Elements of Culture
Culture can be characterised by the following four elements:
1) Cultural Traits – how the group communicates symbolically through its products, rituals, laws, social structures, economic systems, etc.
2) Cultural Patterns – wider, interrelated patterns of behaviour and interaction in which cultural traits may take on different meanings. An example is the pattern of grieving, which may involve traits like certain behaviours, dress, foods eaten and not eaten, and ways of communicating specific to grief situations.
3) Transmission of Knowledge – how the group teaches its younger members the culturally approved and valued ways of behaving, thinking and perceiving. This is a key factor in the continuation of culture, for it gives cultural shape and form to human activity. The simplest example is the learning of language.
4) Societal Structures and Processes – how a group regulates, orders and limits group actions to maintain group cohesion and function. Societies represent culture in action, the everyday application of cultural traits, patterns and knowledge of a group through the group’s institutions, systems and norms.
However, culture can be defined in quite different ways. People might hold very different perceptions of culture, and its significance in describing human activity, and our perceptions of culture can change in response to other influences. Multiculturalism, for instance, promotes a primarily behaviour-focused view of culture to support its political and social goals of making immigration and cultural diversity more acceptable to the dominant culture, and reducing the adverse effects of prejudice, racism and xenophobia.
Why not learn more about embracing and understanding different cultures through studying our course in Multicultural Awareness or Social Psychology?
