Disclaimer: free essays on sociology posted on this site were donated by anonymous users and are provided for informational use only. The free sociology research paper what is culture? essay presented on this page should not be viewed as a sample of our on line writing service. If you need fresh and competent research / writing on sociology, use the professional writing service offered by our company. With a diverse population existing in the united states today, our country is a melting pot of different cultures, each one unique in its own respect. Culture, distinguishing one societal group from another, includes beliefs, behaviors, language, traditions, art, fashion styles, food, religion, politics, and economic systems. Through lifelong and ever changing processes of learning, creativity, and sharing, culture shapes our patterns of behavior and thinking.

A cultures significance is so profound that it touches almost every aspect of who and what we are. Culture becomes the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us henslin, 1993. Trying to define the complex term of culture with varying elements of distinguishable characteristics is a difficult task. For instance, an iranian woman has just appeared in your office for services and it is immediately evident that her culture is very different than yours. First, her dark colored clothing covers her entire body from head to toe, including a black veil over her face. Secondly, as she speaks, a cultural difference is detected in both, her language and gestures.

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Her accent and the non visible facial expressions create a barrier for comprehending the communication. Later, as the service for the woman progresses, her beliefs, values, and norms of her culture are dispelled. For example, in order for the woman to show her face to another male in public, she must first request permission from her husband to unveil. During further discussion, it becomes even more apparent, that this iranian woman is subservient and possesses a lower level of status than that of iranian males. As conveyed in the above description, the characteristics represent the unique symbols of ones culture.

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Symbols, in representative form of communication, art, expressions, materials, and so on, allow a cultural group to develop complex thoughts and to exchange those thoughts with each other. Through the exchanging of symbols, ones cultural ideas, beliefs, and values, are passed on from one generation to the next. Throughout the development of the entire life span, culture is learned from the society in which we live. Furthermore, in the diverse population of the united states, ethnic groups or societies will have to interact with other groups outside the realm of their individual self. In order to do so, it is necessary for the societies to exchange languages, ideas, or even, technology.

In addition, the changing environments of the world population requires a need for cultural adaptation for basic survival. For example, a move from the united states, where basic resources are plentiful, to russia, where the resources are scarce, would force an adaptation to the cultural differences in order to develop a new lifestyle. Some kinds of culture are include better means of making life securer than others. Cultural traits that offer some advantages, utility, or even pleasures are sought and accepted by societies. 8, 20 from the world wide web: our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help.

Essay writing service essay marking service place an order tradition, according to giddens, has several key elements. Second, tradition involves a group of people it's collective and social in nature. Third, traditions have guardians such as historians that have access to the knowledge or the truth of tradition's sacred rituals. Fourth, tradition stirs emotion within individuals to bring about a greater sense of self awareness. In some cultures, these rituals are important to one's self identity within the context of a larger society. While extension, for example, has a long standing rural tradition, it is expanding into urban environs as farmlands give way to pockets of urban communities.

In thinking about the importance of tradition, traditions are practiced throughout every civilization known to man. It is kept alive by guardians who shed light on its true essence or its most basic truths. It is comprised of emotion that helps individuals better understand themselves and their relation to society. Extension's true tradition is manifested in that underlying human element â service! that is service to individuals, service to families, service to communities, service to society and ultimately, service to the world. Let us hope that this rich tradition never changes, but merely reinvents itself to serve a greater good! shils takes a wide view of what tradition is. Material objects the iliad, the parthenon , beliefs, images, practices, institutions, can all be tradita, that is, things handed down.

He does demand a certain persistence or recurrence through transmission, because tradition has to be distinguished from mere fashion. Is it the case that a society where traditions are weakened becomes a prey to fashion? shils says that there must be three generations to yield a tradition, although the generations might be no more than the 'generations' of school children at a school. This wide definition, of course, makes it easier to defend the view that human society cannot function in the absence of traditions.

But is there a coherent narrower definition to be found? in any case, the handing on of particular beliefs, practices etc. Or constellations of such beliefs and practices, in a recurrent pattern, is something that occurs. What shils may ask, are such patterns of handing on to be called if not traditions? shils distinguishes between substantive traditions and second order traditions. When we talk of self reliance, self sufficiency and national identify as the core of our national development, we refer to culture as the fountain spring of all policies whether educational, social, political, medical or economical. Our strategies of national development would therefore depend on the understanding of the culture, the adaptation of its elements for political, educational and economic development as well as its strengths for social integration and development. In order to keep it alive, doing your part to preserve it is extremely necessary.