Lec ii Culture: An Introduction - Imran Ahmad Sajid

CultureIMRAN AHMAD SAJID

LecturerDepartment of Social Work,

University of Peshawar

[email protected]

Lecture for MA Final Social WorkSubject: Social Institutions and Social System of Pakistani Society

• There are different standards of beauty among people around the world.• There are different preferences around the world of how a wife should look like.

Bielgee, Mongolian DanceBhangra, Punjabi Dance

HipHop, US Street Dance Attanr, Pakhtun Dance

Raqs, Turkish Sufi Dance

• The ways of life found around the world differ in so many ways.

• not only in language and forms of dress but also in – Preferred foods, – Musical tastes, – Family patterns, and – Beliefs about right and wrong.

In India people burn the dead

In Tana Toroja, Indonesia, death rituals is a large social event that includes music, dance, and feasts to large

number of guests.

In Tibet, Sky Burial is performed where the body is chopped, mixed with flour and left to be

eaten up by scavenging bird

Yanomomi of Brazil mix the ashes of the corps with fermented Banana. The mixture is

consumed by all the tribes people.

The Malagasy of Madagascar take out the dead from the graves and live with them. The celebration is often held once every

seven years and is a time of joyous family reunions.

• The ways of life found around the world differ in so many ways.

• Some of the world’s people have many children, while others have few; – some honors elderly, while others seem to glorify youth. – Some societies are peaceful, while others are warlike; – and societies around the world embrace a thousand

different religious beliefs as well as particular ideas about what is • polite and rude,• beautiful and ugly, • pleasant and repulsive.

• This amazing human capacity for so many different ways of life is a matter of human culture.

WHAT IS CULTURE?????

• Culture is the way of life of a group of people who share similar beliefs and customs.

Edward B. Tylor

• Culture … is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, laws, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. (1871:1)

Edgar Schein

• Culture consists of the shared beliefs, values, and assumptions of a group of people who learn from one another and teach to others that their behaviors, attitudes, and perspectives are the correct ways to think, act, and feel.

http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/cultural-intelligence-for-leaders/s04-02-what-is-culture.html

John J. Macionis

• Culture is the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together form a people’s way of life (Macionis, 2012.p.54).

John Cuber

• Culture is the continuously changing patterns of learned behaviour and the products of that learned behaviour are shared and transmitted among members of society.

Encarta Encyclopedia

• Cultures is the pattern of behaviour and thinking that people living in a social group learn, create and share.

HOW MANY CULTURES ARE THERE IN PAKISTAN?

• Indicator of Culture: Language• 74 languages spoken in Pakistan. • Major Languages: – Provincial: Urdu, Pashto, Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi– Regional: Kashmiri, Brahui, Hindko, Shina, Saraiki,

http://www.ethnologue.com/country/pk

1

رانگڑی(Haryanvi) 16 Dari 31 Jandavra 46 Loarki

2 Aer 17 Dameli 32 Kabutra 47 Marwari3 Badeshi 18 Dogri 33 Kachchi/Kutchi 48 Memoni4 Bagri 19 Dehawri 34 Kalami 49 Od/Odki5 Balti 20 Dhatki/Thari 35 Kalasha-mun 50 Ormuri6 Bateri 21 Domaaki 36 Kalkoti 51 Palula7 Bhadrawahi 22 Gawar-Bati 37 Kamviri 52 Sansi8 Bhaya 23 Ghera 38 Kati 53 Savi9 Brokskat 24 Goaria 39 Khetrani 54 Swati

10 Burig/Purik 25 Gowro 40 Khowar 55 Shina-Kohistani11 Burushaski 26 Gujarati 41 Kohistani Indus 56 Sindhi-Bhil12 Chambeali 27 Gojri (Gujari) 42 Koli-Kachi 57 Torwali13 Changthang 28 Gurgula 43 Koli-Parkari 58 Uyghur14 Chilisso 29 Hazaragi 44 Koli-Wadiyara 59 Ushojo/Ushoji15 Chitrali 30 Jadgali 45 Lasi 60 Bagri/Vagri61 Wakhi 62 Waneci 63 Yidgha 64 Zangskari

Other Languages of Pakistan

Characteristics of Culture

Culture

1. Learned

2. Shared

3. Dynamic

4. Systematic

5. Symbolic

From these definitions, it can be inferred that …..

1. Culture is Learned• We do not inherit our culture

through our genes in the way we inherit our physical characteristics.

• Instead, we obtain our culture through the process of enculturation.

• Enculturation is the process of social interaction through which people learn and acquire their culture.

2. Culture is Shared

• Culture consists of the shared practices and understandings within a society.

• These publicly shared meanings provide designs or recipes for surviving and contributing to the society.

Shared stories, shared values, shared beliefs, shared purpose, shared rituals.

• Pakistanis in the UK. • feel that this group of people understands them

better and shares their values and ideas.

3. Culture is Dynamic

• Culture is dynamic and thus complex. • Culture is fluid rather than static, which means

that culture changes all the time, every day, in subtle and tangible ways.

Change in material objects. Change in ideas.

4. Culture is Systemic

• Systems are interrelated, interconnected parts that create a whole.

• Behaviours of people in a culture are interconnected .

For example

5. Culture is Symbolic

• Symbols are both verbal and nonverbal in form within cultural systems, and they have a unique way of linking human beings to each other.

• Humans create meaning between symbols and what they represent;

• as a result, different interpretations of a symbol can occur in different cultural contexts.

Meaning of Smile in Hull University and Peshawar University differ

• Ants and Zebras all around the world behaves very much the same because behaviour is guided by instincts, biological programming over which the species has no control.

• Humans behave differently the world over. • Only humans rely on culture rather than

instincts to create a way of life and ensure our survival.

• Culture shapes not only what we do but also what we think and how we feel—elements of what we commonly, but wrongly, describe as “human nature.”

People living in similar environment may develop very different kind of human nature. For example

Yanomomi Tribe of Brazil thinks Aggression is Natural

• Living in Forests of Brazil and heavily nature dependent

Semai of Malaysia live quite peacefully.

• Living in Forests of Malaysia and heavily nature dependent• Culture shapes human nature.

CULTURAL SHOCK

• Personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life.

• Cultural shock is very strong when visiting abroad.

Culture is the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together form a people’s way of life (Macionis, 2012.p.54).

What does a mouse mean to you?

Roasted Mouse in Hai Duong, Vietnam

• To the people of Hai Duong in Vietnam, Field Mouse means Rich Food Diet

• The field mouse meat is white and sweet-smelling just like chicken.

http://hoanganhship.com.vn/index.php?language=en&nv=news&op=print/NEWS/The-roasted-field-mouse-the-feature-of-special-culinary-culture-31

Cultural Shock

Cultural Shock

Feeding Dog, Philippine Cultural Shock

Raosted Dogs, Hanoi, Vietnam, and parts of ChinaCultural Shock

Cultural Shock is Personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life.

CULTURE, NATION, SOCIETY

• Culture: shared way of life. • Nation: a political entity, a territory with

designated borders. • Society: the organized interaction of people who

typically live in a nation or some other specific territory.

• Pakistan is both a society and a nation but it is multicultural: the people follow various ways of life that blend and sometimes clash.

• To understand that all culture is, we must consider both thoughts and things. – Nonmaterial culture is the ideas created by members of a

society. – Material culture, is the physical things created by members

of a society.

MATERIAL VS NON-MATERIAL CULTURE

1. Material Culture

• Material culture refers to the physical objects, resources, and spaces that people use to define their culture.

• These include homes, neighborhoods, cities, schools, churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, offices, factories and plants, tools, means of production, goods and products, stores, and so forth.

• All of these physical aspects of a culture help to define its members' behaviors and perceptions.

Material Culture of Peshawar

Wall chalking Part of Material Culture in Pakistan

Material Culture of Tana Torajo of Indonesia

Material Culture of Turkey Material Culture of Afghanistan

Chitrali Cap, Material Culture from Chitral That diffused to the whole of KP

2. Non-Material Culture

• Non material culture‐ refers to the nonphysical ideas that people have about their culture, including beliefs, values, rules, norms, morals, language, organizations, and institutions.

• e.g. What and when family members should eat?

Beliefs Non-material culture

Why we can’t build Qilla Balahisar or Blue Masque?

Blue Masque, Turkey, 1604

Balahisar Fort, Peshawar, Pakistan, 1100

• Girls should wear Pardah• Men shouldn’t disrespect women

ELEMENTS OF CULTURE

• Culture uses Four important process to shape its members' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (the non-material culture).

1. Symbols2. Language3. Values and Beliefs4. Norms

1. Symbols

• We experience the surrounding world and we try to add meaning to it.

• A Symbol is anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture.

Symbols Faisal Masjid and Azan

1. To the human mind, symbols are cultural representations of reality. – Gun in the hands of policeman Protection– Gun in the hands of civilian crime

2. Every culture has its own set of symbols associated with different experiences and perceptions.

3. Thus, as a representation, a symbol's meaning is neither instinctive nor automatic.

• The culture's members must interpret and over time reinterpret the symbol.A Source of disgust or food?

1. Symbols occur in different forms: verbal or nonverbal, written or unwritten. – They can be anything that conveys a

meaning, such as words on the page, drawings, pictures, and gestures.

2. Clothing, homes, cars, and other consumer items are symbols that imply a certain level of social status.

• A word, a whistle, a wall covered with graffiti, a flashing red light, a raised fist– all serve as symbols.

• Humans have the capacity to create and manipulate meanings.

• e.g. Winking interest, understanding, or insult.

A Cow means different things to A Hindu and a Muslim

• We are so dependent on our culture’s symbols that we take them for granted.

• We become keenly aware of their importance When someone uses it in an unconventional way, as when someone burns – Pakistan’s Flag– The Quran– The Bible– Or slaughters a cow.

• Truly, Cultural shock is the inability to read meanings of symbols in strange surroundings.

• Not understanding the symbols of a culture leaves a person feeling lost and isolated, unsure of how to act, and sometimes frightened.

Hugging is common symbol of Greetings in Pakistan but it will be a Cultural Shock for a US Citizen as they consider it a gay habit.

2. Language• Language is a system of symbols that allows

people to communicate with one another. • Language is the key to the world of culture.

• Language not only allows communication but is also the key to cultural transmission. – Cultural transmission is the process by which one

generation passes culture to the next. • Just as our bodies contain the genes of our

ancestors, our culture contains countless symbols of those who came before us.

• Language is the key that unlocks centuries of accumulated wisdom.

دلبرہ غنتہ تا ھسی وی نہ بہ مخ پہ جہان دبرہ سمن مویہ، سمبل بویہ، عنبر رویہ، پری

• Language links us to the past. • It also sparks human imagination to connect

symbols in new ways, creating an almost limitless range of future possibilities.

! ُببو و رنگ ِنن جہا ہے کیسا درینہ ِن( ھمدآ,رزو و جستجو و د,غ و درد و ساز و پسر سوز ,ے نشانی شش ر, عشقاں

تر ِن6 چش و سرد آ,ہ زرد، رنگبدر درد بےقر,ری، ز,ری، و آ,ہ

Does language shapes reality?

• Does someone who thinks and speaks using English Language experience the world differently from other Pakistanis who think in, say Urdu or Pashto?

• Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf claimed that the answer is YES.

3. Values and Beliefs

• A hungry Hindu man will let himself starve rather than slaughtering and eating a cow, despite the fact that there are old cows roaming all over his village, blocking the streets for cars to pass.

• To the average adult Pakistani man, who regularly eats beef each year, this seems illogical. If you have been hungry for months, then you should eat the cow! There are old cows roaming all over India, no one else owns the cows, and you know how to slaughter a cow! What's stopping the Hindu man from killing the cow?

• The answer to that question is simple, if you understand his cultural values.

• The group's values aren't always obvious right away - they run deep!

• Cultural values are the core principles and ideals upon which the entire community exists.

3. Values and Beliefs

• Values are fundamental to understanding how culture expresses itself.

• Values, culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living.

• Values are broad principles that support beliefs.

• Beliefs are specific thoughts or ideas that people hold to be true.

• Values are abstract standards of goodness, and beliefs are particular matters that individual consider true or false.

Values vary from culture to culture.

• Values that are important in higher income countries differ somewhat from those common in lower-income countries.

Lower Income Countries

Survival and Traditional Values• LICs develop cultures that value survival. • importance of physical safety and economic security. • They Worry about having enough food to eat and a safe

place to sleep at night.• They are traditional with values that celebrate the past

and emphasize the importance of family and religious beliefs.

• Men have most of the power, discourage and forbid practices such as divorce.

Higher Income CountriesSelf-Expression and Secular Values• HICs develop cultures that value individualism and self-

expression. • They are Rich, survival is taken for granted. • focus their attention on which “lifestyle” they prefer and how

to achieve the greatest personal happiness. • HICs tend to be secular-rational, placing less emphasis on

family ties and religious beliefs and more on people thinking for themselves۔

• In HICs, women have social standing more equal to men, and there is widespread support for practices such as divorce and abortion.

Values and Age

Values of Pakistani Culture

1. Democracy2. Education 3. Family as Center of Activities 4. Hospitality 5. Humour6. Charity 7. Helping the needy8. Family Position not Success 9. Job instead of Business

4. Norms

• Norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behaviours of its members.

• In everyday life, people respond to each other with sanctions, reward or punishments that encourage conformity to cultural norms.

Two types of Norms

1. MORES: norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance.

• Mores include Taboos… e.g. adults should not walk in public without dress.

2. FOLKWAYS: Norms of routine or casual interaction.

• e.g. ideas about appropriate greetings and proper dress.

• Mores distinguish between Right and Wrong, Folkways draw a line between Right and Rude.

Norms

Mores FolkwaysWG Sumner.

• A student who does not wear a pair of shoes in the classroom may raise eyebrows for violating folkways….

• It would be a violation of Mores if he comes to the class only wearing the shoes.

Ideal vs Real Culture

• Values and Norms do not describe actual behaviour so much as they suggest how we should behave.

• Ideal culture always differ from real culture.

• Ideal culture includes the values and norms that a culture claims to have.

• It involves an idealized, uncompromising value system that dictates perfect behavior.

• Using ideal culture as a standard, you are either right or wrong.

• Rules are black and white, with no gray areas and no exceptions.

• Real culture, on the other hand, includes the values and norms that are actually followed by a culture.

• It involves an adaptable value system that is used mostly as a set of guidelines for preferred behavior.

• Right and wrong are separated, but exceptions exist for pretty much everything.

Examples

Ideal Culture Real Culture

Respect for guests in Hujra Many guests are killed in Hujra

Women are honour of men. Many men sell their women to other parts of Pakistan

Pakhtun-Wali

STRUCTURE OF A CULTURE

1. Cultural Trait2. Cultural Complex3. Cultural Pattern4. Cultural Institutions5. Cultural Ethos

Ethos

Institutions

Patterns

Complexes

Traits

1. Cultural Traits• Trait is the smallest unit of a culture. It is the

atom of the whole. – e.g. from m.C: use of chopsticks as eating utensils. – A chair in an office or a house.– Knife from Upper Dir– Chitrali Cap

• e.g from nm.C: Driving on the left side, salute to the flag,

Each culture includes thousands of cultural traits.

Is Poetry a trait?

2. Cultural Complexes• A cultural complex is a collection of cultural traits.

Or, it is a combination of two or more cultural traits. • Poetry is a cultural complex: rhytheming, accents,

formula for organizing the words, and rhythmic recitation.

• A prayer is a complex that is the combination of traits such as Recitation of Quran, Qayam, Ruku, Sajda, Qaida, and fixed timings of saying the prayers.

Obviously, number of cultural complexes are less than cultural traits.

3. Cultural Patterns

• A complex is intermediate between trait and Pattern. • A cultural pattern constitutes of a number of complexes. • The Wedlock is a cultural pattern in Pakistan, involves

– Mutual agreement of spouses– Two witnesses from each partner, – Signing the Nikah deed– Authentication by the Qazi– and Dowry etc.

• Submissiveness in front of elders is a cultural pattern that is a combination of many behaviours.

4. Cultural Institutions

• An institution is a series of complexes and patterns centering around a configuration of needs.

• e.g.: Family: match making complex, wedding pattern, child rearing pattern, husband-wife relation pattern, etc.

• Educational institution: admission system, teaching pattern, examination pattern, and administration patterns, etc.

5. Cultural Ethos

• Ethos is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a culture.

• The core of norms and values which gives a distinctive feeling or overtone or flavour to a culture is called its ethos.

• Ethos is a sort of spirit running through all the aspects of culture which sets the tone of the society.

ETHOS: shared fundamental traits• Cooperative Japanese• Competitive American• Hardworking German

CONCEPT RELATED TO CULTURE

Cultural Diffusion

• The spread of cultural traits from one society to another society.

• Can you identify some examples of cultural diffusion in Pakistan?

BF/GF Culture

Mobile Phone

Copy/Paste

Jeans and T-Shirt

Burger and Pizza

Suicide Bombing

Arch making culture

High Culture and Popular Culture

• High Culture refers to cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite.

• Popular culture refers to cultural patterns that are widespread among a society’s population.

Which is more cultured? Gulli Danda or Polo?

High Culture

High Culture

Popular Culture

Popular Culture

Subculture

• Subculture refers to cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society’s population.

• a subculture is a group of people with a culture (whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong

• subcultures bring together like-minded individuals allow them to develop a sense of identity.

Counterculture

• Counterculture refers to cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society.

Cultural Lag

• Some elements of culture change faster than others. • William Ogburn (1964) observed that technology

moves quickly, generating new elements of material culture (things) faster than nonmaterial culture (ideas) can keep up with them. Ogburn called this inconsistency Cultural Lag.

• Cultural lag refers to the fact that some cultural elements change more quickly than others, disrupting a cultural system.

Is photography Halal or Haram?

Cultural Integration

• Cultural integration is the close relationship of various elements of a cultural system. – the process through which changes in certain

cultural elements trigger changes in others.

Women’s increased interest in education Late Marriage

More women in labour force in job

market

Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

• Ethnocentrism means the practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture.

• Alternative to ethnocentrism is Cultural Relativism

• Cultural relativism* refers to the practice of judging a culture by its own standards.

*Relativism: Belief in changeable standards

How Culture Changes?

1. Invention2. Discovery3. Diffusion

1. Invention

• Invention is the process of creating new cultural elements.

• Invention has given us telephone (1876), the airplane (1903), and the computer (late 1940s).

• Each of these elements of material culture has made a tremendous impact on our way of life.

2. Discovery

• Discovery involves recognizing and understanding more fully something already in existence– E.g. discovery of nature and functions of human

body– Discovery of Conditional Learning. – Theory of Psychoanalysis

3. Diffusion

• Cultural Diffusion refers to the spread of cultural traits from one culture to another.

Globally Diffused Cultural Traits1. Cotton covers domesticated in

India2. Wool from sheep domesticated in

Near East3. Use of Silk was discovered in

China4. Pajama was invented in India5. Chair was invented in South

Europe6. Window Glass was invented in

Egypt7. Watermelon sown first in Africa8. Sugar was first made in India

9. Cigarette is a Mexican invention10. Spoon is a derivative of Roman

original11. Umbrella was first used in South

Asia12. Rubber-shoes were first invented

by Central American Indians13. Knife of Steel alloy was invented in

Southern India14. Domestication of cows and the

idea of milking them was originated in Near East

15. Wheat was domesticated in Asia Minor

Pakistani Culture