What is the difference between society and culture?

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To my understanding, society can be referred to a structural unit, an organization where similar kind of people gather, live, interact, share interests & ideas where as culture can be referred to as a behavioural trait that forms boundaries for acceptable behaviour limited to a particular group of people.

Check the links, might help you understand better.

Good Luck!

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Society is the group of individuals that you’re talking about. Another word for society would be “civilization”, “population” or simply “group”. When people say things like “Society is really going downhill” they mean the society that we live in.

Culture is a set of beliefs and cultural practices that are common practice among a particular group of people. For example, one obvious part of a person’s culture is greeting behavior. In my region of the United States, for example, people don’t usually kiss when they greet each other, but in Mexico, it’s common for friends to kiss when they greet. This is an example of a situation where culture tells people what to do; culture dictates the normal practices of the society.

It’s important to distinguish two definitions of culture. The one that I’ve given you above is what is often referred to as “little-c culture”. Another type of culture, sometimes called “big-c culture” refers to the products of a society, including things like art and music. Although these products can give us insight into the fundamental values and practices of a group, they are not culture in the same sense as the way I described it above.

I hope this helps! Feel free to add detail if you have more questions.

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USA- groups of people-society. They shake hands and say Hi- culture
India- groups of peole-society. They fold hands and say namaste-culture
Japan—groups of people-society They bow from the waist to greet-culture.
One is a group, the other is an act.

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I am a writer who uses these words. I have not looked into the dictionary — will just tell you my own concept.

To me, Culture has more historical depth to it (a time factor) and is very, very broad although applying to a particular group. It means the style or styles of that group in virtually every endeavor, especially as these have been handed down over the generations. Includes Art, Teaching, Construction, Schooling, Religion, Cuisine, Dress, Literature, Science, Mores, ….

On the other hand, the word Society has much more to do with governmental structures. Yes, these have some depth in time too, but I think more about laws, norms of behavior, constitutions, solemn compacts, associations, subunits, family, men, women, labor, clergy, clubs, NGOs, city, county, state, commonwealth, common purpose, rules of order, reform objectives — all things social and having to do with somewhat more abstract concepts than culture does.

But I do admit of some blending as between these two.

Multi-cultural societies exist: USA
Someone can be ’socially uncultured’ — probably describing me at an early age.

Hmmmm. I think this is enough, except to say that a Society can be brand new, as USA once was. But Culture has very deep roots, and is almost never new, unless some tragic event occurs such as in Lord of the Flies, where people have to really start from scratch. Missing a transmission of knowledge and style, a new culture — IF THEY SURVIVE.