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CULTURE AND SOCIETY
When looking at the world there are hundreds, if not thousands, of different
societies (or groups of people who live together and share a common culture). Each
society is unique, but all societies are also similar in many ways. All societies are a
collection of people cooperating to ensure their survival and well being. In order for
societies to function the behavior of its members must be predictable. It is important that
people know and understand what those around them will do. If people’s behavior is not
predictable then society can not function. For human society, it is culture that sets the
limits of behavior and guides it along predictable paths. Understanding how culture
functions within society can be complicated. Anthropologists, people who study human
culture, have worked to develop an understanding of culture and society. What they have
determined is that culture cannot be seen. The things people do are not actually their
culture, but the result of their culture. By studying many different cultures, and the
behaviors those cultures result in, anthropologists have determined that there are certain
similarities across all cultures. All cultures are shared by society’s members, all culture
is learned, all culture is based on symbols, and all culture is universal within society.
Within a society, every member shares a similar understanding of that society’s
culture. If groups of people within a single society have different cultures then they are,
in fact, different societies. This does not mean that the culture of a society is without
variation, but it does mean that there are some basic cultural understandings that every
member of the society shares. One example of this could be the role of men and women
in society. In a patriarchal society, the male is the dominant figure; in a matriarchal
society the female is the dominant figure. Every member of a matriarchal society knows
that women are in charge. Another example would be family structure. In some cultures,
extended families (parents, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.) all live together; in
other cultures nuclear families (parents and their children) live together and other
relatives live somewhere else. This cultural knowledge is shared within the society.
Much as all culture is shared, all culture is learned. This means that babies are not
born with culture. Instead, people must learn their culture from people around them as
they grow up. There are many places and people within a society that children learn their
culture. Families play an important role in teaching culture. Most societies have a
system for educating children, such as school, and that also plays an important role in
teaching culture. In some societies culture is learned through religion. No matter what
that religion looks like, be it a monotheism (a belief in one god) or polytheism (a belief in
many gods), strict or loose, with many rules or few, it still teaches culture. The values
and beliefs of a society are expressed and taught every day in many places. This teaching
of culture is critical to the continuation of the society. If each generation of children does
not learn the values of their society, then that society will not continue to exist. The fact
that culture is learned also means that a society’s culture can change depending on what
parts of the culture are taught. This allows societies to adapt to changing times. A good
example of this has to do with the social ladder. A social ladder is a symbolic spectrum
of one’s status in society. People who society values are at the top of the social ladder,
above everyone else; people who society does not value are at the bottom of the social
ladder. Most people fall somewhere in the middle. Most societies also allow for some
social mobility. This means that people can move up or down the social ladder.
Generally, to move up the social ladder a person must become closer to what society
values; on the other hand, people who move down have generally somehow failed to live
up to societies expectations. In the past, many cultures did not allow for social mobility.
People at the bottom of the social ladder stayed their. Furthermore, their children, and
their children’s children, etc. would also stay at the bottom of the social ladder. Many
societies have gone away from this system and allow for social mobility. This is a result
of different aspects of the culture being taught (and learned) over time.
All culture is based on symbols. This is because when culture originated,
thousands of years ago, written language did not exist. People still needed a method for
communicating their values and ideals. A symbol such as a Star of David is more than
simply a representation of Judaism. It also brings to mind the history of the Semitic
people (the Jews), the struggles they have faced, and the values they stand for. Today,
language is culture’s most important symbol. These objects which were used as symbols
of culture have been replaced with words. Words can much more easily express the true
depth of the culture they symbolize.
Finally, culture is universal within society. Every member of a particular society
shares the same culture. While the nuances (or small details) of the culture may vary
from person to person or group to group, the culture as a whole shares the same beliefs
and values. Occasionally subcultures develop within a culture. One example of this in
the United States is the Amish subculture. The Amish live within the United States, but
maintain a distinct society and culture which, though intertwined with American life, is
also separate. The Amish attend their own separate schools, maintain an agrarian (farm
based) society, prohibit the use of most modern technology, and dress in distinctively
plain clothing. The Amish are one of many subcultures in the United States. This makes
the United States a pluralistic society. A pluralistic society is one that has a diversity of
cultural patterns. Because the U.S. is such a diverse society, it is very difficult to define
one distinct “American Culture”. This multicultural society makes life within the United
States complicated. There are thousands of different people within pluralistic societies
operating by different sets of rules. One example of this difficulty arose in Utah:
A man went to buy a pony. The seller asked him what he intended to do with the
animal, to which the buyer responded “it is for my son’s birthday.” The seller
then accepted the money, at which point the buyer clubbed the pony to death,
loaded it into his truck, and drove away. The seller called the police to complain;
when they arrived at the buyer’s home they found the pony on a spit roasting over
a fire. “We don’t ride horses,” the buyer, a recent immigrant, explained, “we eat
them”.
As this example shows, members of a subculture in a pluralistic society often have
difficulty adjusting to the cultural values of that new society. Many times it results in
nothing more than a simple misunderstanding (as above), but sometimes it can lead to
open conflict and bloodshed between the cultural groups. If people were more willing to
work at understanding and working with the various cultural groups they encountered,
much of that bloodshed could be avoided. The key to doing this is remembering that all
cultures are different, but just because the values and standards they hold are not the
same, they are equally valid and important. No one culture can be better than another.