Material culture is part of everyday life, whether you notice it or not. Your phone, clothes, furniture, car, kitchen utensils, and the buildings around you are all examples of material culture. Put simply, material culture includes the physical objects people create, use, own, and give meaning to. These objects can be practical, decorative, religious, technological,…

Customs in culture are shared ways of behaving that become normal within a group or community. They influence everyday things like greetings, meals, clothing, celebrations, weddings, funerals, and how guests are treated. You usually learn customs simply by growing up around them. Families and communities repeat certain practices until they become familiar expectations. Along with…

Culture shapes the way people communicate, behave, celebrate, solve problems, and understand the world around them. You see it in everything from language and family traditions to clothing, laws, food, and everyday manners. So, what are the elements of culture? They generally include values, beliefs, norms, symbols, language, cultural practices, and material artifacts. Sociologists may…

The right words to describe company culture tell you more than whether a workplace is simply “good” or “bad.” They can show how people communicate, how much freedom employees have, how leaders behave, and what the company values. Some workplaces are collaborative and flexible. Others are structured, competitive, or fast-paced. And when problems are common,…

Calligraphy is the art of forming letters and words beautifully and deliberately. In Islamic culture, it developed into one of the most important visual arts, appearing in Qur’an manuscripts, mosques, palaces, ceramics, textiles, metalwork, and many other objects. Its special place in Islamic art is closely connected to the Qur’an, which was revealed in Arabic….

Soaking is a term you may have heard through TikTok, television, memes, or stories about Brigham Young University. It describes a reported sexual practice in which penile-vaginal penetration occurs without continued thrusting or deliberate movement. Online, soaking is often portrayed as a supposed way for unmarried Latter-day Saints to avoid technically having premarital sex. It…

A subculture is a smaller cultural group that exists within a dominant culture but has some beliefs, behaviors, interests, styles, or traditions of its own. Members usually share much of the surrounding culture while also identifying with a more specific community. That means subcultures and dominant cultures are connected rather than completely separate. They overlap,…

Every culture has things you can touch and things you cannot. Buildings, clothing, phones, artwork, and tools are physical parts of culture. Beliefs, values, customs, language, and social rules exist through shared understanding rather than as physical objects. This is the basic difference between the two: material culture and nonmaterial culture represent two connected sides…