Symbolic Culture
Symbolic culture comprises of the behavioral traditions that are learned and passed from one generation to another. Specifically, people use symbols with particular meaning to communicate with others. Some of the symbolic components are values, gestures, folkways, sanctions, norms, and languages. Gestures refer to the body movements such as waving a hand where individuals pass a particular message to others (Henslin, 2013). Language enables humans to share ideas and experiences. In particular, it allows people to link their mind with others. Values are the desirable things in people's lives such as friends and religious beliefs. Sanction is the response that individuals get from breaking the norms. Besides, norms are the accepted code of conduct in a particular culture that constitutes morals. Folkways are a set of attitudes, values, or expectations of how a specific group of people should live. Consequently, symbolic culture is unique for different demographics.
The Significance of Language
The most significant component of symbolic culture is language. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a linguistic concept that posits that a semantic structure of language shapes the way individuals perceive the world. In other words, some people's thoughts in one language cannot be understood by individuals from another culture (Cameron et al., 2018). The hypothesis asserts that humans are significantly affected by native languages. Based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, language is critical to creating a social life. The way people perceive their surroundings affects their thinking, knowledge acquisition, and the application of skills. Notably, language enables people to communicate and agree on some things. That is the reason individuals from the same culture can interact well without conflicts while those from different ethnicities understand things distinctively. For example, the Inuit comprehend many things about snow since their language comprises of subtle and sophisticated words of describing it.
References
Cameron, D., Frazer, E., Harvey, P., Rampton, M. B., " Richardson, K. (2018). Researching language: Issues of power and method (1st ed.). London: Routledge.
Henslin, J. M. (2013). Essentials of Sociology: A down-to-earth approach (10th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
