Cultural Diversity

1. Cultural Diversity Chapter 2

2. What is Diversity? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLuK-EBkcww&safe=active • http://vod.nort2h.com/SAFARI/montage/play.php?keyindex=5557&chapterskeyindex=-1&keyconceptskeyindex=-1&sceneclipskeyindex=-1&location=local

3. Culture • Culture: The shared products of human groups • The physical objects and the beliefs, values, and behaviors shared by a group. • Material Culture: The physical objects that people create • Automobiles, books, buildings, clothing, music, computers, cooking utensils, etc. • Nonmaterial Culture: Abstract human creations • Beliefs, family patterns, ideas, language, political and economic systems, rules, skills, work practices

4. Society v. Culture • People tend to use society and culture interchangeably, but they aren’t interchangeable. • Society: A group of interdependent people who have organized in such a way as to share a common culture and feeling of unity. • Society consists of people • Culture consists of the material and nonmaterial products that people create.

5. The Components of Culture • Technology: Knowledge and tools people use for practical reasons. • Sociologists are not only interested in skills, but also in the rules of acceptable behavior when using material culture. • Ex. Computer hacking, illegal internet sites, texting, sexting, T.V chips, mod chips in video game consoles.

6. The Components of Culture • Symbols: Anything that represents something else. • What are some symbols here at school? In the community? In the country?

7. The Components of Culture • Language: The organization of written or spoken symbols into a standardized system. • We all speak the American form of English, but do we all speak it the same way?

8. The Components of Culture • Chevy Nova is not selling in Spanish speaking countries because No Va = It won’t go in Spanish… • John F. Kennedy..Ich bin ein Berliner… • Other examples?

9. The Components of Culture • Gestures- the way people use their bodies to communicate- hand, face, body language. • Vary widely from culture to culture.

10. The Components of Culture • Values: Shared beliefs about what is good or bad, right or wrong, desirable or undesirable. • The types of values held by a group help to determine the character of its people and the kinds of material and nonmaterial culture they create.

11. Cultural Comparison • Yanomamo- Border of Brazil and Venezuela • Warfare and feats of male strength common. • 30% of all deaths of males are from wounds sustained in battle. • Farming villages can support 500 to 1,000 people, but the Yanomamo can only support 200 at a time. • War splits the village into new settlements.

12. Cultural Comparison • San- • Society based on cooperation. • The San groups have their own territories and they don’t trespass on other land. • All take part in search for food, except old, very young, sick. • The game they hunt is shared throughout the group.

13. Values • Norms: Shared rules of conduct that tell people how to act in specific situations. • Norms are expectations for behavior not actual behavior! • Norms range from the unimportant to the very important • What are some unimportant norms? • What are some important norms?

14. Norms • Are all norms specific to all people and all locations across the country? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_HrzDoSHn4&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active • Sociologists distinguish between two types of norms; • Folkways • Mores (MAWR-ayz)

15. Folkways • Norms that describe socially acceptable behavior but do not have great moral significance attached to them. • They outline the common customs of everyday life. • Don’t put food in your mouth with a knife. • Don’t let the American flag touch the ground when raising and lowering it. • Shake hands when introduced to someone. • Hold doors for women. • Don’t spit • Don’t burp after meals.

16. Mores • Norms that have great moral significance attached to them. • Dishonesty, fraud, murder

17. Laws • Written rules of conduct enacted and enforced by the government. • Laws enforce mores (rape, theft, murder, arson) as well as folkways (not parking in handicap spaces).

18. Three Levels of Culture Culture Trait Culture Complex Culture Pattern

19. Culture Traits • An individual tool, act, or belief that is related to a particular situation or need. • Using knives, forks, and spoons when eating. • Greeting a friend by saying “Hi”, but being more formal when meeting a human-resource manager at a job interview.

20. Culture Complexes • Culture traits combine to form the next level- culture complexes. • A culture complex is a cluster of interrelated traits. • Ex. Football, think of…material traits (football, chains, cleats, helmets, pads, first-aid kits, benches), specific acts (kicking, passing ,tackling, running, catching), specific beliefs (rules followed, penalties for rule violations, etc.), and sport culture (marketing, T.V. rights, advertising, financing).

21. Culture Patterns • Culture complexes combine to form larger levels called culture patterns. • Culture patterns are the combination of a number of culture complexes into an interrelated whole.

22. Culture Patterns • The complexes of baseball, basketball, football, soccer, swimming, tennis, etc. combine to form the American athletic pattern. • Other patterns include; agriculture, education, family life, religion.

23. Culture Variations • Basic needs that all societies must develop to ensure fulfillment of basic needs. • Cultures can be different, but people have basic needs that need to be met. • Humans have the ability to meet those needs in a vast number of ways.

24. Murdock’s Cultural Universals • George Murdock-Anthropologist. • What general traits are common to all cultures? • Identified 65 cultural universals. • *Body Adornment *Religion • *Family *Dancing • *Language *Music • *Myths/folklore *Sports • *Funeral ceremonies

25. Ethnocentrism • The tendency to view one’s own culture and group as superior. • People in all societies are, at times, ethnocentric. • The belief that the characteristics of one’s group or society are right and good helps build group unity.

26. Ethnocentrism • At times, belief of the superiority of a society results from technological advances that make one group see others as inferior. • When ethnocentrism, becomes extreme, culture can stagnate. • By limiting the pool of acceptable members, groups and societies run the risk of excluding new influences that might prove beneficial.

27. Cultural Relativism • The belief that cultures should be judged by their own standards rather than by applying the standards of another culture. • In other words, people who practice cultural relativism attempt to understand cultural practices from the points of view of the members of the society being studied. • Cultural relativism helps sociologists understand practices that seem strange or different from those of their own culture. • Ex. Cows in India

28. Variation Within Society • Cultural variations exist among societies and also within societies. • Variation within a society come from different cultural subgroups. • Subculture: A group with its own unique values, norms, and behaviors that exists within a larger culture. • What are some examples of subcultures at NRHS? The United States?

29. Subcultures

30. Subcultures • Most subcultures do not reject all of the values and practices of the larger society. • Ex. Students who live in Chinatown in San Francisco still have many broad American cultural traits. • Ex. going to public schools, playing with American toys, and working similar jobs. • At the same time, they celebrate Chinese New Year and have different traditions and customs outside of American culture.

31. Counterculture • In some instances, subcultural practices are consciously intended to challenge the values of the larger society. • Sometimes a group rejects the major values, norms and practices of the larger society and replaces them with a new set of cultural patterns. • These groups are called countercultures • Ex. anarchists, hippies, organized crime families, etc.