World History/GeoSept 30th , 2015

Warm Up:

What is culture?

What is religion?

Culture

• Culture refers to the beliefs, values, behavior and material objects that, together, form a people's way of life.

• Culture determines how we view the world around us

• Culture includes the traditions we inherit and pass on to the next generation

• Culture: totality of our shared language, knowledge, material objects, and behavior

Culture and Society

• Society: the structure of relationships within which culture is created and shared through regularized patterns of social interaction– Society provides the context within which our relationships with the

external world develop

– How we structure society constrains the kind of culture we construct

– Cultural preferences vary across societies

• Many modern societies are multicultural---their people follow various ways of life that blend and sometimes clash.

Components of Culture

• Symbols

• Language

• Values and Beliefs

• Norms

• Material and Non Material Culture

Symbols

• Symbols are defined as anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share culture.

• The meaning of the same symbols varies from society to society, within a single society, and over time.

• Examples: a flag, a word, a flashing red light, a raised fist, an animal

* non-verbal gestures can be very “symbolic” and diverse.

-Diverse meanings can be given to different variations of the same object, for example, the winking of an eye.

With a Shoulder Partner think of “Symbols” of our culture.

Be sure to write them down in your notebooks!

Language • Language

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

Function of language:-Enhances communication (“lets make sure we’re on the same page”)

-Ensures continuity of culture (story telling)

-Identifies societies or groups (group specific words)

-Determines how a person is perceived by others (proper grammar vs slang)

• Examples of the teenage culture • Sick

• Dope

• Bomb

• For Schizzle my Snizzle

• Fo sho

• Whack

• My bad

• Dawg or is it Dog, or is it Dogg (Snoop)

Values and Beliefs

• Values and Beliefs

-VALUES are culturally defined standards by which people assess desirability, goodness, and beauty and that serve as broad guidelines for social living.

BELIEFS are specific statements that people hold to be true (e.g. The possibility that the US will one day have a female president - based on the shared value of equal opportunity)

Norms

- Norms are the agreed-upon expectations and rules by which a culture guides the behavior of its members in any given situation.

• TYPES

• PROSCRIPTIVE• Should nots, prohibited

• PRESCRIPTIVE• Shoulds, prescribed like medicine

Types of Norms• There are four basic types of norms that sociologists commonly

refer to: folkways, mores, taboos, and laws.

• Folkways, sometimes known as “conventions” or “customs,” are standards of behavior that are socially approved but not morally significant. • For example, belching loudly after eating dinner at someone else's home breaks

an American folkway.

• Mores are norms of morality. Breaking mores, like attending church in the nude, will offend most people of a culture.

• Certain behaviors are considered Taboo, meaning a culture absolutely forbids them, like incest in U.S. culture.

• Finally, Laws are a formal body of rules enacted by the state and backed by the power of the state. Virtually all taboos, like child abuse, are enacted into law, although not all mores are.

• For example, wearing a bikini to church may be offensive, but it is not against the law.

With a different shoulder partner, think of some norms in our culture

Material and Non Material Culture

Material culture reflects a society’s values and a society’s technology, the knowledge that people apply to the task of living in their surroundings.

Examples include books, buildings, physical objects that future generations can use to try and understand us.

Non Material Culture reflects beliefs, values, concepts, customs

Examples include Beliefs, values, Religions, ethics and philosophies

Types of Culture

• High culture

• Cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite

• Popular culture

• Cultural patterns that are widespread among society’s population

• Subculture

• Cultural patterns set apart some segment of society’s population

• Counterculture

• Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society

High Culture

Museum, art gallery, opera, etc

Pop Culture

The latest trend

Sub Culture

Rave Parties

Scooter Club

Old car Club

Gangs

Counter Culture

Material and Non Material Culture

•Material culture reflects a society’s values and a society’s technology, the knowledge that people apply to the task of living in their surroundings.

• Examples include books, buildings, physical objects that future generations can use to try and understand us.

• Non Material Culture reflects beliefs, values, concepts, customs

• Examples include Beliefs, values, Religions, ethics and philosophies

CULTURAL CHANGES

-This takes place in 3 ways:

• INVENTION - creating new cultural elements

• Telephone or airplane

• DISCOVERY – recognizing and understanding something

already in existence

• X-rays or DNA

• DIFFUSION – the spread of cultural traits from one society

to another

• Jazz music or much of the English language

Exit:

•Create a culture web using the five components of culture we discussed today