Culture - complex whole which encompasses beliefs, practices, values, etc; seen as integral to everyday life; consists of patterns, behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, artifacts, traditions, etc.
Characteristics of Culture
Learned
Relative
Shared
Symbolic
Changes from time to time
Enculturation - whole process of learning, learned through participating and interacting
Symbol - an object, word or action that stands for something else and is culturally defined
Types of Culture
Material
Non-Material
Material Culture - physical objects, resources, and spaces that people use to define their culture; homes, neighborhoods, cities, schools, churches, offices, etc.
Non-Material Culture - nonphysical ideas that people have about their culture; beliefs, values, rules, norms, morals, etc.
Cultural Anthropology - tries to explain and to understand the biological and cultural origins of species; studies the culture itself, religion, politics, language, and the different environmental set-ups, as well as practices of people like rituals and ceremonies
Cultural Studies - an interdisciplinary field drawing on theories and practices from a range of HUMMS disciplines; seeks to investigate ways in which cultures produce and are produced; helps understand the complexity of everyday life; provides you with a range of tools to analyze how cultural practices and meanings are produced, circulated, and exchanged
Society - comes from Latin word "societas", from word "socius", meaning comrade, ally or friend; Group of people sharing a common culture
Sociology - study of society
Politics - activity through which people make, preserve, and amend the rules under which they live; comes from Greek word "polis" (city-state)
Politics can be viewed in 4 ways:
As the art of government
As public affairs
As compromise and consensus
As power
Public Sphere - people involved in governance and public affairs exclusively practicing politics
Private Sphere - rest of society (businesses, educational institutions, families) and other citizens who were not involved in running the affairs of the state