What do sociologists mean by culture? What functions does it perform in society? How, if at all, does it help us to understand the differences between human and animal societies, seen in the context of the long term process of biological evolution?.
To discuss culture is to discuss society. The two are so closely interconnected that it is impossible to perceive one without the other. A society can be considered as a fluid body constructed of a web of relationships, a network of ties binding together a group of people (Giddens, 1997). These societies can range in size from hundreds of millions, such as the United States, to groups numbering mere hundreds. .
Within every one of the world societies culture exists, and indeed, a culture; if it is accepted that the multitudinous individual aspects that make up culture bind together to form a culture. Without culture there would be no society (Giddens, 1997), there would be no common ground on which to stand shoulder to shoulder with our peers, no identity to share and no self-identity. So how does culture shape our relationships? How do we learn to define ourselves? How do we know what is normal? These questions will be examined later. It will be found later in discussion that culture forms the bedrock on which our society is built. Without it there would be no definition of individual groups of people, no differentiation between societies and no identity. Culture sets our bounds, puts down the ground rules and gives us definitions. These guidelines stretch into every perceivable sector of a society's life. It's clothing, it's food, it's sexual practices, it's music; all of these things are dictated to us by our elders, who have been dictated to in turn by their elders, ad infinitum. .
To gain a more objective, clearer view of human society and culture it is useful to have something to contrast ourselves with. As there have no other intelligent, sentient cultures living with us on Earth, our contrast has to come from the animal kingdom.