Material culture is a term used in sociology to describe the physical objects, resources, and spaces that people use to define their culture. These objects include homes, neighborhoods, cities, schools, churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, offices, factories and plants, tools, means of production, goods and products, stores, and so forth. Material culture is an important aspect of a culture that helps to define its members behaviors and perceptions.

In contrast, non-material culture refers to the nonphysical ideas that people have about their culture, including beliefs, values, rules, norms, morals, language, organizations, and institutions. For instance, the non-material cultural concept of religion consists of a set of ideas and beliefs about God, worship, morals, and ethics. These beliefs determine how the culture responds to its religious topics, issues, and events.

The scholarly analysis of material culture, which can include both human-made and natural or altered objects, is called material culture studies. It is an interdisciplinary field and methodology that tells of the relationships between people and their things: the making, history, preservation, and interpretation of objects. The social aspects in material culture include the social behavior around it: the way that the material is used, shared, talked about, or made.

Examples of material culture include tools, weapons, utensils, machines, ornaments, art, buildings, monuments, written records, religious images, clothing, and any other ponderable objects produced or used by humans. If all the human beings in the world ceased to exist, non-material aspects of culture would cease to exist along with them. However, examples of material culture would still be present until they disintegrated.