Sociology

Chapter 3: Cultures

How would you define Culture?

Define Culture. What is your definition of

culture.

1. Basis of CultureA. It defines how people in a society behave in

relation to others & physical objects.

- Human behavior is learned through culture, not instinct.

2. Culture and SocietyA. Culture refers to the knowledge, language, values,

customs and physical objects that are passed from generation to generation among members of a group.

- Material aspects: physical/material items.

- Nonmaterial aspects: beliefs, rules, customs, family systems and type of economy.

3. Society and CultureA. Society: a group of people who live in a

defined territory and participate in a common culture.

- Culture is the society’s way of life.

b. Ideal Culture: Guidelines that a society’s members claim to embrace.

*** Speed limit is 35 mph.

c. Real Culture: The actual behavior patterns; may conflict with ideal culture.

*** Your speedometer says otherwise, much, much more otherwise.

Ideal

Real

Front PageWhat do you think PPHS’s Ideal

Culture is regarding health, academic aspirations,

environmentalism, or what ever else you think that the school thinks is important.

Garbology

Back PageAfter looking at the

material culture of the school, what do you think

is the schools Real Culture?

4. Culture and Heredity

A. Instincts are genetically inherited patterns of behavior.

- Humans cannot rely on instinct alone for survival, so we rely on our culture.

Do Monkeys Have Culture???Quick Question!

Do Monkeys Have Culture Video

Ch.3 Sec. 2: 5. Language & Culture

a) Symbols- Things that stand for or represent something else.

i. How culture is created and transmitted.

ii. Most powerful symbol is language.

b) Language

i. Tool that allows culture to be transmitted.

ii. When something is important to a society, they will have many words to describe it.

Money Time Snow

c) Sapir-Whorf “Hypothesis”

i. Person’s thought and actions depends on the number and complexity of words available to describe that thing.

- Language = Perception = Thought.

Ch. 3 Sec. 3:Norms and Values

6. Essential Components of Culture

A. The 4 Essential components of culture:

- Values

- Norms

- Beliefs

- Use of Material Objects

B. Values are the basis for norms in society.

Examples:

- A society that values a strong work ethic will have norms against laziness.

- A society that values democracy will have norms ensuring personal freedom.

- A society that values human welfare will have norms providing for more unfortunate members.

C. Norms: Rules defining appropriate

and inappropriate behavior.

Explains why:

A Hindu peasant in India can be found lying dead of starvation beside a perfectly healthy cattle.

To strengthen clan ties, a young Basarwa in Africa becomes engaged to a man she has not met.

Roman emperors routinely exiled relatives to small islands for “disgracing” the family.

D. 3 Types of Norms:

1. Folkways: Rules of customary ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

- Not vital to group, consequences not great.

Examples:

Sleep in bed, not on floor.Support school activities.

Wearing same colored socks.

Being quiet in the library.

Not cutting in line.

2. Mores: Norms of great moral significance.

- Vital to group; consequences greater.

- Very strong disapproval by group.

Examples:

Failure to stand during the national anthem.

Shouting profanity during a religious service.

3. Laws: Norms that are formally defined

and enforced by officials.

- Laws are consciously created and enforced; folkways and mores are not.

Taboos:

- Topics that are usually not discussed.

- An EXTREMELY strong norm.

*** Jobs, religion, sexual orientation, age, dating practices, politics, etc, or what ever the culture decides is Taboo (varies from cultures).

D. Norms are learned through sanctions.

-Sanctions: Rewards and punishments used to encourage conformity to norms.

- Formal Sanctions: Applied only by officially designated persons.

Ex: Judge gives 25 years in prison.

Soldier earns Medal of Honor.

-Informal Sanctions: Applied by most in society.Ex: Thanking someone for help

Staring at a loud talker.

Chapter 3.3 to 3.5 Review

Subculture: Part of the dominant culture, but differs from it in some important aspects.

Counterculture: A subculture deliberately and consciously opposed to certain central beliefs of the dominant culture.

Ethnocentrism: Judging others in terms of their own culture.

What’s wrong withthis picture?

Cultural Universals:

Traits that exist in all cultures.

Examples:

Sports, cooking, courtship, division of labor, education, etiquette, funeral rites, family, government, hospitality, housing, inheritance rules, joking, language, medicine, marriage, mourning, music, property rights, religious rituals, sexual restrictions, status differences, and tool making.

Cultural Particular: How different cultures express cultural universals; what makes that cultural universal unique to that culture.

US: Women stay at home w/ child, men work.

7. Cultural ChangeA. Culture changes for three reasons:

1. Discovery

2. Invention

3. Diffusion

Easy way to remember…

Why DID culture change?

B. Discovery- The process of finding something that

already exists within a culture.Ex:

- US discovering the generally unrecognized athletic abilities of females… military?

C. Invention

- The creation of something new within

a culture that alters the way of life.

Ex: Inventions in Communitcation

D. Diffusion-

- The “borrowing” of aspects from another culture.

Ideas:

-After World War II, Japan “adopted” democracy and capitalism.

-Fulbright Scholarship

Material Objects:

What did you have for dinner?What nation did it come from?Where was your shirt made?

Where were your shoes made?

Is counterfeiting considered diffusion?

Which one is the copy?

+$300,000 $44,000

Sociobiology

Some criticisms of sociobiology:

– Certain races could be labeled as inferior or superior.

– There is too much variation in societies for human behavior to be based on biology alone.

Middle ground:

– Some sociologists believe that genes work with culture in a complex way to shape and limit human nature and social life.