Sociologically, culture and social structure are often discussed in close relationship to one another. Although many times these societal aspects go hand-in-hand, as in how a social structure may influence a corresponding culture, they are not synonymous. The differences between them are often subtle, but they lie within the actual definition of each, how each is identified, how each actually influences individuals, and how each is studied. .
In a world of interaction, the study of behaviors associated with individuals responding to one another requires that influences that cause those behaviors be labeled. Culture, as seen by Clifford Geertz, is not "complexes of concrete behavior patterns" but as a "set of control mechanisms." This correlates to every day activity, in that, one cannot simply list cultural patterns, i.e. habits, traditions, etc. and explain culture through activity. The routes of these activities, the instructions, or rules, which dictate how individuals interact, are the real definitions of culture. (Geertz) .
A non-verbal communicative example would be how women, in India, typically wear vestments covering their faces. They are expected by the males to be covered in order to maintain their dignity. According to Geertz, this aspect of culture is most accurately viewed from the standpoint of why those middle-eastern women cover their faces, not the act of hiding the face itself. This is often not the case in the general public. Most individuals" feel as though what cultures practice, is in and of itself the culture. (Geertz).
A verbal example of cultural symbolic systems would be Ebonics. This typically urban, lower class, way of speaking is usually viewed as urban culture. But the route of this means of communication is the lack of education those who speak this dialect possess. In an urban, mis-educated environment, the rules that typically guide an educated individual in speech are absent, and the result is a slang speech.
