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Culture

The term "culture" is used by sociologists to refer to the sum total of a
particular group of people's way of life. It is a comprehensive concept that includes
traditions, values, customs, beliefs, practices, and products that make it possible for
people to interact positively with the environment around them and obtain their needs
from it. Humans have certain needs that must be met. Food for example must be
obtained, security guaranteed, intra-group conflict avoided or minimized, and
continuity of the group assured. These are all functions that are fulfilled through
culture.

Since humans, unlike other animals, do not possess inborn instincts to tell them
what to eat and what not to eat, how to obtain their food from the physical
environment around them, and what dangers to avoid and how to avoid them, they
have developed sets of rules that guide them and products that they utilize in their
pursuit of these needs. Culture, therefore, has both material and nonmaterial
components.

The material components of culture include all the physical objects that the
group has discovered, invented, or borrowed from another group, and to which they
have attached meaning and value. They encompass items from the physical
environment such as plants, crops, trees, minerals, and animals, as well as tools such
as ploughs, hammers, crop dusters, and satellites. They include products varying from
toothpaste to facial creams to television sets. The material components of culture are
therefore, things that we can see and touch.

The nonmaterial components on the other hand are intangible products that can
neither be seen nor touched. They can be discerned, however, through their impact
and influence on what people do or do not do: on what they produce or do not
produce, on what they eat or do not eat, on what they wear or do not wear.

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