Ch. 2 – The Meaning of Culture 1. Culture: the shared products of human groups to include physical objects, beliefs, values and behaviors.

Culture is learned and shared

2. Material culture: physical objects that people create Examples

3. Nonmaterial culture: abstract items Examples

4. Society: a group of interdependent people who have organized to share a common culture and feeling of unity.

Society consists of people. Culture consists of material objects and nonmaterial items.

Basic components of all cultures: 1. technology 2. symbols 3. language 4. values 5. norms

1. Technology: a combination of objects, rules for using objects and skills

2. Symbols: Through symbols we create our culture and communicate it.

3. Language: organization of written or spoken symbols. All possess acceptable rules of grammar and expression.

4. Values: shared beliefs concerning what is right or wrong. Values help determine the character of the people

List 5 values

5. Norms: shared rules of conduct that tell people how to act in certain ways. These are expectations for behavior. Norms are influenced by geographic factors.

List 5 norms.

Norms are selective in each society. The American society legally permits marriage to one person at a time. Selected groups, such as children, are not permitted to marry at all.

Two types of norms: A. Folkways: norms that describe socially acceptable behaviors that do not have great moral significance. Folkways do not endanger the well-being of society. They are viewed as customs.

Name 5 folkways.

B. Mores: norms that have great moral significance. Societies establish punishments for violating mores because the serious mores have been formalized into laws. Laws are written rules of conduct.

Name 5 mores

11. Cultures continuously change. Sociologists break culture into three levels. A. Culture Traits: simplest level. It is an individual tool, act or belief that is related to a particular situation or need. Examples:

B. Culture Complexes: Individual traits combined to form the next level. It is a cluster of interrelated traits. Examples include material traits, specific acts, beliefs and rules. Examples:

C. Culture Patterns: Complexes that make up a larger level as a whole.

It is a combination of a number of cultural complexes into an interrelated whole. Examples:

Cultural Variations 1. Cultural universals are features that are formed to meet the basic needs and are common to all cultures. In the 1940’s George Murdock identified 65 cultural universals. Examples:

Examples:

’s: Margaret Mead conducted a study of cultural variation to determine if temperament was inherited or learned. She concluded that temperament is a result of culture rather than heredity.

3. Ethnocentrism: The tendency to view one’s own culture as being superior.

4. Cultural relativism: is a belief that cultures should be judged by their own standards rather than by standards of another culture. (Verstehen) This helps others to understand cultures that are different from their own.

5. Social discontinuity: When one gives up their subculture and follows the behaviors of the dominant culture

6. Subculture: groups that share distinct values, norms and behaviors that are not shared by the entire population

7. Edwin Sutherland (1920’s) termed the word, subculture. Subcultures can include: deviance, age, gender, ethnic, religious, political, geographic, social class and occupational. Most do not reject the values and practices of the larger society. Most do not pose a threat to society. These groups add diversity and make society more open to change.

8. In some instances, subcultures possess behaviors and practices that are intended to challenge the values of the larger society. These are called countercultures.

These would include: a group that rejects major values, norms and practices of the larger society and replaces them with a new set of cultural patterns. Examples: hippies of 1960s