Material & Non-Material Culture

This week in class we've been looking at culture, in particular material and non-material culture. Material culture is concerned with food, technology, books, movies, and more of a culture. Non-material culture is concerned with language, gestures, and values. These two sub-categories define a culture and how it functions. Outsiders of this culture may experience a culture shock when thrown into it. They may feel troubled when they are made to abide by the cultures material and non-material aspects, we got a taste of this in class when we played the card game. When the winners or losers changed tables they were unknowingly introduced to a new set of rules, and they often got frustrated when they couldn't deal with the new rules. They may have also felt some ethnocentrism and thought that their original rules were better than the new ones. I personally deal with two cultures on a regular basis because I'm Polish-American. I eat both American food and Polish food, and at school I experience American material culture while, when I visit Poland over summers I then experience Polish values which are much more traditional than American values. Material and non-material culture help us better analyze culture to see how individual aspects of culture affect our lives and how we are raised.