1. Chapter 3: Culture Culture & Society in a Changing World
Components of Culture
Technology, Cultural Change, & Diversity
A Global Popular Culture
Sociological Analysis of Culture
Culture in the Future

2. Culture:
The knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or society.

3. We ask, therefore:
What part does culture play in shaping people and the social relations in which they participate?
What are the essential components of culture?
To what degree are we shaped by popular culture?
How do subcultures and countercultures reflect diversity within a society?
How do the various sociological perspectives view culture?

4. Culture and Society in a Changing World
Travelers are wise to know what various gestures mean in different cultures
Kicking, showing sole of shoe or throwing a shoe is a great insult in the Arab world
“Hook ’em horns” sign means “your spouse is unfaithful in Italy, or “hang loose” in Hawaii

5. Culture is essential: For our survival
For our communication with other people
For the survival of societies
The common denominator that makes the actions of individuals intelligible to the group
The rules and laws, the systems that make our lives live-able

6. We don’t act as we do out of instinct
Humans don’t have instinct, they have reflexes (unlearned, biologically determined involuntary responses to some physical stimuli) or drives (unlearned, biologically determined impulses common to all members of a species)
Nature: biological & genetic makeup
Nurture: our social environment
Nurture tells us the appropriate way to satisfy our drives

7. Material & Nonmaterial Culture
Material culture consists of the physical or tangible creations that members of a society make, use & share (Examples?)
Nonmaterial culture consists of the abstract or intangible creations of society that influence people’s behavior (Examples?)

8. Cultural Universals:
All humans have the same basic needs (food, clothing, shelter) thus we engage in similar activities that contribute to our survival
George Murdoch compiled a list of >70 cultural universals (customs and practices that occur across all societies)

9. Cultural Universals include:
Physical appearance (bodily adornments, etc.)
Activities (sports, dance, games)
Social institutions (family, law, religion)
Customary practices (cooking, folklore, gift giving, hospitality)
Present but forms vary from society to society
Ensure the smooth and continual operations of societies

10. Cultural universals also:
May be imposed by members of a society on members of another
Conquering nations do this to conquered ones
Examples?

11. Components of Culture:
Symbols: anything that meaningfully represents something else
Shared meanings among people
Can be used to induce loyalty, as well as for animosity
Examples: flags, clothing, cars, logos

12. Language:
A set of symbols that expresses ideas and enables people to think and communicate with one another
Verbal
Written/visual
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis says language shapes the view of reality of its speakers
Not necessarily determinate but certainly influential

13. Language and Gender:
English language ignores women--refers to humans in general in the masculine
He/she usage reflects this, especially as related to occupations
Descriptive terms for women also objectify them
Use of Ms to replace Mrs or Miss is a way to make language less gender biased

14. Language, race, ethnicity:
Language also can reinforce racial stereotypes: blackhearted, a black mark, etc.
Derogatory racial slurs are often used in conjunction with physical threats, “popularized” in movies
Words are used to create or reinforce perceptions about a group (natives as savages or primitives)
Voice of verbs may minimize or wrongly identify the achievements of others

15. More on ethnicity/language
Adjectives that typically have positive connotations can have different meanings when used in certain contexts
Dominant language speakers often feel threatened when they witness others speaking a different language
Assimilation and inclusion often depend upon acquisition of and fluency of language

16. Values:
Collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture
Typically, values come in pairs of positive and negative
We use values to justify our behavior and we defend our values

17. American Values:
Individualism: people are responsible for their own success or failure
Achievement and success: personal achievement results from successful competition with others
Activity & work: we praise those who achieve by industrious work; we ridicule those we see as lazy
Science & technology: faith in advances
Progress & material comfort: we want more than the basics, but nicer things

18. More American values:
Efficiency & practicality: bigger, better, faster
Equality: in the US, this is equality of opportunity, not outcome
Morality and humanitarianism: we help others, particularly after natural disasters
Freedom and liberty: basic rights
Racism and group superiority: we value our own culture group and nation

19. Value contradictions:
Values that conflict with one another or are mutually exclusive
Example: morality and humanitarianism can conflict with individual achievement and success
All countries have these, not only the US

20. Ideal Versus Real Culture
Ideal culture: the values and standards of behavior that people in a society profess to hold
Real culture: the values and standards of behavior that people actually follow
The degree of discrepancy between ideal and real cultures is relevant to sociologists studying social change

21. Norms: Established rules of behavior or standards of conduct
Prescriptive norms state what behavior is appropriate or acceptable
Proscriptive norms state what behavior is inappropriate or unacceptable
Prescriptive: opening the door for someone carrying a heavy load
Proscriptive: texting while driving

22. Norms, continued:
Not all norms are of equal importance, but those most important are formalized
Laws are the most common type of formal norm, enforced by sanctions
Sanctions are rewards for appropriate behavior and penalties for inappropriate behavior
Informal norms--unwritten standards
Informal sanctions--less clearly defined and can be applied by anyone

23. Norms--Folkways:
Informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture
Examples: wearing deodorant, brushing teeth, dressing appropriately
Culture specific, learned

24. Norms--Mores:
Particular culture’s strongly held norms with moral and ethical connotations that may NOT be violated without serious consequences
Based on cultural values, considered to be crucial for the well-being of the group, more serious sanctions
Taboos: mores so strong that their violation is considered to be extremely offensive and even unmentionable

25. Examples of Mores and Taboos
Incest taboo--nearly universal
Sharia law--in Muslim nations that follow the edicts of the Koran relating to dominance of men over women, women may not mix with men in public, must cover up, may go only to women’s banks, see women doctors, etc.

26. Norms--Laws:
Formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and are enforced by formal sanctions
Civil law deals with disputes among persons or groups
Criminal law deals with public safety and well being
When criminal law is violated, fines and prison sentences are the most likely sanctions

27. Technology, Cultural Change, and Diversity