Elements of Culture

Characteristics of Culture
Types of Marriage
Family and Kinship
Anthropology of Women
By: Olivarez, Ashlyne Joyce P.
Topic #1: Elements of Culture
1. Language
A group of words or ideas having common meaning and is shared
to a social situation is called language. Language is the entrance
to a culture. Language is a set of socially sound pattern, words,
and sentences having specific meaning and terminology common
to the same culture.

2. Symbols
Culture is a system of symbols. Symbols are anything used to
represent express and stand for an event situation. Symbols direct
to guide our behavior. It is used to show an event of past, present
or future.
3. Norms
Norms as elements of culture are the rules and the guidelines which
specify the behavior of an individual. Norms keep a person within the
boundary of society and its culture. Norms can be divided into:
• Folkways. Folkways are the simple customary ways of the
people. It is the normal and habitual action of people within a
culture.
• Mores. It is the “must” behavior of a person. Mores refers to
“what ought to be and what ought not to be.”

4. Values
Anything getting importance in our daily life becomes our values. The
origin of values is not biological but it is social production while living
in society the values develop. Values depend upon the culture.
Culture varies from society to society and thus values are different in
every social situation.
5. Beliefs
Every section within a culture having some beliefs for cultural refuge.
These beliefs are responsible for the spiritual fulfilment of needs and
wants. Muslims believe in God, Holly Prophet, The Day of Judgment,
recitation of Holly Quran, Hajj etc.

6. Cognitive Elements
Cognitive elements of culture are those though which an individual
know how to cope with an existing social situation. How to survive,
how make shelter from storms and other natural calamities, how to
travel and transport etc. are the practical knowledge which make a
culture. Such knowledge is carefully thought to every generation.
Topic #2: Characteristics of Culture
1. Culture is shared.
Every culture is shared by a group of people, usually inhabiting
the same part of the world. Culture gives the people a collective
identity. It belongs to a community and not to any single human
being. It is shared.

2. Culture is learned.
Culture is not biologically passed from older generations to the
newer ones. It is learned through experience. The members of a
culture share certain ideals which shape their lives. The future
generations learn to follow the same ideals. No individual is born
with a sense of culture. In the course of life, he learns it.
3. Culture changes.
Cultures undergo a gradual change. With passing time, some beliefs
change, certain traditions or rituals are eliminated, language and
mannerisms of people change, and thus their culture.

4. Culture takes years to form.

It is true that culture influences us, but it is also true that we
influence culture. In fact, culture evolves over time and takes years
to develop. It is not a set of rules made by one or more people and
followed by generations. With passing time, a culture develops and
even changes in the process.

5. Culture cannot be isolated.

Studies have brought out the fact that no culture can remain in
isolation. There is hardly any social community that is completely
isolated from the rest of the world. Every culture is mostly influenced
by cultures of the surrounding regions.
6. Culture is essential.
Culture gives us an identity. The art and history that we are proud of,
the literature we learn from, our education, and our upbringing
shapes our personalities. What we observe around us, what our folk
tales teach us, and what our culture says, is deeply ingrained in our
minds. To make us feel a part of the group and to give us the guiding
principles of life, culture is essential.

7. Culture is transmitted to across generations.

Cultural values are transferred across generations in the form of
symbols and stories that make them easier to understand. The beliefs
that a culture holds, take the form of customs and rituals that people
are supposed to follow. The languages which are a part of culture, are
integrated into the education system. Sometimes, values and
religious beliefs are also made a part of it. The art, music, and dance
forms that are representative of a culture are also transmitted across
generations.
Topic #3: Types of Marriage
1. Open Marriage
There might seem to be no logic behind a marriage of this sort, but
it is true that open marriages exist. Both the partners are consented
by each other to go ahead and hold extramarital affairs without
fearing the interference of the other.

2. Polygamy
This may be seen as a step ahead of open marriages. The man or the
wife is allowed to marry more than one person, even in the presence
of the other. However, the practice is not seen as legal in the eyes of
the law. In countries that annuls such marriages, polygamy there
becomes a crime that is bigamy.
3. Avunculate Marriage
The partners of avunculate marriages are bind with a genetic
relationship. Within this, a man can marry his niece or a lady can
marry her nephew.

4. Boston Marriage
Not only were women free to marry the woman they loved but also
have a sexual relationship with them. Things were modern even back
then, it just was not as popular as it is now.

5. Levirate Marriage
Within a Levirate Marriage, a widow is to marry her dead husband’s
brother. This is a method to ensure that the widowed bride of the
family stays in the family.

6. Posthumous Marriage
In a posthumous marriage, one of the partners is deceased. It
could be the widow marrying her dead fiancé or a widower
marrying his dead fiancée.
7. Hypergamy and Hypogamy
Hypergamy is the practice of the marrying someone with the purpose
of moving up on the social ladder. It could be a rise in terms of caste
or even social position.

8. Common Law Marriage

It is an informal marriage where the couple considers themselves
married with respect to a legal framework in a limited number of
jurisdictions.

9. Sororate Marriage
]The man on having discovered his wife as infertile is free to marry or
have sexual relationships with his sister-in-law, in order to beget a
child

10. Teen Marriage

As the name suggests, teen marriage involves the marriage of
a couple where one or both the partners are in their teen
years.
Topic #4: Kinship and Family
Kinship is one of the main organizing principles of society. It is one of the
basic social institutions found in every society. This institution establishes
relationships between individuals and groups. People in all societies are bound
together by various kinds of bonds.

Types of Kinship
In any society, kin relationships are based either on birth (blood relations), or
marriage. These two aspects of human life are the basis for the two main
types of kinship in society.

1. Consanguineal Kinship:
It refers to the relationships based on blood, i.e., the relationship between
parents and children, and between siblings are the most basic and universal
kin relations.
2. Affinal Kinship:
It refers to the relationships formed on the basis of marriage. The most
basic relationship that results from marriage is that between
husband and wife.
Degree of Kinship
Any relationship between two individuals is based on the degree of closeness
or distance of that relationship. This closeness or distance of any relationship
depends upon how individuals are related to each other.

1. Primary Kinship:
Primary kinship refers to direct relations. People who are directly related to
each other are known as primary kin. There are basically eight primary kins—
wife father son, father daughter mother son, wife; father son, father
daughter, mother son, mother daughter; brother sister; and younger
brother/sister older brother/sister. Primary kinship is of two kinds:

• Primary Consanguineal Kinship:

Primary consanguineal kin are those kin, who are directly related to each
other by birth. The relationships between parents and children and between
siblings form primary kinship. These are the only primary consanguineal kin
found in societies all over the world.
• Primary Affinal Kinship:
Primary affinal kinship refers, to the direct relationship formed as a
result of marriage. The only direct affinal kinship is the relationship
between husband and wife.
2. Secondary Kinship:
Secondary kinship refers to the primary kin’s of primary kin. In other words,
those who are directly related to primary kin (primary kin’s primary kin)
become one’s secondary kin. There are 33 secondary kin. Secondary kinship
is also of two kinds:

• Secondary Consanguineal kinship:

This type of kinship refers to the primary consanguineal kin’s primary
consanguineal kin. The most basic type of secondary consanguineal kinship is
the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren.
• Secondary Affinal Kinship:
Secondary affinal kinship refers to one’s primary affinal kins primary kin. This
kinship includes the relationships between an individual and all his/her
sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, and parents-in-law. For an individual, his/her
spouse is his/her primary affinal kin, and for the spouse, his/her parents and
siblings are his/her primary kin. Therefore, for the individual, the parents of
brother/sister-in-law will become his/her secondary affinal kin. Similarly,
any sibling’s spouse or sibling’s parents-in-law will become secondary affinal
kin for an individual.
3. Tertiary Kinship:
Tertiary kinship refers to the primary kin of primary kin’s primary kin or
secondary kin of primary kin primary kin of secondary kin. Roughly 151
tertiary kin have been identified. Like other two degrees of kinship, tertiary
kinship also has two categories:

• Tertiary Consanguineal Kinship:

Tertiary consanguineal kinship refers to an individual’s primary consanguineal
kin (parents), their primary kin (parents’ parents), and their primary kin
(parent’s parent’s parents).
• Tertiary Affinal Kinship:
Tertiary affinal kinship refers to primary affinal kin’s primary kin’s primary
kin, or secondary affinal kin’s primary kin, or primary affinal kin’s secondary
kin. These relationships are many, and some examples will suffice at this
stage of tertiary affinal kin can be spouse’s grandparents, or grand uncles and
aunts, or they can be brother or sister-in-law’s spouses or their children.
Topic #5: Anthropology of Women

There are two ways to interpret “the anthropology of women:” One is as the
work of women anthropologists, and the other is as anthropology that focuses
on women as its subject. This entry deals with the latter, although for many
reasons, the two often go hand in hand. Feminist anthropology, the
ethnography of women, and female anthropologists have all been historically
associated together, as it was feminist anthropologists—most of them women—
who were first interested in doing fieldwork with women, writing ethnography
about women, researching anthropological questions about women, and
writing theory about women and gender.
References:
http://www.studylecturenotes.com/social-sciences/sociology/113-elements-
of-culture
https://historyplex.com/characteristics-of-culture
https://listaka.com/top-10-different-types-of-marriages/
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/sociology/kinship-and-family/kinship-
meaning-types-and-other-details/34960