The Relationship between Culture and the Functionalist Sociological Perspective

Introduction
The traditional definition of culture is the way of life. Kendall (2013) looks at the concept of culture from the perspective of the changing world. Culture is a set of ideas that determine and affect man’s way of living, and some of the ideas that the definition of culture includes the morals, idea systems (knowledge), custom, and law, among other issues that humans acquire when they form part of a society (Kendall, 2013). The student discusses the relationship between the topic of culture and the functionalist sociological perspective. The perspective portends that the society is composed of different parts, and each part has a function that it plays to contribute towards balance of the society. The functionalist sociological perspective also argues that when one of parts faces a problem, it affects the functions of the other parts. There is an underlying relationship between the topic of culture and the functionalist perspective. Kendall (2013) discusses culture on the basis that the world undergoes change. The change implies that man’s way of living is not static. The aspect of cultural change also means that the parts (in the functionalist perspective) are not static. They undergo change that is negative or positive, and it is the change that affects culture.
Culture in a Changing World
i) The material culture
The modern world undergoes frequent changes that affect culture. While discussing the concept of culture in a changing world, Kendall (2013) develops a strong relationship between culture and society. Kendall (2013) explains that culture varies from one society to another. Kendall includes two types of culture in his argument for the relationship between culture and society. The first type of culture is the material culture. Material culture refers to how the way of life (culture) manifests itself in the objects and materials that humans produce (Kendall, 2013). People perceive and understand the world on the basis of the materials and objects in their environment. The implication is that the objects or materials have a social function (from the functionalist sociological perspective) of determining how the members of the society understand the world. Yates (2014) explains that material culture attends to the situation of the “things” that occur in the society and how the members of the society attach meanings to them.
The functionalist perspective of sociology argues that the different institutions in the society have their distinct functions and reliance on each other (Kendall, 2013). The government as an institution, for example, has the role of formulating the laws that guide human behavior. The school is the institution whose function is to provide the citizens with knowledge. Schools however, depend on the government for funding, security, regulation, among other functions (Kendall, 2013). The family is the basic institution in the society. The family plays a distinctive role in the society’s cultural development. Parents have the role of guiding their children’s behavior development. Parents must ensure that their children develop the right culture. The school relies on the parents to ensure that the use the knowledge it gives them to develop the right morals. The government also relies on parents to develop the behaviors that it (the government) desires in its citizens. The media is also an institution that is influential in the cultural development of the society. The media, for example, has the responsibility of ensuring that its content abides by the cultural requirements. The Media practitioners must understand the relationship between media, behavior development, and culture. The media not only portrays the culture of the society but also passes it down to the successive generations.
The functionalist perspective has an important role in explaining the development of culture in a changing world. The aspect of the changing world means that the institutions that the functionalist perspective describes are changing how they performed their roles before (Kendall, 2013). The family is one of the institutions that have changed in terms of its cultural responsibilities. Green (2012), a New York Times reporter, analyzes a study that a Los Angels study that surveyed the state of life in the homes of 32 middle-class families. The study found that parental violence was a common scenario in the homes. The study also established that the middle-level families had a poor management of the influx of the material culture. It also established that technology was a factor that led to negative development of material culture, and the stress hormones were high in members of the households (Green, 2012).
ii) Non-Material Culture
Non-material culture is the second type of culture that Kendall (2013) discusses. It shifts from the objects and materials because it refers to the ideas and thoughts of a society. The society’s belief system is what comprises the non-material culture (Kendal, 2013). The non-material aspect of culture also includes the issue of human behavior. Witold (1992), a New York Times reporter discusses the archeological research that studied human behavior by excavating the garbage that they threw. The study relied on the garbage to understand the society’s behavior. The study established evidence for fast-food wrappers, alcohol bottles, and cigarette filters being among the trash with the highest frequency. The study concluded that the society is becoming immoral and the knowledge of the right food does not help the citizens. Because of the high frequency of food wrappers, the study concluded that many US citizens consume fast food despite the health-risks associated with it (Witold, 1992).
A society’s non-material culture is important because it is the measure of the values, beliefs, and attitudes of the members of the society. A society’s value-system relies on its non-material culture, and the culture helps in predicting whether the members of the society improve their behaviors, beliefs, and values, or if they deteriorate (Kendall, 2013).
Technology and Cultural Change and Diversity
Kendal (2013) uses the term cultural diversity to signify the different cultural groups that exist within a society. On the contrary, cultural change is a term that refers to how the behaviors of the individual members of the society and the community in general change over time. Kendall (2013) discusses that technology is the main agent of cultural change and diversity. Kendall (2013) considers technology within the confines of gadgets that people use for communication and social interaction.
The modern world is technology-driven (Sandra, 2013). People’s expectations towards technology are high. They expect that technology moves them from the traditional ways of communicating and socializing, and it should give them reliable means of communication and socialization. Technology falls under the domain of media in the functionalist sociological perspective. The media has the duty of informing and educating the members of the society. However, changes in technology have affected the roles of the media. New forms of media have developed as a result of technological advancements. The social media is one of the new media. The problem with new media is that the society lacks the regulations that should control human behavior while using them. The emergence of the social media affects the role of the government of controlling public interactions. Due to lack of regulations that control human conduct when socializing through social media, immorality has become the order of the day in the social media. The government should develop laws to control the use of social media so that the new media does not affect culture negatively as it does today (Sandra, 2013). Change in technology, according to Kendall (2013), causes culture-shock when the cultural change that comes from technology does not support the expectations of the society.
The global popular culture
A global mainstream of culture has emerged, and the mass media and technology have been the main drivers of the popular culture according to Kendall (2013). Kendall (2013) perceives popular culture as the collective ideas, perspectives, beliefs, and practices that are part of the global mainstream culture. Media and technology have led to the creation of a culture that unifies the whole world, and it is the culture that is known as the popular culture. It is popular because it unifies people from diverse cultural groups.
The popular culture affects the society in various. One of the effects of the popular culture is that it has grown the presence of transgender people in the media. In the traditional society that was not technology-driven, people hid their genders. People with transgender orientations did not come out to declare their genders. Bernstein (2014), reports that the popular culture has increased the presence of people with transgender orientation. They have come out and declared their status. Bernstein (2014) reports the case a couple with transgender orientation. Rhys and Zackary were people who were in sexual relationships with people of the same sex. However, since people have declared their transgender status through the popular culture, the two told their stories about how they had dated people of their sexes (Bernstein, 2014). Popular culture has led to the growth of the global idea that transgender is a natural sexual orientation.
Conclusion
In summary, the concept of culture is wide. The traditional definition of culture as the way of life does not give enough details about culture. Kendall discusses the topic of culture in a much detailed manner, analyzing that culture includes a society’s belief system, attitudes, behaviors, morals, customs, laws, and structures or objects in the society. The important idea under material culture is that the objects in the society affect how people perceive the world. Non-material culture is important because it discusses the non-tangible aspects of culture. Diversity of culture is real because different groups in the society have different cultural perspectives. Technology, the media, and the popular culture have been the major agents of culture change, and in some cases, they have caused culture-shocks.
The functionalistic sociological perspective analyzes the existence of different components of the society and their functions. Culture change affects the functions of the components. The emergence of the social media has affected the legal function of the government because it has created the need for laws to government human behavior on social media.

References
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