CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

Ezewu (1983) identified six characteristics of culture as follows:

a. Culture is organic and supra-organic.

It is organic because it is made up of human beings and supra-organic because it transcends the life-span of any given individual of that society.

b. Culture is Overt and Covert

When the ideals, worldview and attitude towards nature of the culture is considered, it is covert. It is overt when its artefacts, speech forms, etc are considered.

c. Culture is explicit and implicit

When we consider things we do and believe in but can in no way be explained. Then that aspect of culture is implicit. However, there are some roles played and actions taken which participants can easily explain. Such actions make culture explicit.

d. Culture is Ideal and Manifest

Ideal culture involves the way people ought to behave or what they believe they ought to do. The actions people take or things they do that people can recognise or see them do make culture to be manifest.

e. Culture is Stable and yet changing

In order to maintain the norms and values of the society, they are passed on from generation to generation. Often, some aspects of the culture are considered no longer relevant, or have to be changed when in contact with other cultures. In this situation, if the culture is stronger than the incoming culture, it absorbs it and make it part of its own but if the incoming culture is stronger, it will relegate the original culture to the background and take its place. However, if the two cultures are at par, they may fuse into one another.

f. Culture is shared and learned 

Individuals born into a culture through interaction imbibes that culture. The rate at which individuals imbibe culture is different even though it is a common right. This can be explained that they learnt at different rates. Culture can therefore be learnt.