Notes to my students (culture2)

THE SEVEN ELEMENTS OF CULTURE

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

·         Creates social structure by organizing its members into small units to meet basic needs.

·         Family Patterns: family is the most important unit of social organization. Through the family children learn how they are expected to act and what to believe.

·         Nuclear family: wife, husband, children. This is a typical family in an industrial society (US). 

·         Extended family: Several generations living in one household, working and living together: grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins. Respect for elders is strong.

·         Social classes: rank people in order of status, depending on what is important to the culture (money, job, education, ancestry, etc.)

CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS

·         Rules of Behavior are enforced ideas of right and wrong. They can be customs, traditions, rules, or written laws.

RELIGION

·         Answers basic questions about the meaning of life.

·         Supports values that groups of people feel are important.

·         Religion is often a source of conflict between cultures.

·         Monotheism is a belief in one god.

·         Polytheism is a belief in many gods.

·         Atheism is a belief in no gods.

LANGUAGE

·         Language is the cornerstone of culture.

·         All cultures have a spoken language (even if there are no developed forms of writing).

·         People who speak the same language often share the same culture.

·         Many societies include a large number of people who speak different languages.

·         Each language can have several different dialects.

ARTS AND LITERATURE

·         They are the products of the human imagination.

·         They help us pass on the culture’s basic beliefs.

·         Examples: art, music, literature, and folk tales

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT

·         People form governments to provide for their common needs, keep order within society, and protect their society from outside threats.

·         Definition of government: 1. Person/people who hold power in a society; 2  Society’s

laws and political institutions.

·         Democracy: people have supreme power, government acts by and with consent.

·         Republic:  people choose leaders who represent them.

·         Dictatorship: ruler/group holds power by force usually relying on military support for power.

ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

·         How people use limited resources to satisfy their wants and needs.

·         Answers the basic questions:  what to produce, how to produce it, and for whom.

·         Traditional Economy:  people produce most of what they need to survive (hunting, gathering, farming, herding cattle, make own clothes/tools).

·         Market Economy: buying and selling goods and services

·         Command Economy: Government controls what/how goods are produced and what they cost.   Individuals have little economic power

·         Mixed Economy: Individuals make some economic decisions and the government makes others.