For a sociology paper, a student needs a one-sentence definition of culture. Which option captures how Introduction to Sociology (OpenStax) describes culture?
Choose an answer, then check it.
Sociology · Foundations
Culture
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culture The shared beliefs, values, and practices of a group, together with the artifacts its members make and use; it is learned and passed between people rather than inherited. Full entry → is the shared way of life of a group — the beliefs, values, practices, and artifacts its members learn and pass along. It has a material side, the things people make and use, and a nonmaterial side, the ideas behind them. Every culture works through symbols Gestures, signs, or objects that carry meanings recognized by people who share a culture. Full entry →, language A system of symbols that people use to communicate with one another and to pass culture along. Full entry →, values, norms, and artifacts, and some patterns, like family and funerals, appear everywhere. Sociology studies culture without ranking it: ethnocentrism Evaluating and judging another culture by the standards of one's own culture, often with the sense that one's own culture is best. Full entry → judges other cultures by our own standards, while cultural relativism Assessing a culture by its own standards rather than through the lens of one's own culture. Full entry → tries to understand each culture on its own terms.
Why this matters
Culture shapes the everyday: how you greet a neighbor, what counts as polite, what you assume a raised hand means. Studying it matters academically because culture is the context for nearly everything else in sociology — norms, values, socialization, and institutions all live inside it. It matters practically because workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods bring together people from different cultures, and recognizing your own cultural assumptions is part of working well with others. And it matters honestly: culture is mostly invisible to the people inside it, so understanding it begins with noticing the water you swim in.
The college version
Culture: the shared way of life
Culture is the shared way of life of a group. OpenStax's Introduction to Sociology defines culture as the shared beliefs, values, and practices of a group, and the same textbook treats the group's tangible objects — its artifacts — as part of culture as well. The definition is descriptive: when sociologists call something cultural, they mean it is learned and shared by a group, not that it is good, bad, exotic, or better than what another group does. Almost every human behavior, from shopping to marriage, is learned, and most of what people learn is what the surrounding culture teaches. Culture is not carried in the genes; it is passed from person to person, which is why it varies between groups and can change over time.
Material and nonmaterial culture: things and ideas
Sociologists split culture into two linked halves. material culture The tangible side of a group's way of life: the physical objects people make, use, and leave behind. Full entry → is the tangible side: the physical objects a group makes and uses. nonmaterial culture The intangible side of a group's way of life: its ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and practices. Full entry → is the intangible side: the ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of a group. Original example: a neighborhood bakery has a wooden sign over its door and a dented brass bell on the counter — those are material culture. The customers' habit of tapping the bell when a regular walks in, and the belief that this shop is a place where you may linger, are nonmaterial culture. The two halves stay connected because objects carry meanings: the bell is a thing, but what it means — welcome, community — is an idea.
The elements of culture
Sociologists commonly name five elements of culture, each with a job to do. Symbols are gestures or objects with meanings recognized by people who share a culture — a bakery's green awning that locals read as open and friendly. Language is a system of symbols people use to communicate and to pass culture along — the slang of a firehouse crew, where good catch means a sharp observation, not a sports play. Values are a culture's standards for what is good and worthwhile — a hiking club's value of leaving no trace. Norms are the rules of behavior, written or unwritten, that grow out of values — the club's rule that everyone packs out what they carried in. Artifacts are the physical objects a culture creates and uses — the club's trail maps, badges, and battered camp stoves. Values and norms each get a full lesson of their own later in this course; here they appear as two elements among five.
Cultural universals: patterns that appear everywhere
Although cultures differ, some patterns show up in every society. cultural universals Patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies, though each society expresses them in its own way. Full entry → are patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies: some family structure, some way of marking birth, some form of language, some humor. Anthropologist George Murdock first documented this while studying systems of kinship around the world; his research found universals clustering around basic survival — food, clothing, shelter — and around shared human experiences such as birth, death, and illness. His list includes language, personal names, and jokes. The universal is the pattern, not the performance: every society has weddings and funerals, but no two hold them the same way.
Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism: judging versus understanding
Two habits of mind appear whenever cultures meet. Ethnocentrism is evaluating and judging another culture by the standards of your own. Sociologist William Graham Sumner described the term in 1906 as the attitude that one's own culture is better than all others; almost everyone slips into it a little. Original example: a visitor watches a family eat from a shared platter with their hands and thinks that is unsanitary, judging the practice by the rules of his own table. Cultural relativism is the opposite move: assessing a culture by its own standards rather than through the lens of one's own culture. The approach grew out of anthropology; Britannica links its early development to Franz Boas and his students. Original example: the same visitor asks what the shared platter means to the family — how it organizes their meals and their hospitality — and understands it before judging it. Relativism is a method of understanding, not a demand to approve everything: OpenStax notes that even committed relativists struggle with some practices.
Subcultures and countercultures: within and against the mainstream
Within any large culture sit smaller groups. A subculture A smaller cultural group within a larger culture whose members share a specific identity while still taking part in the larger society. Full entry → is a smaller cultural group inside a larger one: its members share the bigger culture while adding a specific identity of their own. Original example: night-shift nurses who trade insider slang and wear the same cartoon-print scrubs on Fridays are a subculture — they still work inside the hospital's world. A counterculture A type of subculture that rejects some of the larger culture's norms and values, sometimes opposing them openly. Full entry → is a type of subculture that rejects some of the larger culture's norms and values, sometimes opposing them openly. Original example: a rural commune organized around refusing consumer life, trading money for barter and urging outsiders to quit their jobs, is a counterculture. The difference is direction: subcultures fit within the mainstream; countercultures push against it.
The honest framing: culture is the water we swim in
Culture is mostly invisible to the people living inside it. The water metaphor is the standard reality check in sociology: a fish does not notice water, and people rarely notice their own assumptions until they encounter a culture where those assumptions no longer hold. That is why travel, exchange programs, and even a new workplace can produce culture shock — the disorientation of finding that your usual rules do not apply. The payoff of studying culture is not exoticism. It is the ability to see the water: to notice your own taken-for-granted beliefs, to describe other cultures accurately, and to hold off judgment long enough to understand.
Eli explains
The same idea, in plain words
Explain it like I’m 10
Culture is the group's shared way of life: what people believe, what they value, how they do things, and the things they make. It has two sides — the objects you can touch and the ideas you cannot. Every culture works through symbols, language, values, norms, and artifacts, and a few patterns, like family and funerals, turn up everywhere. When cultures meet, two reactions are possible: judging the other by your own standards, which is ethnocentrism, or trying to understand it on its own terms, which is cultural relativism. Most of this runs under the surface — you usually notice your own culture only when you are somewhere it is not.
Picture it like this
Think of culture as the operating system of a group. Apps are behaviors — how people greet, eat, and work — and the operating system is the shared framework underneath that makes those behaviors make sense. You never think about your operating system while it runs; you notice it when something will not run, or when you sit down at someone else's computer and nothing works the way you expect.
Where the picture stops working
An operating system is designed by engineers and can be reinstalled or replaced. Culture is not designed by anyone; it grows out of generations of shared life and is learned invisibly. You can switch computers and get a new operating system in an afternoon, but you cannot switch cultures like software — and no one inside a culture wrote its manual, which is exactly why it is so hard to see from the inside.
Worked example
When Lena joined her university's rowing club, the first practice felt like a foreign country. Members wore unmarked gray caps — a symbol of the team — and called the two sides of the boat stroke side and bow side, a language she had to learn. Veterans expected newcomers to rack their oars before leaving (a norm), and the club valued showing up before sunrise more than winning (a value). The oars, the shell, and the caps were artifacts — the material side of the club's culture — while the shared ideas about effort and loyalty were its nonmaterial side. When the club later hosted a visiting team that warmed up with a loud chant, one member laughed at it (ethnocentrism), but Lena asked the visitors what the chant meant to them (cultural relativism). She had learned to see her own club's culture, and to look past her first judgments.
Key takeaway
Culture is the shared way of life of a group — its beliefs, values, practices, and artifacts — learned and passed between people. It is mostly invisible to those inside it, and sociology studies it by understanding each culture on its own terms, not by ranking them.
Quick check
3 questions here, of 5 in this lesson’s practice set. Answers stay hidden until you check.
Rosa's grandmother gives her a handwoven quilt made from scraps of family clothing. Rosa treasures the quilt, and she also knows the family tradition it represents: every new baby gets one, pieced together from old shirts and dresses. Which statement correctly sorts this example into material and nonmaterial culture?
Choose an answer, then check it.
Diego is visiting his cousin's family abroad. At dinner, the family eats with their hands from a shared platter. Diego's first thought is that this is messy and wrong. Before saying anything, he stops himself and asks what the practice means to the family — how it shapes their meals and hospitality. Which pair of labels describes what Diego did?
Choose an answer, then check it.
Study tools & related lessonsYou’ll learn to · Common mistakes · Easily confused · Key vocabulary · Related
You’ll learn to
- Define culture as the shared beliefs, values, practices, and artifacts of a group, and attribute that definition to the source used in this lesson.
- Distinguish material from nonmaterial culture, with an original example of each and of how the two are linked.
- Name the elements of culture — symbols, language, values, norms, artifacts — and give an original example of each.
- Explain cultural universals and attribute the concept to anthropologist George Murdock's research.
- Distinguish ethnocentrism from cultural relativism, attributing each concept and illustrating both with original examples.
- Distinguish subcultures from countercultures, with an original example of each.
Common mistakes
"Culture is the arts — museums, music, and fine food."
In sociology, culture is the whole shared way of life of a group: its beliefs, values, practices, and artifacts. The arts are part of culture, but so are greetings, humor, and how people line up for a bus.
"Calling a practice cultural means I have to approve of it."
Describing something as cultural is a factual statement about what a group shares and learns — not a moral verdict. Cultural relativism is a method of understanding, and even committed relativists do not endorse every practice they study.
"Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are basically the same idea."
They point in opposite directions. Ethnocentrism judges another culture by your own standards; cultural relativism assesses a culture by its own standards. The same person can catch themselves doing the first and choose the second.
"Subcultures and countercultures are the same thing."
A subculture is a smaller group with its own identity inside a larger culture. A counterculture is a subculture that rejects some of the larger culture's norms and values — it pushes against the mainstream rather than simply fitting within it.
"Material culture is the real culture; the ideas are secondary."
Material and nonmaterial culture are linked halves: objects carry the meanings a group gives them. A graduation gown is a thing, but what it means — accomplishment, transition — is an idea. Studying one without the other misses how culture works.
Easily confused
Material culture vs. nonmaterial culture
Material culture is the tangible side of a way of life — the objects people make and use; nonmaterial culture is the intangible side — the ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and practices behind those objects. The two are linked, because objects carry meanings.
Ethnocentrism vs. cultural relativism
Ethnocentrism judges another culture by the standards of your own, often with the sense that your own is best; cultural relativism assesses a culture by its own standards. One closes understanding down; the other opens it up.
Subculture vs. counterculture
A subculture is a smaller group with a specific identity inside a larger culture, still participating in it; a counterculture is a subculture that rejects some of the larger culture's norms and values. Subcultures fit within the mainstream; countercultures push against it.
Key vocabulary
- culture
- The shared beliefs, values, and practices of a group, together with the artifacts its members make and use; it is learned and passed between people rather than inherited.
- material culture
- The tangible side of a group's way of life: the physical objects people make, use, and leave behind.
- nonmaterial culture
- The intangible side of a group's way of life: its ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and practices.
- symbols
- Gestures, signs, or objects that carry meanings recognized by people who share a culture.
- language
- A system of symbols that people use to communicate with one another and to pass culture along.
- cultural universals
- Patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies, though each society expresses them in its own way.
- ethnocentrism
- Evaluating and judging another culture by the standards of one's own culture, often with the sense that one's own culture is best.
- cultural relativism
- Assessing a culture by its own standards rather than through the lens of one's own culture.
- subculture
- A smaller cultural group within a larger culture whose members share a specific identity while still taking part in the larger society.
- counterculture
- A type of subculture that rejects some of the larger culture's norms and values, sometimes opposing them openly.
Sources & references
- 3.1 What Is Culture? — Introduction to Sociology 3e — OpenStax, Rice University
- 3.2 Elements of Culture — Introduction to Sociology 3e — OpenStax, Rice University
- 3.3 Pop Culture, Subculture, and Cultural Change — Introduction to Sociology 3e — OpenStax, Rice University
- 3 Key Terms — Introduction to Sociology 3e (chapter glossary) — OpenStax, Rice University
- Cultural Relativism (anthropology) — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Culture | Definition, Characteristics, Examples, Types, Tradition, & Facts — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Cultural artifact — Wikipedia
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Researched 2026-08-22
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