Culture is a complete part of human life, which he has received from his ancestors as a social heritage and according to his need, man makes some increase in it with his intelligence and efforts. In fact, culture expresses the inner state of a person. In our Hindu society, a Hindu performs many rites from birth till death, they are also called part of culture. When a man is born, he has to imbibe different types of rituals. There are many types of customs and religions in the society, which it follows. According to Indian philosophy, “culture is the thought and conduct in favor of human’s worldly-transcendental harmony.”
Majumdar, while defining culture, wrote that “culture refers to that state of collective life, which is achieved after passing through various rites.”
Joseph Pieper, while defining culture, wrote, “Culture is the essence of the natural things of the whole world and the gifts and qualities of human beings that are outside the immediate area of their needs.”
According to Tylor, “Culture is that complex collection in which all knowledge, belief, arts, principles of morality, laws, customs and all other abilities and habits that a person acquires as a member of society.”
According to MacIver and Page, “Culture is the expression of our nature in the ways of living and thought found in art, literature, religion, entertainment and pleasure in our daily practice.”
In order to clarify the dynamic and static aspect related to the nature of culture, many scholars have divided all the elements of culture into two major parts, material and non-material. Although this division is mainly related to the name of Ogburn, many other sociologists have also mentioned these material and non-material aspects of culture by other names. The reality is that whatever knowledge, ideas, beliefs and material tools humans have received from their ancestors in the long tradition of thousands of years, they are all part of their culture. Not only this, the experiences and achievements that man adds to this social and cultural heritage also become a part of the culture. For this reason, Hobel has defined culture as the totality of all learned behaviours. Not all our learned behaviors are similar in nature. Some behavior is in the form of beliefs and ideas, while some behavior encourages many physical inventions and thus civilization moves forward. To understand this complex and comprehensive nature of culture, we will consider the material and non-material aspects of culture.
Material Culture:-
Material means tangible or visible. It is clear from this that all the things that man has invented or created by his experiences and efforts are part of material culture. In other words, it can be said that all those things which have a physical form or which we can see clearly are part of material culture. Since the beginning of civilization, man has created many material things. Initially these objects were in the form of stone utensils, arrows and weapons, whereas today their artistry and utility have increased surprisingly. It is clear from this that material culture is related to the growth of civilization. The ancient man was uncivilized only because he lacked material means. As the material things with man increased, the civilization also increased. Today we are at a high level of civilization, not because our thoughts and beliefs are high, but because we have innumerable material resources available today. Today the difference between different societies can be explained only on the basis of difference in material culture. The society which has more material things, we call it as progressive and civilized society.
The second characteristic of material culture is that it always keeps on increasing at a geometrical rate. This means that the increase in the number of physical substances in each subsequent period is greater than that of the previous period. The reason for this is that in the beginning a person creates something only with his own experiences and efforts whereas the later people can only get the benefit of the experiences of their ancestors.
Material culture is optional in every sense. The number of material things is so great that a person cannot use them all at the same time. Generally people choose the things of their interest from many things and use them. Ogburn has laid maximum emphasis on the quality of mobility in physical culture. As people’s interests, abilities and circumstances change, changes are also seen in the form of material culture. This is the reason why even in traditional societies the beliefs and ideas of individuals remain very stable, but the material aspect of their culture never remains stable. Material substances being tangible and measurable are also relatively simple. Material culture can be easily adopted by other groups. For example, our ideas and beliefs may be completely different from the culture of America but still we use their machines, tools or medicines (which are part of ‘material culture’) in exactly the same way. From this point of view the elements of material culture try to bring all the cultures closer to each other.
Bierstedt has clarified its tangible form by dividing all the elements of material culture into 13 major categories.
- Machines,
- Tools,
- Utensils,
- Buildings,
- Roads,
- Bridges,
- Artifacts,
- Art objects,
- Clothing,
- Vehicles,
- Furniture,
- Food Substances, and
- Medicines etc.
By this classification, Bierstedt has made it clear that material culture refers to all those substances which man has created and keeps with him for use.
Non-material Culture:-
Most scholars have defined culture on the basis of its non-material aspect. The reality is that non-material elements are definitely an important part of the entire culture, but culture cannot be defined on the basis of these. Non-material culture refers to that relatively static aspect of culture which does not have any concrete form and which influences human behavior through thoughts and beliefs. For example, all the ideas, beliefs, rules, traditions, ethos, practices and customs that develop in a society through its social and cultural heritage, all of them are non-material elements of culture. It is clear that it is more effective than non-material culture in influencing human society. If a person adapts to the material culture, it does not affect his social existence, but if he does not adapt to his non-material culture, the person has to face harsh social scorn. This is the reason why the nature of non-material culture is stable. Individuals can hardly dare to change its form. This aspect of culture has the quality of compulsion.
Robert Bierstedt has given the most important place to ideas and ideal rules in non-material culture. The nature of non-material culture can be easily understood by its explanation.
Ideals:-
Certain types of ideas or beliefs are developed in non-material culture and the members of that society are expected to follow them. No number of thoughts can be determined. Even after this, for the ease of study, all these ideas can be divided into eight parts:-
- Scientific Truth,
- Religious Belief,
- Mythology,
- Anecdotes (Legends),
- Literature,
- Superstition,
- Aphorisms,
- Proverbs and Folktales etc.
All these ideas are the main elements of non-material culture. Norms are not concerned with the way we think but with the way we behave. Every society insists on following certain rules of behavior which the culture of that society considers appropriate, because its ideal rules are seen somewhat different from each other. For example, if we have to show respect to someone, then different cultures may have different norms for this. We do this work by joining hands or touching feet, the rules of western culture give culture of shaking hands or raising hands. Fijians and Tongans sit in front of someone to show respect while the Maasai tribe of Africa has a custom of showing mutual respect and affection by spitting on each other. It is clear from this that how we will behave is based on our rules which the culture considers as its ideal. Bierstedt divided all major normative rules into 14 parts:-
- Laws,
- Acts,
- Rules,
- Regulation,
- Customs,
- Trends,
- Ethos,
- Taboos,
- Fashion,
- Sacrament,
- Ritual (कर्मकाण्ड),
- Ritual (अनुष्ठान),
- Convention, and
- Virtue.
All these thoughts, beliefs and rules are intangible, so we call the cultural aspect formed from it as non-material culture.
Difference between material and non-material culture:-
Based on the above discussion of material and non-material culture, the difference found between them can be explained as follows:-
Material culture:-
- Material culture includes all those things created by man which is tangible. In this way material culture is measurable. Its growth or decline can be precisely measured.
- Material culture is simple in the sense that one can understand its advantage or disadvantage on the basis of utility.
- Generally there is a tendency of qualitative growth in material culture. This means that the number of material inventions keeps on increasing continuously.
- Material culture is optional. It depends on our will and means that which elements of material culture we should adopt and which should be discarded. We cannot be forced to accept any particular element.
- Material culture is dynamic. Whenever the needs of people change, then new things are taken in place of old things. This pace of change is usually very fast.
- Material culture is external. It does not have much to do with human and social qualities. This is the reason that increase in it encourages materialism, individualism and formalism.
- Material culture is never pure. The reason is that every group always tries to take advantage of the inventions made in other societies.
Non-material culture:-
- Due to the formation of non-material culture from thoughts, beliefs and ideal rules, its form is abstract. This is the reason why it is very difficult to understand any change in non-material culture in a short period of time.
- The nature of non-material culture is comparatively complex. No one can prove that his views and beliefs are better or worse than those of other cultures.
- In non-material culture, either any growth takes place very slowly or this growth stops at some point in time. The reason is that even after trying hard, a person cannot claim that his new ideas or beliefs are better than the old ones.
- Non-material culture is compulsion-oriented in the sense that every individual is expected to behave accordingly. By disobeying the beliefs and rules of his society, a person is also afraid of getting social punishment.
- Non-material culture has the quality of stability. Individuals are not only afraid to make any kind of change in it themselves, rather other members of the society also stop them from doing so. Even if there is change in special conditions, it is very slowly.
- Non-material culture is natural and internal by its nature. It gives utmost importance to human qualities, ultimate goals of society and collectivity.
- Non-material culture is isolationist in the sense that each group tries to protect its cultural characteristics from external mixing.
In the division of material and non-material culture, it is always necessary to keep in mind that this classification is only for convenience. Ogburn states that “While it is appropriate to make a distinction between material and non-material culture for the purpose of analysis, it is also necessary to keep in mind that both are interrelated parts of the wider cultural unit, that is, institutions.” It is clear from this that social institutions do their work only with the coordination of material and non-material culture. From this point of view, it would be wrong to consider material and non-material culture as separate from each other.