Social culture : The members of a society behave in the society on the basis of shared ideas, values, beliefs, norms, etc,. The behavioural aspects of culture is the social culture. It is intrinsically related to the mental aspect. People follow the norms and accordingly, behave in society. The values and norms of the society allow space for creativity and diversity. Therefore, various patterns of behaviour emerge within the wide net of values and norms. Again, these norms are not always followed as they are. Occasionally, there occur some deviations from the norms. In Hindu culture as in most other cultures, polygyny is prohibited by norms. It is also prohibited by the Hindu Marriage Act. Yet, we find occasional instances of polygyny occurring and some sections of our society tolerating such behaviour. Among the Muslims, alcohol consumption is prohibited by religious norms, yet it is not always followed. Violation of norm is called deviation. Also, in due course of time, deviations and new patterns may become accepted by the society and become norms and values of the society. For example, caste endogamy in India has been the traditional norm for centuries. During the 19th century, with the social reformation movement in India, inter castes marriages occurred and now such marriages are facilitated and protected by the Constitution of India by many legislations such as the Special Marriage Act, 1954. Thus, the behavioural or social realm of culture is related to the mental realm. The mental realm influences and guides social behaviour and also gets influenced by it.
Material culture : These include all the material objects, those that are only used and those that are both made and used (artifacts) by people in society. The material aspects include among other things the food we eat, both the raw apple and also the apple jam. It includes the clothes, houses, vehicles, etc. Material objects are either used directly from nature or it is further processed from nature to render it fit for human use. It is through material culture that society directly interacts with the environment and fulfills individual and social needs. In the making and using of items of material culture, certain rules and norms are followed and people interact with each other in this process. For example, in making a hand axe, a person follows an accepted design which he retains in his mind. In making the axe, he may buy from someone in the market the iron to make the blade and wood to make the handle of the axe. Here, the person is behaviourally interacting with many other persons in the process of making the hand axe following the norms. Here, we find that both mental and the social culture interact with the material culture.
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