SAMPLE Sociology
Table 20 - 3: Material culture and nonmaterial culture
Culture Subcategory
Description
Visual Example
Objects & items in a culture that surround people. Includes architecture, consumption, creation, & trade of different objects, including but not limited to food, clothing & art. Consists of tangible objects that can be seen and handled .
Material Culture
Thoughts, ideas, beliefs, & norms within a culture . Consists of abstract ideas that are experienced within the culture’s behaviors & beliefs, such as traditions, mannerisms, values, and language.
Nonmaterial Culture
Cultural universals are patterns or characteristics shared by all societies. Some activities, such as courtship, marriage, funerals, games, and family units, are universal among cultures and people. For example, family units worldwide typically consist of parents and childrenregardlessofthecountryor culture.Ofcourse,somemilddifferencesoccurwithinculturaluniversals.Forinstance,inAsiancultures, itiscommontofindmanygenerationslivinginthesamehousehold;parents,grandparents,andchildren will all live in the same home. In theUnitedStates,itiscustomaryforchildrentoleavetheirparents’ homes, find their own place to live, get married, have a job, and start a family. Although many human activities are universal, there is no universally accepted way of doing them. Anthropologist George Murdock believed that cultural universals were based on the need for human survival, concluding that all social groups have ritualsrelatedtocourting,cooking,marriage,funerals, games, legislation, music, incest taboos, and potty training. Even so,specificcustomsdifferfromone grouptoanother.Forexample,whilethehumanactivityofdisposingofthedeadisuniversal,theexact method of doing so is decidedly not universal.
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