material culture

Examples of material culture in the following topics:

• Material Culture

  • In the social sciences, material culture refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations.
  • Material culture consists in physical objects that humans make.
  • Material culture is also a term used by historians, sometimes termed "material history," which refers to the study of ancient objects and artifacts in order to understand how a particular culture was organized and functioned over time.
  • They constitute an increasingly significant part of our material culture.
  • Give examples of material culture and how it can help sociologist understand a particular society

• Nonmaterial Culture

  • Non-material culture includes the behaviors, ideas, norms, values, and beliefs that contribute to a society's overall culture.
  • Material and non-material culture are two parts of culture.
  • For example, patriotism is a type of value, and is therefore part of non-material culture.
  • Culture as a general concept consists of both material and non-material culture.
  • In contrast, non-material culture does not include physical objects or artifacts.

• Cultural Lag

  • Ogburn in his 1922 work "Social Change with Respect to Culture and Original Nature. " According to Ogburn, cultural lag is a common societal phenomenon due to the tendency of material culture to evolve and change rapidly while non-material culture tends to resist change and remain fixed for a far longer period of time.
  • His theory of cultural lag suggests that a period of maladjustment occurs when the non-material culture is struggling to adapt to new material conditions.
  • Woodward, when material conditions change, changes are felt in the non-material culture as well.
  • But these changes in the non-material culture do not match exactly with the change in the material culture.
  • Produce an example of cultural lag using an example of the tension between material and non-material culture

• Archaeology

  • Archaeology is the study of historical human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture and data they have left behind.
  • Archaeology is the study of human activity in the past, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind.
  • Without archaeology, we would know little or nothing about the use of material culture by humanity that pre-dates writing.
  • However, it is not only prehistoric, pre-literate cultures that can be studied using archaeology but historic, literate cultures as well, through the sub-discipline of historical archaeology.
  • The material record may be closer to a fair representation of society, though it is subject to its own biases, such as sampling bias and differential preservation.

• Culture

  • That person's genetic material and physical body is what is considered his nature.
  • Culture spreads through material and symbolic means, each demanding different methodologies and techniques to study.
  • Material culture consists of the goods used to exhibit particular cultural behaviors.
  • One could say that coffee cups, laptops, sweatshirts, and pizza are elements of the material culture of life on a college campus.
  • Cultural anthropologists and sociologists use material culture to understand a culture at large and archaeologists use digs to reveal the material culture of the past in order to learn more about life in that culture.

• Culture and Society

  • Material and nonmaterial aspects of culture are linked, and physical objects often symbolize cultural ideas.
  • A metro pass is a material object, but it represents a form of nonmaterial culture (namely capitalism, and the acceptance of paying for transportation).
  • Clothing, hairstyles, and jewelry are part of material culture, but the appropriateness of wearing certain clothing for specific events reflects nonmaterial culture.
  • A school building belongs to material culture, but the teaching methods and educational standards are part of education's nonmaterial culture.
  • These material and nonmaterial aspects of culture can vary subtly from region to region.

• The Symbolic Nature of Culture

  • A symbol is any object, typically material, which is meant to represent another (usually abstract) object, even if there is no meaningful relationship.
  • This view of culture argues that people living apart from one another develop unique cultures.
  • Anthropologists distinguish between material culture and symbolic culture, not only because each reflects different kinds of human activity, but also because they constitute different kinds of data that require different methodologies to study.
  • The sociology of culture concerns culture as it is manifested in society: the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together shape a people's way of life.
  • Relate the idea that culture is symbolically coded to arguments about the dynamism of cultures

• The Origins of Culture

  • Culture allows humans to more quickly adapt.
  • Culture (Latin: cultura, lit.
  • In the mid-19th century, some scientists used the term "culture" to refer to a universal human capacity.
  • Distinctions are currently made between the physical artifacts created by a society, its so-called material culture and everything else, including the intangibles such as language, customs, etc. that are the main referent of the term "culture. "
  • Anthropologists rejected the idea that culture was unique to Western society and adopted a new definition of culture that applied to all societies, literate and non-literate, settled and nomadic.

• Cultural Evolution

  • In this sense, high culture no longer refers to the idea of being cultured, as all people are cultured.
  • Most social scientists today reject the cultured vs. uncultured concept of culture.
  • These took concrete form in a variety of artifacts, both symbolic, such as myths and rituals, and material, including tools, the design of housing, and the planning of villages.
  • Anthropologists distinguish between material culture and symbolic culture, not only because each reflects different kinds of human activity, but also because each constitutes different kinds of data that require different methodologies to study.
  • The result is a belief in cultural relativism, which suggests that there are no "better" or "worse" cultures, just different cultures.

• The Impact of Culture on an Organization

  • The size of an organization and the strength of its culture are the biggest contributors to cultural inertia.
  • Understanding how to change an organizational culture requires some insight into what creates culture in the first place and how altering those components may impact meaningful cultural development.
  • Gerry Johnson's cultural web offers great clarity about how an organizational culture responds to and reflects influencing factors.
  • Ensuring proper emphasis on the new culture in training materials is useful in this process.
  • When different cultures come together it is wise to expect some degree of culture-clash and differences of opinion.