Question

At the center of the determinants of culture model, we refer to culture as consisting fundamentally of “Norms and Value Systems.”

true or false

Answer 1

THE CONCEPT AND DEFINITIONS OF CULTURE :
Culture is shared, transmitted through learning and helps shape behavior and beliefs. Culture is of concern to all four subfields and while our earliest ancestors relied more on biological adaptation, culture now shapes humanity to a much larger extent.
“Culture, or civilization, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”
Culture is universal among all human groups and even exists among some primates. All cultures have to provide for the physical, emotional, and social needs of their members, enculturation new members, resolve conflicts and promote survival for their members.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE:

1. Culture is Learned: It is not biological; we do not inherit it. Much of learning culture is unconscious. We learn culture from families, peers, institutions, and media. The process of learning culture is known as enculturation. While all humans have basic biological needs such as food, sleep, and sex, the way we fulfill those needs varies cross-culturally.
2. Culture is Shared: Culture is shared by a firmly large group of human beings living in organized societies and works as a linking force. Generally, common religion and language are the critical elements that largely help people share values, customs, norms and experiences.
3. Culture is based on Symbols: A symbol is something that stands for something else. Symbols vary cross-culturally and are arbitrary. They only have meaning when people in a culture agree on their use. Language, money and art are all symbols. Language is the most important symbolic component of culture.
4. Culture is Integrated: This is known as holism, or the various parts of a culture being interconnected. All aspects of a culture are related to one another and to truly understand a culture, one must learn about all of its parts, not only a few.  
5. Culture is Dynamic: This simply means that cultures interact and change. Because most cultures are in contact with other cultures, they exchange ideas and symbols. All cultures change, otherwise, they would have problems adapting to changing environments.

Cultural factors comprise of set of values and ideologies of a particular community or group of individuals. It is the culture of an individual which decides the way he/she behaves. In simpler words, culture is nothing but values of an individual. What an individual learns from his parents and relatives as a child becomes his culture.

CONCLUSION :

From the above discussion we are clear that each and every society has a culture of its own. Culture is not only diverse but also unequal, but is found in societies throughout the world. The impact of culture on society is profound. Culture provides the background of important human factors such as motivations, personality attitude, family and social class etc. it offers order, direction, and guidance to its members in all phases of life.

Some cultures are relatively resistant to change than others but cultures do changes gradually and continuously. Cultural values are enduring beliefs that a given behavior is desired or good. Values are so deeply ingrained that most of us are not really consciously aware of them and individuals often have difficulty in describing it. Value system refers to the total set of values and the relative importance culture places on them. Culture is learned as a result of social experiences. In the course of growing up, children acquire through formal, informal, and technical learning a set of beliefs, values, norms and customs.