1. Culture and Biology Chapter 3

2. After studying this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
Understand how culture makes possible the variation in human societies.
Distinguish between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
Know the difference between material and nonmaterial culture.
Understand the importance of language in shaping our perception and classification of the world.
Discuss whether or not animals have language.
Understand the roles of innovation, diffusion, and cultural lag in cultural change.
Explain what subcultures are.
Describe cultural universals.

3. The concept of Culture Culture All that human beings learn to do
To use
To produce
To know
To believe as they mature and live out their lives in the social groups to which they belong
Basically a blueprint for living in a particular society

4. Culture and Biology
Human beings, like all other creatures, have basic biological needs

5. Culture Shock
The term used by sociologist to describe the difficulty people have adjusting to a new culture that differs markedly from their own.
Culture shock can also be experienced within a person’s own society.

6. Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
People often make judgments about other cultures according to the customs and values of their own, a practice sociologists call ethnocentrism.
Cultural relativism, the recognition that social groups and cultures must be studied and understood on their own terms before valid comparisons can be made.

7. Cultural relativism is used to avoid ethnocentrism

8. Components of Culture
Sociologists find it helpful to break down culture into separate components:
material culture
objects
nonmaterial culture
rules and shared beliefs
language

9. Material culture
Consists of human technology—all the things human beings make and use, from small hand-held tools to skyscrapers.

10. Nonmaterial culture
Consists of the totality of knowledge, beliefs, values, and rules for appropriate behavior.
The nonmaterial culture is structured by such institutions as the family, religion, education, economy, and government.

11. What five examples of material culture and five examples of nonmaterial culture?

12. Norms
Rules of behavior that are agreed upon and shared within a culture and that prescribe limits of acceptable behavior.
They define “normal” expected behavior and help people achieve predictability in their lives.

13. Examples of mores in America Desecration of a church or temple
Strongly held norms that usually have a moral connotation and are based on the central values of the culture.
Violations
strong negative reactions
Examples of mores in America
Desecration of a church or temple
Sexual molestation of a child,
Rape
Murder
Incest
Child beating

14. Violators of folkways are seen as
Norms that permit a wide degree of individual interpretation as long as certain limits are not overstepped.
Violators of folkways are seen as
Peculiar
Possibly eccentric
Rarely elicit strong public response.

15. Folkways change over time
These two examples illustrate another aspect of folkways:
Not too long ago a man was always expected to hold a door open for a woman, and a woman was never expected to hold a coat for a man.
In the United States, for example, it is customary to thank someone for a gift. To fail to do so is to be ungrateful and ill mannered. Subtle cultural differences can make international gift giving, however, a source of anxiety or embarrassment to well-meaning business travelers.

16. Ideal norms
Expectations of what people should do under perfect conditions.
Must teach our children.
Tend to be simple

17. Real norms
Norms that are expressed with qualifications and allowances for differences in individual behavior.
Specify how people actually behave.
Reflect the fact that a person’s behavior is guided by norms as well as unique situations.

18. Values can also be understood by looking at patterns of behavior
A culture’s general orientations toward life—its notions of what is good and bad, what is desirable and undesirable.
Values can also be understood by looking at patterns of behavior

19. The Origin of Language
Language enables humans to organize the world around
Language makes it possible to teach and share values
Provides the principal means through which culture is transmitted
Allows humans to transcend the limitations imposed by their environment and biological evolution.

20. Language and Culture
All people are shaped by the selectivity of their culture, a process by which some aspects of the world are viewed as important while others are virtually neglected

21. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Argues that the language a person uses determines his or her perception of reality

22. Consider the number of words and expressions pertaining to technology that have entered the English language.
twittering
texting
cyberspace
virtual reality
hackers
phishing
spamming
morphing
googling.

23. The Symbolic Nature of Culture
What does it mean to say that culture is symbolic?

24. Symbol
Anything that represents something else and carries a particular meaning recognized by members of a culture.
Need not share any quality at all with whatever they represent.
Stand for things simply because people agree that they do.

25. Culture and Adaptation
The process by which human beings adjust to changes in their environment.
Culture
Is as much a part of us as our skin, muscles, bones, and brains.

26. Mechanisms of Cultural Change
A society that has few such items will tend to have few innovations, any new practice or tool that becomes widely accepted in a society.

27. Diffusion is the movement of cultural traits from one culture to another.
Marked by reformulation in which a trait is modified in some way so that it fits better in its new context.
Example
The transformation of black folk blues into commercial music such as rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll.

28. Cultural Lag Coined by William F. Ogburn (1964)
Describes the phenomenon through which new patterns of behavior may emerge, even though they conflict with traditional values

29. Subcultures Subculture
Refer to the distinctive lifestyles, values, norms, and beliefs of certain segments of the population within a society.

30. Universals of Culture Cultural universals
Certain models or patterns that have developed in all cultures to resolve these problems.

31. The Incest Taboo, Marriage, and the Family
Example of a
Taboo
Incest-Sexual relations between family members

32. Taboo
The prohibition of a specific action.

33. Rites of Passage Rites of passage
Standardized rituals marking major life transitions.

34. Ideology
Ideologies
Suggest that strongly held beliefs and values, are the cement of social structure.