CULTURAL VARIATION

SociologyChapter 2 section 2

Cultural Diversity• High culture

– Cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite

• Popular culture– Cultural patterns that are widespread among society’s

population

• Subculture– Cultural patterns set apart some segment of society’s

population

• Counterculture– Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely

accepted within a society

Subcultures

• Subcultures are cultures that exist within a dominant culture that follow the dominant cultures norms and values while still following a different set of norms and values– They coexist with the dominant culture• Ex. Latin American communities, teenagers, religious

denominations, etc.

Sub Culture

* Rave* Ecstasy

Countercultures

• Countercultures exist within a culture with different norms and values, just like subcultures– Countercultures often oppose the dominant

culture, forming from a conflict a social group may have with the dominant culture• Ex. The Hippie movement, Skinheads, cults, etc.

Counter Culture

Pop Culture

The latest trend

High Culture

Museum, art gallery, opera, etc

Cultural elements

• Cultural Traits: individual tool/act/belief of a culture

• Cultural Complex: combines traits into related clusters

• Cultural patterns – combinations of complexes• “education” is a cultural pattern

Traits – Complex- Pattern

• Traits Complex Pattern• Cleats, uniforms Football Sports• Rules skills• Helmets, football______________________ • Soccer ball, cleats Soccer Sports• Rules, goalie• Nets, skills

What do cultures have in common?

• CULTURAL UNIVERSALS:• Features that are common to all cultures. In

World Cultures you most likely learned there are 21 universals. Your text cites anthropologist George Murdock’s model which has more than 65 universals.

Cultural Variations

• Cultural Universals, some examples…– George Murdoch (1945)• Athletic Sports• Cooking• Funeral Ceremonies• Medicine• Dancingamong others...

CULTURAL UNIVERSALS…• Language, communication, and records• Food quest, processing, distribution and consumption• Territoriality• Securing and processing raw materials• Clothing and adornment• Construction, arrangement in settlement patterns, dwellings, and other structures• • Manufacturing and use of instruments,• tools and appliances• • Ownership and exchange of property by individuals • and groups• Travel and transportation• Fine arts, recreation, and entertainment• Sex and reproduction• Kinship, marriage and the family• Education (trans-generational learning)• Social stratification• Political organization (government)• Law – offences, sanctions and justice• Military technology• Medical practices and pharmacology• Religious practices and beliefs• Numbers and measurers• Ethno science

• When sociologists compare 2 societies they will often use cultural universal traits as points of comparison. They will try to account for differences between cultures by considering things such as geography, history and other outside influences.

• Ethnocentrism– The practice of judging another culture

by the standards of one’s own culture

• Cultural relativism– The practice of judging a culture by its

own standards

Other Concepts: