1. Sociology and Culture

2. What is Culture? All shared products of human groups Includes… –Physical objects –Beliefs –Values –Behaviors …that are shared by a people

3. First Cultural Subcategory Non-material culture –Abstract human creations like… Language Ideas Skills Thinking Ways of doing things

4. Second Cultural Subcategory Material Culture –The physical objects that make up our culture Books CDs/Ipods Jewelry Art Buildings Weapons Clothing

5. Characteristics of Culture Culture is shared Culture is learned Culture is symbolic Culture is dynamic Culture is taken for granted

6. Culture is taken for granted! “The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water.” Ralph Linton Anthropologist

7. Culture is Learned There is nothing “natural” about culture; it is fabricated by humans and passed on from generation to generation.

8. Culture’s Significance is Huge! We came into this world without language, values, morality, religion, war, money, love, use of public space and personal boundaries, etc. These are LEARNED and SHARED ways of believing and affect how we see the world. Culture is the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us.

9. The lens through which we view life remains largely beyond our perception. Think about how we don’t see ourselves as having an accent while others do.

10. Challenging Our Assumptions Culture Shock –When your culture (both material and non-material) fails you and you can no longer make sense of the world around you. –When might culture shock occur?

11. Challenging Our Assumptions Ethnocentrism –The tendency to view one’s own culture as superior –Positive Consequence: loyalty to group –Negative Consequence: discrimination against other cultures –Give an example of each type of consequence in action

12. Cultural Relativism Keeping an open mind and adopting the attitude that cultures should be judged by their own standards.

13. Applying Cultural Relativism - India Anthropologist Marvin Harris has studied Indian culture Harris says many see the idea that cows are sacred as absurd, especially when many Indians are starving.

14. Indian Culture and Cows Cows play a vital role in India’s economy. –Used to plow the fields since most don’t have the machinery –Crops could not be harvested without this beast of burden. –Milk is a staple of the Indian diet

15. Knowing more about the Indian culture helps us understand why cows are sacred and not to be killed.

16. Subcultures Generally not a threat to society, in fact, sometimes we are dependent on subcultures Fields of occupation are subcultures… –Police or Firefighters –Teachers –Doctors

17. Counterculture A subculture that develops to challenge the values of larger societies The Mormons are often considered a counterculture, as are the Amish

18. Cultural Universals Basic needs that all societies must have –Cooking –Feast Days/Holidays –Tool making –Music –Religion –Sports There are over 60 cultural universals Can you think of three more universals?

19. Universals: Similar, yet Different Marriage –In the Western World 2 people get married because they want to –In India many marriages are arranged at birth Cooking –In the Jewish culture you can’t eat pork –Hindus don’t eat beef (think back to the previous discussion of sacred cows)

20. Read “You Are What You Eat?” and try to practice cultural relativism…try to find ways in which the described cultures’ foods can be a wonderful sign of culture. What foods do we eat that people from other cultures may think are gross? Explain.