Sociology

Assignment
Usama Bin Tahir
B.B.A 4
Culture

Ever wonder what culture was?

Culture is the specific traits, behaviors, attitudes, and traditions passed on through the
generations of families. This also includes beliefs and any other things that have come
from your family specifically.

What are the visible attributes of culture? What are the elements that you can point to
and say 'that is there to show and sustain this culture' ?
Artifacts
Artifacts are the physical things that are found that have particular symbolism for a
culture. They may even be endowed with mystical properties. The first products of a
company. Prizes won in grueling challenges and so on are all artifacts.
Artifacts can also be more everyday objects, such as the bunch of flowers in
reception. They main thing is that they have special meaning, at the very least for the
people in the culture. There may well be stories told about them.
The purpose of artifacts are as reminders and triggers. When people in the culture see
them, they think about their meaning and hence are reminded of their identity as a
member of the culture, and, by association, of the rules of the culture.
Artifacts may also be used in specific rituals. Churches do this, of course. But so also
do organizations.
Stories, histories, myths, legends, jokes
Culture is often embedded and transmitted through stories, whether they are deep
and obviously intended as learning devices, or whether they appear more subtly, for
example in humor and jokes.
A typical story includes a bad guy (often shady and unnamed) and a good guy (often
the founder or a prototypical cultural member). There may also be an innocent. The
story evolves in a classic format, with the bad guy being spotted and vanquished by
the good guy, with the innocent being rescued and learning the greatness of the
culture into the bargain.
Sometimes there stories are true. Sometimes nobody knows. Sometimes they are
elaborations on a relatively simple truth. The power of the stories are in when and how
they are told, and the effect they have on their recipients. 
Rituals, rites, ceremonies, celebrations
Rituals are processes or sets of actions which are repeated in specific circumstances
and with specific meaning.
They may be used in such as rites of passage, such as when someone is promoted or
retires. They may be associated with company events such as the release of a new
event. They may also be associated with everyday events such as Christmas.
Whatever the circumstance, the predictability of the rituals and the seriousness of the
meaning all combine to sustain the culture.
Heroes
Heroes in a culture are named people who act as prototypes, or idealized examples,
by which cultural members learn of the correct or 'perfect' behavior.
The classic heroes are the founders of the organization, who are often portrayed as
much whiter and perfect than they actually are or were. Heroes may also be such as
the janitor who tackled a burglar or a customer-service agent who went out of their
way to delight a customer. In such stories they symbolize and teach people the ideal
behaviors and norms of the culture.
Symbols and symbolic action
Symbols, like artifacts, are things which act as triggers to remind people in the culture
of its rules, beliefs, etc. They act as a shorthand way to keep people aligned.
Symbols can also be used to indicate status within a culture. This includes clothing,
office decor and so on. Status symbols signal to others to help them use the correct
behavior with others in the hierarchy. They also lock in the users of the symbols into
prescribed behaviors that are appropriate for their status and position.
There may be many symbols around an organization, from pictures of products on the
walls to the words and handshakes used in greeting cultural members from around the
world.
Beliefs, assumptions and mental models
An organization and culture will often share beliefs and ways of understanding the
world. This helps smooth communications and agreement, but can also become fatal
blinkers that blind everyone to impending dangers.
Attitudes
Attitudes are the external displays of underlying beliefs that people use to signal to
other people of their membership. This includes internal members (look: I'm
conforming to the rules. Please don't exclude me).
Attitudes also can be used to give warning, such as when a street gang member eyes
up a member of the public. By using a long hard stare, they are using national cultural
symbolism to indicate their threat.
Rules, norms, ethical codes, values
The norms and values of a culture are effectively the rules by which its members must
abide, or risk rejection from the culture (which is one of the most feared sanctions
known). They are embedded in the artifacts, symbols, stories, attitudes, and so on.

What is universal Culture?

The interplay of the various cultures of the world, their interaction and how they overlap,
making it impossible sometimes to draw the dividing line between them, has always
been a fascinating subject.

The effects of Technology Positive and negative on society.

The positive effect is that it accelerates what one person can do.(like a car =]) The
negative effect is that thats not always a good thing and can sometimes hurt society.
With tech you can make one person do the work of 100's or 1000's but that could also
put 100's or 1000's out of a job. With tech, you can protect yourself by encrypting all
your transmissions, however it makes it that much easier for someone to protect truly
harmful transmissions like child p orn or criminal activity. Overall, and in a modern
sense, tech decentralizes the power and control over the media and distributes it to
regular people creating a more democratic society. In the same way, it destabilizes
society by challenging the authority of institutions within that society who need to
centralize power to maintain that control that does provide stability. However, the
emergence of tech will show that old institutions are no longer needed. Think,
CNN/major music labels being laid waste in the wake of blogging and file sharing.
Socialization

Socialization is a life-long process through which children learn skills and attitudes to
function as a member of society.
-> that is a definition of it,

[Don't think so. ' ... life-long process through which children learn ....' is a very poor
defintion!]

and
Primary socialization: learning through eating, hygiene, dressing, usually stuff that
happens at home.
Secondary socialization: learning acting as a group member, learning skills and lessons
to be accepted as a social member, such as working at church, participating in extra
curricular activities.
Anticipatory socialization: in short, it is "think before act." Basically you think what you
are going to behave next, and then carry it out.

Gender Roles

In Islam, the sexes are considered equal before God. Allah says in verse 13 of chapter
49 in the Holy Quran: "O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and
made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most
honourable of you with Allâh is that (believer) who has At-Taqwa. Verily, Allâh is All-
Knowing, All-Aware."[citation needed] At the same time, Islamic law and practice recognize
differences between sexes, resulting in different rights and obligations.

Mistakenly, some Muslim men expect women to be home-makers, caregivers, and

mothers to their children, although early Islamic scholars decreed that there was no
requirement for them to do any of the characteristics provided above. It is generally
considered a good thing if they are educated. Traditional interpretations of Islam,
however, support the traditional division of labour whereby women assume the main
responsibility for the home while men are responsible for supporting their wives.
Motherhood is seen as one of the most important roles in society. In most
interpretations of Islam, Muslim women may seek a higher education, work outside the
home or volunteer their services to benefit the community as long as their primary
responsibilities are taken care of, they have the permission of their husbands and they
do not compromise their faith in doing so.

Qur'an instructs believers that they should not treat women as a commodity which can
be inherited and used as liked. The context is that in the pre-Islamic era, the wives of a
person could be transferred to his heirs like his wealth and animals.

In many Islamic societies, there is a division of roles creating a woman’s space in the
private sphere of the home and a man’s in the public sphere.[1] In Islam, a woman's
primary responsibility is usually interpreted as fulfilling her role as a wife and mother, [2]
where as a man’s role is to work and be able to financially support his wife and family. [3]

Under the Qur'an, "Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some
of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women
are therefore obedient..."[4] According to Sayyid Qutb as outlined by John Esposito,
however, this passage does not imply the "squashing (of) the woman's personalty or her
civic rights;rather it is an obligation to direct and protect the family." According to Qutb's
analysis, the Quran "gives the man the right of 'guardianship' or 'superiority' over the
family structure in order to prevent dissension and friction between the spouses. The
equity of this system lies in the fact that God both favoured the man with the necessary
qualities and skills for the 'guardianship' and also charged him with the duty to provide
for the structure's upkeep."[5]

What are the Agents of Socialization?

According to agents of socialization definition, it is the people like parents, peers, social
institutions like schools and religious institutions that help in integration of an individual
with society. The four major agents of socialization in society are family, school,
community culture and peers (friends). The other agents of socialization include mass
media, gender and work. The agents of socialization are divided into socialization
groups. These socialization groupings are as follows:

Primary Agents of Socialization

The primary agents of socialization include those people that are closest to an
individual. These primary agents of socialization include family and friends. The most
important primary agent of socialization, family, plays an important role in shaping the
life and behavior of an individual within the society.
Secondary Agents of Socialization
The secondary agents of socialization are those institutions or places that help an
individual find his place within the society. These include religious institutions, schools,
work places, etc. The secondary agent of socialization, school, helps an child in
imroving social skills that helps the individual in integrating well with the society around
him.

Social Classes
Social classes are those agents of socialization, that divide an individual within the
society. These classes include the lower class, working middle class and the higher elite
class.