Introduction
The socially established traditions and norms determine one’s culture, affecting viewpoints and behaviors. As the fundamental element of individuals’ lives, culture continues, challenges, and changes according to the group’s beliefs and modern trends. The more chances people receive to interexchange their ideas and share their cultural values, the more they are inclined to bring novelties into their cultural identities. Although all humans share basic innate instincts, they differ in acquiring their culture, but this difference should not interfere with society’s integrity.
The Role of Culture in Society
Culture covering the person’s entire life is divided into two distinct categories: material and non-material. The former refers to the tangible objects with specific cultural meanings to one group (Culture, 2023). This category includes technologies, monuments, and buildings, hinting at the group’s lifestyles. For instance, the prevalence of fast-food restaurants in the USA indicates their preference for convenience foods (Ferris & Stein, 2022). When observing women from the past, individuals mention their different clothing styles, which also sign distinct material cultures.
Meanwhile, the latter consists of the more abstract ideas attributed to the group. It covers norms, values, symbols, and languages, as people from different cultures do not comprehend each other’s verbal and nonverbal communication due to their uniqueness. Another example is norms such as appropriate behavior during family dinners or prohibited conversation topics—taboos (Culture, 2023). The combination of these two components significantly impacts the group’s vision of the world.
Since culture determines one’s outlook, it also serves as the medium to examine other cultures. The primary approach is to perceive the native culture as the medium to judge and evaluate others. This concept is ethnocentrism, frequently leading to culture shock – recognizing unfamiliar cultural aspects as bizarre and causing anxiety (Ferris & Stein, 2022). The opposite approach is viewing the native culture not as the standard or the dominant one but as different from others.
Cultural relativism, in its essence, prevents judgments and helps people avoid feelings of uncertainty. Practicing this approach is a pivotal step for the globalized world, where all traditions intersect, since it helps to build a more tolerant and inclusive society. Cultural sensitivity blocks the cultural wars and marginalization of underrepresented groups. Thus, individuals should learn to step out of their cultural context to build a more peaceful society and embrace the groups’ differences.
Culture is dynamic, constantly changing, and can never be as integral and complete for all its members. That is why it gives rise to the dominant culture – the values held by the most potent societal group – and their counterparts (Ferris & Stein, 2022). One example of such division is subculture – the culture within the culture – when individuals develop their cultural components by sharing one common factor. Similar job positions of the police officers or common interests of snowboarders create the subculture with its distinct norms and values.
Meanwhile, counterculture does not support the dominant culture or might be in direct opposition to its values (Culture, 2023). The historical example is Nazis, who have had incompatible views of the world’s organization compared with other countries’ culture of integrity maintenance. Even though these groups might follow similar or different beliefs, they should all be in harmony, avoiding conflicts.
Conclusion
To conclude, culture is the most vital fundament for society, differing by race, gender, geographic location, and ethnicity. This concept covers abstract ideas followed by the groups and physical objects in their surroundings, attributed to the material and non-material cultural components. Although this diversity pushes people to perceive the world through their cultural context, judging any deviances, this approach should be replaced with cultural relativism. The cultural heterogeneity of different subcultures and countercultures should not interfere with society’s peace.
References
Culture. (2023). [PowerPoint slides].
Ferris, K., & Stein, J. (2022). The real world: Introduction to sociology (8th ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.