Cultura Approach

4 Pages 1020 Words

Culture is defined as everything that occurs in a society. It consists of all the customs and practices handed down from generation top generation. According to Geertz, culture is a ‘system of shared meaning', although he finds this definition to be rather ambiguous and prefers to delve into the details of culture that are found within subcultures and countercultures. Culture is also integral in explaining the way in which society works and functions. It helps to explain the reasons behind people's action and beliefs and why societies follow the normatives that they do. It also helps to explain the reason that societies conform to the guidelines that are presented, however, it lacks in explaining why and how these guidelines are constituted and assembled.
Culture is also useful in predicting what a society considers to be common sense. There are certain facets of life that a person begins to accept with question which are highly impart due to cultural expectations. From a very early age, a child knows that they are not supposed to talk to strangers, or accept candy from a stranger, or get in a car with a stranger, etc. Children are often taught these ‘rules' by their parents or teachers even though, at a young age, the child would not know or understand the consequence of breaking one of these rules. These are things that are ingrained into our minds at a young age and it is only when we are mature enough to understand the full meaning of each guideline that we begin to question them. Another example is learning not to touch a plate that has just been taken out of the over or off the stove (or any other hot plate). We often learn not to do this through conditioning but it is an idea that exists throughout all cultures - do not touch something hot because you will just get burned. These are examples of what we consider to be common sense. They are perfectly understandable and people do not often question the validity ...