Culture Theory and Industrial Analysis

• DOI: 10.1177/000271625127400103
• Date: 01 March 1951
• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Author: Paul Meadows
• Subject Matter: Articles

9

Culture

Theory

and

Industrial

Analysis

By

PAUL

MEADOWS

HE

concept

of

culture

has

proved

T in

recent

years

to

be

a

powerful

and

proficient

liaison

among

the

differ-

ent

approaches

to

the

study

of

human

behavior.

The

reason

is

fairly

simple:

The

cultural

approach

provides

a

basis

for

selection,

organization,

and

interpretation

by

its

assumption

that

any

society

has

a

structure

of

institutions,

of

values,

of

ide-

ologies

and

by

assuming

that

no

part

is

to

be

understood

without

reference

to

its

place

in

the

whole.’

’

The

concept

of

culture

is

peculiarly

serviceable

in

the

analysis

of

industrial

societies.

For

culture

is

itself

a

tech-

nological

concept,

&dquo;an

instrumental

re-

ality,

an

apparatus

for

the

satisfaction

of

human

needs.&dquo;

2

Evolved

and

elabo-

rated

through

man’s

meaningful

inter-

action

with

.the

natural

environment,

culture

itself

becomes

for

human

beings

a

new

environment.

The

culturalized

act-product

of

an

organic

plasticity

which

enables

man

to

invent

and

learn

-is

contained

fundamentally

in

the

dis-

covery,

invention,

communication,

and

use

of

meanings.

Cultural

reality

con-

sists

of

events

to

which

human

beings

have

given

a

meaning,

to

which

they

have

assigned

a

positive

or

negative

meaning

for

human

need

satisfaction.

The

culturalized

act

involves

the

use

of

meanings

and

their

vehicles

in

human

goal

satisfaction.3

CULTURE

SYSTEMS

Every

society

develops

a

culture,

its

own

organized

relationship

to

its

world.

Its

culture

functions

as

a

system

of

meanings

and

vehicles

of

meanings.

As

a

system,

the

culture

may

be

open

or

closed,

integrated,

unintegrated,

or

dis-

integrated.

As

a

system,

moreover,

the

culture

may

be

said

to

have

its

own

sub-

systems.

The

technological

system

is

composed

of

the

material,

mechanical,

physical,

and

chemical

instruments,

together

with

the

techniques

of

their

own,

by

means

of

which

man,

as

an

animal

species,

is

articulated

with

his

natural

habitat.

Here

we

find

the

tools

of

production,

the

means

of

subsist-

ence,

the

material

of

shelter,

the

instru-

ments

of

offense

and

defense.

The

socio-

logical

system

is

made

up

of

interpersonal

relations

expressed

in

patterns

of

behavior,

collective

as

well

as

individual.

In

this

category

we

find

social,

kinship,

economic,

political,

military,

ecclesiastical,

occupa-

I-

tional

and

professional,

recreational,

etc.

systems.

The

ideological

system

is

com-

posed

of

ideas,

beliefs,

knowledge,

ex-

pressed

in

articulate

speech

or

other

sym-

bolic

form.

Mythologies

and

theologies,

legend,

literature,

philosophy,

science,

folk

words

and

common

sense

knowledge,

make

up

this

category.4

Collectively,

these

subsystems

of

cul-

ture

perform

essential

functions

for

hu-

man

societies.

Together,

they

provide

and

maintain

their

biological

adequacy,

their

historic,

social,

and

physical

con-

tinuity,

the

socialization

of

their

young,

their

production

and

exchange

of

goods

and

services,

order

in

their

internal

and

1

Caroline

F.

Ware,

ed.,

The

Cultural

Ap-

proach

to

History

(New

York:

Columbia

University

Press,

1940),

p.

14.

2

Bronislaw

Malinowski,

The

Dynamics

of

Culture

Change

(New

Haven:

Yale

Univer-

sity

Press,

1945),

p.

44.

3

Cf.

Paul

Meadows,

"The

Cultural

Organi-

zation

of

Action,"

The

Philosophy

of

Science,

XIII

(October

1946),

pp.

332-338.

4

Leslie

A.

White,

The

Science

of

Culture

(New

York:

Farrar,

Straus

&

Company,

Inc.,

1949),

p.

364.