Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior that defines the group or society to which we belong. People learn these elements of culture through the lifelong process of socialization. This chapter presented the basic elements that are common to all cultures, as well as variations that distinguish one culture from another. It examined the role of socialization in human development, including the way in which people develop their concept of the self. It closed with a description of major agents of socialization.

1. Cultural universals are general practices that are found in every culture, including courtship, family, games, language, medicine, religion, and sexual restrictions.

2. Language, an important element of culture, includes speech, writing, and symbols, as well as gestures and other forms of nonverbal communication. Language both describes and shapes culture.

3. Norms are the standards of behavior members of a society are expected to uphold. Norms may be formal--written down--or informal--generally understood. Sanctions are the rewards and punishments meted out to those who comply with or violate social norms.

4. Every culture has a dominant ideology--a set of beliefs and practices that reinforce powerful social, economic, and political interests. Large cultures may include subcultures--groups of people who share norms and values that differ from those of the larger society, and may contradict the dominant ideology.

5. Most people use their own culture as the standard for evaluating other cultures, a perspective that is called ethnocentrism. Some sociologists attempt to see other cultures as members of those cultures see them, a perspective called cultural relativism.

6. The process of socialization to a society's cultural values is influenced both by the environment and by heredity. The study of the biological bases of social behavior is called sociobiology.