Culture and society | Society and Culture | MCAT | Khan Academy

Summary

The video script explores the intertwined concepts of culture and society, illustrating how culture, akin to the software of a phone, provides the guidelines for living, while society, like the hardware, offers the organizational structure. Culture encompasses diverse elements such as language, art, and beliefs, shaping a society's shared knowledge and values. The script emphasizes that while distinct, culture and society are interdependent, with culture constantly evolving and society functioning through its cultural norms, much like a phone requires apps to be useful.

Takeaways

• 🌐 Culture refers to the shared knowledge, beliefs, and values that bind a society together, encompassing elements like artwork, language, and literature.
• 🏙️ Society is the organization of people living together in a specific geographic area, interacting more with each other than with outsiders.
• 🤝 Culture and society are interconnected; understanding one requires understanding the other.
• 📚 Culture can be seen as the 'rules' that guide how people live, while society is the 'structure' that organizes them.
• 📱 The analogy of a phone is used to explain the relationship between society (hardware) and culture (software).
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Institutions like family, education, and politics are key parts of society that meet basic human needs.
• 🛠️ Hardware represents the physical aspects of society, like the actual phone and its case.
• 💡 Culture, like software, provides guidelines for living and is intangible, similar to the apps on a phone.
• 🔄 Culture is dynamic and constantly evolving, much like how apps are updated with new features and bug fixes.
• 🎯 The usefulness of a phone is dependent on its apps, just as society's functionality relies on its culture.
• 🌟 Society and culture are distinct but interdependent; society cannot function without its culture, similar to a phone without apps.

Q & A

What is the definition of culture as described in the script?

Culture is defined as a way of life shared by a group of people, encompassing the knowledge, beliefs, and values that bind a society together. It is diverse and may include elements such as artwork, language, and literature.

How does the script describe the relationship between culture and society?

The script describes culture as the guidelines that guide the way people live, similar to the software of a phone, while society is the structure that provides organization for people, akin to the hardware of a phone. They are interconnected and cannot exist without each other.

What is the role of society in the context of the script?

Society is described as the way people organize themselves, living together in a specific geographic area and interacting more with each other than with outsiders. It includes institutions like family, education, and politics that meet basic human needs.

How are institutions in society compared to the hardware of a phone?

Institutions in society, such as family, education, and politics, are compared to the hardware of a phone because they are the physical, tangible parts that provide the structure and organization necessary for society to function.

What analogy is used in the script to explain the concept of culture?

The script uses the analogy of a phone's software and apps to explain the concept of culture. Just as software provides instructions and code for a phone, culture provides guidelines for living and is constantly updated and reshaped from generation to generation.

Why are apps on a phone compared to culture in the script?

Apps on a phone are compared to culture because they are the non-physical, intangible aspects that give functionality and meaning to the device, much like how culture gives meaning and purpose to the interactions and structures within a society.

How does the script suggest culture is learned and transmitted?

The script suggests that culture is learned and transmitted through the analogy of app updates, where new features or bug fixes are introduced, indicating that culture is constantly evolving and passed down from one generation to the next.

What is the significance of the statement 'society cannot function without its culture' in the script?

The statement emphasizes the interdependence of society and culture. Just as a phone is useless without apps, society lacks the necessary guidelines and meaning to function effectively without its cultural framework.

How does the script differentiate between the tangible and intangible aspects of society and culture?

The script differentiates by comparing the tangible aspects, like the physical phone and its hardware, to the institutions and structure of society, and the intangible aspects, like software and apps, to the guidelines and values of culture.

What does the script imply about the necessity of understanding both society and culture?

The script implies that to fully understand either society or culture, one must understand both, as they are interconnected and provide the framework and meaning for human interaction and organization.

How does the script use the evolution of apps to illustrate the dynamic nature of culture?

The script uses the evolution of apps, which are constantly being improved and updated, to illustrate that culture is also dynamic, learned, and reshaped, reflecting the changing knowledge, beliefs, and values of a society over time.

Outlines

00:00

🌐 Understanding Society and Culture

This paragraph introduces the concepts of culture and society. Culture is described as a diverse way of life shared by a group, encompassing knowledge, beliefs, and values that bind a society together. It includes elements like artwork, language, and literature. Society, on the other hand, refers to the organization of people living in a specific geographic area, interacting more with each other than with outsiders, and sharing a common culture over time. The paragraph emphasizes the interdependence of culture and society, with culture providing the 'rules' for living and society providing the 'structure'. The analogy of a phone is used to illustrate this relationship, where society is like the hardware (the physical phone) and culture is like the software (the apps that guide the use of the phone).

Keywords

💡Culture

Culture, as defined in the video, is a way of life shared by a group of people. It encompasses the knowledge, beliefs, and values that bind a society together. The video emphasizes that culture is diverse and includes elements like artwork, language, and literature. It is the shared knowledge that allows members of a society to derive meaning from their surroundings. Culture is likened to the software of a phone, providing guidelines for living and constantly being updated and reshaped from generation to generation.

💡Society

Society refers to the way people organize themselves, typically living in a specific geographic area and interacting more with each other than with outsiders. It is the structure that provides organization for people, analogous to the hardware of a phone. The video uses the analogy of a phone to explain that society includes key parts called institutions such as family, education, and politics, which meet basic human needs.

💡Diversity

Diversity in the context of the video refers to the variety of cultures that exist. It highlights that culture is not uniform but includes a wide range of thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and expressions. The video suggests that this diversity is part of what makes up the rich tapestry of human societies.

💡Institutions

Institutions are key parts of society that the video identifies as meeting basic human needs. Examples given include family, education, and politics. These institutions are the 'hardware' of society, providing the physical and organizational framework within which people interact and live.

💡Hardware

Hardware, in the video's analogy, represents the physical components of a phone, such as the device itself and its protective case. By extension, in the context of society, it represents the tangible structures and organizations that people can physically interact with and that provide the framework for societal functions.

💡Software

Software is used in the video to compare with culture. It is a collection of instructions and code installed on a phone, which cannot be physically touched, much like the intangible guidelines and shared knowledge that culture provides. The video suggests that just as software makes a phone functional, culture makes society functional.

💡Apps

Apps are a specific type of software on a phone that perform various functions. In the video, they are used to illustrate how culture operates within society. Apps, like culture, are constantly being updated with new features and bug fixes, reflecting the learned and transmitted nature of culture.

💡Guidelines

Guidelines in the video are the rules that guide the way people live, which are part of culture. They provide a framework for behavior and thought, helping individuals navigate their social environment. The video compares these guidelines to the instructions within software that dictate how a phone's apps function.

💡Interaction

Interaction is a key aspect of society, referring to the way people communicate and engage with one another. The video implies that interaction is facilitated by the shared culture, which provides a common understanding and set of behaviors that enable cooperation and cohesion within a society.

💡Geographic Area

A geographic area is mentioned in the video as the typical location where a society forms, with people living and interacting within a specific region. This shared space is important for the development of a common culture and the establishment of societal institutions.

💡Organized Groups

Organized groups are how people come together to form a society. The video suggests that these groups are structured and have a defined way of operating, which is influenced by the culture they share. The concept highlights the interdependence of organization and culture within a society.

Highlights

Culture is a way of life shared by a group of people, encompassing knowledge, beliefs, and values that bind a society together.

Culture is diverse and includes elements such as artwork, language, and literature.

Society refers to the organization of people living together in a specific geographic area, interacting more with each other than with outsiders.

Society and culture are interconnected, with society providing the structure and culture providing the guidelines for living.

Culture can be thought of as the 'rules' that guide how people live, similar to the software on a phone.

Society can be likened to the 'hardware' of a phone, providing the physical structure for people to organize.

Institutions like family, education, and politics are key parts of society that meet basic human needs.

Culture is learned, transmitted, and reshaped from generation to generation, much like app updates on a phone.

Just as apps make a phone useful, human ideas from culture make society function.

The physical phone represents society's structure, while the software and apps represent the culture's rules and input.

Society and culture are distinct but interdependent, much like a phone needs apps to function.

Culture provides the meaning and interpretation of objects and ideas within a society.

Understanding both society and culture is essential for a comprehensive view of human interaction and organization.

The analogy of a phone helps to illustrate the relationship between the structure of society and the guidelines of culture.

Culture is dynamic, constantly being updated and improved, reflecting the evolving nature of societal guidelines.

Without culture, society would lack the necessary guidelines and meaning, just as a phone without apps would be useless.

The big takeaway is that society is organized groups of people, and culture is their way of life, both are indispensable.

Transcripts

- [Voiceover] Culture's a way of life

shared by a group of people

and it generally refers to the knowledge,

beliefs and values that bind a society togheter.

So culture is very diverse and it may include things like

artwork, language and literature.

These ways of thinking and feeling and behaving,

they're connected to a shared knowledge of a society

and they allow the members of that society

to gain meaning from the objects and ideas around them.

When we talk about society we're referring to

the way people organize themself.

Society is talking about a bunch of people who live together

usually in a specific geographic area,

and these people interact more with each other

than they do with outsiders.

So society shares a common culture over time.

To have an understanding of one of these concepts

you really should have an understanding of them both.

Culture can be thought of as the rules

that guide the way people live.

And society can be thought of as the structure

that provides organization for people.

To understand this relationship a little better

let's look at a phone.

Phones are pretty much just computers

that we bring around everywhere

and we use them for so many different things now.

There's a phone right here.

Society includes key parts called institutions.

Examples include family, education and politics.

These all meet basic human needs

so we can think of this as the hardware.

We can think of society as the hardware.

Hardware is anything physical that you can touch.

It's any physical device.

This would be the actual phone,

maybe even your protective phone case.

These are the things you can hold in your hand.

Culture is a little bit different

in a lot of respects.

As we said, culture provides guidelines for living.

We can compare culture to the software of our phone.

Software is just a collection of instructions and code

that are installed on your phone

and they cannot physically be touched.

We can think of these apps here as culture.

I'll just draw an arrow to one of these apps.

We can think of all of these apps as culture.

These apps.

Just as a reminder the physical phone

is analogous to a society

and the apps are like culture here.

When we think about apps from

when they were first being made

to what they are capable of now,

we know that they are constantly being improved

and oftentimes we get app updates

where we get some new features or bug fixes.

This is similar to culture in sociology

because culture is learned, and it's transmitted

and it's reshaped from generation to generation.

We can think of culture as constantly being updated.

Most things you do on your phone require you to use apps

so without the apps you would just have your physical phone,

you would have no way to use it for anything,

you would just be staring at a blank screen.

Apps allow the phone to be useful

just as human ideas from culture

allow society to work.

Human ideas are big in culture.

And they are what allow society to work.

The physical phone represents society

because it provides structure.

And software and apps represent culture

because they provide the rules and input

that make the societies run,

the apps are what make the phone run.

The big takeaway is that society

is just organized groups of people,

and culture is their way of life.

These two are not the same thing,

but they cannot exist without each other.

Just as a phone cannot function without apps,

society cannot function without its culture.