Transcript What is Culture?

Unit 2 - Culture
What do you consider culture?
Outcomes
2.1 demonstrate an understanding of the concept of culture
 Describe various elements of culture (e.g., symbols, language,
norms, and values).
 Investigate various theoretical perspectives and viewpoints that
attempt to explain culture (e.g., structural functionalism, conflict,
symbolic interactionism, feminism and post-modern) as well as
cultural materialism and sociobiology.
 Apply these theoretical perspectives to given cultural scenarios.
 Evaluate influences that shape their cultural identity.
Outcomes
2.2 analyze factors related to cultural variation
 Examine factors that contribute to cultural variation.
 Investigate the role of ethnocentrism, cultural
relativism, and dominant culture in cultural variation.
 Compare pluralism to multiculturalism in a Canadian
context.
 Investigate the existence of subcultures and
countercultures in Canadian society.
Outcomes
2.3 analyze factors related to cultural uniformity
 Examine factors that contribute to cultural uniformity.
 Investigate the role of popular culture in fostering cultural
uniformity.
 Formulate a hypothesis regarding the beneficial and/or
detrimental effects of cultural assimilation.
 Compare the attributes of cultural uniformity with those of
cultural variation.
 Examine the concepts of “dominant culture” and
“multiculturalism” within the context of Canadian Society.
Outcomes
2.4 investigate the process of cultural change
 Analyze factors that contribute to the process of
cultural change.
 Describe the role of cultural lag and cultural diffusion
in the process of cultural change.
 Assess society’s response to the process of cultural
change.
 Evaluate the beneficial and detrimental effects of
cultural change.
So, What is Culture?
WHY IS THIS THING
SO HARD TO DEFINE?
What is Culture?
Please put this in your notes!
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Culture is the combined thoughts, attitudes, and
beliefs of a group of people who tend to live in
the same geographic area.
Although cultures begin within specific geographic
locations, they can spread across the globe due to
voluntary or forced migration.
Culture is expressed through a variety of methods
including dress, language, religion, and food.
Cultural Expression
Tower
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Food
Geography
Language
Religion
Dress
Architecture
My Cultural
Expression Tower
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Homemade bread and tea
Rocks and ocean
Whur ya to?
Lapsed Catholic
Skirts, dresses, t-shirts
Old, small houses
(now apt.)
Cultural Stereotypes
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Cultural Stereotypes, or National Character?
Are generalizations about national groups
just caricatures?
How can stereotypes be harmful?
“I am…” Poem
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An “I am…” poem is a poem that is all about
you and the things that you are.
This particular “I am…” poem is going to be
about your cultural identity.
Using the starter “I am…” finish the sentence
with something that describes you in terms of
your culture, how you define yourself.
My “I am…” Poem
I am an older sister
I am from I.A.M, Newfoundland
I am fish and brewis, molasses
buns, and baloney stew
I am losing my accent
I am Terry’s young maid
I am a terrible Roman Catholic
I am brightly painted wooden
houses and dories
I am skirts and cardigans
I am great music, funny TV, and
hilariously terrible movies
I am a 3.97 GPA in my last two
semesters of my undergrad
I am not getting enough sleep.
Ever.
Now it’s your turn!
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Get something to write on and something to write with and
create your own “I am…” poem.
Be sure to think about the tower of cultural expression (but feel
free to write about what you feel is culturally relevant to you) :
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Food
Geography
Language
Religion
Dress
Architecture
8-10 lines, no more than 15 please!
Be prepared to share! I won’t force anyone but participation is
an expectation! 
This is formative, so I will be collecting these.