Culture as a Regulator of Social Relations

1. The concept and functions of culture

In science and in everyday life it is hard to find a concept that is used more often, and given more meanings, than the concept of culture. That is why it is very difficult to give a single definition that would take into account all the shades and meanings of this word. The term «culture» is of Latin origin (cultura - tending, cultivation) and originally meant the tilling of land, the growing of crops. Today there are many definitions of the concept of «culture»; often this concept is used as a synonym for civilization, society, for example, «Maya culture» or «Trypillian culture». But each time the term «culture» is always understood as an achievement of people, as distinct from what nature gives us. That is why culture is not inherited by a genetic method; it is directly connected with society. No culture can exist without society, but likewise no society can exist without culture.
By culture we shall mean phenomena, properties, and elements of human life that qualitatively distinguish the human being from nature.

2. The main elements of culture.

The main features of culture are:
1. Specificity. Culture is a specifically human mode of activity, in which the human being forms, develops, and realizes his abilities in the process of creating and assimilating cultural values.
2. Non-biological character. The regulation of the mechanisms of behaviour of members of society is not biological (instincts) but social in nature.
3. Productivity. The spiritual potential of the human being is realized in particular products of culture.
4. Technological character. Culture characterizes the active attitude of the human being toward nature and society.
5. Stereotypy. Culture presupposes the ability to reproduce previously created material and spiritual values, and to adhere to traditions.
6. Informativeness. Culture reflects surrounding reality in universal (understandable to all) forms.
7. Normativity. It manifests itself in the ability of culture to form particular patterns and standards of behaviour and to influence people with a view to their fulfilment.
8. Communicativeness. Culture unites and brings people together in the process of creating and assimilating cultural values.

3. Types and forms of culture.

Today there are a number of scholarly disciplines engaged in describing and analysing culture. These are ethnology, ethnography, cultural and social anthropology, culturology, and the philosophy and sociology of culture.
Ethnology, ethnography, and cultural and social anthropology are comparative sciences of the cultures of different societies and epochs, based on the collection and analysis of empirical material.
The philosophy of culture determines the essence, goals and values of culture, its conditions and forms of manifestation.
Culturology studies the general regularities of the formation, functioning and development of culture as a unified system.
The sociology of culture examines the formation and functioning of culture in connection with other social institutions, in relation to the concrete historical situation.
According to the sociology of culture, culture is a set of norms and values, and also the human activity of creating, preserving, and transmitting them. It is this meaning that will be used throughout the following material.
The following practical criteria can be formed for distinguishing the sciences of culture:

• • in ethnology and ethnography, the empirical description of individual elements of culture predominates, whereas in cultural and social anthropology it is theoretical generalization;
• • cultural and social anthropologists typically analyze traditional societies, while the sociology of culture analyzes modern ones;
• • all of the above-mentioned sciences (ethnology, ethnography, cultural and social anthropology, sociology of culture) are empirical sciences, while the philosophy of culture is theoretical.

The main functions of culture in society are:
1. The function of adaptation. Culture provides adaptation to the environment: natural, historical, and psychological (the reality of a person's mental processes is also an element of the environment to which a person, as a conscious "I," must adapt). Culture performs the function of adaptation both in relation to society as a whole and in relation to a specific individual.
2. The function of socialization. By assimilating cultural patterns and cultural skills, a biological individual becomes a human being capable of thinking, speaking, acting purposefully, and interacting with the social environment.
3. The worldview function. Culture explains the world and gives meaning to human existence.
4. The function of legitimation. Culture justifies and upholds the social order that has taken shape.
5. The function of integration. On the basis of shared values, norms, and ideas, culture unites human community.
6. The function of identification. Drawing on ideas and conceptions of reality developed by culture, a person creates his own "image of self" - an identity. The formation of identity is also aided by an individual's identifying himself with one or another community - on the basis of a shared culture.
7. The function of social change. Inventions and innovations in the cultural sphere, for example, scientific discoveries, new religious teachings, or political ideologies, can serve as a factor of change in society.8. The regulatory function. Cultural values and norms regulate the behaviour of individuals in society.
9. The communicative function. This function is connected with the accumulation and transmission of social experience (in particular, between generations), and is also connected with the transmission of messages in the course of joint activity. The existence of such a function makes it possible to define culture as a special way of inheriting social information.

4. Culture shock.

Culture shock is a psychological and social state of disorientation and stress that arises in a person when confronted with a foreign or sharply different culture.

Put simply, this is a reaction to a situation where:

• familiar norms, values, and rules of behaviour stop working;

• the person does not understand how to behave correctly;

• the surrounding environment seems strange, illogical, or hostile.

Main causes of culture shock

• moving to another country or region;

• encountering different traditions, religion, language;

• differences in everyday, social, and communicative norms.

Manifestations

• a feeling of confusion, anxiety, irritation;

• nostalgia, withdrawal;

• failure to understand the behaviour of those around;

• fatigue from constant adaptation.

Stages of culture shock

1. «Honeymoon» — interest in and admiration for the new culture

2. Frustration — irritation and rejection of differences

3. Adaptation — gradual understanding and acceptance

4. Integration — comfortable existence within the new culture

Important: culture shock — a normal and temporary process accompanying a person's adaptation to a new social environment

5 Types and application of cultural processes

Enculturation - to make cultured; to turn from a wild state into a cultured one, to introduce to culture

Deculturation - the partial loss by a society of the level of culture it previously possessed; a transition to a lower degree of culturedness. It is often used by unfriendly countries to destroy the culture of an adversary.

See also

• [[b9777]]
• [[b8147]]
• [[b9775]]