Introduction to Sociology SOC-101

1. Introduction to Sociology SOC-101 Unit 3 - Culture

2. What Is Culture? • Culture • The values, beliefs, behavior, language and material objects that are passed from one generation to the next • Society • People interacting within a limited territory guided by their culture • Neither society nor culture could exist without the other

3. What Is Culture? • Two Types of Culture: • Material Culture • Tangible creations of a society • There is nothing inherently “natural” about material culture • Examples: art, jewelry, weapons, clothing • Non-Material Culture • Intangible creations of a society • A group’s way of thinking • Examples: religion, beliefs, values

4. What Is Culture? • Culture is learned and is not “natural” • We take our culture for granted • It touches every aspect of our lives without us really realizing it • Culture becomes the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us. • What is normal, natural, or usual? • We believe ourways are “Normal”

5. What Is Culture? • Ethnocentrism • Using your own culture as a yardstick for judging other societies, usually in a negative way • The belief that our culture is the “best” • Culture Shock • The personal disorientation that accompanies exposure to a different culture or way of life • Cultural Relativism • Understanding a culture’s practices from their perspective • Not judging a culture but trying to understand it on its own terms

6. What Is Culture? • Richard Edgerton’s Sick Societies (1992) • Evaluating cultures on their “quality of life” • Characteristics of a “sick culture” • A culture that fails to survive because its own beliefs or institutions are harmful • Enough people are dissatisfied with their social institutions or cultural beliefs that a society is threatened • A culture that continues unsafe practices that hurt its population either physically or mentally • Examples: cultures that practice female circumcision, sell young girls into prostitution, accept wife beating

7. Symbolic Culture

8. Components of Symbolic Culture • Symbolic Culture • Non-material culture because its central component is the symbols people use • Symbols • This is anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture • They are used to communicate with other people • We are so dependent on them that we take them for granted • Includes: gestures, languages, values, norms, sanctions

9. Components: Gestures and Language • Gestures • Using one’s body to communicate with others • What a gesture means may vary depending on where you are in the world • It is important to learn the proper gestures when visiting other countries • The “OK” symbol has very different meaning in Italy • Language • A system of symbols that allows people to communicate abstract thoughts with one another • Cultural Transmission: Language also ensures the continuity of culture

10. Components: Language • Five purposes of language • Allows human experience to be cumulative • Allows us to move beyond our immediate experiences • We would be limited to understanding only a short time period • Provides a social or shared past • We can easily communicate our past events with others with language • Provides a social or shared future • We can communicate our future plans with other easily with language • Allows shared perspectives • We can communicate abstract ideas • Allows complex, shared, goal-directed behavior • We can share a purpose for getting together

11. Components: Language • Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis • Developed in the 1930s by anthropologists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf • Language creates ways of thinking and perceiving • People perceive the world only in terms of the symbols contained in their language • Each language has its own distinct symbols that serve as building blocks of reality • Instead of objects determining our language, our language determines the way we see objects • Example: perception of such words as negro v. African-American and how Eskimos perceive snow

12. Values, Norms, and Sanctions

13. Components: Values, Norms, Sanctions • Values • Culturally defined standards of desirability, goodness, and beauty that serve as a broad guideline for social living • Beliefs are specific statements that people hold to be true • Values are the broad principles while beliefs are the specifics • Norms • Socially defined rules of behavior • Serve as guidelines for our behavior and our expectations of the behaviors of others • Informal v. formal norms • Norms will change as cultures change

14. Components: Values, Norms, Sanctions • Sanctions • Reactions people get for either following or breaking norms • Positive Sanction • Approval for following a norm • Negative Sanction • Disapproval for breaking a norm • Folkways • Norms that are not strictly enforced • We are expected to do them but there are no laws that require us to do them • Examples include common courtesy and etiquette

15. Components: Values, Norms, Sanctions • Mores • Norms that have a moral basis • Violation of mores may produce moral indignation, shock, and horror • Taboo • Norms that are so strongly ingrained that violation of them brings revulsion • Examples: Incest and cannibalism • Sanctions for violating them are severe • Laws • These are norms that are formalized and back by political authority

16. Subcultures and Countercultures

17. Subcultures and Countercultures • Subculture • The values and related behaviors of a group that distinguishes its members from the larger culture • Everybody is a member of numerous subcultures • Examples: Ethnicity, religion, occupations, home region • Counterculture • Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society • Youth Counterculture • Many societies link counterculture with youth • Military Counterculture • During the 1990s, there was a growth of militaristic groups that were highly suspicious of the federal government

18. Values in U.S. Society

19. Values in U.S. Society • Sociologist Robin Williams’ values of American culture: • Achievement and Success • Individualism • Activity and Work • Efficiency and Practicality • Science and Technology • Progress • Material Comfort • Humanitarianism • Freedom • Democracy • Equality • Racism and Group Superiority

20. Values in U.S. Society • Henslin (2011) added three additional American values: • Education • Religiosity • Romantic Love • Value Clusters • Values together that together form a larger whole • Example: hard work, education, and material comfort go together; you need the first two to get the second

21. Values in U.S. Society • Value Contradictions • Values that contradict one another • To follow one means to come in conflict with another • Racism contradicts freedom and democracy • This can be a major force for social change • A new group of values is emerging in American culture: • Leisure • Self-fulfillment • Physical Fitness • Youthfulness • Concern for the Environment

22. Values in U.S. Society • These new core values are met with strong resistance to more traditional members of society • Culture Wars – Term used to describe the severe clash in values between the generations • There is a big difference between our beliefs in how we should act and how we actually act • Ideal Culture – Values and norms that describe the way we should behave • Real Culture – The values and norms that people actually follow

23. Technology and Culture

24. Technology and Culture • Central to a group’s material culture is its technology • Sets the framework for a groups non-material culture as well • Technology • Tools of a society and the skill and procedures necessary to make and use those tools • New Technology • Emerging technology that has a significant impact on social life • Cultural Lag • Not all parts of a culture changes at the same pace • Some parts may change while others lag behind • New elements of material culture (technology) change faster than non-material • Sometimes, non-material culture never catches up

25. Technology and Culture • Causes of cultural change: • Invention – Creating new cultural elements • Discovery – Recognizing and understanding something that already exists • Diffusion – Spread of objects or ideas from one society to another • Usually societies are eager to adopt more superior tools and weapons • Cultural Leveling • Process in which one culture becomes similar to another

26. Theoretical Analysis of Culture • Functional Analysis • Depicts culture as a complex strategy for meeting human needs • Cultural values give meaning to life and bind people together • Cultural Universals • These are traits that are part of every known culture • Family, funeral rites, and jokes • Social-Conflict Analysis • Draws attention to the link between culture and inequality • Any cultural trait benefits some members of society at the expense of others • Materialism - A society’s system of material production has a strong effect on the rest of a culture • Our competitive values are tied in with our society’s capitalist economy