Nonmaterial Culture: Police Officer And College Students

Culture is divided into two categories, material culture and nonmaterial culture. Material culture are physical things that people can touch and feel. Nonmaterial culture are ideas and beliefs people value that might help shape society. In the story, the police officer and college student both display these two examples of material and nonmaterial culture. The college student Sarah decided to take a break from her studies and drive a brand new convertible Mercedes. The Mercedes is a material culture because it is a physical object that exists within society. As the student drives her Mercedes to the coffee shop which is also a material culture, she glances over her phone to read a text and runs a red stop sign. The stop sign is also considered a material culture because it’s a physical object that has a symbolic meaning. The red in traffic signals, signs, or break lights indicate people to stop. This symbolic meaning applies worldwide regardless of the language because multiple countries use the color red as an indication to stop or halt.
Sarah is pulled over by a cop who catches her running the stop sign. The officer in uniform represents material culture because the uniform has a symbolic meaning in society. The common color for

police uniforms are either blue or black. When the police officer asks Sarah for her driver’s license, she talks with a heavy southern accent. The southern accent is an example of nonmaterial culture that exists within society because it is a language difference between northern and southern America. Sarah hands over her driver’s license and insurance verification which both are considered material culture. Both of these items exist within society to indicate that the driver is licensed and insured to drive.
The college student then notices she’s wearing a shirt that displays “I Survived Spring Break 2012”. The shirt represents a belief or idea and is considered a nonmaterial culture. Sarah tells the police officer that she’s a college student and that she was just on her way to get coffee, maybe hoping the police would let her off easy because she’s a college student. Sarah gets a ticket anyway and the ticket is a representation of material culture. Sarah then notices the police officer’s badge which displays the words “Protect and Serve”. The police officer’s badge represents symbol. It’s both a material and nonmaterial culture object because the badge is a material culture that symbolizes law and order while the words on her badge represent an idea. The police officer is displaying what is called a social norm because she’s upholding law and it’s her job to ticket anybody who breaks the law. After realizing her faults, Sarah decides to drive to the coffee shop 10 miles under the speed limit because of the guilt of putting other people in danger.
The story demonstrates both material and nonmaterial culture as well as symbols, norms and morals.

Society cannot exist without culture and culture couldn’t exist without society. Society is the interaction and culture helps shape the morals and rules for people to follow. Material culture represents any physical object that people can touch or feel that exists within society. In the story, the Mercedes, badge and stop sign are all examples of material culture. The examples of nonmaterial culture include the shirt that displayed “I Survived Spring Break 2012” and the officer’s badge which displayed “Protect and Serve” because neither of these are physical objects, but they are ideas and beliefs that exist within culture and

society.