The culture of any society is usually thought to be of two kinds: material and nonmaterial. Material culture includes the man-made phenomena which have physical properties such as height, breadth, and weight. A boat, a machine, a house—all these objects are part of the material culture. The nonmaterial culture is that portion of the environment which surrounds man and which has an impact on his behavior but which lacks these material properties: values, beliefs, traditions, and all the other habits and ideas invented and acquired by man as a member of society.
Contemporary sociological theory tends to assign primary importance to the nonmaterial culture in choosing problems for study. It assumes, for example, that boats, planes, automobiles, and so forth, are not nearly so important as the traditions we have developed which make their manufacture possible—indeed, which prescribe how we are to use them. The emphasis of contemporary sociology is to insist that the material culture would not exist had not the nonmaterial culture first been available to suggest the ideas which are embodied in the inventions of material culture.
任何社会的文化一般都被分为两类： 物质文化和非物质文化。 物质文化包括具有高度、宽度和重量等物理属性的人为现象。 /船、机器和房屋――所有这些东西都被归为物质文化的一部分。 非物质文化则是人类所处环境的一部分，它影响着人类的行为却缺乏上述的那些物质属性，非物质文化是人作为社会一员所创立和获得的价值观、信仰、传统观念及一切其他习惯和思想。
当代社会学理论在选择说要研究的问题时，往往侧重于非物质文化。比如，社会学理论认为船、飞机、汽车等物品的重要性远不如人们为制造这些东西——确切地说是为规定其使用方法而形成的传统观念的重要性。 当代社会学所强调的是，不若是先有了能孕育物质文化的非物质文化，物质文化就无从产生。