SOC404 Official Handouts

Lesson 01 PAKISTANI SOCIETY AND CULTURE | ORIENTATION · Topic 001 - 004 · Topic 001: Pakistani Society and Culture | Orientation · Course objectives

1. To enable the students to understand the basic concepts of culture and society
2. This course will help to understand these basic concepts of culture and society in relation to Pakistani Context
3. This will orient the students to Specific features, Typology, and sociological perspective on Pakistani society and culture

Topic 002: Basic Sociological and Cultural Terms and Definitions

1. Society

“Society refers to people who interact in a defined territory and share a culture”.

2. Social Structure

Social structure the framework that surrounds us, consisting of the relationships of people and groups to one another, which gives direction to and sets limits on behavior

3. Social Institutions

Social institutions—the standard or usual ways that a society meets its basic needs—vitally affect your life. They not only shape your behavior but even color your thoughts. How can this be?

4. Status

Status the position that someone occupies in a social group.

5. Culture

Culture the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that characterize a group and are passed from one generation to the next.

6. Roles

Role the behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status

7. Values

Culturally defined standards of desirability, goodness, and beauty that serve as broad guidelines for social living. What ought to be. Examples of values: Equal opportunity, Achievement or success, Material comfort, Activity and work. Science, Freedom, Physical fitness, Health, Punctuality. Wealth, Education, Competition and Merit. Honesty, Dignity of labor, Patriotism. Justice and Democracy. Environmental protection, Charity and Development.

8. Norms

Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members. These are the shared expectations of the people that govern their behavior. Proscriptive norms: Mandating what we should not do. Forbidding from certain actions. Prescriptive norms: What we should do.

9. Folkways

Society’s customs for routine, casual interaction. These are of less moral significance. Examples can be: proper dress, appropriate greetings, and common courtesy. People usually ignore the violation of folkways.

10. Mores

Society’s standards of proper moral conduct. Such standards have been considered as essential to maintaining a way of life. These are the notions of right or wrong developed by society. Violation of mores brings a strong reaction from others.

11. Taboos

A social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing.

12. Symbols

Symbols: Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share culture. Whistle, flashing light, thumbs up are all symbols. Human beings have the capacity to create symbols with different meanings associated with each. These symbols are used as means of communication and thereby become part of our language. Even the buildings, dress, the flag, and a type of color may be taken as symbols indicating some aspect of human behavior as well as society’s outlook. Red, green, white, blue, pink, each of the colors stands for something in the society. Blue jeans are quite commonly used in Pakistan. Can you find out that these are symbol of what?

13. Languages

System of symbols that allows members of a society to communicate with one another. Symbols may be oral and these could be written words. We have oral cultural traditions. Human beings have developed different alphabet as part of written language. Language is the major means of cultural transmission. Is language uniquely human?

14. Diversity

There are many ways of life; hence there are differences in culture. In one society there could be differences in patterns of marriage and family, patterns of education, patterns of worship, and patterns of earning a living. One finds cultural difference within the province and across the provinces in Pakistan. Countries like Canada, which are inhabited by immigrants, display a big cultural diversity. People have migrated from all over the globe to Canada and brought cultural differences with them and in many cases are trying to continue with them.

15. Subculture

Cultural patterns that set apart some segments of a society’s population. Cluster of patterns which both are related to the general culture of the society yet distinguishable from it. The example could be: student sub-culture, business sub-culture.

16. Counterculture

It is a subculture, which is in active opposition to the dominant culture. Cultural patterns that strongly oppose widely accepted patterns within a society. Example could be of hippies, and drug users.

17. Assimilation

The process whereby individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into the dominant culture of a society. The process of assimilating involves taking on the traits of the dominant culture to such a degree that the assimilating group becomes socially indistinguishable from other members of the society.

18. Multiculturalism

A policy followed by some governments whereby they recognize cultural diversity in the society and promote the equality of all cultural traditions. Canadian government is following such a policy.

19. Ethnocentrism

The practice of judging other’s culture by the standards of one’s own culture. People consider their own culture as superior to others and apply their standards for evaluating the patterns of behavior of others. The whole judgment is centered on one’s own culture.

20. Cultural relativism

The practice of judging a culture by its own standards; a particular pattern of behavior is right or wrong as it is declared by the people who follow it. Since those people are follow a particular practice, supposedly it might be serving some useful function in that society. Nevertheless, the same practice may be useful for one group and may be harmful for the other in the same society.

21. Cultural Shock

Culture shock is the feeling of uncertainty, confusion, or anxiety that people experience when visiting, doing business in, or living in a society that is different from their own. Social norms can vary significantly across countries and regions. Culture shock can arise from an individual's unfamiliarity with local customs, language, and acceptable behavior.

22. Tangible

Tangible things – material objects.

23. Intangible

Intangible (non-material) items like values, beliefs, norms, language, and ideas (ideologies: perception of reality) that govern the way of life. The way we play our roles.

Topic 003: Do Non-human have a culture?

Culture is probably not rare in animals, although hard experimental evidence is lacking. The strongest case for culture is found in the species most amenable to experimental manipulation, rather than in nonhuman primates. Human culture is much more likely to be cumulative than animal culture, but the reasons for this are not well established. At this point, there is no reason to assume that cumulative culture depends critically on teaching, imitation, language, or perspectivetaking. Currently, animals are being judged according to stricter criteria than humans (Laland and Hoppitt 2003).

Topic 004: Specific Feature of Cultures

The concept is sometimes easier to grasp by description than by definition. For example, suppose you meet a young woman from India who has just arrived in the United States. That her culture is different from yours is immediately evident. You first see it in her clothing, jewelry, makeup, and hairstyle. Next, you hear it in her speech. It then becomes apparent by her gestures. Later, you might hear her express unfamiliar beliefs about relationships or what is valuable in life. All of these characteristics are indicative of culture—the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next.