Elements of Culture

1
Elements of Culture
Institutions Within Culture
Cultural Activities
Inner Core
2
Social Institutions

• Social institutions provide basic structure
  within which we live our lives
• Emerge around a fundamental human need which must
  be met for individual survival and prosperous
  society

3
Social Institutions

• Primary institutions
• Economy
• Political system
• Military establishment
• Secondary institutions
• Family
• Education
• Religion
• Health

4
Social Institutions

• Formal institutions
• Deliberately brought into existence to enable
  people who do not know each other to carry on
  relationships for the purpose of attaining
  specific goals
• Informal institutions
• Authority and status attained through
  interpersonal relationships or other
  non-structured means

5
Economic Institutions

• Some form of compensation for time or work
• Allows individuals to specialize and still meet
  needs
• Types of economies
• Capitalism
• Socialism
• Communism

6
Political Institutions

• Some form of government
• Provide peace and order within society
• Protection from enemies outside of society
• Use of force concentrated within government
• Legal system
• Military establishment

7
Function of Political InstitutionsSocial Control

• Groups must ensure that members obey at least the
  rules vital to survival of the group
• Physical force
• Economic pressure
• Occupational pressures
• Sanctions

8
Family as an Institution

• Laws and institutions surrounding family and
  kinship systems
• Nuclear family units
• Mom, Dad, siblings
• Extended family units
• Includes nuclear family and aunts, uncles,
  cousins, grandparents
• Authority and inheritance
• Matrilineal
• Patrilineal

9
Educational Institutions

• Formal agencies in which students learn
• Important cultural history
• Skills
• Socialization
• Cultural differences in education

10
Religious Institutions

• Formal systems involving
• Belief
• Rituals
• Places of worship
• Linguistic concepts

11
Health Institutions

• Meaningful health can differ by culture
• Physical and mental health evaluated differently
  according to culture
• Modern medicine vs. traditional healing

12
Theories of Cultural Change

• Cultural borrowing and innovation acceptance
• Contact with a new culture produces change in one
  or both cultures
• Diffusion Cultural traits spread from one group
  to another
• Innovation New elements or combinations of old
  elements are absorbed

13
Theories of Cultural Change

• Cultural Crisis
• Changes are the result of uncontrollable forces
• Ecological Change
• Changes as response to long-term environmental
  changes

14
Theories of Cultural Change

• Dominant Theme Analysis
• Fundamental cultural themes a dominant force in
  action and thought

15
Theories of Cultural Change

• Functionalism
• Survival needs
• Social coordination
• Security, social harmony

16
Theories of Cultural Change

• Cyclical theories
• Cultures fluctuate some rise to dominance over
  other cultures, some decay and fall to ruin