Transcript Culture - Publish Web Server

Chapter 3
Culture
Introduction
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Listen to Saba Safdar, the Director of the
Centre for Cross-Cultural Research at the
University of Guelph has to say about about
culture in her 2012 Ted talk….
Everything You Always Wanted to Know
About Culture (TedX)
CULTURE is:
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a way of life
developed as people interact with one
another over time
shared, learned, intergenerational
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the totality of learned, socially transmitted
behaviour
all the values, norms, and customs that people
share with one another
all objects and ideas found within a society
Aspects of Culture
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Material culture
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Non-material culture
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The ideas created by members of a society
Ideal culture
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Physical things created by members of a society
The way things should be
Social patterns mandated by values and norms
Real culture
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They way things actually occur in everyday life
Real social patterns we can observe
Material Elements of Culture:
Technology
 Physical
human creations or
artifacts
 Material culture reflects cultural
values and a society's technology
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Information Technology: Postindustrial society uses computers and
other electronic devices
Non-material Elements of
Culture: Symbols
 Anything
that carries a particular
meaning recognized by people
who share a culture
 Societies create new symbols all
the time
 Symbols have shared meanings
which vary from culture to culture
and even within a culture
Non-material Elements: Language
Language is a system of symbols that
allows people to communicate with
one another
 Experts document 7000 languages
 Cultural transmission: The process by
which one generation passes culture to
the next
 Sapir-Whorf thesis: We perceive the
world through the cultural lens of
language
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
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Also known as linguistic determinism
Language determines how we understand the
world and guides our beliefs and actions
“…the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux
of impressions which has to be organized by
our minds - and this means largely by the
linguistic systems in our minds…” (Whorf, 1940)
Linguistic relativism more accepted today
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Language only somewhat shapes our thought and
behaviour
Can language influence how
you spend your money?
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An application of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
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Watch Keith Chen’s Can language influence
how you spend your money?
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Watch Keith Chen’s longer Ted Talk on the
same topic.
Non-material: Values and Beliefs
Values: Culturally defined standards of
desirability, goodness, and beauty,
which serve as broad guidelines for
social living; values support beliefs
 Beliefs: Specific statements that people
hold to be true
 Think of an example of a belief that
you have….what values do you hold
that support that belief?
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Value conflict
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Sometimes one key cultural value
contradicts another:
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Individualistic interests vs. contribution to
larger community
Belief in equality vs. racism
Cooperativeness vs. competitiveness
Value conflict causes strain
 Values change over time
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Global value conflict
 Cultures
have their own values
 Lower-income nations have
cultures that value survival
 Higher-income countries have
cultures that value individualism
and self-expression
 Can you think of an example?
Non-material Elements:
Norms, Mores and Folkways
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Norms: Rules and expectations by which
society guides its members’ behaviour
 Proscriptive (Should-nots) vs Prescriptive
(Shoulds)
 Note that Laws are codified norms
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Mores: Widely observed and have great
moral significance (taboos)
 Difference between right and wrong
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Folkways: guide routine and casual
interaction
The Transmission of Culture
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We pass on culture, especially non-material
elements through the “stories” we tell one
another about life (George Gerbner)
Stories told by our families, teachers, books and
magazines, fictional and non-fictional television
programs, and music are just a few.
Many contemporary stories told by the media
and through advertising
In this way learn the norms and values of our
culture i.e. Safdar on jokes and insults
Reading Culture
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Culture is our code for understanding the
meaning behind the messages we convey
and receive
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In Safdar’s talk, insults and jokes are messages
Media images, music and advertisements are
all messages that carry cultural meaning
“breaching experiments” (H. Garfinkel)
Griselda Pollock and “gender reversals”
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A form of breaching experiment
Used to uncover hidden sexism in ads
Breaching Experiments
(Harold Garfinkel)
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What’s wrong with this picture?
Gender Reversal
Cultural Diversity: Types of Culture
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High Culture (elite culture)
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Middle Culture (most targeted by marketers)
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The culture of “things”
Low Culture (lack wealth)
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The culture of “ideas”
The culture of “people”
Subculture: Cultural patterns that set apart some
segment of society’s population
Counterculture: Cultural patterns that strongly
oppose those widely accepted within a society
Other: Folk culture, youth culture, etc.
Popular culture: widely spread cultural patterns
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Transmitted through media and information technology
Cultural Capital
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French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu
distinguishes between:
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Economic capital (wealth)
Social capital (class and status)
Cultural capital
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Education
Sophistication of taste esp. in consumption
Cultural capital varies across societies and by
subcultures within each society
Cultural Capital and Media
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High advertising
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Low advertising
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Complex, sophisticated imagery
Found in “high brow” magazines, etc.
Simple structure – focus on product
“low brow” placement
Middle advertising
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Compound – has elements of low and high
Often interesting and/or humourous
Cultural (cont.)
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We can see class distinctions in advertising
in western society
Ads reinforce stratified positions in society
Can you see class distinctions in the
following car advertisements?
Popular Culture
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Popular culture: widely spread cultural patterns
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Patterns can be global
Transmitted through media and information
technology
Advertising can be seen as
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A subset of pop culture (Jib Fowles)
As pop culture (Andy Warhol)
As a parallel institution to pop culture
As the “art” of Western culture
 Michael Schudson called it “capitalist realism” as
opposed to socialist realism of communist USSR
in the 1930’s to 1980’s
Cultural Change
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Cultural integration and cultural lag
Cultural change occurs in three main ways…
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Invention (new cultural elements are created)
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Discovery of new ideas or technologies
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Computer technology
The theory of global warming is changing our culture
right now
Cultural diffusion from one society to another or
from one subculture to another subculture within
the same society
Ethnocentrism and Cultural
Relativism
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Ethnocentrism = judging a culture by one’s
own standards
Cultural relativism = judging a culture by its
own standards
Canada is a “multicultural” society
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Culturally diverse
Yet “Eurocentrism” is a problem
Culture shock
Personal disorientation when experiencing an
unfamiliar way of life because of:
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Immigration
Visit a new country
Move between social environments
No way of life is “natural” to humanity, but most
people around the world view their own behaviour
in that way
Have you experienced it??
Bill S-7: Zero Tolerance for
Barbaric Cultural Practices Act
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A reaction to culture shock?
Passed June 15, 2015
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GC News release http://news.gc.ca/web/articleen.do?nid=989099
(http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.a
spx?Language=E&Mode=1&DocId=8057595&File=19)
Should we have a “tip line” to report barbaric
cultural practices?
What about our own Canadian “barbaric
cultural practices”?
Theories of Culture (P. 79)
Watch….
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Journeys into Unknown Cultures: the Nacirema
 Read….
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Body Ritual among the Nacirema by
anthropologist Horace Miner (1956)