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Chapter 3 culture

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Title: Chapter 3 culture


1
Chapter 3 culture
  • Ulrike Lerner
  • Psychology Department
  • SOCI 101

2
Culture
  • Culture and Society
  • Development of Culture Around the World
  • Elements of Culture
  • Culture and the Dominant Ideology
  • Cultural Variation
  • Social Policy and Socialization Bilingualism

3
Culture and Society
  • Culture totality of learned, socially
    transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects,
    and behavior
  • Society largest form of human group
  • Society members learn culture and transmit from
    generation to generation
  • Simplifies day-to-day interactions
  • Language critical element of culture that sets
    humans apart from other species

4
Cultural Universals
  • Societies develop common practices
  • Athletic sports
  • Cooking
  • Funeral ceremonies
  • Medicine
  • Sexual restrictions

5
Innovation
  • Innovation process of introducing new idea or
    object to a culture
  • Discovery making known or sharing existence of
    an aspect of reality
  • Invention when existing cultural items are
    combined into a form that did not exist before

6
Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology
  • Diffusion process by which a cultural item
    spreads from group to group or society to society
  • McDonaldization term coined by George Ritzer to
    describe how the principles of the fast-food
    industry in the U.S. have come to dominate more
    sectors throughout the world
  • Technology cultural information about how to use
    the material resources of the environment to
    satisfy human needs and desires (Nolan and Lenski
    200437)

7
Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology
  • Material culture physical or technological
    aspects of our daily lives
  • Food items
  • Houses
  • Factories
  • Raw materials

8
Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology
  • Nonmaterial culture ways of using material
    objects
  • Customs
  • Beliefs
  • Philosophies
  • Governments
  • Patterns of communication
  • Culture lag period of maladjustment when
    nonmaterial culture is struggling to adapt to new
    material conditions

9
Biological Bases of Culture
  • Sociobiology systematic study of how biology
    affects human social behavior
  • Founded on Charles Darwins theory of evolution
  • Sociobiology suggests that all behavior is the
    result of genetic or biological factors
  • Most social scientists agree there is biological
    basis for social behavior, but there is less
    support for extreme positions

10
Sociology in the Global Community
  • 3-1 Life in the Global Village
  • How are you affected by globalization?
  • Which aspects of globalization do you find
    advantageous and which objectionable?
  • How would you feel if the customs and traditions
    you grew up with were replaced by the culture of
    values of another country?
  • How might you try to protect your culture?

11
Sociology in the Global Community
  • 3-2 Cultural Survival in Brazil
  • Compare what is happening in Brazil today to the
    development of the North American West in the
    19th century.
  • What similarities do you see?
  • What does society lose when indigenous cultures
    die?

12
Figure 3-1 Languages of the World How Many Do
You Speak?
Notes Data include many island nations not
included in this map. Only countries with at
least 1 million speakers are included in
the ranking. Countries with the same number of
languages are ranked by highest population
first. Source Erard 2005 R. Gordon 2005.
13
Language
  • Language is foundation for every culture
  • Language abstract system of word meanings and
    symbols for all aspects of culture
  • Speech
  • Written characters
  • Numerals
  • Symbols
  • Nonverbal gestures and expressions

14
symbols
build reality of meaning
Shared culture particular meanings We take them
for granted Unfamiliar society reminds us of
power of symbols
culture shock!
15
symbolic meanings
Fur coat prized by one person may represent to
another - inhumane Jeans created 100yrs. Ago for
workers In 60s jeans popular with affluent
students Identify with working class In 70s
designer jeans as high priced status symbols
make sense out of life
16
study of symbols
semiotics
Semiotics suggest meanings never inherent in
objects Constructed around them Through series of
practices
17
Language
  • Sapir-Whorf hypothesis describes the role of
    language in shaping our interpretation of reality
  • Language precedes thought
  • Language is not a given
  • Language is culturally determined
  • Language may color how we see world

18
Does language shape reality?
  • Do Chinese who think using one set of symbols
    experience world differently from you?
  • Each language has its own distinct symbols serve
    as building blocks of reality
  • All languages fuse symbols with distinctive
    emotions
  • A single idea often feels different if spoken
    in German rather than English
  • People perceive the world through the cultural
    lens of language
  • Linguistic determinism suggests that language
    shapes the way we think
  • Linguistic reality states that distinctions found
    in one language are not found in another
  • System of language guides how we understand the
    world but does not limit how we do so!

19
  • Key to world of culture
  • System of symbols
  • Communication
  • Spoken written
  • Write left to right
  • Right to left
  • Top to bottom

language
20
LANGUAGE
  • Nonverbal Communication
  • Use of gestures, facial expressions, and other
    visual images to communicate
  • Expressions are learned just as we learn other
    forms of language
  • Nonverbal communication is not the same in all
    cultures
  • Such gestures as basic emotional expressions a
    smile, a look of horror may be close to
    universal

21
Figure 3-2 A Timeless Alert
22
3 most widely spoken languages
  • Chinese 20 of humanity (1.2b)
  • English 10 (600m)
  • Spanish 6 (350m)

Thousands of minor languages (5,000- 6,000) Many
are dying out 80-90 will die off in next
200yrs Larger languages dominate smaller
ones Language revivals Welsh Gaelic English
now Global tongue favored second language Main
language www, air traffic control, business
pop music
23
LANGUAGE CULTURAL REPRODUCTION
  • System of symbols allows members to communicate
  • Cultural reproduction process by which one
    generation passes culture to next
  • Oral cultural tradition then - 5000 years ago
    invented writing
  • 20th century nearly universal literacy (highly
    industrialized nations)
  • Set free imagination connect symbols in new
    ways
  • Both spoken written distinguishes humans as
    self-conscious aware of mortality
  • Enables us to dream of a better world work to
    bring this into being

24
Values and norms
25
What are values and norms?
  • Ideas define what is important, worthwhile
    desirable
  • Values abstract ideas give meaning, provide
    guidance (standards about good bad)
  • Prescriptive! Statement about what ought to be
    in language of ethical moral terms (broad
    principles that underlie beliefs)
  • Beliefs particular matters considered as true or
    false
  • Cultural values beliefs form core of moral
    world view
  • i.e. monogamy
  • Norms are rules of behavior reflect cultures
    values
  • Values norms work together to shape behavior
  • Values norms vary across cultures

26
Norms
  • Established standards of behavior maintained by a
    society
  • To be significant, norms must be widely shared
    and understood

27
Types of Norms
  • Formal norms generally written specify strict
    punishments
  • Informal norms generally understood but not
    precisely recorded
  • Mores norms deemed highly necessary to the
    welfare of a society
  • Folkways norms that govern everyday behavior

28
Acceptance of Norms
  • Behavior that violates norms may adhere to the
    norms of a particular group
  • Some norms violated because one norm conflicts
    with another
  • Norms subject to change as political, economic,
    and social conditions change
  • When circumstances require sudden violations of
    long-standing norms, change can upset an entire
    population

29
Sanctions
  • Sanctions penalties and rewards for conduct
    concerning a social norm
  • Sanctions associated with formal norms tend to be
    formal as well
  • Fabric of norms and sanctions in a culture
    reflects that cultures values and priorities

30
Table 3-1 Norms and Sanctions
31
Values
  • Collective conceptions of what is good,
    desirable, and proper or bad, undesirable, and
    improper
  • Influence peoples behavior
  • Criteria for evaluating actions of others
  • Values may change

32
What are some core values?
  • Learning highly valued
  • Encouraged to study
  • Parents make sacrifices
  • Value hospitality
  • Social behavior of guests hosts
  • Value individualism, individual achievement,
    equality of opportunity, hard work respect for
    the rules
  • Others place value on shared needs, equality,
    collective problem-solving
  • i.e. cheating
  • Value traditional religious beliefs
  • Others value progress science

33
European values
  • Few cultural values beliefs shared
  • Europe a cultural mosaic
  • First Age of Enlightenment values rationality,
    science, progress
  • Significant improvement for some! Due to science,
    medicine reason
  • Second domination of Judeo-Christian religion
    struggle with secularization
  • Struggle Catholics Protestants

34
Core Christian Values
love your neighbor as yourself
  • Third development of Nation States
  • Belief in citizenship
  • Rights obligations what makes a good citizen
  • Highlighted principle of hierarchy
  • People should recognize their place in society

35
Figure 3-3 Life Goals of First-Year College
Studentsin the United States, 1966-2005
Sources UCLA Higher Education Research
Institute, as reported in Astin et al. 1994
Pryor et al. 2006.
36
Culture and the Dominant Ideology
  • Dominant ideology cultural beliefs and practices
    that help maintain powerful social, economic, and
    political interests
  • Conflict theorists believe most powerful groups
    and institutions control the means of producing
    beliefs through religion, education, and media
  • Those with power control the media, so we can
    gain insight into their values by studying media
    content

37
Sociology on Campus
  • 3-3 A Culture of Cheating?
  • Do you know anyone who has engaged in Internet
    plagiarism?
  • What about cheating on tests or falsifying
    laboratory results?
  • If so, how did the person justify these forms of
    dishonesty?
  • Even if cheaters arent caught, what are the
    negative effects of their academic dishonesty?

38
Case Study Culture at Wal-Mart
  • Wal-Mart is worlds 14th largest economy
  • Some question its policies
  • Pulled out of Germany in 2006 in part because it
    failed to adjust to the national culture
  • Earlier sold its facilities in South Korea due to
    cultural differences
  • Businesses must consider local cultures as they
    expand into new countries

39
Aspects of Cultural Variation
  • Each culture has unique character
  • Subculture Segment of society that shares
    distinctive pattern of mores, folkways, and
    values that differs from the larger society
  • Argot specialized language that distinguishes a
    subculture from the wider society

40
Aspects of Cultural Variation
  • Counterculture subculture that conspicuously and
    deliberately opposes certain aspects of the
    larger culture
  • Hippies
  • Terrorist cells
  • Culture shock feeling disoriented, uncertain,
    out of place, or fearful when immersed in an
    unfamiliar culture

41
Attitudes toward Cultural Variation
  • Ethnocentrism tendency to assume ones own
    culture and way of life represent norm or is
    superior to all others
  • Cultural relativism peoples behaviors from the
    perspective of their own culture

42
Table 3-2 Major Sociological Perspectives on
Culture
43
Bilingualism
  • The Issue
  • Bilingualism use of two or more languages in a
    particular setting, such as the workplace or
    schoolroom
  • Program of bilingual education instructs children
    in native language while gradually introducing
    the language of the host society
  • To what degree should schools in the U.S. present
    the curriculum in a language other than English?

44
Bilingualism
  • The Setting
  • Languages know no political boundaries
  • Minority languages common in many nations
  • Schools throughout the world must deal with
    incoming students speaking many languages
  • Review of research found that students offered
    lessons in English and their home languages make
    better progress than similar children only taught
    in English

45
Bilingualism
  • Sociological Insights
  • For a long time, people in the United States
    demanded conformity to a single language
  • Seemed to assist non-English speaking people to
    learn English and function more effectively
    within the society
  • Many challenges to programs stem from
    ethnocentric point of view

46
Bilingualism
  • Policy Initiatives
  • Bilingualism has policy implications in efforts
    to maintain language purity and programs to
    enhance bilingual education
  • Nations vary dramatically in tolerance for a
    variety of languages
  • Policymakers in U.S. somewhat ambivalent in issue
    of bilingualism
  • As of 2007, 28 states declared English their
    official language

47
Figure 3-5 Non-English Speakers at Home
Note Data are from 2000 Census for people 5
years and over. National average was 17.9
percent. Source Shin and Bruno 20038.
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