Culture and its characteristics in global society
Of course, each culture has its own characteristics that differentiate it from the rest, however, cultures as a whole share a series of common basic defining characteristics that we will state below:
- Culture is learned. Culture is not something instinctive, innate or that is biologically transmitted as some features of human beings, but it is something that each individual acquires thanks to their own experience and the surrounding environment. All those habits that the human being is able to learn are elements of culture. Of course culture does not disregard nature, rather they are concepts that are complemented, since culture acts on the support of human nature. However, sometimes, the great power that culture has can modify the very nature of human beings. This learning and the acquisition of habits begins from the same birth and continues throughout life.
- Culture is a transmitted behavior, since it has reached us for previous generations. Each generation tries to improve their conditions, but always relying on the elements of the past that have efficiency. Therefore, historical aspects have great weight in cultures.
- Culture is shared behavior, that is, this does not support a single individual, but in a more or less broad set of human beings. This happens because people live in society, sharing most of the time, our experiences and experiences with other people.
- Culture is a concept attributable to global society or parts of society, in this case there are subcultures. Leaning on the previous point we could define culture as group habits.
- Every culture constitutes a configuration, that is, it is an organized whole that integrates the various elements. In addition, by constituting an integrated system any modification of an element will also affect many others. From this we can deduce that culture is constantly changing, which is an object of study of importance for social sciences.
Elements of culture
Despite the differences between them, all societies are formed by four non -material elements.
1. The rules:
Are the rules about what people should do or not, say or think about a specific situation. They are behavioral standards. Not all standards have the same importance. These are divided into two large groups. Formal and informal standards:
- The Law: It is a formal norm, written and imposed by state officials. These are mandatory compliance. In case of not complying with these, sanctions are imposed that can be fines, prison and even in some states, death penalty.
- Customs: These are informal norms that are considered of great importance within societies and their breach is almost inconceivable, since they are based on the values of said society and are considered to be essential for the well -being of the group as a whole together.
- Traditions: They are informal norms, not inviolable, however, they are very instilled in the population. An example would be to bring formal clothes to certain events.
two. Symbols:
These are images, objects or sounds that evoke meaning. Some represent beliefs and values;For example, they can evoke patriotism (flags, hymns), religious beliefs (La Cruz, a Buddha statue). They can also represent social status. Others can denote other types of ideas;The siren of an ambulance means that there is an emergency situation. The gestures are also considered symbols that we continually use when communicating ourselves.
3. The language:
It is a system of symbols that enables us to express our ideas and be able to communicate with the rest of people. Of course, language is not only verbal, it can also be written or through gestures as mentioned above.
4. Values:
They are abstract collective ideas that provide tools to judge what behaviors are well and which do not. These are very internalized in the members of society.
Cultural levels
A cultured man is not necessarily the one who dominates one or more frogs of knowledge;rather it would be that which with its own acquired cultural elements can distinguish that it must conserve from its own culture and what it should reject, what it can absorb of other cultures and what should prevent it from anide in it or its environment. (Santa Cruz, J. M, 2016)
In the article of the fifties Masscult and Midcult of the American sociologist Dwight MacDonals three cultural levels are distinguished:
- The high culture or high culture
- The Midult or Intermediate Culture
- The masscult or mass culture.
High culture is manipulated, sweetened and subject to media tyranny and interested prices based on fashion and fetishism of expert theorists. Mass culture is promoted by the media such as the written press, radio, television, the Internet. In abuse, fans, fans, etc. are promoted. (Santa Cruz, J. M, 2016)
The Midcult is the average culture that arises between high and low culture. The most reasonable thing would be to understand this cultural level as a result of the approach from both from above and from below to the opposite ends, generating loans from one end to the other. However, Macdonals far from thinking that Midult improved culture by pulling up the people of humble origin, on the contrary, thought that culture worsened. For him it was a mass culture, posing as high culture. In it, then "the best" of the culture above, the ability to break with tradition and innovate – the author thought of the avant -garde as an artistic reference -, with "the worst" of the one below, which was hislarge -scale diffusion and insertion into new contexts. Therefore, the Midcult was for Macdonald "the worst of the worst";On its hierarchical scale (Godoy Domínguez, 2015)
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