Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Society Culture
Society Culture
Semester-VI
14.02.2019
Varish Panchal
Assistant Professor
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Why to study?
Our huge and highly variegated store of knowledge about the ways
that humans occupy and use their space becomes most meaningful
when these societies are studied in the light of culture and its relation
to building design
What is Society?
Interaction
Selfie Time !
Social Processes
Opposition Cooperation
• Cooperation
• Conflict
• Competition
• Accommodation
• Assimilation
• Progress
• Evolution
Cooperation
What ?
They threat each other’s purposes, to prevent each other’s interest.
Conflict: Fields
Political
Social
Economic
Religious
Competition
Difference between competition & conflict
Competition Conflict
• Competition is the • It is not continuous
continuous process and it is process.
never ending. • At some stage it must
• It is impersonal come to an end.
• It is unconscious and the • It is personal.
individuals and groups are • It is conscious and the
not aware of it. individual and groups are
• It encourages hard work. aware and know each
• It is based on nonviolence. other.
• It discourages hard work
for law in conflict.
• Violent methods may be
used in conflict.
What is Indian Society?
Examples of assimilation:
• About 197 languages/dialects are endangered in
India.
• Struggle of many tribes such as Naga for
protecting their culture from outsiders.
• Increasing number of PVTG (Particularly
Vulnerable Tribal Groups)
Indian Society
Examples of assimilation:
• Language of Urdu has developed out of Arabic
and Hindavi.
• Bhakti movement and Sufi movements that
inspired each other.
• Caste like system adopted by Islam in India
(foreign conquerors - Ashraf and the local
converts - Ajlaf).
• Rashtrapati Bhawan – fusion of Rajput, Mughal
and European architecture
Indian Society
Traditional Values:
• Respecting age
• Need to take care of aged parents
• Saving for tomorrow
Unity in Diversity:
When India got independent many political thinker
had commented that number of days of Indian
democracy are numbered since society as diverse as
India will ultimately have to make way for small
homogeneous independent states. There are:
• About 6 major religions
• More than 1500 spoken languages(2)
• 5 major racial groups
• Number of sects within the religion
Examples:
• High levels of migration across the nation despite
the wise cultural differences.
• Major festivals like Diwali, Eid and Christmas are
celebrated across the nation with equal fervour.
• Flourishing metro cities like Delhi, Bangalore etc.
with cosmopolitan culture.
Indian Society
Unity in Diversity:
Factors that have helped in the unity:
• Values of co-existence that had developed as a
result of historical fusion and accommodation
since most of the conquerors like Mughals settled
in India itself
• The Indian national movement: rule of congress
such as meeting shall be held in different part of
nations; British railways, telegram, army, Indian
press, major movements like non-cooperation
that promoted mixing of people. This all led to
development of Indian identity.
• State reorganization based on language and
efforts of government to protect the interest of
minorities
Indian Society
Patriarchy:
Patriarchy is family or social system where final
decision making power vests in the male head. As a
result of it women usually are relegate to the status
of second class citizens are subjected to various
disabilities. Although many social groups are
matrilineal as well such as in Meghalaya and Kerala,
patriarchy is near universal. The system can be found
in nearly every society. It leads to gender
discrimination and socio-eco deprivation of women.
Indian Society
It is more than obvious that buildings and the entire built environment are
essentially social and cultural products. Buildings result from social needs and
accommodate a variety of functions: social, political, economic, religious and
cultural. Their size, appearance, location, and form are governed not simply by
physical factors but by a society's ideas, it's forms of economic and social
organizations, it's distribution of resources and authority, its activities, and the
beliefs and values, which prevail at any one period of time. As changes in the
society occur, so too does change in its build environment. New building types
emerge as old ones become obsolete. Some buildings are modified, extended
and take on different functions; others may simply disappear. Society produces
its buildings, and the buildings, although not producing society, help to
maintain many of its social forms.
Society and the space
The sociological position of architectural design deals not only with society as a
whole but also with society at the level of the individual. Design relative to
individuals must provide for their basic needs as well as respond with a
language that they may accept as defining their place within society. This idea
of place carries meaning on two levels; place as a built entity, and place as a
component of social order. It is at the level of the individual that people will
seek out housing to suit their needs (local and social order) and will choose to
work in locations which reflect their ideals of social position.
Classification of Human Settlements
Based on Sizes:
• Small and sparsely spaced (rural settlements or villages specializing in agriculture)
• Large and closely spaces (urban settlements specializing in secondary and tertiary
activities)
• Based on Location of Settlements- plains, mountains, coastal, etc.
• Based on Physical Forms-form as the expression of content, function, and structure.
• Based on Functions- which are important to an understanding of the
• meaning and role of settlements. Example: Based on activity (economic, social),
their performance, or special role (as dormitories, retirement villages, etc.)
• Based on Time Dimension- age of settlements, their place in continuum (past,
present, future), their relative static of dynamic character, the whole process of
their growth.
• Based on degree of society’s conscious involvement in settlements creation: natural
and planned settlements
• Based on institutions, legislations and administrations which society has created for
settlements
Classification of Human Settlements
Ekistic units:
15 levels
• Also called EKISTICS Logarithmic Scale (els)
• Unit range from man To ecumenopolis Which turn into
four Basic groups
Ecumenopolis: The entire area of Megalopolis: A group of conurbations
Earth taken up by human settlements consisting of more than 10 million
people each
Conurbation: A group of large cities & Metropolis: A large city & its suburbs
their suburbs, consisting of 3 to 10 million consisting of multiple cities & towns
people. Also called urban agglomeration having 1 to 3 million people
Classification of Human Settlements
• Large City- a city with large population & many services having less than 1 million
but over 3 lakhs people.
• City- a city with abundant but not with as many services as in a large city ,having
over 1 lakh upto 3 lakhs people
• Large Town- Population of 20,000 to 1 lakh.
• Town- population of 1,000 to 20,000.
• Village- population of 100 to 1000
• Hamlet- tiny population (<100) and very few (if any) services, & few buildings
• Isolated dwellings – 1 or 2 buildings of families with negligible services, if any.
What is Culture?
“The whole way of life, material, intellectual, and spiritual, of a given society.
The complex of distinctive attainments, beliefs, traditions which establish the background
of racial, religious, or social group.” (KENNEY, 1994)
Culture embraces complex ways of living, value systems, traditions, beliefs and habits;
including knowledge, morals, law and customs, acquired by those within that Society.
These provide for a set of ‘cultural objects’, which symbolise a shared schematic
experience, and which we recognise as having cultural value.
Cultural Lag
Examples:
• Recent technological developments have led to several
advancements in the field of genetic engineering. Genetic
engineering involves altering the DNA or genetic material of a
cellular organism in order to change or add new traits. The
ethical conflicts related to genetically modifying DNA are an
example of cultural lag.
• When cars were first invented, there were not yet any laws to
govern driving: no speed limits, no guidelines for who had the
right of way at intersections, no lane markers, no stop signs,
and so on. As you can imagine, the result was chaos.
• Another example can be of flying cars. The first flying car was
actually built in 1937, developed by Waldo Waterman in 1937,
the Arrowbile. Obviously, we can easily build cars that fly. But,
we don't.
Sub-culture
When you think of the different groups that you're a part of,
how many are there? You're part of big groups such residents
of a country or those belonging to a certain gender, but what
about the smaller groups? Maybe you're active in a church
community or a you're a fan of a particular style of music
around which there is a culture? These smaller groups that
you're a part of are called subcultures, which are defined as
smaller cultural groups that fit into a larger group. Subcultures
are recognizably different from larger groups because of their
distinctive characteristics or belief systems.
There are countless types of subcultures that are based on
everything from hobbies and interests to political and spiritual
beliefs. When these groups are based on practices or ideas
that do not align with social standards and norms, they may
be considered deviant subcultures. Deviance involves people
holding perspectives or engaging in behaviours that contradict
what societies and cultures usually consider acceptable.
Sub-culture and deviance
The culture of each society is identified through its manifestations such as language, art,
and architecture, and analysis in the field of culture is related to the study of cultural
manifestations.
Architecture as a matter of human life reflects the culture in every society interacting
closely with structural, historical, political, economic and social features of society.
People in every country try to follow their norms and maintain their values in making of
architecture by applying the material things. Changing the cultural and social attitudes in
communities has the greatest impact on the architecture. Therefore, the role of culture in
promoting architectural identity seems essential.
The result is that the culture of each community defines the identity of the community
and architecture as a social phenomenon was originated from the culture and its effects.
Art and architecture are of the most important symptoms and characteristics of each
nation and every historical period that indicate the environment human’s lives at any
time.
Indigenous culture
• The Reservation:
It is evident that with caste system in society comes inequality
and it still exists in modern India. To curb this disparity,
government policies were introduced such as reservation or
the quota system. The logic they extract from reservations is
that it is pushing ‘positive’ discrimination by caste. These
reservations gave the backward classes a direct entry into what
the government called ‘normalcy’ but they forgot that
paradoxically they were creating an incentive to keep these
divisions alive.
Impact of Caste System on society and space:
• The Odd ranking:
We aren’t alien from the fact that there are universal notions
of the relative worth of different professions and this bias have
always reflected in our social hierarchy. If we ask a kid to rank
the professions of plumber, soldier, doctor and a shopkeeper in
terms of utility, he/she might instinctively say doctor
>soldier>shopkeeper>plumber. This is a clear indication that
the Rig Veda teachings still keep our minds captivated which
did it this way- Brahmins> Kshatriyas > Vaishyas > Shudras. This
isn’t just limited to the Rig Veda; plenty of societies around the
world have classified their society.