Dimensions of culture

Culture has three dimensions:

1. Cognitive: how we learn to process what we hear or see and give it meaning: recognising a friend's ringtone, understanding a political cartoon, knowing what a red traffic light means.

• Knowledge is passed on orally or through writing. In Orality and Literacy, Walter Ong notes that of the roughly 3,000 languages spoken in the world, only 78 had a literature. In oral cultures, knowledge lives in memory, stories and songs; in literate cultures, much of it is stored in books and records. We do not yet know enough about how the electronic media, with instant access and endless surfing, affect our attention span and thinking.

2. Normative: the rules of conduct: folkways, mores, customs, conventions and laws, which guide behaviour in different settings.

• Folkways are everyday habits and conventions (how we greet people, what we wear to school). Mores carry stronger moral weight about right and wrong. Customs are long-established practices passed down (how festivals are celebrated).
• Norms are implicit rules; laws are explicit rules, defined by government and applying to the whole society, with formal punishment for breaking them. Norms can differ by family, community and status; laws apply to everyone.
• All norms come with sanctions that encourage conformity. We mostly follow norms because we are used to them, through socialisation.
• Dominant sections of society apply dominant norms, and these are often discriminating: for example, norms that did not allow Dalits to drink water from the same vessel or even the same source, or that kept women from moving freely in the public sphere.

3. Material: tools, technology, machines, buildings, means of transport, and instruments of production and communication. In cities, mobile phones, music systems, cars and ATMs are part of material culture.

• When material culture changes fast and values and norms lag behind, we get culture lag: the non-material side cannot keep pace with technology. Example (new): a messaging app makes it easy to forward any photo in seconds, but norms about asking permission before sharing someone's picture are still catching up.

Culture and identity. Identities are not inherited; they are fashioned by individuals and groups through their relationships with others. Social roles (student, daughter, team member, voter) give us identity, and language is central to it.

• Sub-cultures are groups within a larger culture marked by their own style, taste and association: their speech, dress codes, music or the way members interact. College youth, a fan club or a professional group can each have a sub-culture, which gives members a shared identity.