Culture is a very complex phenomenon, which explains why its concept has been constantly redefined since its appearance. To facilitate its study and understand the paradigms from which culture is interpreted, it is necessary to identify both the criteria for its classification and its different types according to the criterion. Let’s see which are the most important.
Types of culture according to knowledge of writing
Culture can also be classified based on knowledge of writing, since this also determines the modes of survival and adaptation. We speak, therefore, of two great types of culture:
Oral cultures or unwritten cultures
Oral cultures, also called non-literary cultures, are those that do not know or have not developed writing systems. Normally, this type of culture is based on the oral transmission of community myths. Their perception of historical time is usually cyclical.
For example: tribal indigenous cultures.
written cultures
Just as their name says, written cultures are those that are transmitted through writing, whether it is hieroglyphic, pictographic, alphabetic, cuneiform writing, etc.
For example: ancient Egyptian culture, Mesopotamian culture, Mayan culture, Greek culture and Roman culture.
Types of culture according to the mode of production
One of the ways to classify culture comes from its modes of production, which determine the set of practices regarding the environment, influence the tools that develop and affect the modes of social organization.
nomadic cultures
This concept applies to those cultures that are sustained through hunting and gathering, which requires constant mobilization in search of resources.
For example: the Arab Bedouin peoples.
Agricultural or rural cultures
Agricultural cultures are understood as all those cultures that are organized based on the control of crops and the raising of animals for human consumption, which is why they are cultures. sedentary. These types of cultures usually live around the countryside, the center of their economy and social order. Although they can give rise to cities, these are subsidiary to country life.
For example: Egyptian culture, whose splendor in ancient times is due to the development of agriculture at the foot of the Nile River.
Urban or commercial cultures
Urban cultures are all those whose economic and social model is based on commercial activity and, therefore, the importance shifts to cities, converted into centers of commercial operations in which the population is concentrated.
For example: Renaissance culture.
Industrial cultures
They refer to societies that use industrialized means of production. This type of culture has developed since the 19th century and has reached an important point of growth in the 21st century.
For example: Current China.
See also Consumer society.
Types of culture according to the religious paradigm
Each society has a set of magical-religious beliefs that influence the way they perceive existence and act on reality. Different cultures, despite also having different religions, can share characteristic features due to the similarity of their religious thought structures. In relation to this, experts group different cultures into two large types:
theistic cultures
They are those cultures that believe in the existence of one or more superior gods. Theistic cultures are subdivided into:
Monotheistic cultures: They are those who believe in a single god.
For example: Jewish culture, Christian culture and Muslim culture.
Dualistic cultures: They are those that admit the confrontation of two opposing principles, forces or gods, one of which prevails over the other.
For example: Catharism.
Polytheistic cultures: They are those who believe in the existence of different gods while responding to a certain hierarchy.
For example: Hindu culture and ancient Greco-Roman culture.
Non-theistic cultures
It refers to those cultures whose religious thought does not attribute the spiritual order to any specific deity, either as an absolute entity or as a creative will.
For example: Taoism and Buddhism.
Types of culture according to the socioeconomic order
Within the same society there are cultural differences related to the current socioeconomic order, the type of education received, the modes of dissemination and participation in power. In this sense, the separation of social classes promotes different notions of culture (which are not without controversy). There are two main types of culture:
Elitist culture or elite culture
Elite culture or elite culture refers to the set of codes, symbols, values, customs, artistic expressions, references and modes of communication that correspond to the dominant groups in society, whether in economic, political or symbolic terms.
This type of culture is usually identified as official culture. In general terms, it is concentrated in the ruling class and/or in the enlightened groups of society. Due to its official tendency, it is taught from formal educational centers and is validated through different institutions such as fine arts museums, academies, universities, cultural centers, etc.
For example: Fine arts and literature are expressions of elite culture.
Popular culture
Dancing devils from Yare, Venezuela.
Popular culture is understood as the set of codes, symbols, values, customs, artistic expressions, traditions, references and modes of communication that correspond to the popular sectors or the town.
This type of culture usually confronts the elite culture or the official culture of the dominant sectors, whether through humor, parody or criticism. The emergence of the study of folklore or folklore has allowed the dissemination of the contents of popular culture through academic media or institutions aimed at the protection of cultural heritage.
For example: Crafts, folklore and religious processions are expressions of popular culture.
See also Popular culture.
Mass culture or mass culture
Mass culture or mass culture is that which is built from the dissemination of content through the mass media. Due to its scope, the contents disclosed are consumed by both the dominant and popular sectors. This implies that, currently, the borders between popular culture and elite culture are porous and that both manage a common repertoire of cultural consumer goods. Mass culture penetrates all social spheres and modifies the codes and patterns of various cultural groups.
For example: The so-called pop music, advertising and commercial or entertainment cinema are expressions of mass culture.
See also Mass culture.
Types of culture according to the power struggles within a society
Within a hegemonic culture, internal struggles for recognition or power occur. To recognize and study these phenomena, the following classification is used:
hegemonic culture
Hegemonic culture is understood to be one that establishes a certain system of codes, patterns, customs, values and symbols as dominant within a society through persuasion and/or coercion. The hegemonic culture dominates the social group and seeks to perpetuate itself, which is why it is usually imposing and resents dissent. Hegemonic culture is frequently identified with official culture and is disseminated through official institutions and the mass media.
subaltern culture
It is one that has a dependent relationship with the dominant culture, despite differing in some of its aspects. It usually manifests itself in the most vulnerable sectors of society. Within the subaltern culture, individuals fail to form their own conscience. as culture and, consequently, they cannot exercise autonomy. Subaltern culture should not be confused with the concept of subculture, since subaltern culture is fragmentary and disjointed, while subcultures have consciously differentiated codes, patterns and values.
Alternative culture
Alternative culture is a fairly broad term that covers the set of artistic-cultural manifestations that aim to be an alternative to those that become dominant or hegemonic. If before they emerged as a response to the so-called elite culture, today alternative culture aims to open spaces against the values and cultural goods promoted by the mass media, which have become hegemonic, even when they may seem “popular.”
Counterculture
Counterculture is understood as those cultures that emerge in opposition to the hegemonic culture, challenging imposed values and trying to spread new paradigms and value systems. They arise from processes of frustration, injustice, non-conformity and resistance.
For example: feminism; ecological movements.
Subculture
Within a hegemonic culture, a diversity of marginal cultural groups are formed that develop their own system of values, codes and patterns. It can be said that subcultures constitute minority cultures with defined traits. Unlike countercultures, subcultures do not seek to challenge the established order, but instead assert themselves gregariously around a certain area of interests of the dominant culture. Therefore, many of them lead to consumer subcultures that are detected as a market niche.
For example: the gamersthe urban tribes.
Types of culture according to the anthropological sense
We speak of the anthropological sense of culture when we refer to those practices, uses and customs that identify a certain civilization in broad terms.
For example:
Mayan culture; Sumerian culture; Chinese culture.
Types of culture according to the historical sense
Cultures can be classified according to their historical context, which defines or delimits the universe of values in force for a given period.
For example:
culture of classical antiquity; culture of the Middle Ages; baroque culture.
Types of culture according to the sense of gender
Cultures can also be studied by reflecting on gender-based modes of social organization. Two types stand out in particular:
matriarchal culture
Matriarchal culture is one founded on the female figure as a reference and leader of the social order. Unlike the patriarchal order, there is no evidence that matriarchal cultures have exercised or continue to exert oppression over men. At the dawn of humanity, various matriarchal cultures have existed, although today there are only a few alive.
For example: Minangkabau culture in Indonesia.
See also Matriarchy.
patriarchal culture
Patriarchal culture is understood to be one in which only men exercise political, economic, military and family control,…