5 Culture
Module Learning Objectives (MLO)
In this chapter, you will
- MLO 5.1 Identify foundational concepts and theories related to culture, identity, and dress. [CLO 1]
- MLO 5.2 Identify the factors that influence different cultural aspects of dress. [CLO 1]
- MLO 5.3 Identify the different cultural perspectives an individual can take to approach understanding the dress and identity of others. [CLO 1]
- MLO 5.4 Explain the role of dress in identity development. [CLO 1]
- MLO 5.5 Examine how marginalized communities in the United States use dress and appearance to negotiate their identities. [CLO 2]
- MLO 5.6 Deconstruct your own perspectives and approach to understanding the dress of others. [CLO 4]
What Is Culture?
Culture refers to aspects of human-made elements, including tools, dress, and media, in addition to values, attitudes, and norms. Dress is a significant part of almost every culture.
As more cultures have cross-cultural contact, people from begin to change aspects of their cultures by incorporating aspects of different cultures they come into contact with. This includes changes in dress. This process of cultural change is often referred to as cultural authentication. It should be noted though, that there is a long history of forced assimilation, especially for Native or Indigenous communities in North America (Little, 2018). That is, Native communities were forced to assimilate into European culture; Native people were not interested in incorporating European cultural elements.
Culture vs. Cultured
All people have culture. Culture is not something held only by society elites, such as only the wealthiest, most educated, or most sophisticated.
Culture is a system of learned behavior patterns that are characteristic of the members of a society (Hoebel, 1958). Note the emphasis on the learning of behaviors or ways of doing things. Culture is learned, and individuals learn culture through an ongoing process of socialization. Parents, families, schools, peers, and workplaces, for example, all socialize individuals to ways of doing things. We find differences across cultures in dress, language, food preferences, and other behaviors in part because these are learned behaviors—not knowledge that is innate, instinctual, or determined by genetic programming.
Cultural patterns are characteristic behaviors and often include a complex array of choices. A culture may afford more than one way of doing the same thing. Hence, diversity in behaviors may be found in some aspects of any culture
Culture is a complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits that members of a society acquire (Linton, 1936). Linton emphasized that culture is a complex whole—a network of behaviors related to all aspects of life. Dress is shaped by and reflects many characteristics in any culture, so dress is a complex map of cultural characteristics.
Culture includes both abstract and concrete components (Scupi