CULTURE

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CULTURE
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CULTURAL DIVERSITY

• When studying culture the science of sociology
  focuses on a number of variables
• Language, art, ceremonies, rituals, religion,
  rules of behavior, social organization, food, and
  work to name a few

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The Meaning of Culture

• Culture consists of all the shared products of
  human groups and include both physical objects as
  well as beliefs, values, and behaviors.
• Each human group (ex Americans) have their own
  distinct culture

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The Meaning of Culture

• Before we go any farther consider the difference
• 1. A society is a group of interdependent people
  who have organized themselves so that they all
  use and share a common culture and sense of
  unity. (PEOPLE)
• 2. Culture are the uniform constructs of material
  and nonmaterial products that they share.
• (THINGS)

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Culture

• All of the physical objects the are created and
  used by a group constitute their material
  culture.
• In the U.S. for example there are
• Automobiles, computers, clothing, jewelry, TVs,
  etc.

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Culture

• Abstract creations by a society form a category
  called nonmaterial culture (intangible concepts
  and ideas created by a society)
• Examples in the U.S. include
• family patterns, ideas, language, work
  practices, educational practices,
• etc.

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Culture

• Culture shock Oh my goodness what is wrong with
  these people.

No AC!
NO AC!
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• There Is No Natural Way Of Life For Human Beings!

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Components of Culture

• Though differences can be found within cultures,
  most cultures share a common components they are
• Technology physical objects and the rules for
  using them.
• In the U.S. the automobile and the laws needed
  to drive one.
• A computer and skills to use it.

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Components of Culture

• Symbols any word, gesture, image, sound,
  physical object, event, or element of the natural
  world that represents something else and has a
  shared meaning attached to it.
• In the U.S. hello, the middle finger,
  waving, a flag, stop sign, a badge, a tie, a
  baseball hat, etc.

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Components of Culture

• Language organization of written and spoken
  symbols into a standardized system. When
  organized by rules of grammar words (abstract)
  can symbolize anything.
• Imagine your life in a society where you do
  not speak the language.

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Sapir-Whorf Thesis

• Language shapes the world we see.
• Therefore can we appreciate or understand
  objects, situations, occurrences etc., that our
  language does not identify as existing?

• Consider
• The language of certain Nomadic Arab tribes has
  dozens of words for sand.
• What do you see?

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Traditional Inuit languages have nearly a hundred
words for ice and sea ice.
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Components of Culture

• Values shared beliefs about what is good or bad,
  right or wrong, desirable or undesirable.
• Values effect many things the character of a
  groups people, material/nonmaterial culture, how
  young will be raised, etc.
• Beliefs commonly held ideas or premise as to
  what is true and valid.

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Real Americans
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American Value System

• One must first recognize that studying American
  culture is inherently different from that of any
  other nation.
• Our diverse society creates a culture that is as
  different as it is uniform.
• What is often referred to as American culture is
  more or less Traditional American Culture

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Traditional American Values

• Though not complete and easily disputable most
  sociologists studying American society would
  agree that U.S. culture contains most of the
  following values.
• Personal Achievement supported by long held
  values such as individualism and competition.
  Evident in regards to the amassing of wealth and
  power. Manifest factorsgt high-paying/high-power
  jobs leading to material gains and status.

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Traditional American Values

• 2. Individualism individual effort personal
  achievement. Success and all of its attachments
  can only come with hard work and initiative. By
  and large individual effort was the cornerstone
  of American entrepreneurial ship or the saying
  Pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. Downside
  is that if one does not succeed they in some
  manner are to blame. Social services v. limited
  govt intervention

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Traditional American Values

• Work Generally speaking Americans value ideals
  such as discipline, dedication, and hard work and
  attach them as signs of virtue. For this reason
  work is highly regarded irregardless of rewards.
• Attached to this mindset would be the viewing of
  those who choose not to work as lazy, immoral, or
  lacking.
• Also consider that we as a culture work more than
  almost any other industrialized nation on the
  planet.

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Traditional American Values

• 4. Morality and Humanitarianism The U.S. was
  founded as a religious nation, incorporating a
  strong belief in justice, equality, and charity
  to those less fortunate. Therefore generally
  speaking, morality (right and wrong) factor
  largely in regards to personal and societal
  decisions and actions.

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Traditional American Values

• 5. Efficiency and Practicality Americans tend to
  be by nature pragmatists that is we are
  pragmatic. Every issue or challenge has an
  efficient/practical solution to solve it.
  Therefore Americans judge objects or actions as
  useful or not according to their ability to get
  things done. In addition would be the notion that
  what solves a problem easier and with less waste
  is superior throughout.

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Traditional American Values

• 6. Progress and Material Comfort American
  society has always relied on technological
  advances and inventions to move us forward.
  Coupled with this belief, would be the position
  that living standards and life in general will
  improve.
• This progress has usually relied on science and
  technology to make changes.
• All of this connects with the reliance on and
  high value placed on material comfort.

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Traditional American Values

• 6. Equality and Democracy Many Americans feel
  that to have human equality there must be equal
  opportunity and an equal chance of success as
  outlined in the Declaration of Independence as,
  that all men are created equal. Equally as
  important to Americans is the importance placed
  on our form of govt, Democracy. Americans feel
  that they have a right to express their opinions
  and complaints in regards to their representation.

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Traditional American Values

• Freedom Particularly close to the hearts of
  Americans are personal freedoms. Religion,
  Speech, Press, Right to Assembly, Right to Arms,
  Secure in our Private Effects and others. We
  place a much higher value on individual
  initiative than the collective best interest.
• In addition Americans feel that our lifestyles as
  well as business dealings should be free from the
  most basic of government intervention.

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Traditional American Values

• 8. Education Americans place a high value on the
  attainment of education. From the completion of
  mandated K-12 schooling to the advancement to
  Higher Education, Americans feel that the path to
  success, achievement, and material comfort is
  through education.

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Traditional American Values

• Honesty/Punctuality Americans place great value
  on the noble act of being honest in all ones
  person and business affairs. Those who are not
  are met with disapproval and sometimes shunned or
  stripped of their accolades.
• Another uniquely American/Anglo concept is that
  of being on time. American culture dictates you
  usually should not be early but never late, and
  if you are call.

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Traditional American Values

1. Romantic Love Concepts such as dating, marriage
   based on love, casual sex, and informal relations
   between the sexes in many ways originated in the
   U.S. before spreading to other parts of Western
   culture.
2. Religious Principles Though observation of a
   specific religion is not given importance, the
   living of ones life by religious ideals is
   important to the majority of Americans.

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Traditional American Values

• 12. Patriotism Because of our isolated and
  individualistic society, Americans have always
  gained notoriety in their sense of both
  nationalism and patriotism to the causes and
  interests of their nation.

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Our Changing Values

• Though they would not be considered widespread
  and have not endured for a long enough period of
  time, many burgeoning values in the U.S. are
  beginning to take hold and affect how policies
  and opinions are formed.
• Self-fulfillmentleisure, youthfulness, physical
  fitness, healthy eating, tanning,
  plastic-surgery, etc.gt many sociologists are
  defining this growing trend as narcissism (or
  extreme self-centeredness) and label it as a
  personality disorder or at least detrimental for
  our society and culture.

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Our Changing Values

• Environmental Concern Protecting the environment
  even if it means slowing economic growth is
  gaining favor amongst Americans at large. In all
  Americans are realizing Industrial growth must be
  matched with valuing the environment.

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Components of Culture

• 6. Norms Shared rules of conduct that tell
  people how to act in specific situations. Keep in
  mind that norms are expectations for how to act
  and not actual behavior. It is against our
  societys norms to steal but many still do it.
• Norms are however a rather broad category and
  to distinguish between the essential and the
  desirable, sociologists create (2) categories

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NORMS

• 6a. Folkways norms that describe socially
  acceptable behavior but do not have great moral
  significance attached to them. They in many ways
  outline how we should act in everyday life.
• Ex dont spit your gum on a sidewalk, dont cut
  someone in line, be quiet in the movies, dont
  keep people waiting

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NORMS

• 6b. Mores norms that have great moral
  significance attached to them. Rules that when
  violated endanger societys well-being and
  stability.
• Ex embezzlement, murder, cheating on taxes,
  etc.
• Laws written rules of conduct enacted and
  enforced by a government, to stabilize society in
  terms of mores and to discourage against the
  breaking of less severe folkways

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How Does Culture Get Itself To work?

• Social Control
• Every society develops norms to define its
  culture and society. Therefore, for every society
  to run smoothly, these norms must be enforced.
  Enforcement (arrest, disgrace, embarrassment
  etc,) comes in (2) forms
• Internalization
• Sanctions

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Social Control

• Overview
• The enforcing of norms internally or externally
  is called Social Control.
• The principal means is internalization, when that
  fails, external agencies such as police, courts,
  religion, family, an public opinion step up.
• Core Concept All of these components must work
  interchangeably. When or if they fail social
  order is jeopardized. When social order is lost
  social stability cannot prevail, and in the end
  no society can survive without a system of social
  control.

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What Do We REALLY Learn?

• IDEAL v. REAL Culture
• Identify a society's cultural components and we
  now know what is important to its people. Yet
• it does little to predict what people will
  do.

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We value free enterprise yet 700 Billion?
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Cultural Variation

• How are we as a culture similar to these three
  countries?

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Subcultures

• Within every culture exists subcultures.
• Subcultures develop from different age groups,
  genders, ethnicities, geographic areas,
  religions, social-classes, occupations etc.
• What are some subcultures you belong to?

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Subcultures

• Subcultures (e.g. Little Moscow) do not reject
  all of the values and practices of a larger
  society. They however have traits that are not
  shared by the larger society.
• Most do not threaten the larger society
• Modern society needs subcultures to perform
  various roles
• Allow society to be diverse and over time change

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Countercultures

• Countercultures (e.g. Anarchists) a sub cultural
  group that rejects the major values, norms, and
  practices or a larger society and replaces them
  with their own. (directly challenging the
  dominant society)

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Countercultures

• When a subculture rejects a larger societies
  values, norms, practices and replaces them with
  their own they become a _ _ _ n _ e _ culture.

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Social Change

• Key Concept All cultures change over time. Some
  change faster than others depending on their
  complexity and structure, yet in the end either
  in small or large steps change comes.
• What the is important for sociologists is to
  identify and analyze the Sources of Social
  Change.
• Lets Look At a Few!

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Sources of Social Change

• Values and Beliefs People in any society
  interact and influence each other. With that
  said, it is then usually quite clear how the
  introduction of transformed values and beliefs
  can have far-reaching and noticeable consequences
  on the society as a whole.
• A. Ideologies are systems of beliefs that
  support the social, moral, religious, political,
  or economic interests held by a group.
• B. Ideologies often spread through Social
  Movements which are lasting efforts to promote or
  prevent social change.

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Sources of Social Change

• Continued..Ideologies and Social movements
• B. Social Movements Ex. Prohibition, womens
  rights movt, peace movt, gay rights movt,
  civil rights movt, gay marriage movt
• Using the example of gay marriage, one could
  analyze how the social movt surrounding gay
  marriage could in time change the ideology of the
  larger group (in this case the U.S.)

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Sources of Social Change

• Technology the knowledge and tools people use to
  manipulate their environment .
• Inventions such as automobiles, atomic fission,
  penicillin
• but also as ideas (such as the assembly line)
• or as patterns of behavior (religious movements,
  increase in healthy lifestyles)

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Sources of Social Change

• Population the change in the size of a
  population may also bring about changes in a
  culture.
• A rapid increase or an increase of people with
  different traits and values can sponsor and
  change a culture. Ex immigrants to the U.S. and
  their influences
• Pop. increases and decreases can change culture
  through a number of diff. avenues.
• 1. Increased demand on services and goods,
  increase or decrease in employment
• 2. Increase less space (overcrowding), demand
  on schools, transportation, crime rates,
  sickness, traffic etc.
• 3. Changes in the age of a population

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Sources of Social Change

• 4. Diffusion the process of spreading
  traits(ideas, beliefs, material objects) from one
  society to another. (In today's global society
  w/travel and communication almost instant,
  diffusion happens constantly)
• Material goods are usually accepted easier and
  quicker than values and beliefs.
• When a culture accepts some traits of another
  (think of political systems)and adapt them to
  suit their needs it is called Reformulation.

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Sources of Social Change

• 5.Physical Environment the natural environment
  can provide conditions that encourage or
  discourage cultural change.
• What foods can or cannot be grown effects culture
  and lifestyle.
• Natural Disasters (floods, hurricanes, tsunamis)
  cause destruction which can cause change or force
  people to adapt (which causes change)
• Natural Resources (lack of, or the destruction
  of) examples such as oil shortages, or embargos,
  destruction of forests, polluting of lakes, and
  oceans all have profound effects on culture and
  change

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Sources of Social Change

• Wars and Conquest not as common, but bring about
  the greatest change in the least amount of time.
• War causes loss of life and destruction as well
  as the rise/rebuilding of new cities towns.
• War causes changes in economic conditions as well
  as advancements in technology and medicine that
  transfer over to civilian life.
• Wars also causes changes in political leadership
  as well as economic policies and rights.

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Resistance to Change

• Key Concept Cultural change rarely if never
  happens without opposition. There are always
  those on the personal or societal level who
  reject or resist change. For that reason some
  ideologies slowly or never take hold in a
  specific society.
• 1. Ethnocentrism Remember! The tendency to view
  ones own culture or group as superior to others.
  
• Americans ignoring the culture or laws of a
  foreign country for the reason that they feel
  they are inferior would be an example.

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Resistance to Change

• 2. Cultural Lag Some traits change rapidly, but
  on the flipside the transformation of others may
  take a long period of time.
• -the long summer break observed by most states.
  It was needed in the late 1800s but is obsolete
  in our present-day modern nation
• -the lagging of some schools to prepare students
  for the advanced technological world because of
  cost and importance
• -the inability of the government to adequately
  keep up with predators who surf the burgeoning
  and uncharted world of cyber-space

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Resistance to Change

• 3. Vested Interests some people because of their
  ideologies or self-interest are resistant to
  change for the reason that it will affect them.
• -the oil industry has a vested interest to
  exhaust all oil supplies before the modern world
  relies on alternative fuels
• -land developers have a vested interest to
  dissuade or challenge acts that preserve or
  conserve natural places
• -many subcultures, special interest groups (the
  elderly in AARP/Firearm Owners w/the NRA) or even
  industries lobby the government to protect their
  personal interests from being infringed upon.

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Ethnocentrism and Cultural relativism

• Ethnocentrism tendency to view ones own culture
  or group as superior.
• Pros can help give
• a society a sense of group
• Unity.
• Cons can narrow
• and stagnate a group
• to its own harm.

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Ethnocentrism

• How might an ethnocentric mindset label a person
  as ignorant?

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Cultural Relativism

• Cultural Relativism the belief that cultures
  should be judged by their own standards rather
  than by applying the standards of another
  culture.
• All cultural practices need to be studied or
  looked at from the point of view of the society
  being studied.

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Cultural Relativism

• Would it be useful to the American public if they
  were aware of some of the differences between
  Middle Eastern countries and our own and reasons
  behind these differences?

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Cultural Universals

• As different as a culture may be from another,
  all cultures/societies created by humans share
  universal traits.
• Some universal traits include.
• Body adornment, cooking, forms of greeting,
  funeral ceremonies, housing, medicine, sports,
  family, to name a few

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Culture and these intelligent life forms we call
humans (sarcasm)

• Does it put us all in bondage?

• Is culture something to be grasped and venerated
  as being uniquely human?