Real culture

Definition

Real culture represents the actual behavior patterns, practices, and norms that characterize how a society truly operates, as opposed to its idealized values and norms. It reveals the gap between what a society professes to be (ideal culture) and what it actually practices.

Related terms

Ideal Culture: The standards a society would like to embrace and live up to.

Cultural Norms:

Rules or expectations of behavior within a specific cultural or social group.

Social Practices: The routine behaviors and ways of doing things that are characteristic of a particular society or community