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Sociology of Kinship

Notes It may be called the rectification process. It is important to note here that ‘Sanskrit’ was the ur-
ban language in ancient India while ‘Prakrit’ was the rural language. Man is born as an unsocial
being. By fulfilling various ritualism he adopts sociability.
Scholars have used the word ‘Culture’ in a different manner. The first scholar who defined this
word and used it widely was Taylor. He defined culture in the sense of all beliefs, ideas, cus-
toms, laws, values, art forms and forms of efficiency; which an individual adopts as a member
of the society. In his definition, Taylor has stressed that ‘culture’ is a social heritage, a gift given
to man by the society. Some other scholars including Malinsky have presented the same defini-
tion by re-arranging and changing a few words. They said that social heritage has a materialistic
aspect while the other is non-materialistic. It has no form and is extremely microscopic. In other
words, the life-aspect itself is ‘Culture’. It is created by mental, social and materialistic equip-
ments. When viewed from one angle, it is ‘Social Culture’ and when viewed from the other, it is
‘Materialistic Culture’. To elaborate this idea, Bidney has defined ‘Culture’ in the sense of origi-
nation—the origination of agriculture, the origination of industries, the organisation of society
and the origination of language, religion, etc.
The above-mentioned definition of culture is based on the belief that culture is a solid fact, a re-
alistically prevalent thing. Such a definition may be called a sensitive or senset viewpoint. Apart
from this, there are other viewpoints too.
Merrott has defined culture as a form of sending intelligence. Redfield takes this viewpoint fur-
ther and defines culture as an aspect of the origination of oral forms (facts of art), social structure
and mutual meanings inherent in symbols. This principle definition is produced by the most
important role of symbols in sending and receiving knowledge.
Another definition has been presented by Ruth Banedict. It has been called the Formalistic and
Beauty-listic view point. According to it, culture is not much understood as a content of social
life, but chiefly understood as a formalisation and organisation of it. Benedict has written about
the forms of culture and not on its content.
Malinosky and Recliff brown’s viewpoint on culture has been instrumental and humane. Ma-
linosky considers culture as that aspect of life, by which an individual satisfies his physical and
psychological urges and fulfils the other needs and series, and finally achieves independence.
Redcliff-Brown considered culture as a resource, a process of transfer of customs and rituals
and adoptability, which ensures the continuity of sociology. The functionalist scholars use one
aspect of culture. They considered the entire culture as a unit of studies, and not as a single cul-
tural traits as Toyler had perceived. Unlike Benedict, they did not study the more form.
A newest viewpoint has been presented by Linton, Clakhon and most recently, by Crowbar. It
is based on the belief that the nature of human knowledge is subjective.
Linton says that the life of people is one thing and the form in which we study and write about
them is different. The first thing is reality and the second is sense of reality. If the first is called
‘culture’, then the second can be called ‘culture-created’. It is the formless fact. Fact is the real
human behaviour.
Clakhon has termed culture as idea, feeling and the process of action. Gilin further clarifies this
viewpoint and says that future is not action, but its form which is created not by the people but
by the scholar who studies people. Thus, culture should be separated from real life.
The above-mentioned analysis clarifies that though culture has been the most important refer-
ence used by cultural scholars, there is no unanimity on what culture is. Every viewpoint has
given direction to some useful research. What is culture? It will be the responsibility of the future
researchers to provide its final definition. It may be indicated that not a single viewpoint men-
tioned above is better than the other.

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