Aspects/ Characteristics of culture

Learned
• The first essential characteristic of culture is that it is learned. • A child born in the Philippines but was brought to the United States after birth may not develop traits characteristics of Filipinos. He may learn behavior pattern characteristics of American children, including language. Learned • It is not biological; we did not inherit it. Much of learning culture is unconscious. • It is not instinctive; not innate • Acquired through socialization or enculturation (the process of learning culture). Dynamic
 • Dynamic - Culture is fluid rather than static, which means that culture changes all the time, every day, in subtle and tangible ways. • All cultures change over time--none is static • the rate of change and the aspects of culture that change varies from society to society
 Flexible & Adaptive • Culture is capable of adjusting for what the environment dictates for survival • The adaptive nature of culture allows people to be able to live in previously uninhabitable places such as deserts, the polar region, under the sea and the outer space Shared • The culture is shared by the social interaction may take in many forms to transmit the beliefs, values and expectation of the human society. The exchange of social ideas may provide understanding and learning the human culture and tradition. Shared • For a thought or action to be considered cultural, it must be commonly shared by some population or group of individuals. Even if some behavior is not commonly appropriate, it is cultural if most people think it is appropriate.
 Contested • Culture is contested at many levels, both from without and within. • cultures are may be contested at the level of the nation state or beyond, for example when a "clash of cultures" is proclaimed in the media;
 Contested • Cultures are may be contested at the level of the individual, when "culture shock" is experienced. • That cultures are contested within the individual as well as on a broader scale should give us pause for thought.
Transmitted • Passed from generation to generation during the process of socialization and is disseminated among members of society • Formal or informal way of transmitting • Language is the main vehicle of culture Transmitted • Language in different form makes it possible for the present generation to understand the achievement of earlier generations Cumulative • “Accumulation” of ideas or knowldge • Knowledge is stored and passed on from one generation to the next, and new knowledge is being added to what is existing. • Each culture has worked out solutions to the basic problems of life, which it then passes on to its children. CUMULATIVE • The jeepneys and tricycles in the Philippines are good examples of the cumulative quality of culture. • Their invention involved the use of materials which were invented in different places of the world (Hunt et al, 1995). Patterned social interaction • Culture is Ideational • Systemic, there is a way of doing something • Every culture allows a range of ways in which men can be men and women can be women. Patterned social interaction • Culture is Ideational • Culture also tells us how different activities should be conducted, such as how one should act as a husband, wife, parent, child, etc. these rules of permissible behavior are usually flexible to a degree- the are some alternatives rather than the hard rules. Integrated & at times unstable • Culture is integrated. This is known as holism, or the various parts of a culture being interconnected. • All aspects of a culture are related to one another and to truly understand a culture, one must learn about all of its parts, not only a few. Integrated & at times unstable • because cultures are integrated, if one component in the system changes, it is likely that the entire system must adjust. Requires language and other forms of communication • Culture is symbolic • Culture is based on symbols. • A symbol is something that stands for something else. • Symbols vary cross-culturally and are arbitrary. Requires language and other forms of communication • Symbols have meaning when people in a culture agree on their use. • Language, money and art are all symbols. • Language is the most important symbolic component of culture.