Cultural system

Short description: Interaction of different elements in culture

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A cultural system is the interaction of different elements in culture. While a cultural system is very different from a social system, sometimes both systems together are referred to as the sociocultural system.

## Contents

* 1 Social theory
* 1.1 Action theory
* 1.2 System and social integration
* 1.3 Cultural and socio-cultural integration
* 2 Research
* 3 References

## Social theory

A major concern in the social sciences is the problem of order. One way that social order has been theorized is according to the degree of integration of cultural and social factors.

### Action theory

Talcott Parsons, a major figure in sociology and the main originator of action theory in the early 20th century, based his sociological theory of action system is built up around a general theory of society, which is codified within a cybernetic model featuring four functional imperatives: adaptation, goal-attainment, integration, and pattern maintenance. The hierarchy of systems is, from least to most encompassing system, respectively, behavioral organism, personality system, social system, and cultural system as well. Ritzer and Goodman (2004) summarize Parsons' view, "Parsons saw these action systems acting at different levels of analysis, starting with the behavioral organism and building to the cultural system. He saw these levels hierarchically, with each of the lower levels providing the impetus for the higher levels, with the higher levels controlling the lower levels." In an article, late in life, Parsons maintained that the term "functionalism" was an inappropriate characterization of his theory.

### System and social integration

The British Sociologist David Lockwood argued for a contrast between social content and social transmission in his work on social structure and agency. Noting that social systems were distinct in structure and transmission. Lockwood's conceptual distinction influenced Jürgen Habermas' discussion in the classic Legitimation Crises, who made the now famous distinction between system integration and social integration of the lifeworld.

### Cultural and socio-cultural integration

Margaret Archer (2004) in a revised edition of her classic work Culture and Agency, argues that the grand idea of a unified, integrated culture system, as advocated by early Anthropologists such as Bronisław Malinowski and later by Mary Douglas, is a myth. Archer reads this same myth through Pitirim Sorokin's influence and then Talcott Parsons' approach to cultural systems (2004:3). The myth of a unified, integrated cultural system was also advanced by Western Marxists such as by Antonio Gramsci through the theory of cultural hegemony through a dominant culture. Basic to these mistaken conceptions was the idea of culture as a community of meanings, which function independently in motivating social behavior. This combined two independent factors, community and meanings which can be investigated quasi-independently (2004:4)

Archer, a proponent of critical realism, suggests that cultural factors can be objectively studied for the degree of compatibility (and that various aspects of cultural systems may be found to contradict each other in meaning and use). And, social or community factors in socialization may be studied in the context of the transmission of cultural factors by studying the social uniformity (or lack thereof) in the transmitted culture. Cultural systems are used (and inform society) both through idea systems and the structuring of social systems. To quote Archer in this regard:

"logical consistency is a property of the world of ideas; causal consistency is a property of people. The main proposition here is the two are logically and empirically distinct and, hence can vary independently of one another. Thus it is perfectly conceivable that any social unit, from a community to a civilization, could be found the principle ideational elements (knowledge, belief, norms, language, mythology, etc.) of which do display considerable logical consistency – that is, the components are consistent, not contradictory – yet the same social unit may be low on causal consensus. " (2004:4)

Archer notes that the opposite may be the case: low cultural logical consistency and high social consistency. Complex societies can include complex sociocultural systems that mix of cultural and social factors with various levels of contradiction and consistency.

## Research

According to Burrowes (1996), in two recent approaches to the study of culture, in the 1980-1990s, the "cultural studies" and "cultural indicators" approaches, investigators explored the traditionally functionalist concern of "cultural systems integration." These two approaches could be synthesized in the investigating cultural systems. Burrowes (1996) writes, "If functionalism offers to this cross-fertilization a focus on the normative orders of society, the cultural indicators approach provides a rigorous methodology, and cultural studies caution a greater sensitivity to social hierarchies." Constrained by Merton's middle range theory [note: to be discussed here], the specification of cultural elements and social structures makes possible the investigation of specific cultural and social systems and their interaction.

## References

* Archer, Margaret S. 2004. Culture and Agency: The Place of Culture in Social Theory, Revised Edition. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Burrowes, Carl Patrick. 1996. From Functionalism to Cultural Studies: Manifest Ruptures and Latent Continuities, Communication Theory, 6(1):88–103.
* Geertz, Clifford. 1966. "Religion as a Cultural System," in M. Banton (ed.), Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion. New York: Praeger, pp. 1–46.
* David Lockwood. 1964. “Social Integration and System Integration,” in G. Zollschan and W. Hirsch (eds.), Explorations in Social Change. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
* Ritzer, George, and Douglas J. Goodman. 2004. "Structural Functionalism, Neofunctionalism, and Conflict Theory," in Sociological Theory, sixth edition. McGraw-Hill.

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Culture

Outline

Sciences|

* Cultural anthropology
* Cultural astronomy
* Cultural ecology
* Cultural geography
* Cultural neuroscience
* Cultural studies
* Culturology
* Culture theorysecurity culture
* Neuroculture

Subfields|

* Bioculture
* Cross-cultural studies
* Cross-cultural communication
* Cross-cultural leadership
* Cross-cultural psychiatry
* Cross-cultural psychology
* Cultural analytics
* Cultural economics
* Cultural entomology
* Cultural history
* Cultural mapping
* Cultural mediation
* Cultural psychology
* Cultural values
* Culturomics
* Intercultural learning
* Intercultural relations
* Internet culture
* Philosophy of culture
* Popular culture studies
* Postcritique
* Semiotics of culture
* Sociology of culture
* Sound culture
* Theology of culture
* Transcultural nursing

Types|

* Constructed culture
* Dominant culture
* Folk culture
* High culture
* Individualistic culture
* Legal culture
* Low culture
* Microculture
* Official culture
* Political culture
* Civic
* Popular culture
* Urban
* Primitive culture
* Subculture
* Alternative culture
* list
* Super culture
* Vernacular culture
* Culture by location

Aspects|

* Acculturation
* Cultural appropriation
* Cultural area
* Cultural artifact
* Cultural baggage
* Cultural behavior
* Cultural bias
* Cultural capital
* Cross-cultural
* Cultural communication
* Cultural conflict
* Cultural cringe
* Cultural dissonance
* Cultural emphasis
* Cultural framework
* Cultural heritage
* Cultural icon
* Cultural identity
* Cultural industry
* Cultural invention
* Cultural landscape
* Cultural learning
* Cultural leveling
* Cultural memory
* Cultural pluralism
* Cultural practice
* Cultural property
* Cultural reproduction
* Cultural system
* Cultural technology
* Cultural universal
* Cultureme
* Enculturation
* High- and low-context cultures
* Interculturality
* Manuscript culture
* Material culture
* Non-material culture
* Organizational culture
* Print culture
* Protoculture
* Safety culture
* Technoculture
* Trans-cultural diffusion
* Transculturation
* Visual culture

Politics|

* Colonial mentality
* Consumer capitalism
* Cross cultural sensitivity
* Cultural assimilation
* Cultural attaché
* Cultural backwardness
* Cultural Bolshevism
* Cultural conservatism
* Cultural contracts
* Cultural deprivation
* Cultural diplomacy
* Cultural environmentalism
* Cultural exception
* Cultural feminism
* Cultural genocide
* Cultural globalization
* Cultural hegemony
* Cultural imperialism
* Cultural intelligence
* Cultural liberalism
* Cultural nationalism
* Cultural pessimism
* Cultural policy
* Cultural racism
* Cultural radicalism
* Cultural retention
* Cultural Revolution
* Cultural rights
* Cultural safety
* Cultural silence
* Cultural subsidy
* Cultural Zionism
* Culture change
* Culture minister
* Culture of fear
* Culture war
* Deculturalization
* Dominator culture
* Interculturalism
* Monoculturalism
* Multiculturalism
* Biculturalism
* Pluriculturalism
* Polyculturalism
* Transculturism

Religions|

* Buddhism
* Christianity
* Catholicism
* Cultural Catholic
* Cultural Christian
* Protestantism
* Role of Christianity in civilization
* Eastern Orthodoxy
* Mormonism
* Cultural Hindu
* Islam
* Cultural Muslim
* Judaism
* Cultural Judaism
* Sikhism

Related|

* Animal culture
* Archaeological culture
* Bennett scale
* Cannabis culture
* Circuit of culture
* Civilization
* Coffee culture
* Cross-cultural
* Cultural center
* Cultural competence
* Cultural critic
* Cultural Detective
* Cultural determinism
* Cultural diversity
* Cultural encoding
* Cultural evolutionism
* Cultural homogenization
* Cultural institution
* Cultural jet lag
* Cultural lag
* Cultural literacy
* Cultural mosaic
* Cultural movement
* Cultural mulatto
* Cultural probe
* Cultural relativism
* Culture speculation
* Cultural tourism
* Pop-culture
* Cultural translation
* Cultural turn
* Cultural sensibility
* Culture and menstruation
* Culture and positive psychology
* Culture and social cognition
* Culture gap
* Culture hero
* Culture industry
* Culture shock
* Culturgen
* Children's culture
* Culturalism
* Cyberculture
* Death and culture
* Disability culture
* Deaf culture
* Emotions and culture
* Intercultural communication
* Intercultural competence
* Languaculture
* Living things in culture
* Media culture
* Oppositional culture
* Participatory culture
* Permission culture
* Rape culture
* Remix culture
* Tea culture
* Transformation of culture
* Urban culture
* Welfare culture
* Western culture

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