Material Culture Vs Nonmaterial Culture

706 Words3 Pages

Culture is such an amazing thing, especially because individuals all have a different definition of what their culture is. Culture signifies so many different things for different people. As defined by the book, culture is “a set of beliefs, traditions, and practices; the sum of the social categories and concepts we embrace in addition to beliefs, behaviors (except instinctual ones), and practices; everything but the natural environment around is.” Culture includes everything like the way an individual speaks, the clothing that an individual wears, as well as the food that individuals consume. In addition, all aspects of culture are passed down, generation to generation. Furthermore, there is material culture and nonmaterial culture. Material culture includes physical components of our environment, like books, homes, and clothing. While nonmaterial culture includes things like the way people act, language, and their beliefs. Nonmaterial culture also can be considered as ideology in some instances.

I feel that culture differs from one location to another for multiple reasons. The main one that comes to my head is that individuals need to adapt to the environments/geography they live in. First off, when discussing material culture like clothing, we need to remember that the weather of where people live influences the clothing types they …show more content…

For instance, the globalization of the media has spread American culture around the world. Through media, like television, radios, and newspapers, elements of all cultures can easily be spread to a wide variety of people with different cultures. By viewing and learning about other cultures, some individuals may view one aspect of a culture as being more efficient than their own, so they incorporate elements of another culture into their own. For instance, by knowing how others live, allows us to question the way we do