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Chapter 2
Culture
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What is Culture?
• Language, Beliefs, Values, Norms– Behavior Passed from One Generation to the
Next
• Material vs. Nonmaterial Cultures
• Patterns of behavior– Language, gestures, and other forms of
interaction
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Culture and Society
█ Society: Large number of people who live in same territory, who are relatively independent of people outside that area, and who participate in a common culture– Common culture simplifies
day-to-day interactions– Adorno: worldwide culture
industry limits people choices
Module 9
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Cultural Universals
█ Cultural Universal: certain common practices and beliefs that all societies have developed
– Many are adaptations to meet essential human needs
– Murdoch compiled list of cultural universals but they are expressed differently from culture to culture
Module 9
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Cultural Universals
• Examples:
– Appearance (bodily adornment, hairstyles)
– Activities (sports, dancing, games, joking)
– Social institutions (family, law, religion)
– Practices (cooking, folklore, gift giving)
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Culture and Taken-for-Granted Orientations
• What is Normal, Natural, or Usual?
• The Culture Within Us
• Culture as Lens
• Culture Shock
• Ethnocentrism
• The many ways in which culture affects our lives fascinate sociologists
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Elements of Culture
• Though cultures vary greatly, they have common elements– Symbols– Language– Values– Norms
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Practicing Cultural Relativism
• Understanding Cultures on Their Own Terms
• “Sick Cultures” - Robert Edgerton
• Confronting Contrasting Views of Reality
• None of us can be entirely successful at practicing cultural relativism
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Components of Symbolic Culture
• Gestures
• Conveying Messages without Words
• Gestures’ Meaning Differ Among Cultures
• Can Lead to Misunderstandings
• Is it really true that there are no universal gestures?
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Symbols
• Humans sense the surrounding world and give it meaning
• Symbols– Anything that carries a particular meaning
recognized by people who share a culture
• Human capacity to create and manipulate symbols is almost limitless
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Gestures with Different Meanings in Other Societies
“Hook ‘em Horns”
or
“Your spouse is unfaithful”
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Gestures with Different Meanings in Other Societies
“He’s crazy”
or
“You have a telephone call”
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Gestures with Different Meanings in Other Societies
“Okay”
Or
“I’ll kill you”
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Components of Symbolic Culture
• Language– Allows Cumulative Human Experience– Provides Social or Shared Past– Provides Social or Shared Future– Allows Shared Perspective– Allows Complex, Shared, Goal-Directed
Behavior
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Language and Perception: Sapir-Whorf
• Language Has Embedded Within It Ways of Looking at the World
• Sapir-Whorf Reverses Common Sense– Rather than objects and events forcing
themselves onto our consciousness, it is our – Language that determines our consciousness,
& hence our perception of objects and events
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Values
█ Cultural values: Collective conceptions of what is good, desirable, and proper – or bad, undesirable, and improper
Influence people’s behavior
Criteria for evaluating actions of others
Values may change
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Values in U.S. Society
• Achievement and Success
• Individualism
• Hard Work
• Efficiency and Practicality
• Science and Technology
• Material Comfort
• Freedom
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Values in U.S. Society
• Democracy
• Equality
• Group Superiority
• Education
• Religiosity
• Romantic Love
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Emerging Values
• Leisure
• Self-fulfillment
• Physical Fitness
• Youthfulness
• Concern for the Environment
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Values and Culture
• Culture Wars: When Values Clash
• Value and Distorting Lenses
• “Ideal” vs. “Real” Culture– The values, norms, and goals that a group
considers ideal, worth aiming for
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Norms
• Norms are established rules of behavior or standards of conduct.
– Prescriptive norms state what behavior is appropriate or acceptable.
– Proscriptive norms state what behavior is inappropriate or unacceptable.
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Folkways
• Everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture.
• In the United States, folkways include:– using deodorant– brushing our teeth– wearing appropriate clothing for a specific occasion
• These are sometime referred to as soft norms
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Mores
• Strongly held norms with moral and ethical connotations that may not be violated without serious consequences.
– Taboos are mores so strong that violation is considered extremely offensive and even unmentionable.
– The incest taboo, which prohibits sexual relations between certain kin, is an example of a nearly universal taboo.
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Laws
• Formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and are enforced by formal sanctions.
– Civil law deals with disputes among persons or groups.
– Criminal law deals with public safety and well-being.
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Situational
• Norms that change according to the situation
– As an example: Normative behavior at a sporting event would not be appropriate within the context of the normal classroom
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– Behavior that appears to violate society’s norms may represent adherence to a particular group’s norms
– Norms may be violated because they conflict with other norms
– Acceptance of norms is subject to change
Acceptance of Norms
█ People do not follow norms in all situations
Module 12
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Sanctions
█ Sanctions: Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning social norm
– Positive sanctions: Pay raises, medals, and words of gratitude
– Negative sanctions: Fines, threats, imprisonment, and stares of contempt
Module 12
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Ethnocentrism andCultural Relativism█ Ethnocentrism: Tendency to
assume that one’s own culture and way of life represents the norm or is superior to others
– Conflict theorists: ethnocentric value judgments serve to devalue groups and to deny equal opportunities
– Functionalists: ethnocentrism maintains sense of solidarity
Module 9
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– Different social contexts give rise to different norms and values
Cultural Relativism
█ Cultural relativism: People’s behaviors from the perspective of their own culture
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Popular Culture
• Activities, products, and services that are assumed to appeal primarily to the middle and working classes.
• These include rock concerts, spectator sports, movies, and television.
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Subcultures and Countercultures
• Groups of people in a small corner in life, (occupation) tend to develop specialized – Ways to communicate with one another
• Subculture - A World Within the Dominant Culture
• Countercultures - Groups With Norms and Values at Odds With the Dominant Culture
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The Old Order Amish Subculture
• Strong faith in God.
• Rejection of worldly concerns.
• Rely on horse and buggy for transportation.
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Amish Subculture
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Examples of Countercultures
• Beatniks of the 1950’s
• Flower Children of the 1960’s
• Drug Enthusiasts of the 1970’s
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Beatniks of the 1950’s
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Flower Children of the 1960’s
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Sociobiology and Culture
█ Sociobiology: Systematic study of how biology affects human social behavior
– Founded on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
– Sociobiologists assert that many cultural traits rooted in genetic makeup
Module 9
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Technology in the Global Village
• The New Technology - New Tools– The long-accepted idea that it is proper to
• Withhold rights on the basis of someone’s sex can no longer be sustained
• Cultural Lag and Cultural Change
• Technology and Cultural Leveling
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