Culture project - Learning with Skalberson

Download Report

Transcript Culture project - Learning with Skalberson

SOCIOLOGY
A Down-to-Earth Approach 8/e
James M. Henslin
Chapter Two
Culture
This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:
•
any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;
•
preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images;
•
any rental, lease, or lending of the program.
Culture
Chapter 2: Culture
 What is it?

Language, beliefs, values, norms, behavior passed from
one generation to the next
 Story in Morocco – pgs. 37-38

unfamiliar territory and universal norms
 Material Culture

– jewelry, art, buildings, weapons, clothing, etc.
 Nonmaterial (also call symbolic) Culture

beliefs, values, etc.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
2
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.
OUR speech, OUR gestures, OUR beliefs, and OUR
customs—we usually take for granted.

WE assume they are normal or natural
 Culture touches almost every aspect of who and what we
are


Came into the world without language, values, and no ideas
about money, religion, or love…
Yet by now, we have acquired all of them

Sociologists call that “The culture within us”

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Learned ways of sharing and believing
3
Chapter 2: Culture
 Culture Shock

When your material and non-material fail you

When you are no longer able to make sense out of the
world

I.e. The pushing to buy a ticket
 Ethnocentrism

The use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging
ways of other individuals or societies.


Generally leads to negative evaluation of values, beliefs, &
norms
Positive and Negative consequences


Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Pos- creates in-group loyaties
Neg- can lead to discrimination against people whose ways
are different from ours.
4
Practicing Cultural Relativism
Chapter 2: Culture
 What is it?


Not judging a culture BUT trying to understand its 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



We evaluate cultures based on “quality of life”
Confronting contrasting views of reality
“Cultural values that result in exploitation are inferior to those
that enhance people’s lives.”
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
5
Components of Symbolic Culture or NonMaterial Culture
Chapter 2: 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
 Left handed Americans
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
6
Chapter 2: Culture
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
7
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
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
8
Chapter 2: Culture
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
9
Chapter 2: Culture
Language and Perception:
Sapir-Whorf
 Language has embedded within it ways of looking at the
world
 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Hopi Indians (past, present,
future)


reverses common sense
Instead of objects and events forcing themselves into our
consciousness, it is our language that determines our
consciousness—hence our perception of objects and events
 Language both reflects and shapes cultural experiences
 Ex. Goth’s, Jock’s

Seeing people in ways than others who don’t understand the
classification
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
10
Values, Norms, and Sanctions
Chapter 2: Culture
 Values – Ideas of 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

Approval for following the norm (high fives, $, prizes, smiles, hugs)
 Negative Sanctions

Reflects disapproval for breaking the norm (fines, frowns, stares)
 Moral Holidays – Specified times when people are allowed to
break the norms

Mardi Gras, Spring Break
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
11
Chapter 2: Culture
Folkways and Mores
 Folkways - Norms not strictly enforced
Walking on the right side of the sidewalk
 Holding a door
 Mores -strong and important norms of a society
Violation of mores will evoke severe punishment.


Typically tend to be illegal (bigamy, stealing, murder)
 Taboo – More that is so ingrained that the thought of
its violation is greeted with revulsion

Cannibalism, incest
 Laws
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
12
Chapter 2: Culture
Subcultures & Countercultures
 Subculture – A world within the dominant culture (pg54-55)

Example – Doctors, Politicians (occupational groups)
 Tens of thousands of subcultures in US society
Some broad (teenagers)

Some specific (body builders)

Can also have ethnic subcultures
 Countercultures – Groups with norms and values at odds with
the dominant culture




Motorcycle enthusiasts vs Hell’s Angels
Hippies
Mormons- 1800s challenged monogamy

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Driven west; conditions of Utah’s statehood
13
Chapter 2: Culture
Values in U.S. Society (pg 53)
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
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
14
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.”
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
15
Emerging Values
Chapter 2: Culture
 Leisure

Cruises, computer games, sporting events, flatscreen/HD
 Self-fulfillment
 Self help, reaching full potential, “be all one can be”
 Physical Fitness

Nutrition/Organic foods, weightloss centers, Personal
trainers
 Youthfulness
 Botox, anti-aging creams, plastic surgery
 Concern for the Environment
 Recycle; Go “green”
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
16
Values and Culture
Chapter 2: Culture
 Culture Wars:

Traditions being threatened and challenged


Gay Marriage
Efforts to change gender roles
 Value as Blinders – Everyone can make it!

Despite obstacles they may face-poverty, family, education
 “Ideal” vs. “Real” Culture

Norms, values etc. that the group sees as ideal



Being successful—worth aspiring to
Being a millionaire or famous
However most people don’t reach these ideals, this is
what sociologist call real—norms and values that people
actually follow.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
17
Chapter 2: Culture
Cultural Universals
 Some Activities are Universal - Courtship,
Marriage, Funerals, Games

Page 56
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
18
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
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
19
Chapter 2: Culture
Technology in the Global Village
 The New Technology - New Tools
 Cultural Lag and Cultural Change
 Technology and Cultural Leveling
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
20