Key Features of Culture
Key Features of "Culture"
Culture. What is culture? How do you define it? How does a culture become just that? Culture is a way of life made up of groups of things. There are many upon many groups and they are all important. Three key features are social organization, customs and traditions, and finally arts and literature.
Social Organization is the social structure to which every culture bases its self on. Each culture has it’s own basic needs that is met through this social organization. The most important unit is the family. This is where the children learn how they are to behave and what they are to believe. Each family has different morals and ways to teach their children. Within the family status there lives the nuclear family and the extended family. The nuclear family holds a husband, wife and children. This is the typical family patter in many industrial societies within the United States. In this family unit there does not need to be many members. For this family buys what it needs with the earnings that it has made. Next, in the extended family there are several generations living together in one household it is common in this family to find that respect for elders is strong. The elders are the ones that pass on the wisdom so in that aspect they are given high respect. The people with authority often vary throughout different cultures. In most societies, and those before us were patriarchal. In a patriarchal family men are the ones with authority. In some cultures matriarchal is present. Matriarchal is when the woman contains the highest authority. Most all cultures have social classes in to which they base or rank their people by. The more modern social class is based on money, occupation, education, ancestry or some other form. In some societies religious leaders are the highest in their social class. Usually in the past you had to be born into a class of the upper society or you “change your stars.”
Customs and traditions are made entirely of the most important element in its class, which is a culture’s rule of behavior. As known rules may vary in importance and different rules are enforced in different ways. Some...