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What about the non- sociological uses of the concept of “culture”? Since culture plays an important role in social life, the concept should have an equally important place in sociological study. Interestingly, however, as syllabus topics “culture and identity”, “popular culture” and the “individual and society” have only appeared at advanced level during the past years. This is not to say that the terms have only just been invented or that sociologists have only just begun to take an interest in these topics. Rather there has been renewed interest in these ideas due to changes in theories used by sociologists to make sense of society- in particular the rise of ideas known under the rather broad heading of “postmodernism”. Sociology is not, however, the only discipline to be interested in such ideas. Sociobiology- Sociology can be seen as a challenge to the ideas of sociobiology. The latter, which dates back to the ideas put forward by Charles Darwin(1871) in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex on the evolution of human species, suggests that everything that humans do is the result of their biological make-up. As a species evolves its biological needs may change, and so too will the culture of the species. A more recent example of this type of theorizing is to be found in the work of Goldsmith (1990), who claims that the human sense of self-ídentity, given by the cultures to which we belong, is the result of humans´ neurophysical impulses and their drive for self-gratification. In other words, identity is a biological need to seek pleasure, to satisfy our own needs in order to survive, and we compete with others to do so. Psychoanalytic theory- Whereas a great deal of sociology and anthropology seriously questions the notion that humans act according to instincts (in-born behavior), the tradition of psychological thought known as “psychoanalysis” looks at how instinct might affect how we think and act. This view developed by Sigmund Freud (1923), suggests that throughout life all human action is based on the interrelationship between natural biological needs and learnt social or cultural rules. Freud divided the human mind into three separate but interrelated elements: the id, the ego, and the superego. In the id we find humans as they naturally are- having biological drives that seek to maximize pleasure; in the ego we reflect upon who we are and how we behave; and in the superego we learn to follow the cultural rules of the particular society in which we have been brought up.. Freud claimed that psychological disorders and problems result from culture and biology clashing in the individual´ s mind. Freud saw culture-or what he called ‘civilisation’- and natural needs and drives as often producing neuroses and ‘perversions’. This is where humans act according to their unconscious biological needs, yet the culture they have learnt might define such behavior as wrong or immoral.
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