Culture and Social Norms - Essay Example

Gil Broochian Your 4 April Sociology Midterm It is hard to go about defining culture exactly, for after all, can a definition that is acceptable to all ever be formulated? There are several definitions that have been put forward to answer this question; however, this paper is an attempt to define culture based on my own understanding. Culture is not merely the clothes we wear, or the architecture we use, but it is actually the whole process of our lives, or the way we live our lives. This, therefore, would include, though not be limited to, our behavior, whether individual or collective, habits, customs, morals, and our religious and irreligious beliefs. In a society like ours, it is, of course, hard to find culture that is completely common within a given set of people, however, it is common in more primitive or homogenous groups of people. Culture can, thus, be anything that we do in our lives. Our college education is just as much a part of our culture, as our habit of walking our pets. Culture is such an integral, though hard to discern, part of our lives, that sometimes we are unaware of what constitutes our culture and also, if our daily routine also plays a part in it. What is so very interesting about culture is that it also includes the minutest details of our lives, and that is why there are multiple sub-cultures present in a heterogeneous society like ours. For instance, just amongst the culture of our school-going population, we find the “jocks” and the “goths” and the “emos” and the “nerds” and the “geeks”, to name a few sub-cultures. But where exactly does this “culture” come from? How do we arrive at this culture? Some may argue that it is based on the past, that we are, essentially, born into a culture and then we adopt it ourselves or adapt to it. Perhaps Emile Durkheim would agree, with his definition of “social fact” in which he lays down that social facts, that make up culture, are not only extrinsic but intrinsic in that we are not only born into them, but we also agree with them, and so are bound by them twofold. In essence, this leads us to conclude that culture is formulated in the past as well as the present. We are born into societies that already have set rules and patterns that form their culture, the most we can do is either adopt them completely in our lives, thus accepting them completely, or essentially pick and choose the aspects that we find pertinent to our lives and adopt them, whilst ignoring others. The third scenario would entail us rejecting the culture we are born into completely, however, it would be next to impossible to completely reject any culture and live in it at the same time. It is also important to note that often culture comes into being after a group of people, who live together, decipher the sum of their experiences and then decide on a certain course of action. A good example in this regard would be our culture regarding brushing teeth: our society gives importance to dental hygiene because through past experiences, the people came to the conclusion that teeth and gum diseases can be prevented if we brush our teeth after meals, or at least twice daily, therefore, this practice was adopted as part of our culture. The fact that those born into our societies automatically adopt this in their lives shows, further, that not only is our culture based on the past, but is an ongoing process of the present as well. But it is worth mentioning that culture is not stagnant, in that it does not stay constantly the same. Culture is a malleable concept – we are constantly adopting newer and more effective ways of leading our lives and form new habits, both individually and as a society, thereby changing our culture. These changes can both be subtle and obvious. If the society, as a whole, is unsatisfied with its culture, often newer and revolutionary ideas are either formulated or adopted by them as a whole. The spread of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula can be cited as a good example – the Arab society of pre-Islam days was an idolatrous, illiterate one, based on tribal and feudal considerations, with slavery and subjugation of women as its salient features. When Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, put forward his monotheistic concepts, similar to the Abrahamic faiths, especially Judaism, and incorporated them within the prevalent Arab culture, while at the same time eradicating the unpleasant parts of the culture (burying new born female infants, for instance), the people slowly and surely adopted them in their lives. Of course this was not done overnight, however, after noticing the improvement in their lives, the society did change, and adopted Islamic practices and culture, and embraced them as their own. However, a change in culture is not always so obvious and revolutionary. In our society, for example, the changes are more subtle, albeit similar in the reason thereof to the former kind of change. A slow and subtle shift in our behavior towards accepting non-married couples living together serves as an example in this regard. Our society completely discouraged this behavior, however, a slow shift in this attitude, based on new ideals and new experiences, have resulted in acceptance thereof, although this acceptance is not completely present, however, it is sufficiently common for it to become part of our culture. The Structural Functionalism perspective would best serve such a definition of culture. Though a Conflict Perspective does serve a revolutionary change in the culture of a society, however, given our society and its culture, the definition would best go along with the idea that culture is based on various interconnected composites that operate in harmony with one another, and help us lead our lives more harmoniously. Norms are all the accepted forms of conduct and behavior in a given society or culture. A society expects its norms to be followed and adhered to. They can both be positive and negative – the positive norms are those forms of behavior that are encouraged, whereas negative would be those that are discouraged or prohibited, or taboos. Norms can be, and are, changed based on the cultural changes that take place in the society, however, once adopted, they are expected to be followed. Mores and folkways are part of, or kinds of, cultural norms. Mores are stricter, formal type of norms that are strictly adhered to in the society and deviance from them is not considered acceptable, our concept of “marriage” as a union between people of opposite sexes can be termed as our cultural more. Some of us do favor gay marriage individually, however, as a society, we are against it, and we punish those who go against the traditional view of marriage by not allowing them to marry, thus not giving them some of the rights that others living in the same society have. Moreover, deviation from some norms, especially in primitive societies, can also result in strict punishments meted out by the society – Islamic countries hold homosexuality to be a taboo, and a deviance to this can even result in a death sentence. Folkways are more lenient cultural norms – they are accepted to be followed, though a deviance from them does not result in excessive punishment. They can be termed as the informal kind of social norms. They might result in ostracism or maybe even ridicule, but they do not form any taboos. In most Western cultures, for example, skirts are considered to be female apparel, a man who goes against this folkway and decides to wear skirts will be ridiculed and perhaps even ostracized, however, he will not be meted out any serious punishment from the society. Thus, mores and folkways are two kinds of social norms, and based on their formal/informal nature, deviance from them is punished by the society on some level. Though it is clear to any observer that deviance from the formal mores (which can be, and often are, codified as law in a society) results in crime, and is, thus, punished severely. Whereas rejecting folkways does not hold such serious repercussions; the deviant of cultural folkways will either be ostracized or ridiculed, or even be ignored, but will not be held liable to any serious form of punishment. Read More