1. Culture George Ritzer Presented by Rolande D. Dathis
Chapter 4
Culture
George Ritzer
Presented by Rolande D. Dathis

2. Definition of culture Group Society vv Ideas Values Practices
Material objects
Internal changes
External changes C
Collective Lives
Age: older people- Young people

3. Culture
A compilation of ideas, values, practices, and material objects that are important to a group of individuals, even at the level of the whole society, and that make them to conduct their collectives lives in relative order and harmony (Ritzer 2015).

4. Basic elements of culture
Symbolic culture and language V
Norms
Values
Material culture
Mores
Symbolic culture
Folkways
Laws
Norms
Language
Sanctions

5. Basic elements of culture
Values : abstracts standards or ideas that a group or the entire society regards as good, desirable, right, or important.
Norms: informal rule that guides appropriate behavior in a given situation.
Material Culture: “ All of the material objects that are reflections or manifestations of a culture”(Ritzer 2015p113).

6. Basic elements of culture
Symbolic culture: “aspects of culture that exist in nonmaterial forms” (Ritzer 2015p114).
Language: “ A set of meaningful symbols that makes possible the communication of culture as well as communication more generally within a given culture, and that calls out the same meaning in the person to whom and utterance is aimed as it does to the person making the utterance”(Ritzer 2015p 114).

7. Types of Norms
Norms : informal rules that guides appropriate behavior for a given situation.
Laws: “ a norm that has been codified, or written down, and is formally enforced through institutions such as the state”(Ritzer 2015p 112).

8. Types of Norms
Sanctions: rewards are given for accepting the norms (positive sanctions) and punishments for violating the norms (Ritzer 2015).
Folkways: norms that are not important, and if violated, carry few if any sanctions (Ritzer 2015).
Mores: norms of great importance whose violation is likely to be met with strong sanctions (Ritzer 2015).

9. Cultural differences Cultural difference Ideal and real culture
High and Low culture
Multiculturalism and Assimilation
Ideology
High
Ideal
Real
Assimilation
Low
Subcultures
Countercultures
Multiculturalism
Culture wars
Identity Politics
Cultural Relativism and Ethnocentrism

10. Cultural differences
Ideal culture – norms and values that members of society claim to follow and believe.
Real Culture - norms and values that people actually follow everyday.
Subculture- a group that operates within the structure of the dominant culture but that are set apart by one or more important characteristics.

11. Cultural differences
Multiculturalism- an environment in which cultural differences are respected and celebrated by the majority group.
Assimilation- the integration of a minority group to the mainstream culture.
Cultural Relativism- the principle that diverse cultures have different norms and values, and that none are superiors to any others.

12. Cultural differences
Ethnocentrism- the view that the norms, values , traditions, and symbols of our own culture are superior to those of other cultural groups.
High Culture- a set of cultural products related to societal elites and thought of as aesthetically rich.
Low culture(popular culture)- a set of cultural products that have appeal to the masses.

13. Emerging issues in culture
Consumer Culture
Global Culture
Children in a consumer culture
Globalization of values
Culture imperialism
Online shopping
Cultural jamming
Americanization
Cyberculture
Anti- Americanization
Prosumers

14. Emerging issues in culture
Global culture- Globalization of values, cultural imperialism, Americanization, anti-Americanization.
Consumer culture- Conspicuous consumption, social aspects of consumption, postconsumer culture, culture jamming.