Culture

Material culture can be defined in many different ways. Culture, being the root of anthropological study, is one of the most widely defined words of the English language therefore we should first examine its many meanings and interpretations.
Culture is a shared set of learned behaviors, values and meanings. It assumes that there is a pattern to social behavior and it is widely accepted or distributed by the entire society. In other words there is a certain appropriateness that people share in how they act in public versus how they act at home. Culture is structured with dominant patterns that constantly change because there are a number of influences that come outside the mainstream culture (sub-culture) that challenge the patterns set forth by the dominant culture. Having said, there is no one dominant group that determines what a culture is, however, in a structured society, we find that certain groups have more influence over others. This hierarchy of social structure is clearly visible when Britney Spears started to wear trucker hats and soon there were lines galore at Hat World© for the latest style of Von Dutch’s mesh-backed hats. In other words, there exists a struggle among the ‘lower classed’ or non-dominant social force to grasp what it is the dominant class is up to, but yet there is a limit to everything. At some point there exists a level of tolerance among the non-dominant culture group, believing that this is the way it is supposed to be and I’m ok with my average car and average home.
As a result of the said definition of culture, material culture examines a culture through all of its material aspects i.e. what kind of cars they drive, while still focusing on the attitudes and beliefs (culture) towards these objects and their impact on or what they mean to society. Material culture focuses on every member of society, from Bill Gates to John and Jane Doe, and it is not exclusive to any dominant or non-dominant portion of society. By examining and focusing on material culture, it provides an outlook or identity to the person and their impact on society.