The Elements of Culture
1. Symbols: Anything that carries particular meaning recognized by people who share the same culture.
2. Language: A system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another.
3. Values: Culturally defined standards of desirability, goodness, beauty and many other things that serves as broad guidelines for social living.
4. Beliefs: Specific statements that people hold to be true.
5. Norms: Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behaviour of its members. The two types of norms are mores and folkways. Mores are norms that are widely observed and have a great moral significance. Folkways are norms for routine, casual interaction.
Read more about this topic: Sociology Of Culture
Famous quotes containing the words elements and/or culture:
“An illustrious individual remarks that Mrs. [Elizabeth Cady] Stanton is the salt, Anna Dickinson the pepper, and Miss [Susan B.] Anthony the vinegar of the Female Suffrage movement. The very elements get the “white male” into a nice pickle.”
—Anonymous, U.S. women’s magazine contributor. The Revolution (August 19, 1869)
“Children became an obsessive theme in Victorian culture at the same time that they were being exploited as never before. As the horrors of life multiplied for some children, the image of childhood was increasingly exalted. Children became the last symbols of purity in a world which was seen as increasingly ugly.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)