We act toward other people, in part, on the basis of the meaning their appearances hold for us. Meanings associated with appearances emerge in social interaction with others. Cultural values are produced through cultural forms. Cultural beliefs and values tend to perpetuated when they are represented on a relatively unconscious level. People have the potential to transform their own realities by manipulating the objects in their cultural world.
Culture provides abstract pictures or representations of social life.
People use codes to decipher the meanings of cultural representations of social life.