Culture and Society Defined

Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society.

Through culture, people and groups define themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society.

Thus, culture includes many societal aspects: language, customs, values, norms, mores, rules, tools, technologies, products, organizations, and institutions.

This latter term institution refers to clusters of rules and cultural meanings associated with specific social activities.

Common institutions are the family, education, religion, work, and health care.

Popularly speaking, being cultured means being well‐educated, knowledgeable of the arts, stylish, and well‐mannered.

High culture—generally pursued by the upper class—refers to classical music, theater, fine arts, and other sophisticated pursuits.

Members of the upper class can pursue high art because they have cultural capital, which means the professional credentials, education, knowledge, and verbal and social skills necessary to attain the “property, power, and prestige” to “get ahead” socially.

Low culture, or popular culture—generally pursued by the working and middle classes—refers to sports, movies, television sitcoms and soaps, and rock music.

Remember that sociologists define culture differently than they do cultured, high culture, low culture, and popular culture.

Sociologists define society as the people who interact in such a way as to share a common culture.

The cultural bond may be ethnic or racial, based on gender, or due to shared beliefs, values, and activities.

The term society can also have a geographic meaning and refer to people who share a common culture in a particular location.

For example, people living in arctic climates developed different cultures from those living in desert cultures.

In time, a large variety of human cultures arose around the world.

Culture and society are intricately related.

A culture consists of the “objects” of a society, whereas a society consists of the people who share a common culture.

When the terms culture and society first acquired their current meanings, most people in the world worked and lived in small groups in the same locale.

In today's world of 6 billion people, these terms have lost some of their usefulness because increasing numbers of people interact and share resources globally.

Still, people tend to use culture and society in a more traditional sense: for example, being a part of a “racial culture” within the larger “U.S. society.”