The cultural features Are the significant and identifiable minimum units that constitute a given culture.
These elements are analyzed by Sociologists To determine differences, similarities and relationships within the current cultures and the history of humanity.
Cultural traits have been used by the anthropology As transmission units, which reflect in a concrete way a series of behavioral characteristics, individual or group, that can be classified and grouped in different levels or scales.
Once transmitted from generation to generation, cultural features serve as replicable units that can be modified within the cultural repertoire of individuals, through processes of recombination, loss or partial alterations over time.
Through these processes, people develop traditions and customs that are generally preserved over time and help shape the identity of societies. They also function as elements of identification between individuals who share the same beliefs and values.
All cultural traits share a single characteristic in relation to their mode of transmission; This is fundamentally transmitted by behavior, using language first, followed by imitation (or a combination of both).
Cultural traits: implications of transmission
Many studies of the reconstruction of history and ethnology devoted much of their research and analysis to the efficient transmission of ideas from person to person, viewing it as a central phenomenon in the molding of societies.
Under this vision, a series of characteristics about cultural transmission were identified:
1- Language is essential for efficient and accurate cultural transmission. Whatever it is.
2 - What are transmitted are cultural traits, either in ideas or in objects.
3- Culture is not inherited by genetics; Culture, on the other hand, is typically acquired through learning, but also through appropriation or imitation.
4 - Cultural transmission can take different routes, all of them could develop similarities between social groups.
5. Cultural transmission may occur from a genetic ancestor to a genetic offspring, but may also occur between non-genetically related individuals.
6- The cultural transmission in the time results in the accumulation of knowledge, customs, traditions, values, among others. This accumulation of elements Never stops because there is no limit on the amount of ideas that a human being can have.
Types of Cultural Traits
Material Features
They are those that occur or exist as a result of the elaboration and confection of objects and artefacts by the individuals of a society that defined their culture, as well as the elements related to the spaces and resources used by the people.
This includes items such as vessels, nails, writing utensils, a pipe, accessories and jewelry, clothing, documents, paintings, homes, cities, buildings, technology, means and modes of production, among others.
For example, at the technology level, students in a modern, urbanized city need to learn how to use computers to survive on the academic stage.
On the contrary, young people who are passing through adulthood in the African tribes of Africa and the Amazon need to learn how to craft weapons for hunting such as spears, bows and arrows.
The elaboration of these objects in these determined societies and the objects themselves, are cultural material characteristics characteristic of the culture. Objects, especially in archeology, are studied on the basis of types of units.
The study process distinguishes between units Empirical Y Conceptual . The tip of an arrow is an empirical unit, because it can be seen and felt.
By comparing simple-minded arrows made by Vikings and Japanese, differences can be identified in their traits, and hence the culture to which they belonged.
On the left arrow Viking, on the right Japanese arrow
But the properties of the tip of the arrow are measured using conceptual units, and can be descriptive or theoretical like length, weight, metal density, notch angle, color, etc.
Depending on the focus of the study, we will work with as many units as possible to identify and classify objects within a given cultural context.
Non-material features
It refers to the set of ideas that people of a given culture have about their own identity, as well as the different processes that a culture develops to shape the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of its members.
This includes symbols, norms, values, beliefs, traditions, actions, institutions, organizations and most importantly, language. The latter functions as the main means for communication and transmission of all the previous traits.
These traits are responsible for how the people of a culture respond and behave in the face of different themes, events, problems and situations in general.
For example there are religious concepts, rituals, marriage, how to greet each other.
As long as a cultural trait is more recognized and used by more people, it becomes more universal. The greeting, for example with a handshake, is a universally recognized, accepted and used cultural trait, but it identifies more with the Western world.
Contrary to reverence or tilting the head to greet, it is considered a cultural trait identifiable with the east of the world. But it has already become universal just because it is recognized, accepted and used worldwide.
A kiss on the cheek to greet is also a feature recognized and used especially in the West. A kiss on every cheek regardless of sex (and even two in each) is also recognized but not used by all, so it is less universal.
In some more conservative societies the kiss on the hand is practiced as a way of greeting, but it is an old cultural feature that has lost validity in modernity. However, there are events or special occasions in which it is designed, accepted or even expected.
On the other hand, there are more localized types of greetings such as kissing in the mouth, including heterosexual men.
It will not be globally accepted but in some parts of Europe and Russia it is an indigenous and characteristic cultural feature.
References
- Warren Colman (2016). What are some examples of culture traits and culture complex? Quora. Recovered from quora.com.
- Lee Lyman Michael J. O'Brien (2003). Cultural Traits: Units of Analysis in Early Twentieth-Century Anthropology (online document). The University of Chicago Press - Journal of Anthropological Research Vol. 59, No. 2. Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri. Retrieved from cladistics.coas.missouri.edu.
- Artem Cheprasov. Cultural Traits: Definition & Examples. Retrieved from Study.com.
- Alex Mesoudi, Michael J. O'Brien, Todd L. VanPool, R. Lee Lyman (2010). Cultural traits as units of analysis. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
- Shannon Ankeny (2013). What are the customs and cultural traits? EHow. Recovered from ehowennings.com.
- CliffsNotes. Material and Non-Material Culture. Recovered from cliffsnotes.com.
- Christine Serva. Material Culture in Sociology: Definition, Studies & Examples. Retrieved from Study.com.