Nonmaterial Culture: Police Officer And College Students

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Culture is divided into two categories, material culture and nonmaterial culture. Material culture are physical things that people can touch and feel. Nonmaterial culture are ideas and beliefs people value that might help shape society. In the story, the police officer and college student both display these two examples of material and nonmaterial culture. The college student Sarah decided to take a break from her studies and drive a brand new convertible Mercedes. The Mercedes is a material culture because it is a physical object that exists within society. As the student drives her Mercedes to the coffee shop which is also a material culture, she glances over her phone to read a text and runs a red stop sign. The stop sign is also considered a material culture because it’s a physical object that has a symbolic meaning. The red in traffic signals, signs, or break lights indicate people to stop. This symbolic meaning applies worldwide regardless of the language because multiple countries use the color red as an indication to stop or halt. Sarah is pulled over by a cop who catches her running the stop sign. The officer in uniform represents material culture because the uniform has a symbolic meaning in society. The common color for …show more content…

Society cannot exist without culture and culture couldn’t exist without society. Society is the interaction and culture helps shape the morals and rules for people to follow. Material culture represents any physical object that people can touch or feel that exists within society. In the story, the Mercedes, badge and stop sign are all examples of material culture. The examples of nonmaterial culture include the shirt that displayed “I Survived Spring Break 2012” and the officer’s badge which displayed “Protect and Serve” because neither of these are physical objects, but they are ideas and beliefs that exist within culture and

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