McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture and Society

•Culture is the totality of learned, socially

transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects,

and behavior.

•Culture includes the ideas, values, customs, and

artifacts of groups of people.

•Sociologically, culture does not refer to fine arts or

intellectual taste.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Culture Around the World

•All societies have developed certain common

practices and beliefs.

•Cultural universals change over time and from one

society to another.

Cultural Universals

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Culture Around the World

•Murdoch (1945)

--Athletic Sports

--Cooking

--Funeral Ceremonies

--Medicine

--Sexual Restrictions

among others...

Cultural Universals, some examples

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Culture Around the World

•The process of introducing a new idea or object to

culture.

•Innovation may take the form of either discovery or

invention.

Innovations

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Culture Around the World

•Globalization consists of cultural expressions and

practices that cross national borders and have an

effect on the traditions and customs of the societies

exposed to them.

•Globalization is rapidly escalating throughout the

world today.

Globalization, Diffusion, and

Technology

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Culture Around the World

•Diffusion is the process by which a cultural item

spreads from group to group or society to society.

•Diffusion can occur through a variety of means,

including:

--Exploration --mass media influence

--Military conquest --tourism

--Missionary work --the Internet

Globalization, Diffusion, and

Technology

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Culture Around the World

•Technology can be defined as using the material

resources of the environment to satisfy human needs

and desires (Nolan and Lenski 1999).

•Technology accelerates the diffusion of scientific

innovations.

•Technology transmits culture.

Globalization, Diffusion, and

Technology

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Culture Around the World

Material culture refers to the physical or

technological aspects of our daily lives, including:

--food --houses

--factories --raw materials

Globalization, Diffusion, and

Technology

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Culture Around the World

Nonmaterial Culture refers to ways of using

material objects as well as to:

--customs --beliefs

--government --patterns of communication

--philosophies

Globalization, Diffusion, and

Technology

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of Culture Around the World

Culture Lag refers to a period of maladjustment

when the nonmaterial culture is still struggling to

adapt to new material conditions.

Globalization, Diffusion, and

Technology

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Elements of Culture

•Language is an abstract system of word meanings

and symbols for all aspects of culture.

•It includes speech, written characters, numerals,

symbols, and gestures and expressions of nonverbal

communication.

Language

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Elements of Culture

•Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

--Language precedes thought.

--Language is not a given.

--Language is culturally determined.

Language

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Elements of Culture

•Nonverbal Communication

--Nonverbal communication is the use of

gestures, facial expressions, and other visual

images to communicate.

--Nonverbal communication is not the same in

all cultures.

--Nonverbal communication is learned.

Language

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Elements of Culture

•Norms are established standards of behavior

maintained by a society.

•Types of Norms

--Formal norms

--Informal norms

--Mores

--Folkways

•Acceptance of Norms

Norms

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Elements of Culture

•Sanctions are penalties and rewards for conduct

concerning a social norm.

•Sanctions may be either positive or negative.

Sanctions

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Elements of Culture

•Values are our collective conceptions of what is

good, desirable, and proper–or bad, undesirable, and

improper–in a culture.

--Values influence people’s behavior.

--Values are criteria for evaluating actions of

others.

Values

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture and the Dominant Ideology

•Dominant Ideology describes the set of cultural

beliefs and practices that help to maintain powerful

social, economic, and political interests.

•Dominant groups control wealth and property.

•Dominant groups control the means of producing

beliefs about reality through:

--religion

--education

--the media

•Dominant Ideology

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cultural Variation

•Subcultures

•A subculture is a segment of society that shares a

distinctive pattern of mores, folkways, and values

that differs from the larger society.

•A subculture is a culture existing within a larger,

dominant culture.

Aspects of Cultural Variation

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cultural Variation

•Countercultures

•A counterculture is created when a subculture

conspicuously and deliberately opposes certain

aspects of the larger culture.

•Examples of countercultures:

--hippies

--militia groups

Aspects of Cultural Variation

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cultural Variation

•Culture Shock

•Culture shock is experienced if one feels

disoriented, uncertain, out of place, or fearful when

immersed in an unfamiliar culture.

Aspects of Cultural Variation

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cultural Variation

•Ethnocentrism is the tendency to assume that

one’s own culture and way of life are superior to all

others.

•Cultural relativism views people’s behaviors from

the perspective of their own culture.

•Xenocentrism is an extension of cultural

relativism; it is the belief that the products, styles, or

ideas of one’s society are inferior to those that

originate elsewhere.

Attitudes Toward Cultural Variation

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Social Policy and Culture

•The Issue: Bilingualism refers to the use of two or

more languages in a particular setting, such as the

workplace or schoolroom. Thus, a program of

bilingual education may instruct children in their

native language while gradually introducing them to

the language of the host society.

Bilingualism

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Social Policy and Culture

•The Setting: Languages know no political

boundaries. Minority languages are common in

many nations. Schools throughout the world must

deal with incoming students speaking many

languages.

•Do bilingual programs in the United States help

these children to learn English?

•It is difficult to reach firm conclusions because

bilingual program in general vary so widely in their

approach.

Bilingualism

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Social Policy and Culture

•Sociological Insights: For a long time, people in

the United States demanded conformity to a single

language. This demand coincides with the

functionalist view that language serves to unify

members of a society.

•Recent decades have seen challenges to this pattern

of forced obedience to our dominant ideology.

•The perspective of conflict theory also helps us

understand some of the attacks on bilingual

programs.

Bilingualism

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Social Policy and Culture

•Policy Initiatives: Bilingualism has policy implications

largely in two areas–efforts to maintain language purity

and programs to enhance bilingual education.

•Nations vary dramatically in their tolerance for a variety

of languages.

•In many nations, language dominance is a regional

issue.

•Policymakers in the United States have been somewhat

ambivalent in dealing with the issue of bilingualism.

Bilingualism