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68 INTRODUCING SOCIOLOGY Make a list of phrases you have It may have occurred to you that heard containing the word ‘culture’. our understanding of material culture, Ask your friends and family what they especially art, is incomplete without mean by culture. What criteria do they knowledge acquired from the cognitive use to distinguish among cultures? and normative areas. It is true that our developing understanding of social Activity 4 process would draw upon all these areas. But we might find that in a Compare these definitions to see community where few have acquired which of these (or combination of these) you find most satisfactory. the cognitive skill of literacy, it in fact You could do this by listing familiar becomes the norm for private letters to be read out by a third party. But as we uses of the word ‘culture’ (the see below, to focus on each of these culture of eighteenth century Lucknow, the culture of hospitality areas separately provides many important insights. or the much used term ‘Western culture’...). Which of the definitions Cognitive Aspects of Culture best captures the impressions The cognitive aspects of one’s own conveyed by each? culture are harder to recognise than its Dimensions of Culture material aspects (which are tangible or visible or audible) and its normative Three dimensions of culture have been aspects (which are explicitly stated). distinguished : Cognition refers to understanding, how (i) Cognitive: This refers to how we we make sense of all the information learn to process what we hear or coming to us from our environment. In literate societies ideas are transcribed see, so as to give it meaning in books and documents and (identifyingtheringofacell-phone as ours, recognising the cartoon of preserved in libraries, instititutions or a politician). archives.  But in non-literate societies (ii) Normative: This refers to rules of legend or lore is committed to memory and transmitted orally. There are conduct (not opening other people’s letters, performing rituals specialist practitioners of oral tradition at death). who are trained to remember and (iii) Material:Thisincludesanyactivity narrateduringritualorfestiveoccasions. Let us think about how writing made possible by means of materials. Materials also include may affect the production and tools or machines. Examples consumption of art. In his influential include internet ‘chatting’, using book, Orality and Literacy Walter Ong cites a study of 1971 that states that rice-flourpastetodesignkolamon floors. only 78 of the approximately 3,000 Reprint 2026-27