Essential elements of material and non-material culture
Material Culture:
Refers to the physical objects, resources, and spaces that people use to define their culture.. Material culture consists of things that are created by humans. Material culture includes things Such as Building, Cars such things as jewellery, art, buildings, weapons, machines, and even eating utensils, hairstyles, and clothing etc. there is nothing Inherent or Natural in Material Culture.
Nonmaterial culture:
Refers to the nonphysical ideas that people have about their culture, It’s abstract ideas and ways of thinking that make up a culture. It’s a group way of thinking beliefs Values Assumption About the word and Doing its Common Pattern of Behavior.
Elements of Non-material Culture:
Sociologists sometimes refer to nonmaterial culture as symbolic culture, because its central component is the set of symbols that people use. Non-material Culture includes (Symbol) gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, and mores. Let’s look at each of these components of symbolic culture.
Gesture:
A gesture is a Movement of the body that people make in order to communicate with their bodies. All cultures use gestures. Two cultures may use the same gesture, but it may have different meanings in both cultures. For example, people from Afghanistan uses stroking one’s beard or pounding a fist into one’s hand may signify revenge. and Hooking the index fingers together signifies agreement. The thumbs-up gesture is considered rude and has the same connotation as raising one’s middle finger for traditional Afghans.
Language:
The primary way in which people communicate with one another is through language that can be combined in an infinite number of ways for the purpose of communicating abstract thought. Language is a system of words and symbols used to communicate with other people. This includes full languages as we usually think of them, such as English, Spanish, French, etc. But it also includes body language, slang, and common phrases that are unique to certain groups of people. For Example, people of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan use Urdu as official languages, Speak Fluent Urdu but when accent of Punjabi language and Kashmiri language mix with it several time using the same word change the meaning of it. Another example of how cultural languages differ beyond vocabulary is the fact that eye contact represents different meanings in different cultures. In America, eye contact suggests that you are paying attention and are interested in what a person has to say. In other cultures, eye contact may be considered rude and to be a challenge of authority.
Values:
Another element of Non Material culture is a system of values, which are culturally defined standards for what is good or desirable. Members of the culture use the shared system of values to decide what is good and what is bad. It is the standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly. Values underlie our preferences, guide our choices, and indicate what we hold worthwhile in life.
Norms and Sanctions:
Norms are the expectations, or rules of behaviour, that reflect and enforce behaviour. Sociologists use the term norms to describe those expectations (or rules of behaviour) that develop out of a group’s values.
Sanctions: The term Sanction is either expressions of approval given to people for upholding norms or expressions of disapproval for violating them. The term sanctions refer to the reactions people receive for following or breaking norms.
Some societies have moral holiday places, locations where norms are expected to be broken. Red-light districts of our cities are examples. There, prostitutes are allowed to work the streets, bothered only when political pressure builds to “clean up” the area. If these same prostitutes attempt to solicit customers in adjacent areas, however, they are promptly arrested. Each year, the hometown of the team that wins the Super Bowl becomes a moral holiday place for one night.
Folkways and Mores:
Societal norms, or rules that are enforced by members of a community, can exist as both formal and informal rules of behaviour. Informal norms can be divided into two distinct groups: folkways and mores. Folkways are informal rules and norms that, while not offensive to violate, are expected to be followed. Mores (pronounced more-rays) are also informal rules that are not written, but, when violated, result in severe punishments and social sanction upon the individuals, such as social and religious exclusions. Norms that are not strictly enforced are called folkways. We expect people to comply with folkways, but we are likely to shrug our shoulders and not make a big deal about it if they don’t. If someone insists on passing you on the right side of the sidewalk, for example, if someone is unlikely to take corrective action, although if the sidewalk is crowded and you must move out of the way, you might give the person a dirty look.
It should also be noted that one group’s folkways may be another group’s mores. Although a man walking down the street with the upper half of his body uncovered is deviating from a folkway, a woman doing the same thing is violating the mores. In addition, the folkways and mores of a subculture may be the opposite of mainstream culture.
Cultural Relativism:
Cultural relativism is the belief that right and wrong are culturally based on individuals. “According to this premise, no one universal ethical standard transcends cultures. Basically in cultural relativism, right or wrong are relative to one’s cultural upbringing. No one overarching ethical truth exists.” (Panza and Potthast, 2010). Culture relativism is to use our own culture as the standard by which we judge other cultures and to counter the tendency of over own culture. People practice cultural relativism to understand other cultures own their own term. For example people of Kashmir love to eat Rice and South Indian People also eats Rice The the way that the south Indian people eat rice is not different from Kashmiri. Both are following the same Rice But the way they eat is different from one another.
