Sociology and Culture

What is Culture?• All shared products of human

groups• Includes…

– Physical objects– Beliefs– Values– Behaviors…that are shared by a people

First Cultural Subcategory• Non-material culture

– Abstract human creations like…

• Language• Ideas• Skills• Thinking• Ways of doing things

Second Cultural Subcategory

• Material Culture– The physical

objects that make up our culture• Books• CDs/Ipods• Jewelry• Art• Buildings• Weapons• Clothing

Characteristics of Culture• Culture is shared• Culture is learned• Culture is symbolic• Culture is dynamic• Culture is taken for granted

Culture is taken for granted!

“The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water.”

Ralph LintonAnthropologist

Culture is Learned

There is nothing “natural” about culture; it is fabricated

by humans and passed on from generation to

generation.

Culture’s Significance is Huge!

• We came into this world without language, values, morality, religion, war, money, love, use of public space and personal boundaries, etc.

• These are LEARNED and SHARED ways of believing and affect how we see the world.

• Culture is the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us.

• The lens through which we view life remains largely beyond our perception.

• Think about how we don’t see ourselves as having an accent while others do.

Challenging Our Assumptions

• Culture Shock– When your culture (both material

and non-material) fails you and you can no longer make sense of the world around you.

– When might culture shock occur?

Challenging Our Assumptions

• Ethnocentrism– The tendency to view one’s own

culture as superior– Positive Consequence: loyalty to

group– Negative Consequence:

discrimination against other cultures– Give an example of each type of

consequence in action

Cultural Relativism• Keeping an

open mind and adopting the attitude that cultures should be judged by their own standards.

Applying Cultural Relativism - India

• Anthropologist Marvin Harris has studied Indian culture

• Harris says many see the idea that cows are sacred as absurd, especially when many Indians are starving.

Indian Culture and Cows• Cows play a vital

role in India’s economy.– Used to plow the

fields since most don’t have the machinery

– Crops could not be harvested without this beast of burden.

– Milk is a staple of the Indian diet

Knowing more about the Indian culture helps us

understand why cows are sacred and not to be killed.

Subcultures• Generally not a

threat to society, in fact, sometimes we are dependent on subcultures

• Fields of occupation are subcultures…– Police or Firefighters– Teachers– Doctors

Counterculture• A subculture that

develops to challenge the values of larger societies

• The Mormons are often considered a counterculture, as are the Amish

Cultural Universals• Basic needs that all societies must have

– Cooking– Feast Days/Holidays– Tool making– Music– Religion– Sports

• There are over 60 cultural universals• Can you think of three more universals?

Universals: Similar, yet Different

• Marriage– In the Western

World 2 people get married because they want to

– In India many marriages are arranged at birth

• Cooking– In the Jewish

culture you can’t eat pork

– Hindus don’t eat beef (think back to the previous discussion of sacred cows)

Read “You Are What You Eat?” and try to practice cultural relativism…try to

find ways in which the described cultures’ foods

can be a wonderful sign of culture. What foods do we eat that people from other

cultures may think are gross? Explain.