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Culture is the foundation of society, shaping how people interact, what they believe, and how they make sense of the world around them. Culture is everything made, learned, or shared by the members of a society, including values, beliefs, behaviors, and material objects. It encompasses both tangible elements, such as technology and art, and intangible elements, such as customs and values.
Culture is learned, and it varies tremendously from society to society. We begin learning our culture from the moment we’re born, as the people who raise us encourage certain behaviors and teach their version of right and wrong. Although cultures vary dramatically, they all consist of two parts: material culture and nonmaterial culture.
Material Culture
Material culture consists of the concrete, visible parts of a culture, such as food, clothing, cars, weapons, and buildings. Aspects of material culture differ from society to society. Here are a few features of modern material culture in the United States:
- Oat milk lattes
- PlayStation
- Sneakers
- Smart phones
- Kombucha
- Wide-legged jeans
Example: One common form of material culture is jewelry that indicates a person’s status as married. In American culture, people wear a metal band on the ring finger of the left hand to show that they are married. In smaller, nonindustrialized societies, everyone knows everyone else, so no such sign is needed. In certain parts of India, women wear a necklace to indicate that they are married. In Northern Europe, married people wear wedding bands on the right hand.
Nonmaterial Culture
Nonmaterial culture consists of the intangible aspects of a culture, such as values and beliefs. Nonmaterial culture consists of concepts and ideas that shape who we are and make us different from members of other societies.
A value is a culturally approved concept about what is right or wrong, desirable or undesirable. Values are a culture’s principles about how things should be and differ greatly from society to society.
Example: In the United States today, many women value thinness as a standard of beauty. In Ghana, however, most people would consider American fashion models sickly and undesirable. In that culture and others, robustness is valued over skinniness as a marker of beauty.
Beliefs are specific ideas that people feel to be true. Values support beliefs.
Example: Americans believe in freedom of speech, and they believe they should be able to say whatever they want without fear of reprisal from the government. Many Americans value freedom as the right of all people and believe that people should be left to pursue their lives the way they want with minimal interference from the government.
Cultural Universals
Despite the vast differences between cultures around the world, certain elements are found in every society. Cultural universals are patterns, traits, or institutions that are common to all human societies, regardless of their location or time period. These universals reflect shared human experiences and the ways societies address fundamental needs, such as survival, communication, and social organization. The concept was popularized by anthropologist George Murdock, who identified a list of cultural elements that appear in all cultures. Examples of cultural universals include:
Family Structures: All societies have family units to care for and nurture children. While the form and role of families may differ—such as nuclear families versus extended families—they serve as a universal mechanism for socialization and emotional support.
Rites of Passage: Every culture marks significant life events, such as birth, coming of age, marriage, and death, with specific rituals or ceremonies that carry symbolic meaning.
Religious or Spiritual Practices: Most cultures have systems of beliefs or practices that address existential questions, moral codes, and the meaning of life. These can take the form of organized religions, animism, or personal spiritual practices.
Food Practices and Cooking: While specific diets and methods of cooking vary widely, all societies have established ways of preparing and consuming food to meet nutritional needs and foster social bonding.
Arts and Recreation: Artistic expression, such as music, dance, painting, and storytelling, exists across all cultures, serving both aesthetic and functional purposes, such as passing down traditions or fostering community.
Ideal Culture versus Real Culture
Although cultures promote shared values and norms, there is a difference between what a society aspires to and what actually happens in everyday life. Sociologists must therefore distinguish between ideal culture and real culture. Ideal culture represents the values, norms, and behaviors that a society claims to uphold. These are the principles people aspire to live by, often expressed in societal ideals, moral codes, and laws. For example, in many countries, values such as equality, freedom, and honesty are part of the ideal culture, shaping how people believe they should act and how institutions should operate.
In contrast, real culture reflects how people behave in everyday life. It includes observable behaviors, practices, and social norms that may not always align with the ideal culture. Real culture often reveals the challenges and inconsistencies present within a society.
The difference between ideal and real culture is called the cultural discrepancy, and it is a central focus for sociologists. This gap can lead to tension or disillusionment, especially when people recognize that societal ideals are not being met in practice. The tension between the two often drives social change as individuals and groups push for real-world practices to align with societal ideals.
|
Aspect |
Ideal Culture |
Real Culture |
|
Definition |
What society aspires to or values most. |
What actually occurs in everyday life. |
|
Focus |
Norms, values, and expectations. |
Actual behaviors and practices. |
|
Consistency |
Often reflects perfection or aspiration. |
Includes contradictions and inequalities. |
|
Example |
“Everyone has equal opportunities.” |
Wage gaps and systemic discrimination. |
Hierarchy of Cultures
Within any society, different groups coexist, but not all hold the same power or influence. Sociologists categorize these groups into dominant cultures, subcultures, and countercultures, depending on their relationship with mainstream society.
Dominant Culture
The dominant culture in a society is the group whose members are in the majority or who wield more power than other groups. In the United States, the dominant culture is that of white, middle-class, Protestant people of northern European descent. There are more white people here than African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, or Native Americans, and there are more middle-class people than there are rich or poor people.
The Majority Doesn’t Always Rule
A group does not have to be a majority to be a dominant culture. In South Africa, there are four times as many black Africans as white Africans of European descent. Yet under a system of racial segregation and domination called apartheid, which was legally in effect from 1948 to 1991, the white population managed to hold political and economic power. South African whites thus were the dominant culture.
Subculture
A subculture is a group that lives differently from, but not opposed to, the dominant culture. A subculture is a culture within a culture. For example, Jews form a subculture in the largely Christian United States. Catholics also form a subculture, since the majority of Americans are Protestant. Members of these subcultures do belong to the dominant culture but also have a material and nonmaterial culture specific to their subcultures.
Religion is not the only defining aspect of a subculture. The following elements can also define a subculture:
- Occupation
- Financial status
- Political ideals
- Sexual orientation
- Age
- Geographical location
- Hobbies
W.E.B. Du Bois
One important theorist of subcultures was W.E.B. Du Bois. The first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University, Du Bois was one of the most renowned sociologists of race relations in the United States. He described racism as the predominant problem that American culture faced in the 20th century. He paid special attention to the effects of what he called the “color line” in America and studied the impact of racism on both white and Black Americans.
Counterculture
A counterculture is a subculture that opposes the dominant culture. For example, the hippies of the 1960s were a counterculture, as they opposed the core values held by most citizens of the United States. Hippies eschewed material possessions and the accumulation of wealth, rejected the traditional marriage norm, and espoused what they called free love, which was basically the freedom to have sex outside of marriage. Though hippies were generally peaceful, they opposed almost everything the dominant culture stood for
Not all countercultures are nonviolent. In 1995, the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was blown up, killing 168 people and injuring many others. That horrific crime brought to light the existence of another counterculture in the United States: rural militias. While such groups go by several names, their members tend to be people who despise the U.S. government for what they see as its interference in the lives of citizens.
