Page 22 - University English for non-speacalist

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.

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