{

Culture

What do people mean when they say:“You are so cultured”?

Culture

All the shared products of a human group.

Past down from one generation to the next.

Methods by which collections of people deal with their environment.We assume ours is “normal” or “natural”

Material Culture: the physical objects that people create.

Jewelry, art, architecture, weapons

Nonmaterial Culture: abstract human creations.

Ways of thinking and doing (interaction)

Society: group of mutually interdependent people who have organized in a way to share a common culture.

Components of Culture

Culture is learned and shared. Specific components vary among societies and changes occur over time. Emerging technology

has impacted our social life: Culture Lag: when

nonmaterial culture can’t keep up with material culture.

EX: texting and driving

Cultural Diffusion: the spread of cultural characteristics from one group to another.

EX: adoption of superior weapons

Cultural Leveling: process by which cultures become similar

Symbolic Culture

Things people attach meaning to (usually nonmaterial) that they use to communicate.

Gestures: using one’s body to communicate (meanings might change from one culture to the other)

Some gestures are biological.

Language: organization of written or spoken symbols into a standardized system.

Provide deeper understanding of what we are communicatingRepresents objects and abstract thought.Emoticons: “written gestures” for expressing yourself onlinehttp://pc.net/emoticons/

Gestures Quiz

Allows culture to develop – move beyond immediate experiences.

Provides a social or shared past and future – understand past events (times, dates, places).

Allows for shared perspectives – form a shared understanding that forms the basis of social life

Not sharing a language while living alongside one another, invites miscommunication and suspicion.

Allows complex, shared, and goal-directed behaviors – establish purpose.

Language Continued

Language creates ways of thinking and perceiving (rather than objects)

In the United States we have learned to classify people (with given titles) – jocks, goths, stoners, skaters, preps, etc. – because of that we will perceive people in an entirely different way from someone who does not know these classifications.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Values

Values: shared beliefs about what is good or bad, right or wrong, desirable or undesirable.

Value Cluster: values that fit together to form a larger whole.

Value Contradiction: to follow one, means you must given up another

American Value System Certain values are shared by

the majority of Americans. Value systems change due to

various social factors, which leads to value conflicts as some values change over time.

Personal Achievement

Work Morality Humanitarianism Efficiency Practicality Material Comfort Equity Democracy Freedom Self-Fulfillment

Norms

Norms: the shared rules of conduct that tell people how to act in specific situations (expectations) based on a community’s shared values.

One who breaks the norms = deviant.Some people are expected to behave in certain ways based on their specific role in society

EX: profession, age, gender

Folkways: norms that do not have great moral significance attached to them (the etiquette and customs of a people that are not of critical importance to the society).

EX: Walking in the wrong direction at the mall.

Mores: have great moral significance attached to them (violation of them endangers the well-being and stability of society).

EX: man walking down the street with nothing covering his lower half

EX: Stealing, rape, and murder

Some group’s folkways are another group’s mores.

Law: written rule of conduct that is enforced by the government. What is the difference between laws

and mores? Taboo: a norm so strong that it

often brings revulsion if violated EX: eating human flesh, having sex

with one’s parents

Norms Continued

Sanctions

Expressions of approval or disapproval for upholding or violating norms.

Positive: reward or positive reaction (prize, trophy, hug, smile, “high-five”)

Negative: expression of disapproval for breaking a norm (frown, look of disgust, prison sentence)

Physical or Psychological Formal vs. Informal

Moral Holiday: specified times when people are allowed to break a norm

EX: Mardi Gras (public drunkenness and nudity)

Moral Holiday Place: locations where norms are expected to be broken

EX: Red Light District, nude beaches

Urinal Behavior Quiz

Number the Urinals from left to right, 1-5.

Following the scenario given, describe the proper etiquette… girls imagine this with the stales.

Be able to explain your response

Elevator Rules

List the expected etiquette/rules you have learned/follow when using an elevator.

Be sure to explain why that is proper behavior.

{Cultural Diversity

If humans all have the same basic needs, how can cultures be so different?

Some needs are so basic that all societies must develop ways to ensure their fulfillment.

However human beings have the ability to meet these needs in a vast number of ways.

Example - survival => need to care for young => families. But are all families the same?

Cultural Universals

Cultural Variation

Ethnocentrism: the tendency to view one’s own culture and group as superior to others.

Culture Shock: disorientation experienced when we cannot make sense of the world when our nonmaterial culture “fails” us.

Cultural Relativism: cultures should be judged by their own standards of their own culture - viewed from the point of view of the members of that society.

Is there such thing as “normal” and “abnormal” when looking at differences in culture?

Subculture: a group in society that shares values, norms, and behaviors that are not shared by the entire population. EX: Motorcycle enthusiasts,

ICP followers Counterculture: a group

that rejects the values, norms, and practices of the larger society and replaces them with a new set of cultural patterns/practices. EX: Mormons – value

polygamy over monogamy