Culture

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Chapter 3

• Culture

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• What kinds of things come to mind, when we
  mention the word CULTURE?

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• Can animals have culture?

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Culture

• All that human beings learn to do, to use, to
  produce, to know, and to believe as they grow to
  maturity and live out their lives in the social
  groups to which they belong.

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Culture and Biology

• Human beings acquire the means to meet their
  needs through culture.
• Example
• Although human infants cry when hungry, the
  responses to the cries vary.
• In some groups, infants are breast-fed in
  others, they are fed prepared milk formulas from
  bottles and in still others, they are fed
  according to the mothers preference.
• Culture is shared, and
• Transmitted from one generation to the next

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Culture Shock

• The difficulty people have adjusting to a new
  culture that differs markedly from their own.

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Ethnocentrism

• When one makes judgments about other cultures
  based on the customs and values of one's own.
• An Iranian female in a meeting with students at
  FIU

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Ethnocentrism and what we eat!
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Ethnocentrism and what we value!
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Cultural Relativism

• Recognizing cultures must be understood on their
  own terms before valid comparisons can be made.

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With which cultural background do you identify
with the most? Choose only one.

1. Anglo (white, non-Hispanic)
2. Hispanic
3. African American, black
4. Native American (American Indian)
5. Asian
6. Other

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Components of Culture

• Material culture (objects)
• Nonmaterial culture (rules)
• Cognitive culture (shared beliefs)
• Language

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Material Culture

• Everything human beings make and use.
• Material culture allows humans to cope with
  extreme environments and survive in all climates.
• Material culture has made human beings the
  dominant life form on earth.

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 Nonmaterial Culture

• Knowledge, beliefs, values, and rules for
  appropriate behavior.
• Elements of nonmaterial culture
• Norms
• Mores
• Folkways
• Values

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Question

• Do you favor or oppose an amendment to the U.S.
  Constitution that would make English the official
  language of the United States?
• Favor
• Oppose
• No opinion

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Norms

• The rules of behavior that are agreed upon and
  shared within a culture and that prescribe limits
  of acceptable behavior.
• Norms define normal expected behavior and help
  people achieve predictability in their lives.

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Mores

• Strongly held norms that usually have a moral
  connotation and are based on the central values
  of the culture.
• Violations produce strong negative reactions,
  often supported by the law.
• Examples sexual molestation of a child, rape,
  murder, incest, and child beating.

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Folkways

• Norms that permit a wide degree of individual
  interpretation as long as certain limits are not
  overstepped.
• People who violate folkways are seen as peculiar
  but they rarely elicit a strong public response.
• The way we dress, the music we listen to, or the
  good manners can be considered folkways.

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Ideal and Real Norms

• Ideal norms - expectations of what people should
  do under perfect conditions.
• Real norms - Norms that are expressed with
  qualifications and allowances for differences in
  individual behavior.

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Values

• A cultures general orientations toward lifeits
  notions of what is good and bad, what is
  desirable and undesirable.

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Language and Culture

• Language makes it possible for humans to share
  culture.
• Animals are controlled by their biology, but
  human behavior is determined by culture and
  language.
• Children learn culture through language,
  socialization, and role models.

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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

• The language a person uses determines their
  perception of reality.
• Different languages classify experiences
  differently.
• Example The Hopi Indians
• Two words for waterpahe (water in a natural
  state) and keyi (water in a container).
• One word to cover every thing or being that
  flies, except birds.
• Perceptions of time

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Symbol

• Anything representing something else, carrying a
  particular meaning recognized by members of a
  culture.
• Can you think of some common symbols we use in
  the United States?
• Symbols are entirely arbitrary and rely on
  cultural conventions for their meaning.
• Swastikas
• Mourning

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Symbols in Cyberspace
-) smile o Snoring
-( sad -_at_ Screaming
-0 wow -) Dazed or silly
-X my lips are sealed Drunk
LOL laughing out loud -( Confused
- I am angry -C Astonished
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Culture and Adaptation

• Culture is the primary means by which humans
  adapt to the challenges of their environment.
• We are culture producing, culture transmitting,
  and culture dependent.
• Take away culture and the human species would
  perish.

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Mechanisms of Cultural Change

• Two mechanisms are responsible for cultural
  change
• Innovation new concepts, ideas, and material
  objects.
• Diffusion - the movement of cultural traits from
  one culture to another.

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Innovation

• Invention - recombining elements already
  available to a society.
• Discovering new concepts.
• Finding new solutions to old problems.
• Devising and making new material objects.

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Diffusion

• Results when people from one group or society
  come into contact with another.
• Diffusion is marked by reformulation, inwhich a
  trait is modified in some way so that it fits
  better in its new context.

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Cultural Lag

• The phenomena through which new patterns of
  behavior emerge even though they conflict with
  traditional values.

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Subcultures

• Distinctive lifestyles, values, norms, and
  beliefs of certain segments of the population
  within a society.
• Types of subcultures include ethnic,
  occupational, religious, political, geographic,
  social class and deviant.

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Cultural Universals

• Developed to solve common societal problems
• Division of labor
• Incest taboo
• Marriage
• Family organization
• Rites of passage

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 Families

• Families differ between cultures depending on who
  is allowed to marry and how many spouses are
  allowed.
• The basic family unit of husband, wife, and
  children is recognized in almost every culture.
• Sexual relations among a family (other than
  between husband and wife) are almost universally
  taboo.

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Functions of the Incest Taboo

• Helps keep sexual jealousy under control.
• Prevents the confusion of authority relationships
  in the family.
• Ensures family offspring will marry into other
  families, creating a network of social bonds.

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Rites of Passage

• Standardized rituals marking life transitions.
• Examples of rites of passage
• Baptisms
• Bar and bat mitzvahs
• Graduation
• Wedding ceremonies
• Funerals and wakes

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Functions of Rites of Passage

• Help the individual achieve a social identity.
• Map out the individuals life course.
• Aid the individual in making life plans.
• Provide people with a context to share emotions.

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Ideologies

• Beliefs and values that help groups maintain
  identity as a social unit.
• Examples of deeds performed in the name of an
  ideology
• Thirteenth-century crusaders
• Abolitionists, prohibitionists, trade unionists,
• Civil rights activists, feminists,
  environmentalists

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Culture and Individual Choice

• Culture tells humans what to do, how to do it,
  and when it should be done.
• Humans have more individual freedom of action
  than any other creature.
• Society and culture limit choices and make it
  difficult to act in ways that deviate from
  cultural norms.