Chapter 2

Culture

Terminology

• Culture shock– Disorientation due to the inability to make

sense out of one’s surroundings• Domestic and foreign travel

• Nonmaterial culture– The intangible world of ideas created by

members of a society

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Terminology

• Material culture– Tangible things created by members of

society

• Cultural relativism– More accurate understanding

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Terminology

• Culture– The ways of thinking, the ways of acting, the

material objects that form people’s way of life

• Society– People who interact in a defined territory and

share a culture

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What is Culture?

• Culture and Human Intelligence

• Culture, Nation, and Society

• How Many Cultures?– One indicator of culture is language– Globally, experts document almost 7,000

languages

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Symbols

• Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture

• Societies create new symbols all the time.

• Reality for humans is found in the meaning things carry with them– The basis of culture; makes social life

possible

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Symbols

• People must be mindful that meanings vary from culture to culture.

• Meanings can even vary greatly within the same groups of people.– Fur coats, Confederate flags, etc.

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Language

• Does Language Shape Reality?

• A system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another

• Cultural transmission

• Sapir-Whorf thesis– People perceive the world through the cultural

lens of language

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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Window on the WorldGlobal Map 2–1 Language in Global PerspectiveChinese (including Mandarin, Cantonese, and dozens of other dialects) is the native tongue of one-fifth of the world’s people, almost all of whom live in Asia.

English is the native tongue or official language in several world regions (spoken by 5 percent of humanity) and has become the preferred secondlanguage in most of the world.

The largest concentration of Spanish speakers is in Latin America and, of course, Spain. Spanish is also the second most widely spoken language in the United States.

Sources: Lewis (2009), and Central Intelligence Agency (2009).

Sociologist Robin Williams’ Ten Values Central to American Life

• Equal opportunity

• Achievement and success

• Material comfort

• Activity and work

• Practicality and efficiency

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Sociologist Robin Williams’ Ten Values Central to American Life

• Progress

• Science

• Democracy and free enterprise

• Freedom

• Racism and group superiority

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Values Sometimes Conflict

• Emerging Values

• Values: A Global Perspective

• Sometimes one key cultural value contradicts another

• Value conflict causes strain

• Values change over time

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Norms

• Mores and Folkways– Mores (pronounced "more-rays")

• Widely observed and have great moral significance

– Folkways• Norms for routine and casual interaction

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Ideal Versus Real Culture

• Ideal culture– The way things should be– Social patterns mandated by values & norms

• Real culture– Way things actually occur in everyday life– Social patterns that only approximate cultural

expectations

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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cultural Values of Selected Countries

Technology and Culture

• Hunting and Gathering Societies

• Horticultural and Pastoral Societies

• Agrarian Societies

• Industrial Societies

• Postindustrial Societies

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Cultural Diversity

• High Culture and Popular Culture

• Subculture

• Multiculturalism

• Counterculture

• Cultural Change

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Cultural Diversity

• Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

• A Global Culture?– The global economy: The flow of goods– Global communications: The flow of

information– Global migration: The flow of people

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Language Diversity across the United States

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Life Objectives of First-Year College Students,1969 and 2010

Theories of Culture

• The Functions of Culture: Structural-Functional Theory

• Inequality and Culture: Social-Conflict Theory

• Evolution and Culture: Sociobiology

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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture and Human Freedom

• Culture as constraint– We know our world in terms of our culture

• Culture as freedom– Culture is changing and offers a variety of

opportunities– Sociologists share the goal of learning more

about cultural diversity

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