What is the basic function of culture?

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Sociology → Introduction → Culture → Functions of Culture

A culture plays vital role in the society. Being an important ingredient of society, culture has following important functions to materialize in a society:

A. Transfer of Knowledge
Culture is Transmissive in nature. It helps in transmission of customs, rituals and the knowledge behind everything it bears.

Transfer of knowledge becomes possible as a function of culture when a young generation conceives cultural practices from the preceding generation. The young ones of a society see cultural practices being observed. This makes them ask about the rationale and reason behind the acts of their elders. In this way transfer of cultural knowledge takes place.

Another manifestation of transfer of knowledge in culture is when socialization takes place in a peculiar culture. This socialization transfers the knowledge of that specific culture to the individuals being socialized.

Culture transfer knowledge form one society into another society as well. This happens when people from one culture go to live in another culture. They carry with them the cultural knowledge to share with others which might be accepted or rejected.

The folk-tales produced by a specific culture also transfer as knowledge to the generations coming. Similarly, cultural history is transferable.

B. Define Situation
A culture plays role in defining a situation. Human being faces several scenarios in a day. Culture defines those scenarios and situation by;

  • Giving him knowledge about it
  • By teaching him how to behave and act in that situation
  • By telling what the situation means to the society
  • By giving him a comparative view of situation
  • By bringing forth how others act during such situation

Take a common example that there has arisen a dispute between two families in a traditional village. Now what their culture normally defines this situation is that they would go to the elders of the village. The elders will call a meeting to hear both the sides and decide the matter. In this way culture defined a conflicting situation.

Similarly, culture defines the situation of a wedding ceremony, a funeral, a public gathering etc. Defining a situation by culture helps the culture itself in establishing concrete cultural practices and regulating the social setup. Gradually, the defined situations become customs of a society.

C. Provide Behavior Pattern
Behavior is manner of action and reaction by human beings in society. Culture in itself is learned and demonstrated behavior which sets the pattern of human conduct. Culture teaches man how to behave for a particular situation. For instance, it is behavior pattern that a person who becomes father distributes sweet among his co-villagers. Similarly, it is a behavior pattern taught by culture that people share happiness on a wedding and share sorrow on a funeral in a society.

D. Molds Personality
Culture molds personality. Its manifestation can be seen in two important cases. First is a child who is brought up in a specific culture. Gradually culture molds him into a person with common behavior and practices in society.

Similarly, a person who leaves his country to go and live in abroad for the sake of earning money adapts to the foreign culture. This molds his personality to the new customs and circumstances. He begins to practice the behavior pattern taught to him by the new culture.

Besides these functions, some other functions of culture include;

  • Socialization of human being
  • Interprets society
  • Creates needs and methods to achieve them
  • Regulates social relationships

Next: Elements of Culture

In addition to its intrinsic value, culture provides important social and economic benefits. With improved learning and health, increased tolerance, and opportunities to come together with others, culture enhances our quality of life and increases overall well-being for both individuals and communities.

What is culture and its functions?

Culture provides proper opportunities for the satisfaction of our needs and desires. Our needs, both biological and social, are fulfilled in cultural ways. Culture determines and guides various activities of man. Thus, culture is defined as the process through which human beings satisfy their wants.

What are the four functions of culture?

Following are some of the important functions of culture:

  • Culture Defines Situations: Each culture has many subtle cues which define each situation.
  • Culture defines Attitudes, Values and Goals:
  • Culture defines Myths, Legends, and the Supernatural:
  • Culture provides Behaviour Patterns:

What is the basic function of culture quizlet?

The basic function of culture is to teach people how to adapt to their environment. As the global community continues to be interconnected, areas impacting our life include competition for natural resources and for jobs.

What are the cultural functions of arts?

Art influences society by changing opinions, instilling values and translating experiences across space and time. Research has shown art affects the fundamental sense of self. Painting, sculpture, music, literature and the other arts are often considered to be the repository of a society’s collective memory.

What is culture discuss functions of culture?

1. Culture provides us with design for living. It is always learned and acquired. 2. Culture provides a series of pattern by which biological and socio-cultural demands of group members are met e.g. food, shelter, and reproduction and relationship with group and individuals.Jum. II 16, 1438 AH

What is the basic function of culture intercultural communication?

The primary purpose of intercultural communication is to increase understanding of culturally mediated communication phenomena. Within this goal, there are three distinct research avenues: culture specific, culture general and intercultural interaction.

Which of the following are basic functions of society?

THE BASIC FUNCTIONS OF A SOCIETY ARE:

  • Satisfaction of basic needs.
  • Preservation of order.
  • Management of education.
  • Management of the economy.
  • Power management.
  • Division of labor.
  • Communication management.
  • Preservation and transmission of culture.

What are the important functions of Culture?

Functions of Culture A. Transfer of Knowledge. Culture is Transmissive in nature. B. Define Situation. A culture plays role in defining a situation. C. Provide Behavior Pattern. Behavior is manner of action and reaction by human beings in society. D. Molds Personality. Culture molds personality.

What are four functions of organizational culture?

Organizational culture has four functions: giving members a sense of identity and increasing their commitment, serving as a sense-making device for members, reinforcing organizational values, and serving as a control mechanism for shaping behavior.

What are functions of organizational culture?

An organizational culture is strong when there is a high shared commitment to core values, and weak when control has to be exercised through administrative orders. Organizational cultures serve two major functions: external adaptation and internal integration.

What is the functionalist perspective on culture?

A functionalist perspective acknowledges that there are many parts of culture that work together as a system to fulfill society’s needs. Functionalists view culture as a reflection of society’s values. Conflict theorists see culture as inherently unequal, based upon factors like gender, class, race, and age.

What is the basic function of culture?

As you may have noticed I’m quite attached to the idea of lists, so this second “list post” (did you see what I did there?) should come as no surprise. Nor should it be surprising that the list focuses on functions. Again. I can’t really explain why there are so many Functionalist lists. Perhaps they just really like them?

Anyway, if you’re looking at the concept of culture – what Fisher (1997) calls “shared behaviour…that systematises the way people do things, thus avoiding confusion and allowing cooperation so that groups of people can accomplish what no single individual could do alone” – Mazrui (1996) has identified seven functions culture performs for both societies and individuals.

1. Communication: Culture provides the context for the development of human communication systems such as language, both verbal and non-verbal (gestures, for example).

2. Perception: Matsumoto (2007) argues culture gives “meaning to social situations, generating social roles and normative behaviours”; in other words, it shapes how we see and understand the social and natural worlds. Offe (2001), for example, argues Western cultures generally operate under the belief that “the future” is not predetermined, whereas “Some African societies” are characterised by “the notion of a predetermined future not controllable by individuals”.

3. Identity: Culture influences how people see themselves and others, in terms of ideas like gender, age and ethnicity. Durkheim (1912), for example, suggested societies have a functional requirement to develop two things:

a. Social solidarity – the belief we are connected into a larger network of people who share certain beliefs, identities and commitments to each other. For such feelings of solidarity to develop, however, societies must create mechanisms of:

b. Social integration: A feeling of commitment to others, such as family and friends, is needed to create a sense of individual and cultural purpose and cohesion. In a general sense, collective ceremonies (such as royal weddings and funerals in which we can “all share”) and collective identifications (notions of Brit Pop and Brit Art, for example) represent integrating mechanisms.

More specifically, perhaps, schools try to integrate students through things like uniforms and competitive sports against other schools as a way of promoting solidarity through individual identification with the school. Identities are also shaped through things like an understanding of a society’s history, traditions, customs and the like. In Hostede’s (1991) evocative phrase, culture involves the “collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group… from another”.

4. Value systems: Cultural institutions are a source of values and people’s behaviour is, at the very least, conditioned by the cultural values they receive through the socialisation process.

5. Motivation relates to the idea cultural values and norms involve sanctions (rewards and punishments) for particular behaviours. Cultural values also set the behavioural boundaries in terms of maintaining certain standards of behaviour (laws, for example, specify behaviour that is right or wrong, acceptable and unacceptable). A development of this idea relates to Functionalist concepts of:

6. Stratification: All cultures develop ways of differentiating between social groups on the basis of things like social class (economic divisions), social rank (political divisions involving ideas like an aristocracy and peasantry), gender, age and the like. For writers like Lenski (1994) social stratification is “inevitable, necessary and functional” because it generates the “incentive systems” required to motivate and reward “the best qualified people” for occupying the “most important positions” within a cultural system. This is closely-related to the final function:

7. Production and consumption: Culture defines what people “need, use and value” as part of the overall survival mechanism in any society. People need, for example, to be organised and motivated to work, hence the need for a stratification system that offers rewards to those who occupy social roles that, in the words of Davis and Moore (1945), are “more functionally important than others” and encouraged to consume the products of the workplace.

Update

Those of a more visual bent might be interested in this latest video update that lists 10 Functions of Culture (I’ve chucked in 3 bonus Functions to draw you in. You probably will be disappointed) in a brilliantly-condensed 3-minute vid.

This saves you the time and trouble of reading the list of functions.

Unless you already have in order to reach this text.

In which case, I can only say “I’m sorry“.

And while I don’t really mean it, we can problably agree it’s the thought that counts.

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