CULTURE AND SOCIETY: WHAT RELATIONSHIP EXISTS? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The relationship between culture and society is close, so much so that we can rarely talk about one without mentioning the other. There are many published works and books that attempt to describe the complex relations between society and culture from different perspectives.

Many authors agree that it is not possible to understand human society without understanding human culture. In fact, disciplines such as sociology, psychology or anthropology have as their object of study the relations between culture and society.

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The human being is the only animal of cultural construction and this is transmitted from generation to generation, keeping it active and dynamic to preserve it over time. Society is the organization of individuals, culture its mode of behavior.

The relationship between culture and society

Society is the set of people who live in a certain place, be it a town, a city or a country. On the other hand, culture is the way of thinking, behaving, music, traditions, customs, gastronomy and other aspects that make up the population that is part of a society.

The relationship between culture and society is due to the fact that man's social behavior, be it economic, political, moral, religious, or otherwise, is dominated by the culture of his group.

Anthropology, sociology and psychology are some of the main disciplines that are responsible for studying the relationships between culture and society. These disciplines allow to know the aspects of the human condition based on the influence that culture has on individuals and society in general.

The presence of culture implies the use of symbols through which individuals learn to modify their behavior by understanding the meanings of what is communicated. This modification of behaviors based on symbols allows the establishment of societies.

In general, culture generates values, institutions and tools that modify social relations through a language of symbols that can be inherited to be maintained in society (manifested as traditions of society) or modified over time (manifested as development of the society).

Common elements between culture and society

Some of the elements that culture and society have in common, understanding that one could not exist without the other are: language, beliefs and values.

Language

Language is made up of symbols that serve to communicate meaning, that is, to name the things that surround our world. Society shares these symbols for day-to-day interaction. The creation and evolution of these symbols are a distinctive element of culture between different societies.

This applies to verbal and non-verbal, written, sign or any other formative language that serves for effective communication. For example, Italian society has almost sporadically developed a non-verbal language based on the use of hands and excessive gesticulation.

Italian moving hands and fingers to express himself.

Beliefs

Beliefs or ideologies are those thoughts that a society considers valid. They are accepted by the members of that community as a cultural element of integration and union.

For example, indigenous societies have a conception of nature as something superior, so their bond with mother earth is based on balance and respect for altering it as little as possible.

Values

They are a series of elements that the whole of society clings to and defends for their great cultural wealth. It is a common element in the relationship between society and culture, serving as a criterion for evaluating the actions of others.

For example, in Muslim societies respect for the elderly is a value that they defend within their social culture.

Psychology, culture and society

Psychodynamic studies and psychology in general have made it possible to observe the influence of culture on the personality of individuals. This influence occurs in all aspects of the individual dynamically.

Culture has been shown to have an important influence on aspects of the individual such as ideology and religion, among others.

This influence, in turn, manifests itself in social interactions, which ends up determining the present and the future of the societies themselves.

An example of this phenomenon in Western culture is the excessive help of parents to the child.

This cultural characteristic results in the raising of overly dependent individuals who have trouble facing the realities of the world and forming relationships with others.

Evolution: Culture as a differential factor

After the work of Charles Darwin, many scientists returned to see the human being as a mere animal, only with some peculiarities with respect to other animals.

Because of this, many tried to explain human social relationships in the same way that they did for other animals.

More recently, it has been accepted that the importance of culture must be recognized as a distinct phase of evolution that manifests itself in a much less complex way in other animals.

If this characteristic is not taken into account, many of the social processes in the human being are not explained correctly.

Culture as a differential factor in human groups also evolves over time. The symbols through which social behavior patterns are constructed change as knowledge, values ​​and techniques are developed.

With the evolution of symbols, patterns of social behavior also change.

References

1. Ellwood CA Culture and Human Society. Social Forces. 1944; 23 (1): 6-15.
2. Hezfeld M. (2000). Anthropology: Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society. John Wiley & Sons.
3. Hjarvard S. (2013). The mediatization of Culture and Society. Routledge, New York
4. Kardiner A. et al. (1945). The psychological frontiers of society. Columbia University Press, New York.
5. Shashidhar R. Culture and Society: An Introduction to Raymond Williams. Social Scientist. 1997; 25 (5/6): 33-53.