Types of culture: What is it, Characteristics and Meanings

Types of culture

Culture is a very complex phenomenon, which explains why its concept has been constantly redefined since its appearance. To facilitate its study and understand the paradigms from which culture is interpreted, it is necessary to identify both the criteria for its classification and its different types according to the criteria. Let's see which are the most important.

Types of culture according to knowledge of writing

Culture can also be classified according to the knowledge of writing, since this also determines the modes of survival and adaptation. We speak, then, of two great types of culture:

Oral cultures or nongraphic cultures

Oral cultures, also called literary cultures, are those that do not know or have not developed writing systems. Normally, this type of culture is based on the oral transmission of the myths of the community. Their perception of historical time is usually cyclical.

For example: tribal indigenous cultures.

Written cultures

As its name implies, written cultures are those that are transmitted through writing, whether it is hieroglyphic, pictographic, alphabetic, cuneiform, etc.

For example: ancient Egyptian culture, Mesopotamian culture, Mayan culture, Greek culture, and Roman culture.

Types of culture according to the mode of production

One of the ways of classifying culture is derived from its modes of production, which determine the set of practices on the environment, influence the tools that develop and affect the modes of social organization.

Nomadic cultures

This concept applies to those cultures that are sustained through hunting and gathering, which requires constant mobilization in search of resources.

For example: the Arab Bedouin peoples.

Agricultural or rural cultures

Agricultural cultures are understood to be all those cultures that are organized based on the control of crops and the raising of animals for human consumption, which is why they are sedentary cultures . These types of cultures tend to live around the countryside, the center of their economy and social order. Although they can give rise to cities, these are subsidiaries of country life.

For example: Egyptian culture, whose splendor in ancient times is due to the development of agriculture at the foot of the Nile River.

Urban or commercial cultures

All those whose economic and social model is based on commercial activity are part of urban cultures and, therefore, the importance shifts to cities, which have become centers of commercial operations in which the population is concentrated.

For example: Renaissance culture.

Industrial cultures

They refer to societies that make use of industrialized means of production. This type of culture has developed since the 19th century and has reached an important point of growth in the 21st century.

For example: current China.

Types of culture according to the religious paradigm

Each society has a set of magical-religious beliefs that influence the way they perceive existence and act on reality. Different cultures, despite also having different religions, can share characteristic traits due to the similarity of their religious thought structures. In relation to this, experts group the different cultures into two main types:

Theistic cultures

They are those cultures that believe in the existence of one or more superior gods. Theistic cultures are subdivided into:

• Monotheistic cultures: are those that believe in a single god.
  • For example: Jewish culture, Christian culture and Muslim culture.
• Dualistic cultures: are those that admit the confrontation of two opposing principles, forces or gods, one of which prevails over the other.
  • For example: Catharism.
• Polytheistic cultures: are those that believe in the existence of different gods at the same time that they respond to a certain hierarchy.
  • For example: Hindu culture and ancient Greco-Roman culture.

Non-theistic cultures

It refers to those cultures whose religious thought does not attribute the spiritual order to any specific deity, either as an absolute entity or as a creative will.

For example: Taoism and Buddhism.

Types of culture according to socioeconomic order

Within the same society there are cultural differences related to the current socioeconomic order, the type of education received, the modes of diffusion and participation in power. In this sense, the separation of social classes fosters different notions of culture (which are not without controversy). There are two main types of culture:

Elitist culture or elite culture

The elite culture or elite culture refers to the set of codes, symbols, values, customs, artistic expressions, references and modes of communication that correspond to the dominant groups in society, whether in economic, political or symbolic terms.

This type of culture is often identified as official culture . In general terms, it focuses on the ruling class and / or enlightened groups in society. Due to its officializing tendency, it is taught from formal teaching centers and is validated through different institutions such as museums of fine arts, academies, universities, cultural centers, etc.

For example: fine arts and literature are expressions of elite culture.

Popular culture

Dancing devils from Yare, Venezuela.

Popular culture is understood to be the set of codes, symbols, values, customs, artistic expressions, traditions, references and modes of communication that correspond to the popular sectors or the people .

This type of culture usually clashes with the elite culture or the official culture of the dominant sectors, be it through humor, parody or criticism. The appearance of the study of folklore or folklore has allowed the dissemination of the contents of popular culture through academic means or institutions oriented to the protection of cultural heritage.

For example: crafts, folklore and religious processions are expressions of popular culture.

Mass culture or mass culture

Mass culture or mass culture is one that is built from the dissemination of content through the mass media. Due to its scope, the contents published are consumed by both the dominant and popular sectors. This implies that, at present, the borders between popular culture and elite culture are porous and that both manage a common repertoire of cultural consumer goods. Mass culture penetrates all social spheres and modifies the codes and patterns of the various cultural groups.

For example: so-called pop music, advertising and commercial or entertainment cinema are expressions of mass culture.

Types of culture according to power struggles within a society

Within a hegemonic culture there are internal struggles for recognition or power. To recognize and study these phenomena, the following classification is used:

Hegemonic culture

Hegemonic culture is understood to be one that establishes a certain system of codes, patterns, customs, values ​​and symbols as dominant within a society through persuasion and / or coercion. The hegemonic culture dominates the social group and seeks to perpetuate itself, which is why it tends to be imposing and resent dissent. The hegemonic culture is frequently identified with the official culture and is disseminated through official institutions and the mass media.

Subaltern culture

It is one that has a dependent relationship with the dominant culture, despite differing in some of its aspects. It usually manifests itself in the most vulnerable sectors of society. Within the subaltern culture, individuals fail to form their own conscience as culture and, consequently, they cannot exercise autonomy. Subaltern culture should not be confused with the concept of subculture, since subaltern culture is fragmentary and disjointed, while subcultures have consciously differentiated codes, patterns and values.

Alternative culture

Alternative culture is a fairly broad term that encompasses the set of artistic-cultural manifestations that claim to be an alternative with respect to those that become dominant or hegemonic. If before they arose as a response to the so-called elite culture, today the alternative culture tries to open spaces against the values ​​and cultural goods promoted by the mass media, which have become hegemonic, even when they may seem "popular".

Counterculture

Counterculture is understood to be those cultures that arise in opposition to the hegemonic culture, challenging imposed values ​​and trying to spread new paradigms and value systems. They arise from the processes of frustration, injustice, nonconformity and resistance.

For example: feminism; ecological movements.

Subculture

Within a hegemonic culture, diversity of marginal cultural groups are formed that develop a system of values, codes and their own patterns. It can be said that subcultures constitute minority cultures with defined traits. Unlike countercultures, subcultures do not seek to challenge the established order, but rather assert themselves gregariously around a certain domain of interests of the dominant culture. For this reason, many of them derive in consumer subcultures that are detected as a market niche.

For example: the gamers , the urban tribes.

Types of culture according to the anthropological sense

We speak of the anthropological meaning of culture when we refer to those practices, uses and customs that identify a particular civilization in broad terms.

For example:

• Mayan culture;
• Sumerian culture;
• Chinese culture.

Types of culture according to the historical sense

Cultures can be classified according to their historical context, which defines or delimits the universe of values ​​in force for a given period.

For example:

• culture of classical antiquity;
• culture of the Middle Ages;
• baroque culture.

Types of culture according to the sense of gender

Cultures can also be studied by reflecting on gender-based modes of social organization. two types stand out in particular:

Matriarchal culture

Matriarchal culture is one founded on the female figure as a reference and leader of the social order. Unlike the patriarchal order, there is no evidence that matriarchal cultures have exerted or exert oppression on men. At the dawn of humanity there have been various matriarchal cultures, although today there are a few alive.

For example: the Minangkabau culture in Indonesia.

Patriarchal culture

Patriarchal culture is understood to be one in which only man exercises political, economic, military and family control, that is, the entire domain of public and private life rests on the authority of man. The woman is conceived as a passive subject who does not enjoy power neither in the public nor in the private sphere.

For example: Traditional Muslim culture.

Types of culture according to the geographical and / or geopolitical sense

This way of classifying culture is usually quite complex, since it responds to the universe of political interests in force within a society.

Globally

In a broad or global sense, two great poles of cultural power are usually distinguished in the geopolitical universe, from which important international relations and tensions derive. Namely:

• Western culture: It refers to the European culture consolidated throughout the Western Hemisphere, whose main values ​​are based on the political, legal and philosophical thought of Greco-Roman antiquity as well as the Judeo-Christian religion.
• Eastern culture: Refers to the culture that, in its broad sense, has developed and spread in the eastern hemisphere. It encompasses a great diversity of cultures within, which obey political, religious and philosophical values ​​different from those of the West.

Locally

In a restricted sense, focused on the local, the following types of culture can be distinguished:

• National culture: refers to those cultural identities that arise within the framework of national states. They are associated, therefore, to the name of the person.
  • For example: Venezuelan culture, Mexican culture, French culture, Moroccan culture, etc.
• Regional culture: refers to the cultures that develop in specific areas within a certain nation, but that have specificities with respect to the dominant culture.
• • Update date: March 9, 2021.

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