Transcript Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 8/e

SOCIOLOGY
A Down-to-Earth Approach 8/e
James M. Henslin
Chapter Two
Culture
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Chapter 2: Culture
What is Culture?
- Basics in Sociology
 Language, Beliefs, Values, Norms, Behavior
Passed from One Generation to the Next
 Story in Morocco – unfamiliar territory
and universal norms
 Material – Jewelry, art, buildings, etc.
 Nonmaterial Cultures – beliefs, values, etc.
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Chapter 2: Culture
Culture and Taken-for-Granted
Orientations
 Using your sociological imagination in culture

Meeting someone new and seeing the effects of a much different
culture

Internalization of our norms – eye contact, space, etc.
 Culture Shock – When your material and non-material
fail you. The eerie feeling is culture shock. Ex. Pushing

Ethnocentrism – “Culture within us” - Positive/Negative
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Chapter 2: Culture
Practicing Cultural Relativism
 Understanding cultures on their own terms
 Not seeing the culture as inferior or superior
 None of us can be entirely successful at practicing
cultural relativism. Strange foods. p.39
Evaluation through our lens.
 “Sick Cultures” – Robert Edgerton - Lack of
enhancement in our lives
 Confronting Contrasting Views of Reality
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Chapter 2: Culture
Components of Symbolic Culture or
Non-Material Culture
 Symbol – something to which people attach meaning
and that they use to communicate
Gestures
 Using ones body to convey messages without words
 Gestures’ meaning differ among cultures
 Can Lead to Misunderstandings
 Looking like a Monkey – “Your momma is a whore”
 Left handed Americans
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Chapter 2: Culture
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Chapter 2: Culture
Components of Symbolic
Culture
Language
 Because written language lacks subtle cues,
Emoticons – online use
 Provides social or shared past
 Provides social or shared future
 Allows shared perspective
 Allows complex, shared, goal-directed behavior
 Like Gestures the same sound in one culture is
entirely different in another
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Chapter 2: Culture
Emoticons - Mike Jones Microsoft
Programmer
:-)
Smile
;-)
Smile with a
wink
:<})
User with
mustache,
smiling
:-||
Mad
:-))
Really happy
:-D
Big grin
:-*
A kiss
:' -(
Crying
:-P~
A lick
:-P
Sticking out
your tongue
=8O
Bug-eyed with
:-~~~
fright
Drooling
=:O
Frightened
(hair standing
on end)
User sports a
mohawk and
admires Mr. T
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-:-)
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Chapter 2: Culture
Language and Perception:
Sapir-Whorf
 Language Has Embedded Within It Ways of




Looking at the World
Sapir-Whorf Reverses Common Sense
It is our language that determines our
consciousness
Language both reflects and shapes cultural
experiences
Ex. Goth’s, Jock’s
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Chapter 2: Culture
Values, Norms, and Sanctions
 Values - What is desirable in life

The standards at which we determine what is good or
bad
 Norms - Expectations or rules for behavior

“Should Do”

Expectations in our societies
 Sanctions - Reaction to following or breaking
norms
 Positive Sanctions
 Negative Sanctions
 Moral Holidays – Mardi Gras, Party Cove
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Chapter 2: Culture
Folkways and Mores
 Folkways - Norms not strictly enforced
Walking on the right side of the sidewalk
 Holding a door
 Mores - Core Values: We insist on conformity
 Taboo – Most extreme more
 Law

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Subcultures and
Countercultures
Chapter 2: Culture
 Subculture - A World Within the Dominant





Culture
Example – Physicians
Tens of thousands of subcultures

Some broad – Some specific
Countercultures - Groups With Norms and Values
at Odds With the Dominant Culture
Survivalists -a person who anticipates and
prepares for a future disruption
Enthusiasts v. Gangs
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Chapter 2: Culture
Values in U.S. Society
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Achievement
and Success
Progress
Equality
Individualism
Material
Comfort
Racism and
Group
Superiority
Activity and
Work
Humanitarianism
Education
Efficiency and
Practicality
Freedom
Religiosity
Science and
Technology
Democracy
Romantic Love
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Values Clusters,
Contradictions, and
Social Change
Chapter 2: Culture
 Value Clusters – values that together form a larger whole

Hard work, education, efficiency, material comfort, and
individualism are bound together
 Value Contradiction – to follow the one means that you will
come in conflict with another. Freedom, democracy applied
only to some groups. Women's Liberation, Racism, Sexism
“It is precisely at the point of value contradictions, then, that
one can see a major force for social change in a society.”
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Chapter 2: Culture
Emerging Values
 Leisure
 Luxury Crusies
 Self-fulfillment
 Self help movement
 Physical Fitness
 Fitness centers, IE Curves For Women
 Youthfulness
 Botox
 Concern for the Environment
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Chapter 2: Culture
Values and Culture
 Culture Wars: When Values Clash
 Homosexuality
 Value as Blinders – What is attainable?
 “Ideal” vs. “Real” Culture
 Norms, values etc. that the group sees as
ideal
 However most people don’t reach these
ideals, this is what sociologist call Real
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Chapter 2: Culture
Cultural Universals
 Some Activities are Universal -
Courtship, Marriage, Funerals, Games

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Chapter 2: Culture
Sociobiology
 Controversial View of Human Behavior
 Biology Cause of Human Behavior
 Charles Darwin and Natural Selection
 Sociologists and Social Biologists on
Opposite Sides
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Chapter 2: Culture
Technology in the
Global Village
 The New Technology - New Tools
 Cultural Lag and Cultural Change
 Technology and Cultural Leveling
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