Cultural DiversityChapter 2

What is Diversity?

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Culture

• Culture: The shared products of human groups• The physical objects and the beliefs, values,

and behaviors shared by a group.• Material Culture: The physical objects that

people create• Automobiles, books, buildings, clothing, music,

computers, cooking utensils, etc.• Nonmaterial Culture: Abstract human creations• Beliefs, family patterns, ideas, language,

political and economic systems, rules, skills, work practices

Society v. Culture

• People tend to use society and culture interchangeably, but they aren’t interchangeable.• Society: A group of interdependent people who

have organized in such a way as to share a common culture and feeling of unity.• Society consists of people• Culture consists of the material and

nonmaterial products that people create.

The Components of Culture

• Technology: Knowledge and tools people use for practical reasons.• Sociologists are not only interested in

skills, but also in the rules of acceptable behavior when using material culture.• Ex. Computer hacking, illegal internet

sites, texting, sexting, T.V chips, mod chips in video game consoles.

The Components of Culture

• Symbols: Anything that represents something else.•What are some symbols here at

school? In the community? In the country?

The Components of Culture

• Language: The organization of written or spoken symbols into a standardized system.•We all speak the American form of

English, but do we all speak it the same way?

The Components of Culture

• Chevy Nova is not selling in Spanish speaking countries because No Va = It won’t go in Spanish…• John F. Kennedy..Ich bin ein Berliner…• Other examples?

The Components of Culture

• Gestures- the way people use their bodies to communicate- hand, face, body language.• Vary widely from culture to culture.

The Components of Culture

•Values: Shared beliefs about what is good or bad, right or wrong, desirable or undesirable.• The types of values held by a group

help to determine the character of its people and the kinds of material and nonmaterial culture they create.

Cultural Comparison

• Yanomamo- Border of Brazil and Venezuela• Warfare and feats of male strength common.• 30% of all deaths of males are from wounds

sustained in battle.• Farming villages can support 500 to 1,000

people, but the Yanomamo can only support 200 at a time.• War splits the village into new settlements.

Cultural Comparison

• San- • Society based on cooperation.• The San groups have their own territories

and they don’t trespass on other land.• All take part in search for food, except old,

very young, sick.• The game they hunt is shared throughout

the group.

Values

• Norms: Shared rules of conduct that tell people how to act in specific situations.• Norms are expectations for behavior not

actual behavior!• Norms range from the unimportant to the

very important•What are some unimportant norms?•What are some important norms?

Norms

• Are all norms specific to all people and all locations across the country?• http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_HrzDoSHn4&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active• Sociologists distinguish between two types

of norms;• Folkways • Mores (MAWR-ayz)

Folkways

• Norms that describe socially acceptable behavior but do not have great moral significance attached to them.• They outline the common customs of everyday life.• Don’t put food in your mouth with a knife.• Don’t let the American flag touch the ground when

raising and lowering it.• Shake hands when introduced to someone.• Hold doors for women.• Don’t spit• Don’t burp after meals.

Mores

• Norms that have great moral significance attached to them.• Dishonesty, fraud, murder

Laws

•Written rules of conduct enacted and enforced by the government.• Laws enforce mores (rape, theft, murder,

arson) as well as folkways (not parking in handicap spaces).

Three Levels of Culture

Culture Pattern

Culture Complex

Culture Trait

Culture Traits

• An individual tool, act, or belief that is related to a particular situation or need.• Using knives, forks, and spoons when

eating.• Greeting a friend by saying “Hi”, but

being more formal when meeting a human-resource manager at a job interview.

Culture Complexes• Culture traits combine to form the next level- culture

complexes.• A culture complex is a cluster of interrelated traits.• Ex. Football, think of…material traits (football, chains, cleats,

helmets, pads, first-aid kits, benches), specific acts (kicking, passing ,tackling, running, catching), specific beliefs (rules followed, penalties for rule violations, etc.), and sport culture (marketing, T.V. rights, advertising, financing).

Culture Patterns

•Culture complexes combine to form larger levels called culture patterns.•Culture patterns are the combination

of a number of culture complexes into an interrelated whole.

Culture Patterns

• The complexes of baseball, basketball, football, soccer, swimming, tennis, etc. combine to form the American athletic pattern.• Other patterns include; agriculture, education,

family life, religion.

Culture Variations

• Basic needs that all societies must develop to ensure fulfillment of basic needs.• Cultures can be different, but people have

basic needs that need to be met.• Humans have the ability to meet those

needs in a vast number of ways.

Murdock’s Cultural Universals

• George Murdock- Anthropologist.• What general traits are common to all cultures?• Identified 65 cultural universals.• *Body Adornment *Religion• *Family *Dancing• *Language *Music• *Myths/folklore *Sports• *Funeral ceremonies

Ethnocentrism

• The tendency to view one’s own culture and group as superior.• People in all societies are, at times,

ethnocentric.• The belief that the characteristics of one’s

group or society are right and good helps build group unity.

Ethnocentrism

• At times, belief of the superiority of a society results from technological advances that make one group see others as inferior.•When ethnocentrism, becomes extreme,

culture can stagnate.• By limiting the pool of acceptable members,

groups and societies run the risk of excluding new influences that might prove beneficial.

Cultural Relativism

• The belief that cultures should be judged by their own standards rather than by applying the standards of another culture.• In other words, people who practice cultural

relativism attempt to understand cultural practices from the points of view of the members of the society being studied.• Cultural relativism helps sociologists

understand practices that seem strange or different from those of their own culture.• Ex. Cows in India

Variation Within Society

• Cultural variations exist among societies and also within societies.• Variation within a society come from

different cultural subgroups.• Subculture: A group with its own unique

values, norms, and behaviors that exists within a larger culture.•What are some examples of subcultures at

NRHS? The United States?

Subcultures

Subcultures

•Most subcultures do not reject all of the values and practices of the larger society.• Ex. Students who live in Chinatown in San

Francisco still have many broad American cultural traits.• Ex. going to public schools, playing with

American toys, and working similar jobs.• At the same time, they celebrate Chinese

New Year and have different traditions and customs outside of American culture.

Counterculture

• In some instances, subcultural practices are consciously intended to challenge the values of the larger society.• Sometimes a group rejects the major values,

norms and practices of the larger society and replaces them with a new set of cultural patterns.• These groups are called countercultures• Ex. anarchists, hippies, organized crime

families, etc.