• Kinds of culture
as a human strategy for survival.
Culture: What Is…?
scattered along the border of
Venezuela and Brazil.
people from this culture?
What Is Culture?
Society
•People who interact in a defined territory and share a culture
Thoughts to ponder
•No particular way of life is “natural” to humanity.
•Only humans rely on culture rather than to create a way of life and ensure survival.
This woman traveling on a British
subway is not sure what to make of
the woman sitting next to her, who
is wearing the Muslim-face veil
known as the niqab.
Culture, Nation and Society
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).
• The U.S. is both a nation and a society.
• Many nations (like the U.S.) are
multicultural (their people follow various
ways of life that blend, and sometimes
clash).
• Some languages are becoming extinct due to globalization.
Elements of Culture
have common elements
• Humans transform elements of the world into symbols.
• Symbols are anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture.
• Societies create new symbols all the time.
• Meanings vary within and between cultures Ex: Confederate flag—regional pride vs racial oppression
People throughout the world
communicate not just with
bodily gestures.
Language
• System of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another
Cultural transmission
• Process by which one generation passes culture to the next
Elements of Culture: Language
• People perceive the world through the cultural lens of language
• Current view
• Language does not determine reality.
• People can imagine new ideas or things before devising a name for them.
Values and Beliefs: What Is…?
Values
• Culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living
• Broad principles that support beliefs
Beliefs
Elements of Culture: Values and Beliefs
Key values of U.S. culture (Williams)
• Equal opportunity
television show American Idol
U.S. culture listed to the left?
Values and Beliefs
• Sparks change over time
Values: A Global Perspective
• Each of the 1,000’s of cultures worldwide have their
own values.
lower income countries
and self-expression. Attention is focused on developing a
high quality of life. Women have social standing more equal
to men.
– Lower-income countries: cultures that value survival.
Tend to be traditional with values that celebrate the past and
emphasize the importance of family and religious beliefs,
obedience to authority, and conformity. Nations are
dominated by men.
Norms: What Are…?
Mores and folkways
• Mores: Norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance
• Folkways: Norms for routine or casual interaction
SOCIAL CONTROL • Various means by which members of society
encourage conformity to norms
• Mores and folkways are the basic rules of everyday life.
• Observing or breaking the rules of social life prompts a response from others in the form of reward or punishment.
• Sanctions are a central mechanism of social control (approving smile or a raised eyebrow)
• GUILT – A negative judgment we make about ourselves
• SHAME – The painful sense that others disapprove of our actions
Norms: Ideal Versus Real Culture
Ideal culture
• Involves social patterns mandated by values and norms
Real culture
• Involves social patterns that only approximate cultural expectations
Ex: women/men agree on the importance of
sexual faithfulness in marriage but still cheat
on their spouses
reflect underlying cultural values.
independence goes a long way toward
explaining our high regard for the automobile.
• Material culture also reflects a society’s
technology (knowledge that people use to
make a way of life in their surroundings)
– We sometimes judge other cultures by how
much or how little technology they have.
2B Notes
difference and cultural change.
and her parents, who live in rural Georgia.
While some critics object to the show as
“low-brow,” others applaud the portrayal of
a “real” low-income family.
Cultural Diversity
• High Culture Vs. Pop Culture – Sociologists believe that high culture is
not superior to pop culture
• Neither elites nor ordinary people
share all the same tastes and
interests.
is inherently better than popular
culture or simply because its
supporters have more money, power,
and prestige?
World
• Subculture
society’s population Ex:
Nebraska fball fans, Elvis
United States and
promoting equal standing
labor because we think
youngsters belong in school?
Why or why not?
cultural integration: the close relationship
among various elements of a cultural system.
– Ex: from 1969 to 2004 women's views changed.
Much more concerned about being well off
financially today. Working for income may not
change their interest in raising a family, but it does
increase both the age at first marriage and the
divorce rate.
refers to the fact that cultural elements change
at difference rates, which may disrupt a
cultural system.
Cultural Diversity: Many Ways of Life in One
World
• 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
• Sociologists tend to discourage the practice of ethnocentrism and advocate cultural relativism.
Ethnocentrism and Cultural
The Basic Thesis
important.
not possible. Flow of people: Knowledge
means people learn about
Is There a Global Culture?
Functions of Culture: Structural-Functional
• Values are the core of a culture.
• Every culture has cultural universals (family, funeral rites, jokes).
Structural- functional
LO 2.5 Apply sociology's macro-level theories to gain greater understanding
of culture.
LO 2.5 Apply sociology's macro-level theories to gain greater understanding
of culture.
• Cultural traits benefit some members at the expense of others.
• Cultural values of competitiveness and material success are tied to our country's capitalist economy.
Social- conflict
Evolution and Culture
• Theoretical paradigm
• Explores ways in which human biology affects how we create culture
• Is rooted in Charles Darwin and evolution
• Proposes living organisms change over long periods of time based on natural selection
Sociobiology
– We only know our world in terms of our culture
• Example: culture is a matter of habit, which limits our choices and drives us to repeat troubling patterns.
• Culture as freedom