Categories of Culture Page

  •  Material Culture – physical objects like art, technology, and architecture,

 clothing, tools, furniture, buildings, food, and computers.

  •  Non-material Culture – non-physical aspects like beliefs, values, customs,

Language, traditions, customs, social norms, and spiritual practices.

  •  Further sub-categories – social organization, arts and literature, government,

 religion, and economic systems within a culture

  •  Social Organization – family structures, social hierarchy, gender roles
  •   Art and Literature – music, dance, visual arts, literature, storytelling
  •   Government & Politics – political systems, laws, governing structures
  •   Religion – religious beliefs, practices, and rituals
  •   Economic  Systems – production methods, trade, distribution of goods
  • Groups – within a larger culture with distinct values and practices, and different from the dominant culture. 
  • Norms – expected behaviors within a culture including both formal laws and informal laws
  • Language – a necessary element of culture, conveying values and facilitating communication – the primary way culture is passed down to generations.
  • Radical groups – people who reject social norms and practices, and embrace a

  mode of life opposed to mainstream.

  • Countercultures may arise in the wake of dramatic economic and social

pressures – they share similarities with subcultures but modify dominant norms

and values

  • Disenchanted people wish to live a nontraditional lifestyle and espouse

nonconformity, and/or existentialism.

  • Communal or nomadic lifestyle – renounce nationalism, embrace drug culture
  • Radical political movements – like the Black Panthers, Weathermen, and

Symbionese Liberation Army, Punks in Britain, Hippies in United States.

  • Other radical movements reject consumerism, espouse anarchy, and lives

illegally in squats or abandoned buildings.

My Father Had No Children