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Differences and similarities between cultures
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The Combination of Society and Culture
Without delving into deep sociological theories of the nature of society, we can consider human societies as any community of individuals who are united together by a common bond of nearness or intercourse and are those who recognize each other as associates, friends and acquaintances. Individuals who play certain roles and the relationships between each role form the society itself. The complexity of society makes it difficult for us to identify our relationships. Generally, societies form different norms and cultures and these norms and cultures will change. Despite the changes in ones society and culture, members of any society like happiness in their own ways. In complex societies, it is valid to question about our contributions to happiness of its members. While material contributions to societies meet the physical needs, mental problems and needs are more difficult to satisfy. This is the point where society and culture become intertwined.
To understand how culture and society coexist, you need to know the basic definition of culture: a system of socially acquired values, beliefs, and rules of conduct which limit the range of accepted behaviors in any given society. It is the human capacity to classify experiences, encode such classifications symbolically, and teach such abstractions to others. This enculturation was brought to light by Emile Durkheim who said, "We live in a society we did not make (Noble 86). Our very ideas of ourselves are shaped by the society we were born into". Basically stating that culture is embedded into ones life at an unconscious level. For example, if a child is born into a white supremacist family, that child will grow up believing that whit...
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...agmentation of life in a consumer society and will have difficulty sustaining qualities we think are necessary. The roles we endure create our reality. Our roles can change leading to a change in interaction. An example is asking your girlfriend to become your wife. We all experience a role set in some way. That is the behavioral expectations and obligations that accompany a particular status. Roles are usually defined through an interaction, or an inherited status.
"Throughout history, cultural struggles have been in fact the clear expression of struggles of social classes. No matter if they were political, religious, philosophical, or some other ideological domain, Marx states it's the law of motion of history" (Noble 44). If our present day society and culture can learn from history, our goal of a perfect utopian society might come true.
Culture often means an appreciation of the finer things in life; however, culture brings members of a society together. We have a sense of belonging because we share similar beliefs, values, and attitudes about what’s right and wrong. As a result, culture changes as people adapt to their surroundings. According to Bishop Donald, “let it begin with me and my children and grandchildren” (211). Among other things, culture influences what you eat; how you were raised and will raise your own children? If, when, and whom you will marry; how you make and spend money. Truth is culture is adaptive and always changing over time because
How does one define what culture is? Culture is defined as the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with, their world and with one another - transmitted from generation through learning. This is particularly meaning a pattern of behavior shared by a society or group of people; with many things making up a society’s ‘way of life’ such as language, foods etc. Culture is something that molds people into who they are today. It influences how people handle a variety of situations, process information and how they interact with others. However, there are events when one’s own culture does not play a significant role in the decisions that they make or how they see the world. Despite
Marx sees history as a struggle between classes: “Oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes” (Marx and Engles 14).
The world is filled with many different types of societies and cultures. This is due to the fact that many people share dissimilar beliefs and ideas, as well as diverse ways of life. People lived under different circumstances and stipulations, therefore forming cultures and societies with ideas they formulated, themselves. These two factors, society and culture, are what motivate people to execute the things that they do. Many times, however, society and culture can cause downgrading effects to an assemblage if ever it is corrupt or prejudiced. Society and culture not only influences the emotions individuals have toward things like age differences, religion, power, and equality but also the actions they perform as a result.
The culture of a community invariably determines the social structures and the formation of a society. Developed over time, culture is the collection of beliefs and values that a group of people maintain together. Culture is never constant, and thought to be continually renewed over years as new ideas and concepts become mainstream. It ranges from how people live, day to day topics for conversations, religion, and even entertainment. It is analogous to guidelines, or the rulebook of the said group of people. Society, on the other hand, emanates from the social structure of the community. It is the very institutions to which create a regulated and acceptable form of interaction between peoples. Indeed, culture and society are so perversely intertwined in a
Today in society, people follow these “cultural myths”, which tells us what is and what is not acceptable in life because these morals have been instilled in us since childhood. People created cultural myths as a set of social norms they expected people to follow. In Kenneth A. Gould’s and Tammy L. Lewis’s article, The Sociological Imagination, they talk about society and the way or how it affects us. It examines the relationship between an individual and society. Everything we do and how we do it is affected by society and others around us. Everything that happens with society in turn affects us and those around us. The way we live and we respond to society can have a major impact on the rest of the world.
In the beginning of Communist Manifesto, Marx makes a statement “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” And then he explains what he meant by his statement. During pre-revolutionary era, Marx claims that there is always the oppressor and the oppressed, freeman to the slave, and the ruler to the server. This system has been uninterrupted, hidden, and opened...
Capitalism is responsible for the economic organization across the globe, as it in influenced mainly by culture. It affects the identity, sense of place, and the connection between how (b)orders distinguish the place of belonging. Culture gives meaning and values to particular goods. Capitalism uses monetary currencies to represent the exchange value of products, as profit is the main goal for corporations. Culture and capitalism both give value to each other, but capitalism is most successful when it is combined with the preferences and values of other cultures in order to make money. A thematic representation of culture and capitalism can be seen in a general layout of a supermarket, as capitalism ruins a true market. The dominant cultural group in a given area will reflect the items available, as corporations will have a higher monetary gain when accommodating the targeted consumer.
Society and culture surround everyone at all times. It helps raise and shape the population into what it is from the moment a person is born to their death. It is a very powerful factor in the world. It can cause hatred and war but it can also cause love and acceptance. It affects our behavior, tolerance, and decisions. In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, both authors create characters who act in a manner that conforms to the cultural expectations of their time surrounding love for others, work and economical statues, and treatment of others, demonstrating that both men and women hide and ignore parts of themselves that do not coincide with cultural expectations.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ The Communist Manifesto explores class struggles and their resulting revolutions. They first present their theory of class struggle by explaining that “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (Marx 14), meaning that history is a repeated class struggle that only ends with a revolution. Marx and Engels’ message in The Communist Manifesto is that it is inevitable for class struggles to result in revolutions, ultimately these revolutions will result in society’s transition to communism.
Before taking this class, my understanding between each individual and the whole society is that every individuals as the gear are connected together to become a society like a machine. That is, human beings build the society. However, the class gave me bigger view of the relationship between the people and the society. Discussing about the relationship between me and the broader social world is based on how all human beings and the broader social world effect together. Thus, I am going to show my understanding from the class and reading about the interaction between each individual and the whole society.
The definition of society describes a group of people who live in a country or region, with their organization, and their way of life. Sennete (2012) believes that one of the biggest challenges facing society today is living with people who are not like us. The way that differs from religiously, racially, economically and ethically. It only describes a few of the dimension on which people are different. Consequently, subcultures represent collective solutions to shared problem posed by the dominant culture (Cohen,1955) and it helps to provide social support for the member, improve the self-esteem and offer the practical for independent survival.
Marx believed that the tables of historical change turn in a constant, linear progression. The formation of new classes, followed by their inevitable, natural demise was the story of the humanity thus far. Fueled by class antagonism, this engine of historical change will continue to run until the communist utopia is reached. The Communist Manifesto then is a teleological writing which argues that the "history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."
First, culture is a shared system of meaning and knowledge conveyed between groupings of people. It is a way of thinking, the guidelines of human relationships, and it operates subconsciously. We learn culture through socialization and there are cultures within cultures… within cultures… within cultures… One can be a member of many cultures in many different places and many different situations. However, often in the US cultural differences are described through ethnic groups which consist of individuals who are bound together, often closely, by a shared cultural structure and sense of ethnic identity. The central and defining feature of an ethnic group may be racial, religious, geopolitical, linguistic, traditional, tribal, or some other combination of these or other characteristics. Because of these close bonds with which these groups are culturally/ethnically connected a tendency, and varying degrees, of ethnocentrism can exist. The ethnocentric view that other ethnic groups and their member are inferior may be expressed in a number of ways. For example, through prejudice, paternalism, contempt, discrimination, scapegoating, racism, and genocide. In the US we have seen several examples of this throughout history and some if these continues to be played out in America
Recognizing the influence of culture is an important aspect for social workers when working with diverse populations. The client is a 30-year-old single African-American (AA) single woman with a child. Culture identifies a set of values and beliefs in a community and its corresponding worldview. As the AA culture has been forced to assimilate into the dominant culture, their own culture has been slowly forgotten. The client has deep roots to her ancestors and has mainstreamed into a new dimension. The client is reconnecting with her Baptist faith as she has lost the support from spiritual leaders. “African-Americans have developed abilities and coping mechanisms to deal with racism, and they rely on their social systems that have been perfected over the generations” (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2009, p. 187). The client represents a very diverse cultural group and the intersection of social class and gender which contributes to her oppression. The client is a single AA female with a son, living in poverty, lack of education, unemployed, with a felony charge, and receiving cash assistance from the state to support her son.