Culture 1 - Weebly



Unit 2: Culture and Society

1. What is Culture?

2. Relationship between Culture and Society

3. Cultural thinking

4. Symbolic culture

a. Gestures

b. Language

c. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

5. Components of Culture

a. Values

b. Norms

c. Sanctions

6. Subcultures

7. Culture and Change

Culture and Society

• Culture –

• Humans are to Culture ________________________________________________

• The last thing which a dweller in the deep sea would be likely to discover would be water. He would become conscious of its existence only if some accident brought him to the surface and introduced him to air. Man, throughout most of his history, has been only vaguely conscious of the existence of culture and has owed even this consciousness to contrast between the customs of his own society and those of some other with which he happened to be brought into contact,”

• Ralph Linton (1945)

• Culture-

• Common Problems in the world

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• Culture = Survival

• Characteristics of Culture

o Culture is ____________________

o Culture is ____________________

o Culture is ____________________

o Culture is ____________________

o Culture _________________________________

Culture

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Activity 1

You have 90 seconds to divide the list of things into two or more categories:

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• Material Culture-

o Examples:

• Nonmaterial Culture-

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Two sides of a Coin

• Culture-

• Society-

Identify the following statements as true or false.

| |American culture is more advanced than Mexican culture. |

| |The Eskimos are better then the Pygmies because the Eskimos adopted a modern way of life. |

| |The British drive on the wrong side of the road. |

| |Democracy is the best government. |

| |It is wrong to eat dog. |

| |It is rude to haggle over the price of an item. |

| |It is wrong to show up late for an appointment. |

Culture

• Ethnocentrism-

o Creates in-group solidarity but can also lead to discrimination.

• Cultural Relativism-

o Helps us appreciate other ways of life.

Make each of the ethnocentric statements into a cultural relativism statement.

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Culture provides a taken-for-granted orientation to life.

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• It penetrates our lives so deeply that it is taken for granted and provides the lens through which we evaluate things.

• It provides implicit instructions for what we ought to do and a moral imperative that defines what we think is right and wrong.

Culture Shock

• Coming into contact with a radically different culture produces culture shock

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Components of Symbolic Culture

• Sociologists sometimes refer to non-material culture as symbolic culture.

• A central component of culture is the symbol

• Symbols-

o Examples:

Gestures

• Gestures-

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o There is disagreement over whether there are any universal gestures.

Language

• Language-

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• Allows human experience to be cumulative.

– Shared experiences/ shared perspectives

– Allows humans to exchange perspectives.

– It allows humans to engage in complex, shared, goal directed behavior.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

• Sapir-Whorf hypothesis-

o Rather than objects and events forcing themselves onto our consciousness, our very language determines our consciousness.

Culture includes values, norms and sanctions.

• Values-

o Values are criteria that people use in assessing their daily lives, arranging their priorities, measuring their pleasure and pain and choosing between alternative courses of action.

o Values are the cornerstone of our daily routine.

o EX. Family Unit, choice in mate selection, equality

Components of Culture con’t

• Norms

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|Types of Norms |

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Components of Culture

• Norms-

– Laws

– Folkways

– Mores

• Taboos –

Components of Culture

• Sanctions –

– Positive Sanctions-

– Negative Sanctions

• Sanctions can be formal and informal

– Formal Sanctions

– Informal Sanctions

After you complete the Rubik’s Cube WS answer the following questions?

• How does society punish people who violate its folkways?

• How does society punish people who violate its mores?

• Do you agree or disagree with the following statement:

– “The principal means of social control is self-control. Self control is learned through the internalization of norms. Internalization is the process by which a norm becomes a part of an individual’s personality, thereby making the individual automatically conform to society’s expectations.”

Subcultures and counterculture are often found within a broader culture

• Subculture-

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o Individuals can participate in a number of different cultures in a course of the day.

o Ex. College campus culture vs. culture of the family or neighborhood.

o Ex. Italians, Jews, Native Americans….

Types of Subcultures

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Cultural Universals

• Cultural Universals –

o Customs about courtship, cooking, marriage, funerals, games, laws, music, myths, and incest taboos and toilet training are present in all cultures.

o Specific customs may differ from group to group.

Animals and Culture

• Do animals have culture?

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Culture and Change

• Although for most part of human history, cultures had little contact with one another, there has always been some contact with other groups, resulting in groups learning from one another.

• Cultural Diffusion-

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Culture and Change

• A culture can change through acculturation.

• Acculturation-

o Example:

Culture and Change

• A culture can change through Innovations-

o Examples:

• Not all parts of culture change at the same pace; Culture lag-

o Examples:

• Cultural Diffusion occurs more rapidly today, given the technology.

• Travel and communication unite the world.

• This leads to cultural leveling-

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Culture Unit Vocabulary

Culture 1

Culture 2

Problems Culture Answers

Characteristics of Culture

Material Culture

Nonmaterial Culture

Society

Ethnocentrism

Cultural Relativism

Culture Shock

Symbolic Culture

Symbols

Gestures

Language

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Values

Norms

Sanctions

Laws

Folkways

Mores

Taboos

Subculture

Ethnic subculture

Occupational Subcultures

Religious Subcultures

Geographic Subcultures

Social Class Subcultures

Devinant subcultures (Countercultures)

Culture lag

Innovations

Cultural Diffusion

Cultural Leveling

Possible Essay Questions

1. Discuss the importance of gestures for communicating with others.

2. Discuss the primary ways that language facilitates culture.

3. Values, norms and sanctions are part of the nonmaterial culture. Explain how norms, values and sanctions are interrelated. Be as specific as possible. Provide and example to illustrate the interrelation.

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