Patterns of culture

The term pattern is used for those arrangements or systems of internal relationship which give to any culture its coherence or plan and keep it from being a mere accumulation of random bits.

The total system or the ideology of patterning is called a configuration.Kroeber has distinguished two major kinds of patterns.

Basic or systemic patterns- these are those that have persisted for years and years as coherent organizations of traits with functional value like agriculture,alphabet

Secondary patterns-these are those that are subject to a great variety and instability like system of thought.

Kroeber in his indepth study of culture published Configurations of Culture Growth wherein he traces the growth of each pattern of culture on wide scale.

Ruth Benedict in her Patterns of Culture adds a new dimension to the two types of patterns discribed by Kroeber.She refers to those qualities of cultural organization which come to pervade all or most spheres of some cultures and give them a distinctive individual slant.She made use of psychological theories to characterize the individual patterns of culture.She named two major kinds of cultures: Apollonian and Dionysain.The former type of culture emphazied order and restraint in individual and collective behaviour while the latter type of cultures emphasized emotional and sensory experiences.

Ralph Linton describes four dimensions of culture
The form of culture trait or complex is what can be perceived by the senses and objectively described.

The meaning of its subjective associations in the culture,implicit and explicit.

Its use is its relation to things outside the society and culture as expressible in physical terms.

Its function is its relation within society and culture.