1. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. CHAPTER 3 Culture

2. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Chapter Outline Culture and Society in a Changing World Components of Culture Technology, Cultural Change, and Diversity Sociological Analysis of Culture Culture in the Future

3. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Culture is 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.

4. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Culture and Society in a Changing World Culture is essential Culture is learned

5. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Discussion What are some ways that members of our society pass on culture to their children?

6. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Material culture consists of the physical or tangible creations that members of a society make, use, and share. o Ex: raw materials, tools, technology, clothing Nonmaterial culture consists of the abstract or intangible human creations of society that influence people’s behavior. o Ex: language, values, beliefs, political systems

7. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Cultural universals are customs and practices that occur across all societies. o Ex: appearance, activities, social institutions, customary practices

8. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Components of Culture Symbols are anything that meaningfully represents something else. Language is a set of symbols that expresses ideas and enables people to think and communicate with one another. o Sapir-Wharf hypothesis: language shapes the view of reality of its speakers

9. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Values are collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture. o Core American Values: individualism achievement and success activity and work science and technology progress and material comfort efficiency and practicality equality morality and humanitarianism freedom and liberty ethnocentrism and group superiority

10. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Value contradictions are values that conflict with one another or are mutually exclusive. Ideal culture refers to the values and standards of behavior that people in a society profess to hold. Real culture refers to the values and standards of behavior that people actually follow.

11. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Norms are established rules of behavior or standards of conduct. o Prescriptive norms are norms that dictate what behavior is appropriate or acceptable. o Proscriptive norms are those norms that state what behavior is inappropriate or unacceptable.

12. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. o Formal norms are norms that are written and involve specific punishments for violator (ex: laws). o Sanctions are rewards for appropriate behavior and penalties for inappropriate behavior. Positive sanctions Negative sanctions o Informal norms are those that are unwritten standards of behavior that are understood by people who share a common identity.

13. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Folkways are informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture. Mores are strongly held norms with moral and ethical considerations that may not be violated without serious consequences in a particular culture. o Taboos are mores so strong that their violation is considered to be extremely offensive and even unmentionable.

14. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Laws are formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and are enforced by formal sanctions.

15. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Discussion What are some examples of norms, mores, taboos, and laws? How do norms, mores, taboos, and laws change over time?

16. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Technology, Cultural Change, and Diversity Cultural lag a gap between the technical development of a society and its moral and legal institutions. o Cultural lag occurs when material culture changes faster than nonmaterial culture. o Discovery is the process of learning about something previously unknown or unrecognized. o Invention is the process of reshaping existing cultural items into a new form. o Diffusion is the transmission of cultural items or social practices from one group or society to another.

17. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Cultural diversity between countries may be the result of natural circumstances or social circumstances. Subcultures are a category of people who share distinguishing attributes, beliefs, values, and/or norms that set them apart in some significant manner from the dominant culture. Countercultures are groups that strongly reject dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles.

18. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Culture shock is the disorientation that people feel when they encounter cultures radically different from their own and believe they cannot depend on their own taken-for-granted assumptions about life.

19. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Ethnocentrism is the practice of judging all other culture by one’s own culture. Cultural relativism is the belief that the behaviors and customs of any culture must be viewed and analyzed by the culture’s own standards.

20. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Discussion What are the advantages of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism? What are the disadvantages of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism?

21. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. A Global Popular Culture? High culture consists of classical music, opera, ballet, live theater, and other activities usually patronized by elite audiences. Popular culture consists of activities, products, and services that are assumed to appeal primarily to members of the working and middle classes. o Ex: fads, fashions

22. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Sociological Analysis of Culture Functionalist Perspective o Culture helps people meet their biological, instrumental, and integrative needs. o Popular culture is the “glue” that holds society together.

23. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Conflict Perspective o Values and norms help create and sustain the privileged position of the powerful in society. o Popular culture is part of the capitalist economy.

24. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective o People create, maintain, and modify culture as they go about their daily activities.

25. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Postmodernist Perspectives o Cultures are based on simulation, and not on reality.

26. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Culture in the Future increased cultural diversity impact of technology

27. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. QUICK QUIZ

28. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. 1. _____ consists of knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects. a. Social structure b. Society c. Culture d. Social organization Answer: c Culture consists of knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects.

29. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. 2. Language, beliefs, values, rules of behavior, family patterns, and political systems are examples of: a. material culture b. high culture c. nonmaterial culture d. cultural universals Answer: c Language, beliefs, values, rules of behavior, family patterns, and political systems are examples of nonmaterial culture.

30. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. 3. According to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: a. reality is objective and is easily understood by humans b. language shapes the view of reality of its speakers c. reality is based on the interactions of individuals d. with more knowledge, a person minimizes the influence of language Answer: b According to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, language shapes the view of reality of its speakers.

31. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. 4. According to the conflict perspective: a. ideas are used by agents of the wealthy to affect the thoughts and actions of members of other classes b. ideas are effective for the working classes to motivate the wealthy c. ideas have little impact on the relations between the wealthy and poor in societies d. none of the choices Answer: a According to conflict theorists, ideas are used by agents of the wealthy to affect the thoughts and actions of members of other classes.

32. © Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. 5. Popular culture consists of: a. activities, products, and services that are assumed to appeal primarily to members of the middle and working classes b. media events, which are typically on TV or the Internet c. ideas that can transform a society, but have yet to take shape or form d. fads to keep the populace uninterested in politics, which then removes them from power and disrupts organization and stability in everyday life Answers: a Popular culture consists of activities, products, and services that are assumed to appeal primarily to members of the middle and working classes.