material success may
conflict with the value of charity. Or the value of equality may conflict with the value of individualism.
Such contradictions may exist due to an inconsistency between people's actions and their professed
values, which explains why sociologists must carefully distinguish between what people do and what
they say. Real culture refers to the values and norms that a society actually follows, while ideal
culture refers to the values and norms that a society professes to believe.
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/sociology/culture-and-societies/cultural-values