Culture: Culture and Smaller Group Essay

Submitted By spacejams1551
Words: 405
Pages: 2

There are many cultures that differ from one another, each characterized by their language, values, ideas, material objects, and behaviors. Two types of cultures are subcultures and countercultures. A subculture is a smaller group based off the same culture with different religions and beliefs. Culture is one of the most basic concepts of life. Beliefs and behaviors are passed from one generation to the next. You’re raised to believe what your culture does is the “right” way of doing things. To distinguish other groups you look at the type of clothing they wear, jewelry and their art, known as material culture. Non-material culture is the way a group thinks; for example their beliefs and assumptions about the world. Culture shapes the society you live in, it gives you a language to speak, religions to believe in, and the things we value in life. We evaluate every thought process according to the criteria we were born in. when cultures clash together, you experience something called culture shock. You’re no longer able to depend on what you think is “normal”, instead you adjust yourself and follow what the other culture believes to be “normal”. We believe the way we do things is the proper way and when we see other groups with opposing viewpoints, we judge them, this is known as ethnocentrism. Subculture is a smaller group from a larger group, made up of people who went thru experiences that changed their outlook on life. People in these groups have distinctive styles of dressing that can easily be depicted from one another and their daily routines differ. Examples of some of these groups are body builders, artists, gangsters, and puritans.