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Culture and socialisation are foundational to understanding how societies function. NCERT Class 11 Sociology Chapter 4, Culture and Socialisation, from Introducing Sociology, explores how culture shapes identities and behaviours, and how socialisation integrates individuals into society. These notes simplify key concepts, clarify perspectives, and aid revision for Class 11 students.
Table of Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Diverse Settings, Different Cultures
- 3 Defining Culture
- 4 Dimensions of Culture
- 5 Cognitive Aspects of Culture
- 6 Normative Aspects of Culture
- 7 Material Aspects of Culture
- 8 Culture and Identity
- 9 Ethnocentrism
- 10 Cultural Change
- 11 Socialisation
- 12 Agencies of Socialisation
- 13 Socialisation and Individual Freedom
- 14 Important Definitions in NCERT Class 11 Sociology Chapter 4: Culture and Socialisation
- 15 FAQs
Explore Notes of Class 11: Introducing Sociology
Introduction
This section introduces culture as a shared, dynamic system and socialisation as the process of learning it, highlighting their role in navigating society.
- Definition: Culture is a common understanding learned through social interaction, giving groups identity. Socialisation is learning this culture to function in society.
- Characteristics:
- Culture is dynamic, constantly evolving with additions or changes.
- Learned through interaction, not innate.
- Significance: Culture provides a “map” for social behaviour; socialisation equips individuals for roles and responsibilities.
- Types of Socialisation:
- Primary: Learning in the family during childhood.
- Secondary: Learning in schools and other institutions.
- Example: Facial expressions in conversations convey meaning, learned through socialisation in family and society.
Diverse Settings, Different Cultures
This section discusses how diverse natural and social environments lead to varied cultures, with no culture being superior.
- Definition: Cultures emerge as people adapt to different natural (e.g., mountains, deserts) and social settings (e.g., villages, cities).
- Characteristics:
- Vary due to environmental coping strategies.
- Cannot be ranked; adequacy depends on coping with nature.
- Significance: Cultural diversity reflects adaptation, not superiority.
- Example: During the 2004 tsunami, tribal communities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands used experiential knowledge to survive, unlike modernised groups, showing cultural adequacy.
Defining Culture
This section defines culture as a societal way of life, incorporating material and non-material elements, and explores anthropological perspectives.
- Definition: Culture is a complex whole of knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs, and habits acquired as a member of society (Tylor). It includes artifacts, ideas, and values (Malinowski) and webs of meaning (Geertz).
- Characteristics:
- Shared by all members, not just elites.
- Includes material (e.g., tools) and non-material (e.g., values) aspects.
- Perspectives:
- Tylor: Emphasises non-material aspects.
- Malinowski: Includes material artefacts.
- Geertz: Culture as interpretive webs of meaning.
- Significance: Culture shapes societal participation and meaning-making.
- Example: Holy water is culturally significant due to shared meanings, not its physical properties.
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Dimensions of Culture
This section outlines three dimensions of culture—cognitive, normative, and material—and their interdependence.
- Definition: Culture has cognitive (understanding), normative (rules), and material (tools, artefacts) dimensions.
- Characteristics:
- Cognitive: How we interpret information (e.g., recognising a cell-phone ring).
- Normative: Rules guiding behaviour (e.g., rituals at death).
- Material: Tools and technologies (e.g., internet chatting).
- Significance: All dimensions interact for a complete understanding of culture.
- Example: Kolam designs using rice-flour paste combine material tools with cognitive skills and normative traditions.
Cognitive Aspects of Culture
This section focuses on how culture shapes understanding and the role of literacy and orality in cultural transmission.
- Definition: Cognitive aspects involve processing sensory information to give it meaning.
- Characteristics:
- Harder to recognise than material or normative aspects.
- In literate societies, knowledge is recorded; in non-literate ones, it’s memorised and transmitted orally.
- Significance: Shapes how societies preserve and share knowledge.
- Example: Oral traditions use repetition for memory, while written texts allow elaboration, affecting art consumption.
Normative Aspects of Culture
This section examines norms, laws, and sanctions that guide behaviour, highlighting their implicit and explicit nature.
- Definition: Normative aspects include folkways, mores, customs, conventions, and laws guiding social behaviour.
- Characteristics:
- Norms are implicit, learned through socialisation; laws are explicit, state-enforced.
- Norms vary by status; dominant groups may impose discriminatory norms.
- Significance: Ensures conformity but can perpetuate inequalities.
- Example: Not opening others’ letters is a norm, while stealing violates the law of private property, attracting punishment.
Material Aspects of Culture
This section explores material culture, its role in production, and the concept of culture lag.
- Definition: Material culture includes tools, technologies, machines, and communication instruments.
- Characteristics:
- Enhances production and quality of life (e.g., mobile phones, irrigation pumps).
- Rapid material changes can outpace non-material norms, causing culture lag.
- Significance: Material and non-material dimensions must align for cultural integration.
- Example: Widespread use of ATMs and computers in urban areas shows dependence on technology.
Culture and Identity
This section discusses how culture shapes individual and group identities through roles, subcultures, and recognition.
- Definition: Identities are fashioned through social roles and group interactions, not inherited.
- Characteristics:
- Individuals play multiple roles (e.g., parent, student), each with responsibilities.
- Subcultures (e.g., youth, elite) create distinct identities via style and association.
- Significance: Identities are recognised through language and group cohesion, fostering self-image.
- Example: A neighbourhood youth club creates a positive group identity through sports, distinguishing itself from others.
Ethnocentrism
This section defines ethnocentrism and contrasts it with cosmopolitanism, advocating for cultural appreciation.
- Definition: Ethnocentrism is judging other cultures by one’s own standards, assuming superiority.
- Characteristics:
- Leads to cultural misunderstanding (e.g., colonial attitudes).
- The opposite of cosmopolitanism, which values cultural differences.
- Significance: Sociology promotes cosmopolitanism for cultural exchange and enrichment.
- Example: Macaulay’s 1835 Minute reflects ethnocentrism by promoting English culture over Indian culture.
Cultural Change
This section explores how cultures evolve through internal and external factors, including evolutionary and revolutionary changes.
- Definition: Cultural change is the transformation of cultural patterns, driven internally (e.g., innovations) or externally (e.g., conquest).
- Characteristics:
- Caused by environmental changes, cultural contact, or adaptation.
- Evolutionary (gradual) or revolutionary (rapid, radical).
- Significance: Alters societal practices and values, impacting lifestyles.
- Example: The French Revolution (1789) brought revolutionary change by abolishing the monarchy and promoting equality.
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This section defines socialisation as the process of learning culture, highlighting its lifelong nature and impact.
- Definition: Socialisation is the process by which individuals become self-aware, knowledgeable, and skilled in their culture.
- Characteristics:
- Lifelong, with primary (childhood) and secondary (later life) stages.
- Not passive; individuals assert will (e.g., infants crying for needs).
- Significance: Transforms infants into social beings, but allows individuality.
- Example: The “Wolf-children of Midnapore” lacked human socialisation, behaving like animals until exposed to society.
This section identifies key agencies—family, peer groups, schools, mass media, and work—that socialise individuals.
- Definition: Agencies like family, peers, schools, media, and work teach cultural norms and roles.
- Characteristics:
- Family: Primary socialisation varies by structure (nuclear, extended).
- Peers: Egalitarian interactions influence attitudes.
- Schools: Formal and hidden curricula (e.g., gender roles in tasks).
- Media: Shapes perceptions via TV, print, internet.
- Work: Teaches professional norms in industrial societies.
- Significance: Diverse agencies create varied socialisation experiences.
- Example: TV serials influence children’s behaviour, while family teaches traditional values.
This section discusses how socialisation balances conformity with individuality and freedom.
- Definition: Socialisation conditions behaviour but fosters individuality through self-identity.
- Characteristics:
- Conflicts between agencies (e.g., home vs. school) encourage independent thought.
- Develops capacity for action despite cultural constraints.
- Significance: Socialisation shapes but does not eliminate free will.
- Example: A child challenging parental norms based on peer group influence asserts individuality.
This section lists key definitions of NCERT Class 11 Sociology Ch-4: Culture and Socialisation for clarity and revision.
- Culture: A shared system of beliefs, values, norms, and material objects acquired as a member of society.
- Socialisation: The lifelong process of learning cultural norms and roles to participate in society.
- Material Culture: Physical objects of a culture (e.g., tools, buildings).
- Non-Material Culture: Beliefs, values, and norms (e.g., respect, honesty).
- Subculture: Distinct cultural norms within a larger culture (e.g., youth culture).
- Ethnocentrism: Judging other cultures by one’s own cultural standards.
- Cultural Relativism: Understanding cultures on their own terms.
- Primary Socialisation: Early childhood learning, mainly through family.
- Secondary Socialisation: Later learning through schools, peers, or media.
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FAQs
Culture provides the norms, values, and practices that socialisation transmits, shaping behaviour and identity (e.g., family teaching cultural rituals).
Functionalist views see socialisation as promoting social cohesion, while conflict views see it as reinforcing inequalities (e.g., gendered roles).
Agencies like family, school, peers, and media teach norms, roles, and values, influencing behaviour and identity (e.g., school teaches discipline).
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