Understanding Of Culture And Society By Defining Such Words As “Values” And “Norms”
Values can be simply described as cultural beliefs, and “norms” usually refer to behavior in certain situations that are thought to be acceptable. For example, in New Orleans a cultural norm is that family members do not mourn at funerals, rather they sing and dance to celebrate their loved one’s life. This behavior is thought to be unusual and even rude in other places where funerals usually include somber music and quiet mourning amongst the lost one’s family and friends.
Cultural beliefs can be observed in a number of ways as well, especially when studying religion. An example of cultural beliefs in the African American Baptist community is that taking the Holy Communion at a church that is not your “home” church is bad. Consequently, children growing up in this setting, like myself, have been programmed to politely deny partaking in this practice when visiting other churches on those Sundays. I’m still not really sure why that is, but I was raised to believe that it is not right and have been also taught that it is disrespectful to question my elders.
According to Giddens, Duneier, Applebaum, and Carr (2017), culture can be loosely described as the values and norms that is the basis for a group of people and set the foundation for how they interact with one another and those outside of their culture; which differ from instinct. Basically, Sociologists argue that instinct is programmed in a human since birth; however, culture is learned and influenced by one’s surroundings. An example of this can be observed in one of my favorite television series, “The Little Couple”. Jen and Bill are a Caucasian American couple who have an adopted Indian daughter, Zoey, and an adopted Chinese son, Will. Zoey and Will’s initial instinct when they were first brought into the couple’s life where to speak their native tongue; however, they have adapted the language of their new mommy and daddy and their new country.
As a nurse the best way that I can describe a subculture is by using the structure of a hospital. For instance, the culture of a hospital as a whole is to provide patients with safe and effective care; however, there are different floors or units that make up that hospital. Each unit can be thought of as a subculture where the values may be different due to the environment and patient acuity of the patients on that specific unit. Subcultures are important because they allow the integration of ideas and practices from many belief systems to come together and benefit the overall way of life for a society of people, such as America. Cultural universals are constants amongst every society that collectively define a society.
Giddens et al. (2017) give us examples such as: the institution of marriage, parenting children, and language systems. Cultural universals tell us where a society’s values lie. When compared to civilizations, hunting and gathering societies can be looked at as survivalists.
The main interest in these societies were food, water, family, and shelter. Although those things are pivotal in the maintenance of civilizations as well, there is also high emphasis placed on the pursuit of wealth and positions of power that aides in the divisiveness of advanced societies due to a classical system.
