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)
“The problem of culture is seldom grasped correctly. The goal of a culture is not the greatest possible happiness of a people, nor is it the unhindered development of all their talents; instead, culture shows itself in the correct proportion of these developments. Its aim points beyond earthly happiness: the production of great works is the aim of culture.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)