Characteristics of Culture:

The term cultural lag refers to the notion that culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations, and the resulting social problems that are caused by this lag.

The concept of conflict between technology and society was most vividly expressed in the theory of “cultural lag,” conceived and energetically promulgated by William Fielding Ogburn, one of the most prominent representatives of the technological trend in Amer- ican sociology, who died in 1959.

• Learned Behaviour:
• Culture is Abstract:
• Culture is a Pattern of Learned Behaviour:
• Culture is the Products of Behaviour:
• Culture includes Attitudes, Values Knowledge:
• Culture also includes Material Objects:
• Culture is shared by the Members of Society:
• Culture is Super-organic:

The term has been coined by William F. Ogburn in 1992 in his work ‘Social Change With Respect to Culture and Original Nature’. This cultural lag is a period of maladjustment, it occurs when the nonmaterial culture is struggling to adapt to the new material conditions.

Human Embryonic Stem Cells: As example of cultural lag is human embryonic stem cells. We have the necessary technology to turn stem cells into neurons but have not yet developed ethical guidelines and cultural consensus on this practice.

Some Examples of Cultural Lag

• Life Support: Medical technology is now being used to keep people’s bodies functioning long after they would otherwise have been declared dead.
• Stem cell research and therapies: Stem cells have been proven to defeat a host of diseases, yet they must come from unborn fetuses.

The term cultural lag is used to describe the situation in which technological advancements or changes in society occur faster than the changes in the rules and norms of the culture that go along with those advancements or changes.

It refers to the abstract or intangible elements of culture, such as the ways of thinking and patterns of behaviour. It includes the normative and cognitive dimensions of culture. (A) Normative: This dimension includes social rules and social expectations, i.e. the norms and values of a society.

Each culture is trying to pass its own values on to the next generation. Therefore, each culture socializes its young differently. For example, American society will socialize its young people to believe in individualism whereas Japanese society will put more of an emphasis on getting along with the group.

However, in the perspective of sociologist it goes beyond such activities. Culture refers to. the ways of life of the members of society, or of groups within a society. It includes how they dress, their marriage customs, language and family life, their patterns of work, religious ceremonies and.

Traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, sexuality, gender, and deviance.

The basic premise of sociology is that human behavior is largely shaped by the groups to which people belong and by the social interaction that takes place within those groups. The main focus of sociology is the group not the individual.