What is culture (SACE Stage 2 Society and Culture)

What this dot point is asking

You must define culture, distinguish its main components, and explain how culture shapes both individual identity and the identity of groups, supported by real Australian examples.

Defining culture

Culture is the whole way of life of a group: the values they hold, the beliefs they share, the language they speak, the customs they follow, and the objects they make and use. The key idea is that culture is learned. A child is not born with a culture; they acquire it through socialisation in family, school, peer groups and media. Because it is learned and shared, culture binds a group together and makes social life predictable.

Material and non-material culture

Sociologists separate culture into two layers.

• Non-material culture is the intangible part: values (what a group thinks is important), beliefs (what it holds to be true), norms (rules for behaviour), language and symbols. The Australian value of a fair go and the practice of mateship are non-material.
• Material culture is the tangible part: tools, technology, buildings, food, clothing and art. A boomerang, a meat pie, a surf lifesaving flag or a smartphone are all material culture.

The two layers connect. A material object such as the Aboriginal flag carries non-material meaning, standing for identity, sovereignty and pride.

How culture shapes individual identity

Identity is a person's sense of who they are. Culture supplies the raw material for identity in several ways.

• Values and beliefs give a person a moral framework, shaping what they think is right, important and worth pursuing.
• Language shapes how a person thinks and expresses themselves, and signals which group they belong to. The revival of Kaurna language in South Australia is reconnecting people with cultural identity.
• Norms and roles tell people how to behave in situations and what is expected of them as a student, worker, parent or citizen.

How culture shapes group identity

Groups also have shared identities built on culture. A cultural group shares values, traditions, language or history that mark it as distinct. In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, the oldest continuous cultures on Earth, are sustained through connection to Country, kinship systems, art and language. Migrant communities, such as Greek, Vietnamese and Sudanese Australians, maintain group identity through festivals, food, religion and language while also adopting elements of broader Australian culture.

This points to two important concepts. Cultural diversity describes a society containing many cultural groups, as multicultural Australia does. Subcultures are groups within a wider culture that share their own distinct values or style, such as surf culture or a youth music scene, while still belonging to the larger society.

Culture, identity and change

Identity is not fixed. Because people in Australia are exposed to many cultural influences through migration, media and globalisation, many hold a hybrid identity, drawing on more than one culture at once. A young Australian might identify with their family's heritage culture, mainstream Australian culture and a global online subculture simultaneously. This is sometimes a source of tension and sometimes a source of richness, and it is a central theme in contemporary Society and Culture.

Connection to the rest of the course

This dot point underpins the whole subject. Understanding culture as learned, shared and made of material and non-material elements is the foundation for analysing contemporary social issues, the impact of globalisation on cultures, and the way power and social change operate within and between cultural groups. Identity is the thread that connects culture to lived experience.