Culture A deeper look into

culture…

What Is Culture?• Culture refers to the beliefs,

values, behavior and material objects that forms a persons way of life.

• For Example: Clothes, Attitudes, and Religion

Components of Culture• Symbols are defined as anything

that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share culture. The meaning of the same symbols varies from society to society, within a

Two Essential Components

• Non Material Culture which are abstract intangible creations of human society.

• Ex. Ideals, Philosophy, Attitudes• Material Culture are tangible products of

society• Ex. American Culture = Cars, Cell

phones, 5 bedroom homes with three baths

The Role Of Culture • The Role Of Culture Culture is a

learned aspect of our lives.

• We are not born with culture. Culture plays an important role on shaping the human personality.

Culture is a learned aspect of our lives!!!!!

• Culture is a learned aspect of our lives.We are not born with culture. Culture plays an important role on shaping the human personality.

Have you ever experienced Culture

shock?This occurs when an individual suffers from

personal disorientation when experiencing

an unfamiliar way of life.

• Ex: food portions, Cosco and Sams Club• Ex: Clothing, language (idioms)

What is Culture?!?!?!• Only humans depend on culture rather than instincts to

ensure the survival of their kind.• Culture is very recent and was a long time in the making.• What set humans off on a distinct evolutionary course,

making culture their primary survival strategy.• The concept of culture ( a shared way of life) must be

distinguished from those of nation (a political entity) or society ( the organized interaction of people in a nation or within some other boundary). Many modern societies are multicultural meaning that their people follow various ways of life that blend and sometimes clash.

The Components of Culture

A. Symbols are defined as anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share culture. The meaning of the same symbols varies from society to society, within single society, and over time.

B. Language is a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another.

1. APPLYING SOCIOLOGY-The New Cyber- Symbols

Components of Culture (continued)

2. Cultural Transmission- the process by which one generation passes culture to the next. Through most of human history, cultural transmission has been accomplished through oral tradition.

Components of Culture (continued)

3. WINDOW ON THE WORLD-Language in Global Perspective. Chinese is the native tongue of 1/5 of the world’s people. English has become the second preferred language in most of the world. Spanish is the preferred second language of the United States.

Components of Culture (continued)

4. Only humans can create complex systems of symbols, but some other animal have the ability to use symbols in communicating.

Components of Culture (continued)

5. The Sapir-Whorf thesis holds that people perceive the world through the cultural lens of language.

Cultural StandardsC. Values are culturally defined

standards by which people judge desirability, goodness, and beauty, ad which serve as broad guidelines for social living Values are broad principles that underlie beliefs, specific statements that people hold to be true.

Sociologist Robin Williams identified 10 key values of U.S.

Culture:A. Equal opportunityB. Achievement and SuccessC. Material comfortD. Activity and workE. Practicality and efficiencyF. ProgressG. ScienceH. Democracy and free enterpriseI. FreedomJ. Racism and group superiority

Values2. Values within one society are

frequently inconsistent and even opposed to one another

Who is responsible?3.CRITICAL THINKING BOX-Don’t

Blame Me! “The new culture of Victimization.” Americans may be becoming increasingly unwilling to accept personal responsibility for their failings and misfortunes.

• Norms- rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members, they may be either proscriptive or prescriptive

Norms

• Two types of norms… 1. Mores- norms that are widely

observed and have great moral significance.2. Folkways- norms for routine, casual interaction

Sanctions are a central mechanism for…

• Social control- various means by which members of a society encourage conformity to norms

• Sociologists distinguish between ideal culture, social patterns mandated by cultural values and norms, and real culture, actual social patterns, that only approximate cultural expectations.

• Technology- the knowledge that people apply to the task of living in their surroundings

• CRITICAL THINKING BOX- Virtual Culture: Is it Good For us? Today’s children are bombarded with cultural culture, images that spring from the minds of contemporary culture-makers and that reach them via screen . Some of these cultural icons embody values that shape our way of life. But few of them have any historical reality and almost all have come into being to make money.

Cultural Diversity: Many Ways of Life in One World.

• The U.S. is the most multicultural of all industrial countries. Japan is the most monocultural of all industrial nations.

• High Culture- cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite

• Popular Culture- designates cultural patterns that are widespread among a society’s population. High culture is not inherently superior to popular culture.

• SEEING OURSELVES- What’ll You Have? Popular Beverages Across the U.S. What people consume is one mark of their status as a “highbrow” or “lowbrow.”

• Subcultures- cultural patterns that distinguish some segments of a society’s population. They involve not only difference but also hierarchy.

• Multiculturalism- an educational program recognizing the cultural diversity of the U.S. and promoting the quality of all cultural traditions.

• Eurocentrism- the dominance of European cultural patterns.

• SEEING OURSELVES- Language diversity across the US. The 2000 U.S. Census reports tat 18% of people over the age of five speak a language other than English in their home.

Afrocentrism- The dominance of African culture patterns in people’s lives.

CountercultureRefers to cultural patters that

strongly oppose those widely accepted with a society.

Cultural Change1. Cultural integration- the close relationship

among various elements of a cultural system.

2. William Ogburn’s concepts of cultural lag refers to the fact that cultural elements change at different rates, which may disrupt a cultural system.

3. 3 phenomena:a. Invention, the process of creating new cultural elements.b. Discovery, rec. and understanding an idea not fully understood before.c. Diffusion, the spread of cultural traits from one cultural system to another.

Ethnocentrism and cultural relativity

Ethnocentrism- The practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture.

Cultural relativism- The practice of judging a culture by its own standards.

Discouraged by sociologists.

Global Culture3 key factors…

a. Global economy: the flow of goodsb. Global communications: the flow of information.c. Global migration: the flow of people.

Three Limitationsa. Global culture is much more

advanced in some parts of the world than in others

b. Many people cannot afford to participate in the material aspects of a global culture.

c. Different people attribute different meanings to various aspects of the global culture.

Cultural UniversalsTraits that are found in every known

culture.Critical Evaluationa.The strength of the structural-

functional analysis is showing how culture operates to meet human needs.

b.The weakness of the structural-functional paradigm is that it ignores cultural diversity and downplays the importance of change