14 also be the sociocultural needs such as falling in love and marrying. The next quality
is the adaptive quality. This quality means that culture has to be able to adapt itself to its different aspect that may be changed, that is the geographical aspect. This quality
has to exist to defend the presence of the culture itself. The last quality is the integrative quality. This quality suggests that culture has
inclination to form a consistent whole. Every culture has its quality although this quality may seems obvious or not in any culture. The integrative quality of a culture
is very obvious in a simple society where the people do not change significantly. On the contrary, integration is not really obvious in a complex and heterogeneous culture
where the people are change constantly.
c. Values in a Society
Values, as a part of a culture, determine our behavior as human beings. Our behavior is much determined by values which prevail in a society. According to
Stewart 16-20, values, as well as assumptions may be used to describe behavior. Assumptions are
the reason of people’s actions, even though, not all of the assumptions govern the actions. For example, a person who has assumptions on
himself as an individual, cooperation with others is needed, and his goal is to be a successful person, does not have to be a businessman. A group of people who have
the same a ssumptions may create “reality” which then forms a culture. Different
cultures in different areas happen because the people have different assumptions. Meanwhile, values more direct to “oughtness” in behavior. They emphasize on what
the people ought to do. Since values and assumptions determine and constitute the reasons of
people’s actions in a society, they reflect
people’s behavior. In a society, there are values that
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
15 are acted by people repeatedly to describe or justify their actions. These are called
cultural norms. Another description of values is conveyed by Ficther 293-294. He says that
values exist in everything which is useful, admirable, and which makes people want to possess it. Through this idea, values in every person may be different since he
might have different assumptions of what are considered useful, admirable, and so deserve to be possessed.
Values which give meaning to a culture and a society have some characteristics. The first characteristic of values is that values are shared. It means
that a group of people agree to the values. The second characteristic of values is that values are taken seriously. People are attached to the values in order to maintain the
common welfare and to satisfy the social needs. The third characteristic of values is that values involve people’s emotions.
They compel people to sacrifice or even die for the sake of the highest values. The last characteristic is values may be abstracted from various valued items because
values constitute agreement among many people. However, there is a different idea of values that is proposed by Henry 13-15.
According to him, value is associated with good things. These constitute actions which are expected by people in our surrounding to show. Values can be found in
family or friendship and they constitute the idea of good human relations.
d. American Culture 1 History of American People
