Culture as an Important Facet of Society

A society without culture is as good as dead. Discuss. A society according to Thomas, L (1995:25) is defined as â€Å"a group of mutually interdependent people who have organized in such a way as to share a common culture and feeling of unity†. In other ways society consists of people, and culture consists of products that people create. Culture according to Giddens (2005:45) refers to â€Å"the pattern of human activity and the symbols, which give significance to this activity†. Culture is represented through the art, literature, costumes, customs and traditions of a community.Different cultures exist in different parts of the world. The natural environment greatly affects the lifestyle of the people of that region, thus shaping their culture. The diversity in the cultures around the world is also a result of the mindsets of people inhabiting different regions of the world. There are several components of human culture namely; symbols, language, values and beliefs, nor ms, and technology. Symbols are anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture. The simplest most everyday things are symbols for examples a wave of the hand can be a friendly gesture of hello.However, if not done properly with all the fingers in the upright position it can be a rude gesture and a great sign of disrespect. The honking of a car horn is a symbol to grab someone's attention to their surroundings. Even something as common as a kiss is a symbol of love and caring. Language is a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with each other. Language can be words or sounds that are spoken or words that are written. For instance some people believe that dogs communicate with each other through barking, this may be their own language.Values are culturally defined standards by which people assess desirability, goodness, and beauty, and that serve as broad guidelines for social living. Beliefs are specific statements that people hold to be true. There are several examples of both that can be found by looking at the Christian religion. The Ten Commandments are a great source. â€Å"You shall have no other gods before me†, for Christians this statement is both a belief and a value. â€Å"Honor you father and mother† is a statement that Christians hold true and also one that they set their standards of living by.The other example of values and beliefs is â€Å"You shall not murder† a statement they stand by and live their lives by. Norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members. One example of a norm is not cheating on a test, we all know this is wrong and should not be done at all cost. Technology is knowledge that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings, which is reflected by material culture an example of this is Plasma TV's you can simply hang these picture perfect TV's anywhere on the wall.It is true to say that no society exists witho ut culture because of the following facets that culture brings to society which are as follows: The cultural values of a community give it an identity of its own; a community gains a character and a personality of its own, because of the culture of its people. Culture is shared by the members of a community. It is learned and passed from the older generations to the newer ones. For an effective transfer of culture from one generation to another, it has to be translated into symbols. Language, art and religion serve as the symbolic means of transfer of cultural values between generations.Culture is a bond that ties the people of a region or community together; It is that one common bond, which brings the people of a community together. The customs and traditions that the people of a community follow, the festivals they celebrate, the kind of clothing they wear, the food they eat, and most importantly, the cultural values they adhere to, bind them together. Culture is seen as a system of social control, wherein people shape their standards and behavior; the cultural values form the founding principles of one's life. They influence one's principles and philosophies of life.They influence one's way of living and thus impact social life. Culture is the Treasury of Knowledge; culture provides knowledge, which is essential for the physical and intellectual existence of man. Birds and animals behave instinctively with environment. But man has greater intelligence and learning capacity. With the help of these, he has been able to adapt himself with environment or modify it to suit his convenience. Culture has made such an adaptation and modification possible and easier by providing man the necessary skills and knowledge.Culture preserves knowledge and helps its transmission from generation to generation through its means that is language helps not only the transmission of knowledge but also its preservation, accumulation and diffusion. On the contrary, animals do not h ave this advantage because culture does not exist at such human level. Culture Defines Situations; culture defines social situations for us. It not only defines but also conditions and determines what we eat and drink, we wear, when to laugh, weep, sleep, love to like friends with, what work we do, what god we worship, what knowledge we rely upon, what poetry we recite and so on.Culture Defines Attitudes, Values and Goods; attitudes refer to the tendency to feel and work out in certain ways. Values are the measure of goodness or desirability. Goods refer to the attainments, which our values define as worthy. It is the culture, which conditions our attitude towards various issues such as religion, morality, marriage, science, family planning, positions and so on. Our values concernsing private etc. are influenced by our culture. Our goals of winning the race, understanding others, attaining salvation, being obedient to elders and teachers, being loyal to husband, being patriotic etc. re all set forth by our culture. We are being socialized on these models. Culture Decides Our Career; whether we should become a politician or a social worker, a doctor, an engineer, a soldier, a farmer, a professor, an industrialist; a religious leader and so on is decided by our culture. What career we are likely to pursue is largely decided by our culture. Culture sets limitations on our choice to select different careers. Individuals may develop, modify or oppose the trends of their culture but they always live within its framework. Only a few can find outlet on the culture.Culture Provides Behavior Pattern; Culture directs and confines the behavior of an individual. Culture assigns goals and provides means for achieving them. It rewards noble works and punishes the ignoble ones. It assigns him status. We see dream, aspire, work, strive to marry, enjoy according to the cultural expectation. Culture not only contains but also liberates human energy and activities. Man indeed is a prisoner of his culture. Culture Provides Personality; Culture exercises a great influence on the development of personality. No child can get human qualities in the absence of a cultural environment.Culture prepares man for group life and provides him the design of living. It is the culture that provides opportunities for the development of personality and sets limits on its growth. As Ruth Benedict has pointed out every culture will provide its special type or types of personality. Culture Makes Man a Human Being; It is culture that makes the human, a man, regulates his conduct and prepares him for group life. It provides to him a complete design for living. It teaches him what type of food he should take and in what mariner, how he should over himself and behave with his fellows, how he should speak with the people and how he should co-operate or compete with others. An individual abstained from culture is less than human; he is what we call feral, man. The individual to be tru ly human must participate in cultural stream without it he would have been forced to find his own way, which would mean a loss of energy in satisfying his elementary needs. Culture Provides Solution for Complicated Situation; culture provides man with a set of behavior even for complicated situation.It has so thoroughly influenced that often he does not require any external force to keep himself in conformity with the social requirements. His action becomes automatic. Forming queues when there is rush at the booking window or driving left in the busy streets. In the absence of culture, he should have been baffled even at the simplest situations. He need not go through painful trial and error learning to know what food can be taken without poisoning himself and fellow. His culture directs and confines his behavior, limits his goals and measures his reward.His culture gets into his mind and shutters vision so that he sees what is supposed to see in dream what he is expected to dream a nd hunger for what he is trained to hunger. Culture Provides Traditional Interpretations to Certain Situation; through culture men gets traditional interpretation for many situations according to which he determines his behavior. If a cat crosses his way, he postpones his journey. It may however be noted that these traditional interpretation differ from culture to culture. Among some culture owl is regarded as a symbol of wisdom and not a symbol of idiocy.Culture Keeps Social Relationship Intact; culture has importance not only for man but also for the group. Had there been no culture there would have been no group life. Culture is the design and the prescription for guiding values and ideals. By regulating the behavior of the people and satisfying, the primary drives pertaining to hunger and sex it has been able to maintain group life. Culture has provided a number of checks upon irrational conduct and suggestibility culture aids such as in schooling or scientific training. Lessen the chances that a man will behave irrationally or irresponsibility.The members of group characterized though they be by consciousness of kind, at once competing. They are held in line by constraints prescribed by culture. Culture Broadens the Out Looks of the Individual; culture has given a new vision to individual by providing him a set of rules for co-operation of the individuals. He thinks not only his own self but also of the others. Culture teaches him to think himself a part of the larger whole, it provides him with the concept of family, state, nation and class and make responsible the cooperation and division of labor.Culture Creates New Needs; Culture also creates new needs and new drives, for example, thirst for knowledge and arranges for the satisfaction. In conclusion culture and society are co-existent one does not or cannot exist without the other, culture and society may have some common elements but the two are not the same they are not identical the essential diffe rence is that society is composed of people while culture consists of knowledge, ideas, customs, traditions, folkways, mores, skills, institutions, organizations and artifacts.

Health and safety Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Health and safety - Assignment Example To enhance these laws and oversee the protection of the workers, health and safety commission is held responsible for enforcement of the law and its executive arm. The European Union has as well been influential in the adoption of the health and safety regulations for its member states. These health and safety laws create the rights and obligations of the employees and employers. The UK health and safety act 1974 clearly identifies the duties that employers have towards their employees, themselves and members of the community. According to the legislation, the employers have the responsibility to ascertain that the health standards and safety of its employees provide written policies on how to implement this and protect their contractors and suppliers. The employees as well have the duty to be safe and ensure that their colleagues are not at risk and cooperate with their employers on health and safety. Additionally the safety representatives and safety committees regulations 1977 allows the unions and worker group to appoint their heads who represent them on the health and safety issues. It is required that the appointed representatives are familiar with this legislation (Stranks, 2005). Some of the additional regulations that protect the employees in the health and safety act include; management of health and safety at work regulations, manual handling operation regulation, provision of work equipment regulation, noise at work regulations and electricity at work regulations among others. The unions are involved in health and safety leadership, risk assessment, dedicating resources for health and safety, training the staff and consulting them before making any major decisions. The health and safety commission is assigned the duties of monitoring the activities of different employers and ensuring that they are in line with the health and safety regulations. To enhance this, the health and safety commission carries out assessments to

Lead and the laws governing it in the UK Case Study

Lead and the laws governing it in the UK - Case Study Example It has numerous industrial and domestic purposes because it has a low melting point and can easily be moulded into any shape or form. Nevertheless, despite the advantages of lead, it has many disadvantages. The effects of lead include lead poisoning resulting in "chronic effects on the nervous system - paralysis of motor nerves, poor aptitude (especially in children) and other effects on cognitive functions." ( Agius R 2006). Moreover, a study (Ferguson D & Horwood J L) has proven that hildren with high levels of lead in their blood score less on tests than those with lower levels of lead. Therefore, it is crucial to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the use of lead. Alternative methods to lead exist hence it is not worth risking the prejudice to human health and safety. The problem of the effects of lead has caused alarm in the United Kingdom. Numerous employees are affected or have the potential to be affected by lead. These include plumbers, glass manufacturers, construction workers, painters and petrol attendants. This has resulted in the enactment of legislation in order to control this problem. The Control of Lead at Work Regulations Act of 2002 stipulates that "an employer shall not carry out work which is liable to expose any employees to lead unless he has made a suitable and sufficient of the risk..." (Section 5(1)). The Act further regulates the conditions under which lead may be used. These conditions are very stringent and absolute. The Government has enforced a number of measures in order to curb the drastic effects of the use of lead. One of these measures was to ban the sale of lead fishing weights in 1986 as this had a negative impact on fish as well as humans who would eventually consume the fish. Moreover, the Department of Environment introduced a consultation paper in March 1997 in order to ban the use of lead shot in wetlands. The Code of Good Shooting Practice has been introduced to ensure that non-lead shots are used when hunting. Therefore, in terms of the environmental impact of lead, the Government and the Department of Environment have had a general success rate of curbing the effects of lead. There are of course problems with violators of the law; however, close monitoring and penalties have eased this problem. The environment is one element of the problem. On the other hand, the health impacts of the use of lead are devastating. According to the 2009 Berkeley Report, "Decreased brain function in adults has been associated with blood lead concentrations of 20 to 50 ug/100ml." The report further states that Government removes workers from exposure when their lead level exceeds this amount. It appears at first glance that this is an ideal remedy. However, studies have shown that exposure to lead has a cumulative effect. The affected person will still suffer from lead poisoning when re-exposed to the lead environment. This solution thus has a yo-yo effect. The Health and Safety Executive of the United Kingdom adheres to various legislation on the use of lead and also implements various campaigns to control the problems associated with the use of lead. However, the Health and Safety Executive is diverse and deals with health and safety issues in general. Thus the problem associated with lead is not addressed in isolation. It is merely treated as one of the health and safety problems in the country. Indeed, the Health and S

Needs Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Needs Assessment - Essay Example The greatest area of need is the family support that these students are accorded by their families while handling stress. The educational program that the children go through is quite demanding and occasionally puts them under undue stress. That was the opinion of most parents. In reference to the educational staff at school, most parents were of the view that they made students work harder and thus put them under so much stress. In spite of the presence of the families, the stress needs to be managed well. In fact, most parents had a fair understanding of the processes that their students underwent during their therapy sessions at school. From the interviews, it is obvious that the students observed had shown incredible improvements since the first time that they attended the therapy sessions. It should be noted that the levels of motor coordination of the students directly affect their motor activities. This directly affects their concentration while doing activities, like dressing and eating. Overall, most parents thought that the performance of their children was improving. The progress that most parents would want to see is an exponential improvement in the physical performance of activities. The set goals that most parents needed to achieve were material support from the institution. Most parents shared their sentiments with other parents as well as the therapist. The biggest problem that affects the performance of the therapist is the overwhelming workload. He or she has to tend to the needs of the diverse student population alone. The biggest strength of the therapist is his/her understanding of the individual needs of the students. A therapist has a personal relationship with the students and thus is able to attend to their needs more effectively. Such a specialist’s biggest weakness is the fact that he/she lacks additional human resources to assist in delivering services. The priority that the therapist uses

Class student dicussions answers week 2 Assignment

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The Benevolent Benjamin Franklin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Benevolent Benjamin Franklin - Essay Example Franklin had to learn at an early age to become an independent studier of academics, since books were quite rare and very expensive in this period in history, thus setting the foundation for his motivational prowess found later in life. Because of the aforementioned experiences, and many other exposures to diverse citizens in domestic and international society, Franklin began to understand the importance of virtue, character, integrity and the pursuit of securing the common welfare. Franklin eventually evolved into a highly-benevolent statesman who genuinely believed in the construction of ethical philosophy and the social promotion of self-improvement to better personal character. THE JOURNEY TOWARD SELF-IMPROVEMENT In Franklin’s autobiography, he continuously refers to situations that occurred throughout his lifetime that lay the foundation for his views on self-improvement, with considerable emphasis about the importance of divinity in establishing this principle. In 1756, Franklin was commissioned to take a leadership role in the construction of fortified structures for the military to ensure protection against growing Indian enemy threat. During these months, involving very difficult labor, Franklin witnessed what he referred to as â€Å"contemptible† management policy for workers (Eliot, 140), who had been charged with using axes and shovels to dig trenches and process lumber for fort construction. Franklin found that when men were gainfully employed, they were more jovial and willing to comply with management and laboring direction. During periods where there was limited work available, these same laborers would argue and complain due to these frustrations. The leadership of the fortification construction projects, rather than recognize laborer needs, would simply provide them with trivial grunt work as a means of satisfying the ongoing complaints. Through these observations, Franklin began to recognize the foundations of human nature and e ffective management which is more in-line with contemporary leadership philosophy about establishing relationships and providing satisfaction to laborers to improve productivity and commitment. Franklin seemed to recognize the imperative of searching for opportunities for self-improvement in terms of providing for the social and tangible welfare of others through these experiences. During this construction phase in Franklin’s life, he provides an example of where these realizations became apparent when discussing a lack of commitment by the aforementioned laborers for attending prayer services. Franklin offers to the project chaplain regarding the use of rum provisions as an incentive for regular and timely attendance of these services: "It is, perhaps, below the dignity of your profession to act as steward of the rum, but if you were to deal it out and only just after prayers, you would have them all about you." (Eliot, 141). Franklin believed that the volume of promises for incentive-based alcohol was not meeting with expected results for prayer attendance, since men inherently have gluttonous attitudes (this was apparent during periods where laborers were argumentative and dissatisfied). Franklin recognized that men required seeking self-improvement and that it is not always beneficial to provide abundance until the individual has sought emotional intelligence and self-reflection to monitor and control behaviors. Even though Franklin

Women Progress In The 20th Century Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Women Progress In The 20th Century - Essay Example China went through a nationwide reform in the 20th century. Plagued by the traditional pressures and cultural values, it was difficult for women to embrace freedom and modernity immediately. However, the internal rebellions, political changes, an introduction of new reformsetc., brought an end to the dynasty system. China strived to step up and gain its position in the international arena, for which they had to embrace the inevitable, modernity. Chinese scholars believed that in order for their survival in the modern world they had to form national citizenry which focused upon modernity and nationalism. Modernity suggested the acceptance of women as an important part of the process by acknowledging their significant contribution to the upholding of their cultures, traditions, and the economy. Women thus played a key role in shaping the modern China of today which is known for its strong societal and economic standing(Rudolph, n.d.). Marriage laws supported individual choice more than suppressed obligation to marry and the family structure changes highly. With women becoming more independent, the joint family system was replaced by a highly individualistic living culture with small families. The one child law gave women more time to do something other than child rearing and thus, many resorted to completing their education and seeking active careers. However, culture did play a significant role in the re-shaping of the one-child rule to a two-child one for the purpose of obtaining a son in a family(Hershatter, 2007).