3.1 What Is Culture?
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you should be able to:
- Differentiate between culture and society
- Explain material versus nonmaterial culture
- Discuss the concept of cultural universals as it relates to society
- Compare and contrast ethnocentrism and xenocentrism
Humans are social creatures. To survive, humans have formed groups for almost three million years. By living together, people form common habits and behaviors, from specific methods of childrearing to preferred techniques for cultivating or obtaining food.
Almost every human behavior, from shopping to marriage, is learned. For example, in the United States (US), marriage is generally seen as an individual choice made by two adults, based on mutual feelings of love. In other nations and at other times, marriage is arranged through an intricate process of interviews and negotiations between entire families. In Papua New Guinea, almost 30 percent of women marry before age 18, and eight percent of men have more than one wife (National Statistical Office, 2019). To people who are not from such a culture, arranged marriages may seem to have risks of incompatibility or the absence of romantic love. However, many people from cultures where marriages are arranged, which includes several highly populated countries, often prefer the approach because it reduces stress and increases stability (Jankowiak 2021).
Being familiar with unwritten rules helps people feel secure and at ease. Knowing to look left instead of right for oncoming traffic while crossing the street can help avoid serious injury and even death. Knowing unwritten rules is also fundamental in understanding humor in different cultures. Humor is common to all societies, but what makes something funny is not. Americans may laugh at a scene in which an actor falls; in other cultures, falling is never funny. Most people want to live their daily lives confident that their behaviors will not be challenged or disrupted, but even behavior as seemingly simple as commuting to work evidences a great deal of cultural propriety, that is, there are a lot of expected behaviors and many interpretations of them.
Figure 3.2 How would a visitor from a rural region act and feel on this crowded Hong Kong train? (Credit: Eric Chan/Flickr)
Culture can be material or nonmaterial. Metro passes and bus tokens are part of material culture, as are the buses, subway cars, and the physical structures of the bus stop. Think of material culture as items you can touch–they are tangible. Nonmaterial culture, in contrast, consists of the ideas, attitudes, norms, and beliefs of a society. These are things you cannot touch–they are intangible. You may believe that a line should be formed to enter the subway car or that other passengers should not stand so close to you. Those beliefs are intangible because they do not have physical properties.
Material and nonmaterial aspects of culture are linked, and physical objects often symbolize cultural ideas. A metro pass is a material object, but it represents a form of nonmaterial culture, namely, capitalism, and the acceptance of paying for transportation. Clothing, hairstyles, and jewelry are part of material culture, but the appropriateness of wearing certain clothing for specific events reflects nonmaterial culture. A school building belongs to material culture symbolizing education, but the teaching methods and educational standards are part of education’s nonmaterial culture.
As people travel from different regions to entirely different parts of the world, certain material and nonmaterial aspects of culture become dramatically unfamiliar. What happens when we encounter different cultures? As we interact with cultures other than our own, we become more aware of the differences and commonalities between others and our own. If we keep our sociological imaginations awake, we can begin to understand and accept the differences. Body language and hand gestures vary around the world, but body language is also shared across cultures. For example, when someone arrives home later than permitted, a parent or guardian meeting them at the door with crossed arms and a frown on their face means the same in Russia as it does in the U.S. or Ghana.
Cultural Universals
Although cultures vary, they also share common elements. Cultural universals are patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies. One example of a cultural universal is the family unit: every human society recognizes a family structure that regulates sexual reproduction and the care of children. Even so, how that family unit is defined and how it functions varies. In many Asian cultures, for example, family members from all generations commonly live together in one household. In these cultures, young adults continue to live in the extended household family structure until they marry and join their spouse’s household, or they may remain and raise their nuclear family within the extended family’s homestead. In the US, by contrast, the dominant cultural norm is that individuals are expected to leave home and live independently for some time before forming a family unit that consists of parents and their offspring–a cultural norm that itself is now changing with the rise in the cost of living and higher education. Other cultural universals include customs like funeral rites, weddings, and celebrations of births. However, each culture may view and conduct the ceremonies quite differently.
Anthropologist George Murdock first investigated the existence of cultural universals while studying systems of kinship around the world. Murdock found that cultural universals often revolve around basic human survival, such as finding food, clothing, and shelter, or around shared human experiences, such as birth and death or illness and healing. Through his research, Murdock identified other universals including language, the concept of personal names, and, interestingly, jokes. Humor seems to be a universal way to release tensions and create a sense of unity among people (Murdock, 1949). Sociologists consider humor necessary to human interaction because it helps individuals navigate otherwise tense situations.
Sociological Research: Is Music a Cultural Universal?
Imagine that you are sitting in a theater, watching a film. The movie opens with the protagonist sitting on a park bench with a grim expression on their face. The music starts to come in. The first slow and mournful notes play in a minor key. As the melody continues, the heroine turns her head and sees a man walking toward her. The music gets louder, and the sounds don’t seem to go together, as if the orchestra is intentionally playing the wrong notes. You tense up as you watch, almost hoping to stop. The character is clearly in danger.
Now imagine that you are watching the same movie – the exact same footage – but with a different soundtrack. As the scene opens, the music is soft and soothing, with a hint of sadness. You see the protagonist sitting on the park bench with a grim expression. Suddenly, the music swells. The woman looks up and sees a man walking toward her. The notes are high and bright, and the pace is bouncy. You feel your heart rise in your chest. This is a happy moment.
Music can evoke emotional responses. In television shows, movies, commercials, and even the background music in a store, music has a message and seems to easily draw a response from those who hear it – joy, sadness, fear, victory. Are these types of musical cues cultural universals?
In 2009, a team of psychologists, led by Thomas Fritz of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, studied people’s reactions to music that they’d never heard (Fritz et al., 2009). The research team traveled to Cameroon, Africa, and asked Mafa tribal members to listen to Western music. The tribe, isolated from Western culture, had no context or experience to interpret its music. Even so, as the tribal members listened to a Western piano piece, they were able to recognize three basic emotions: happiness, sadness, and fear. Music, the study suggested, is a sort of universal language.
Researchers also found that music can foster a sense of wholeness within a group. Scientists who study the evolution of language have concluded that originally language (an established component of group identity) and music were one (Darwin, 1871). Additionally, since music is largely nonverbal, the sounds of music can cross societal boundaries more easily than words. Music allows people to make connections, whereas language might be a more difficult barricade. As Fritz and his team found, music and the emotions it conveys are cultural universals.
Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
Although human societies have much in common, cultural differences are far more prevalent than cultural universals. For example, while all cultures have language, analysis of conversational etiquette reveals tremendous differences. In some Middle Eastern cultures, it is common to stand close to others in conversation. Americans keep more distance and maintain a large “personal space.” Additionally, behaviors as simple as eating and drinking vary greatly from culture to culture. Some cultures use tools to put food in their mouths while others use their fingers. If your professor comes into an early morning class holding a mug of liquid, what do you assume they are drinking? In the US, it’s most likely filled with coffee, not Earl Grey tea, a favorite in England, or Yak Butter tea, a staple in Tibet.
Some travelers pride themselves on their willingness to try unfamiliar foods, like the late celebrated food writer Anthony Bourdain (1956-2017). Often, however, people express disgust at another culture’s cuisine. They might think that it’s gross to eat raw meat from a donkey or parts of a rodent, while not even questioning their own eating habits like consuming cows or pigs.
Such attitudes are examples of ethnocentrism, which means to evaluate and judge another culture based on one’s own cultural norms. As sociologist William Graham Sumner (1906) described the term, ethnocentrism is a belief or attitude that one’s own culture is better than all others. Almost everyone is a little bit ethnocentric.
A high level of appreciation for one’s own culture can be healthy. A shared sense of community pride, for example, connects people in a society. However, ethnocentrism can lead to disdain or dislike of other cultures and can lead to misunderstandings, stereotyping, and conflict. For example, individuals, government, non-government, private, and religious institutions sometimes travel to other societies to “help” their people, because they see them as “uneducated,” “backward,” or even “inferior” or “less developed.” Cultural imperialism is the deliberate imposition of one’s own cultural values on another culture.
The colonial expansion of Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, and England that started in the fifteenth century was accompanied by severe cultural imperialism. Europeans often viewed people in the land they colonized and settled as uncultured “savages” who needed to adopt Catholicism or Christianity, Western economic and political systems, such as liberalism and capitalism, European dress, and other cultural practices such as gendered norms.
An example of cultural imperialism may include the work of international aid agencies that introduce agricultural methods and plant species from Western countries into areas that are better served by indigenous varieties and agricultural approaches to a particular region, as was the case for rural communities in India and Monsanto (Shiva, 1993). Another example would be the deforestation of the Amazon Basin as indigenous cultures lose land to timber corporations.
Figure 3.3: Experiencing an entirely new practice may lead to a high degree of interest or a level of criticism. The Indigenous people of Sagada, in the Philippines, have for thousands of years placed the bodies of deceased people into coffins hung on the cliffs near their villages. Some visitors may find this practice admirable, while others may think it’s inappropriate.
When people find themselves in a new culture, they may experience disorientation and frustration. In sociology, we call this culture shock. In addition to the traveler’s biological clock being ‘off’, a traveler from Chicago might find the nightly silence of rural Montana unsettling, not peaceful. Now, imagine that the ‘difference’ is cultural. An exchange student from China to the U.S. might be annoyed by the constant interruptions in class as other students ask questions—a practice that is considered rude in China. Perhaps the Chicago traveler was initially captivated by Montana’s quiet beauty and the Chinese student was originally excited to see a US-style classroom firsthand. But, as they experience unanticipated differences from their own culture, they may experience ethnocentrism as their excitement simply gives way to discomfort and doubts about how to behave appropriately in the new situation. Eventually, as people learn more about a culture, they adapt to the new culture for a variety of reasons.
Culture shock may appear because people aren’t always expecting cultural differences. Anthropologist Ken Barger (1971) discovered this when he conducted a participatory observation in a Native community in the Canadian Arctic. Originally from Indiana, Barger hesitated when invited to join a local snowshoe race. He knew he would never hold his own against experts. Sure enough, he finished last to his mortification, but the tribal members congratulated him, saying, “You really tried!” In Barger’s own culture, he had learned to value victory and pride. To the Native community he was researching with, winning was enjoyable, but their culture valued survival skills essential to their environment over all else–how hard someone tried could mean the difference between life and death. Throughout his stay, Barger participated in caribou hunts, learned how to take shelter in winter storms, and sometimes went days with little or no food to share among tribal members. Trying hard and working together, two nonmaterial values, became much more important than winning.
During his time with the Native community, Barger learned to engage in cultural relativism. Cultural relativism is the practice of assessing a culture by its own standards rather than viewing it through the lens of one’s own. Practicing cultural relativism requires an open mind and a willingness to consider, and even adapt to new values, norms, beliefs, ideas, and practices.
However, indiscriminately embracing everything about a new culture is not always possible. Even the most culturally relativist people question whether the widespread practices of female circumcision in countries such as Ethiopia and Sudan should be accepted as a part of cultural tradition. Sociologists attempting to engage in cultural relativism, then, may struggle to reconcile aspects of their own culture with aspects of a culture that they are studying. Sociologists work diligently to keep personal biases out of research analysis.
Sometimes when people attempt to address feelings of ethnocentrism and develop cultural relativism, they swing too far to the other end of the spectrum. Xenocentrism refers to the belief that another culture is superior to one’s own (the Greek root word xeno-, pronounced “ZEE-no,” means “stranger” or “foreign guest”). An exchange student who goes home after a semester abroad or a sociologist who returns from the field may find it difficult to associate with the values of their own culture after having experienced what they deem a better way of living. An opposite reaction is xenophobia, an irrational fear or hatred of different cultures.
Perhaps the greatest challenge for sociologists studying different cultures is the matter of keeping a perspective. No one can overcome all cultural biases. The best we can do is strive to be aware of them. Pride in one’s own culture doesn’t have to lead to imposing its values or ideas on others. An appreciation for another culture shouldn’t preclude individuals from studying it with a critical eye. This practice is perhaps the most difficult for all social scientists.
Sociology in the Real World: Overcoming Culture Shock
During her summer vacation, Caitlin flew from Chicago, Illinois to Madrid, Spain to visit Maria, the exchange student she had befriended the previous semester. In the airport, she heard rapid, musical Spanish being spoken all around her.
Exciting as it was, she felt isolated and disconnected. Maria’s mother kissed Caitlin on both cheeks when she greeted her. Her imposing father kept his distance. Caitlin was half asleep by the time supper was served—at 10 p.m. Maria’s family sat at the table for hours, speaking loudly, gesturing, and arguing about politics, a taboo dinner subject in Caitlin’s house. They served wine and toasted their honored guest. Caitlin had trouble interpreting her hosts’ facial expressions and did not realize she should make the next toast. That night, Caitlin crawled into a strange bed, wishing she had not come. She missed her home and felt overwhelmed by the new customs, language, and surroundings. She’d studied Spanish in school for years—why hadn’t it prepared her for this?
What Caitlin did not realize was that people depend not only on spoken words but also on body language, like gestures and facial expressions, to communicate. Cultural norms and practices accompany even the smallest nonverbal signals (DuBois, 1951). They help people know when to shake hands, where to sit, how to converse, and even when to laugh. We relate to others through a shared set of cultural norms, and ordinarily, we take them for granted.
For this reason, culture shock is often associated with traveling abroad, although it can happen in one’s own country, state, or even hometown. Anthropologist Kalervo Oberg (1960) is credited with first coining the term “culture shock.” In his studies, Oberg found that most people are excited at first to encounter a new culture. But bit by bit, they become stressed by interacting with people from a different culture who speak another language and use different regional expressions. There is new food to digest, new daily schedules to follow, and new rules of etiquette to learn. Living with this constant stress can make people feel incompetent and insecure. People react to frustration in a new culture, Oberg found, by initially rejecting it and glorifying one’s own culture. An American visiting Italy might long for a “real” pizza or complain about the unsafe driving habits of Italians.
It helps to remember that culture is learned. Everyone is ethnocentric to an extent, and identifying with one’s own country is natural. Caitlin’s shock was minor compared to that of her friends Dayar and Mahlika, a Turkish couple living in married student housing on campus. And it was nothing like that of her classmate Sanai. Sanai had been forced to flee war-torn Bosnia with her family when she was fifteen. After two weeks in Spain, Caitlin had developed more compassion and understanding for what those people had gone through. She understood that adjusting to a new culture takes time. It can take weeks or months to recover from culture shock, and it can take years to fully adjust to living in a new culture.
By the end of Caitlin’s trip, she had made new lifelong friends. Caitlin stepped out of her comfort zone. She had learned a lot about Spain but discovered a lot about herself and her own culture too.
