Culture consists of the values, beliefs, behaviors, and objects that make up a group's way of life. It has material aspects like tools and technology as well as nonmaterial aspects like ideas and beliefs. Key components of culture include symbols, language, values, beliefs, norms, and popular, high, and subcultures. Understanding culture requires recognizing that some elements change faster than others and that cultures should be evaluated by their own standards rather than judged through ethnocentrism.

1. Culture
Culture is the values, beliefs, behavior, and
material objects that, together, form a
people’s way of life.

2. Material Culture
Refers to the tangible things created by
the members of a society, everything
from armaments to zippers.

3. Nonmaterial Culture
the intangible world of ideas created
by members of a society, ideas may
range from altruism to zen.

4. The Components of Culture
Symbols – anything (e.g. word, whistle,
graffiti, flashing red light, a raised fist)
that carries a particular meaning
recognized by people who share
culture.

5. Language – system of symbols that
allows people to communicate with one
another.
SAPIR-WHORF THESIS
People perceive the world through the
cultural lens of language.

6. Values – culturally defined standards by
which people assess desirability,
goodness, and beauty and that serve as
broad guidelines for social living.
Beliefs – specific statements that people
hold to be true.

7. Norms – rules and expectations by
which a society guides the behavior of
its members.
Proscriptive norms – state what we should not do.
Prescriptive norms – state what we should do.
Folkways – norms for routine and casual interaction.
Mores – norms that are widely observed and have great
moral significance.

8. Popular Culture
Cultural patterns that are widespread
among a society’s population.
High Culture
Cultural patterns that distinguish a
society’s elite.

9. Subculture
Cultural patterns that set apart some
segment of a society’s population

10. Counterculture
Cultural patterns that strongly oppose
those widely accepted within the
society.

11. Cultural lag
The fact that some cultural elements
change more quickly than others,
which may disrupt a cultural system.

12. Cultural Shock
A condition of disorientation
affecting someone who is suddenly
exposed to an unfamiliar culture or
way of life or set of attitudes

13. Cultural relativism – the practice of
evaluating a culture by its own
standards.
Multiculturalism – an educational
program recognizing the cultural
diversity of the United States and
promoting the equality of all cultural
traditions.
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14. Ethnocentrism
The practice of judging another culture by
the standards of one’s own culture.