Transcript Culture
Culture Chapter 3 Culture • Culture is a combination of knowledge, values, language, and customs passed from generation to generation. • Material • Non-material Material and Nonmaterial culture Society • A society is a group of people who live in a particular territory and participate in a common culture. • We are not born knowing our culture, therefore we have to learn it. Instincts • Instincts are unlearned patterns of behavior • Reflexes • Drives Symbols • Symbols are things that stand for or represent something else. • Ex: A confederate flag is a symbol of oppression for African-Americans and a proud cultural heritage for many white southerners. • When something is important in a society it will have many different words to describe it. • Ex: The English language has only a few words to describe snow where the Inuit Eskimo language has over twenty. Norms • Norms are rules defining appropriate and inappropriate behavior. • Norms help to explain why people in a society or group behave similarly in similar circumstances. • Ex. Whispering in church, farting in public • Take a few minutes to list a few norms in our society. Customs • Take a break and read customs on page 82. • Discuss them with the people around you. • Then, find out what folkways, mores, and laws are. Types of Norms • We don't notice norms very often until they are broken. • Ex: if someone breaks in line for the restroom at the Cardinals game. • There are three types of norms: folkways, mores, and laws Folkways • Folkways are rules that are not of serious importance in a society. Folkways lack moral value. • EX: taking your hat off indoors, placing a napkin on your lap at a nice restaurant, not wearing shorts with a shirt and tie. • Disapproval of those who break them is not very great. Mores • Mores are norms of great moral significance. They are vital to the well-being of a society that they be followed. • Some examples of mores being broken are cheating on your husband or wife, ignoring your children, letting your nine year old child play outside at 11 p.m. Taboos • More serious mores are called taboos. A taboo is a more so strong that a violation may require punishment from the group. • EX: incest. Laws • Mores and folkways are often unconsciously created where as laws are consciously created and enforced. • Read the laws on page 86. Sanctions • Sanctions are rewards and punishments that encourage conformity to norms • Formal • Informal Values • Values are broad ideas about what most people in a society consider to be desirable. • Cultural diversity exists in all societies. Some of this diversity results from social categories. • These are characteristics like age, gender, race, religion, etc. These social categories are expected to behave in a certain way. • Ex: 50 cent rapping compared to George Bush rapping. Passing on culture • Culture determines what people like and dislike, believe and don't believe, and what we value or don't value. • It is because of culture that boys feel they need to act manly and girls feel they need to wear makeup or perfume. Subculture • Subcultures exist in large, complex societies. They are smaller cultures inside of larger cultures. • Ex: musicians, professional athletes, the Catholic community, etc. Counterculture • Counterculture is a subculture that is against or opposed to the main beliefs and attitudes of a larger culture. • Ex. Gothic scene, white supremacist groups, hippies. Ethnocentrism • When people judge other cultures based on their own cultural standards this is called ethnocentrism. • We are all probably guilty of doing this at some point. • Ex: putting in lip plates for beauty and status Cultural universals and particulars • Cultural universals are traits that exist in all cultures. • Ex. sports, cooking, religion, funerals, language, etc. • How these cultural universals are practiced, however, are may times completely unique. The difference is called cultural particulars. • Ex: child rearing is a cultural universal. However, in the U.S. women are mostly given the responsibility of taking care of the child, but in New Guinea the man is completely in charge of child rearing.