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ELEMENTS OF CULTURE

Language:

Through language which we convey the message to another person, now this language
may be verbal, non-verbal or in the written form.
More than 6000 different languages.
Every culture has its own verbal, non-verbal (gestures, facial expressions) or written
language.
Some languages are spoken but cant write because it has no grammatical structure.
For any of the one thing there are different names in different languages.
Some gestures are nearly universal: smiles often represent joy and crying often
represents sadness. Other nonverbal symbols vary across cultural contexts in their
meaning. A thumbs-up, for example, indicates positive reinforcement in the United
States, whereas in Russia and Australia, it is an offensive curse (Passero 2002).

Social Organization:

It means how people are divided into smaller units


Examples: Family (Nuclear i.e wife, husband, children and Extended i.e aunties, uncles,
cousins, grandparents), Social classes (in which people of the society ranked into money,
education, religion, gender, job status etc.)
Patriarchal: Family dominated by the eldest male.
Matriarchal: Family dominated by female

Religion:

Religion answers the basic question about the meaning and purpose of life.
Religion is the sometimes conflict between two culture
Monotheism (Christianity, Islam), Polytheism (Hinduism)
Three questions of religion:
1. Where did we come from? 2. How should we live our lives?

3. Where do we go when we die?

Government:

It is the rule or authority over a country, state, or town


Government provides common needs for citizens, keep order within society, and protect
their society from outside threats.
Forms of government: Democracy (people have supreme power), Republic (choose
leaders who represent them), Dictatorship (a ruler which hold the power by military
force)

Economic System:

An economy is how a country deals with its money and how jobs and things like that
affect a country
How people use limited resources to satisfy wants and needs how people earn and
spend money
Forms:
o Traditional Economy (People produce most of what they need to survive i.e
hunting, farming, herding cattle, make own clothes or tools ),
o Market Economy: Buying and selling goods and services.

Art & Literature:

Teaches about the cultures values


Promote culture pride
Examples art, music, literature
Entertain us
Char charag tere
Movie harry potter

Customs & Traditions:

Rules of behabiour (written and unwritten)


It shows the society rules of behavior i.e handshake, hugs, eating with a fork, which type
of clothes wear for which type of situation, etc.
Such type of things we learn from the family and friends.
Knowledge, food, clothing, etc. passed down from one generation to the next.
Customs and traditions are things that people do every year to represent their culture or
religion
Fireworks in independence
Customs: ways that cultural behaviours are performed
Customs: Are the written and unwritten rules of society. They can refer to a culture's
laws, but also its moral and ethical expectations.
Train (male, female) social behaviour

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