Non-Material Components of Culture
One of the most important functions of symbolic (non-material) culture is to allow us to communicate. We do this through symbols and language. These form the basis of social interaction, a subject central to sociology.
Symbols (also called signs) are anything that meaningfully represents something else.
Traffic signs, musical notes, product logos, and religious symbols, are all examples of symbols or signs. Each of these convey information about a cultural idea or value.
Numbers and letters are the most common symbols, but you are probably familiar with other graphic symbols indicating, for instance, which is the men's or women's bathroom, where the elevator is going, how to eject a DVD from the drive or in what lane you should be driving.
Some symbols may be nearly universal, while other may be particular to a given culture. It may take some interpretive work to understand what a sign or symbol means if you’re unfamiliar with the context in which it is displayed.
For example, a swastika is a symbol that for many people means death, hatred, racism, or prejudice because of Hitler's use during WWII. However, for some people of the Hindu faith, the swastika has positive religious meaning and often is a symbol of good fortune.
Symbols alone can convey a great deal of meaning. However, when letters are strung together, they can produce limitless meanings. Arguably, one of the most significant components of culture is language. It is an immensely powerful tool used by human beings.
Languageis a complex set of symbols which allow us to communicate verbally, nonverbally, and in written form.
Chinese, Spanish, English, Arabic, Hindi, Porteguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, Standard German, and Wu Chinese comprise about 40 percent of the spoken languages in the world. How you view the world around you, your social construction of reality, and your "world-taken-for-granted," all stem, in part, from the language you learn to speak.
Have you ever travelled to a foreign country or tried to speak to someone who does not know your language? If so, you have probably experienced just how crucial language is to communication. You also probably appreciate how difficult and time-consuming it is to learn the language of another culture.
Learning the values and norms of another culture can be just as difficult.
Valuesare defined standards of what is good, bad, desirable, or undesirable for ourselves and others.
Everyone has values. You learn them from your family and continue to develop them as you age. Values depend on a variety of different factors. For example, your value structure may be influenced by your religion or your values could largely be influenced by goals that you have set for yourself.
It is important to recognize that what you see as "right" or "wrong" is not the same across all cultures. Values are relative to the culture and should be judged thus.
For example, the United States and many other western countries have a certain standard of beauty for women. It is common to see skinny, flawless female figures on the covers of magazines and in television commercials. Sometimes these ideals lead to extreme problems in self-esteem.
In Mauritania, women are considered beautiful if they are what Americans would call very overweight. Young girls in that culture are often force-fed to make them fatter. Neither the U.S. or Mauritania is right or wrong in their image of beauty. They simply have different values and women in both countries sometimes go to extremes to meet the value standard.
A culture's values often lead to behaviors or practices in that culture. These behaviors are called norms.
Norms are shared expectations or rules of behavior.
Norms are influenced and created from the value expectations of a given society. Norms guide our countless interactions on a day-to-day basis. All the subtleties of everyday life, what we expect for ourselves and others, are found in our commonly shared norms.
Norms can be either formal or informal.
Formal norms are rules that have been codified or written officially. An example of a formal norm is a law or classroom rule.
Informal norms are those which are not written or codified and just generally understood by the society in which they exist. There are three general types of norms: folkways, mores, and taboos.
A folkway is a traditional or customary norm governing everyday social behaviors.
Folkways are the simple things in society such as how we eat our soup (with a spoon, chop-sticks, or sipped from the edge of the bowl). They also include our greetings, clothing, rules of politeness, and hand gestures. Violating a folkway will not result in any severe consequence. For example, if a male walks into a restaurant with no shirt on, he may be asked to leave and little else. Most folkways are informal and just understood.
Mores, (pronounced "mor-ays") on the other hand, are usually formalized into law or formal codes because violating them has a more severe impact on society.
Mores are deeply held norms that are strictly enforced and will result in more severe consequences.
Mores are much more important to people than folkways. Not following them may lead to harsh punishment. They might include a strongly held belief against sexual exploitation of women and children, respect for religious buildings, or abstaining from using street drugs.
In the cultures of millions of Muslims, the clear boundaries between males and females often prohibit average men from talking to or even seeing the hands, feet, and face of women who are not their wives.
Taboos are norms ingrained so deeply that even thinking about violating it evokes strong feelings of disgust, horror, or revulsion.
An example of a taboo might be cannibalism or incest. These are the norms that, if violated, usually mean that the violator will certainly be permanently removed from society when discovered.
Lawsare formal codified norms or norms written and recorded from which the behavior of society’s members can be judged.
Social control is the formal and informal mechanisms used to increase conformity to values and norms and thus increase social cohesion.
If social control did not exist, people would ignore the values and norms of society and social life would be quite difficult. Social control comes in the form of sanctions.
A sanction is a positive or negative reaction to the ways that people follow or disobey norms, including rewards for conformity and punishments for norm violations.
Sanctions can either be positive or negative. They can also be either informal or formal. Of course, formal sanctions are those that are actually written down and informal are those that are not. Often, when we think about our behavior being corrected, we think of being punished, but rewards are just as common and important.
| Positive | Negative | |
| Formal | Positive review from an employer, an award based on performance | Arrest, formal reprimand from a boss, fine from a homeowners association |
| Informal | A pat on the back, a smile, a "thumbs up" | Glares, gossip, shunning, avoidance |
Sanctions often vary from culture to culture because the norms vary. In addition, behaviors viewed as acceptable for certain groups of people in a single culture might not be acceptable for others.
For example, it is perfectly acceptable for males to walk down the beach without a shirt. However, if females were to do this, they would most likely be sanctioned for indecent exposure.
The physical objects, languages, symbols, norms and values of cultures are all different. In the next lesson, you’re going to learn about the different variations and attitudes on culture. You will better understand the concept of seeing cultures as relative; in other words, not seeing them as better or completely wrong, simply seeing them as different.
