Defining Culture and Society from the Perspectives of Anthropology and Sociology

• Society is a group of individuals sharing a common culture, geographical location, and government.
• Human beings are naturally inclined to establish societies, as it is in interacting with others that they are able to ensure their survival by establishing mutually beneficial relationships with one another.
• Society enables individuals to acquire necessary survival skills, maximize their potential, and share resources.
• The classic definition of society is based on E.B. Taylor's concept which states that society is "that complex whole which encompasses beliefs, practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols, knowledge, and everything that a person learns and shares as a member of society."
• A society is characterized by the presence of social solidarity, shared identity and culture, a common language, a large population, a definite geographical area, political, economic, and social organization.
• Culture is one of the important bases that define and influence a society.
• Culture refers to the set of beliefs, ideas, values, practices, knowledge, history and shared experiences, attitudes, as well as material objects and possessions accumulated over time and shared by the members of society.
• Components of culture include technology, symbols, language, values, norms, and material and non-material aspects such as dynamic, flexible, shared, learned, patterned, integrated, transmitted, and requiring language and other forms of communication.
• Culture is varied, diverse and at the same time holds similarities.
• Cultural universals are common traits or elements among cultures.
• Cultural particulars are different ways developed to express universals.
• Subculture is a part of the dominant group but differs from it in some important aspects.
• Counterculture is a subculture deliberately and consciously opposed to certain central beliefs of the dominant culture.
• Culture is learned through enculturation & socialization.
• Enculturation is the process of acquiring and internalizing culture, where the culture that is currently established teaches an individual the accepted norms and values of the culture or society where the individual lives.
• Socialization is the process of learning and accepting social behavior, values, beliefs, norms, and language.
• Society functions and maintains social order through social interaction.
• Patterns of social interaction include exchange, cooperation, competition, coercion, conflict, and ethnocentrism and cultural relativism as orientations in viewing other cultures.
• Ethnocentrism diminishes or invalidates "other" ways of life and creates a distorted view of one's own, potentially affecting individual behavior and relationships with other cultures.
• Cultural relativism recognizes and accepts the cultural differences between societies, believing that every aspect of a culture can be justified by the context in which the culture has been formed.
• Interaction between members of different societies is more likely to succeed if everybody is aware and is respectful of cultural diversity.
• Culture is learned behavior that varies between groups and includes norms, values, symbols, language, artifacts, and traditions.
• Culture is learned behavior that varies between groups and includes norms, values, language, artifacts, and symbols.
• Anthropologists examine cultural practices and beliefs across different societies.
• Anthropologists examine cultural practices and beliefs across different societies and time periods.
• Cultural diversity arises from historical experiences, interactions with other groups, and attempts to solve basic social problems.
• Sociologists focus on social institutions, such as family, religion, education, economy, politics, and media.
• Sociologists focus on social institutions, such as family, religion, education, economy, politics, and media.
• Cultures emerge from the interactions between people as they adapt to their environment.
• Culture refers to the shared beliefs, social norms, values, rituals, and material traits of a group.