Notes - Culture

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Notes - Culture
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Humans are classified as part of the animal
kingdom.

• Characteristics that humans have that makes us
  unique in the Animal Kingdom (physical traits)
  1. Human walk erect on their legs 2. human eyes
  (focus on a single object, 3D, color) 3. human
  hand (sense of touch, separate motions, grip and
  4. human brain (size, reasoning, memory, control)
• Animals and plants are grouped by species. The
  division of each physical subgroup of species is
  called a variety.
• All humans belong to the same species called Homo
  Sapien Sapien.

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What is the physical subgroup for humans?

• Race commonly used to refer to a group of
  people who are similar to each other because they
  have certain physical characteristics that are
  handed down from one generation to another by
  heredity. A persons race is never determined by
  a single physical characteristic.

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Are we born with culture?

• Culture the complex system of meaning and
  behavior that defines the way of life for a given
  group or society (all of mans learned
  behavior).
• Everyone is born into a culture. There are
  important parts of culture family, religion,
  language, caring for young people,
  rulers/leaders/enforcement of rules, economic
  system, and technology.

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There are over 60 cultural universals or common
elements found in all cultures that include

• Material culture physical objects created in a
  society cars, clothes, buildings, toys, and
  other tangible objects.
• Nonmaterial culture abstract human creations
  language, beliefs, rules, family patterns, work,
  political and economic systems.

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Elements of Culture

• Social Organization a way to organize members of
  society into smaller units. There are several
  methods A. family patterns - in all societies
  the family is the most important unit of social
  organization. Examples nuclear family wife,
  husband, their children (found in industrial
  societies) extended families several
  generations under one roof (found in farming
  cultures, power may rest with the eldest male /
  patriarchal society, or eldest female/matriarchal
  society changing family patterns with women
  working and sharing power with men, some
  societies are becoming more equalitarian and also
  the nuclear family is becoming more common.

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Social Organization continued

• B. Social classes or Social Stratification -
  ranking individuals or categories of people in
  order of status. There are two types (1) Closed
  movement between social classes is impossible/
  assigned social status at birth i.e. caste
  system in India. (2) Open movement between
  classes (strata) is possible (the ease of
  movement depends on the degree of openness in the
  system.
• Caste system _____________________________________
  ____ Class system
• (closed ascribed status) (slightly
  open) (very open achieved status)
• How open is the United States?

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Customs and Traditions

• Values good and bad, right or wrong, determine
  character
• Norms rules of behaviorexpectations for how to
  behave in a given situation. A society without
  norms would be chaos. Norms vary in importance,
  and are enforced in different ways.
• folkways general standards of behavior practiced
  by a group, loosely defined and loosely followed
  in the US men wear pants not skirts, a greeting
• mores (more-ays) are strict norms that control
  moral and ethical behavior. Can be legal and/or
  religious murder, stealing, and arson
• laws a written rule of conduct that is enacted
  and enforced by the government

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Language

• Language is the cornerstone of culture always in
  flux except in isolated areas.
• Language can be globalIndo European spoken by
  half the worlds population. (Why?) A small
  area on the globe can have many languagesin the
  Caucasus region hundreds of languages are spoken
  in a small area. Then you can have a language
  that is spoken by a large population but not
  considered globalMandarin Chinese spoken by more
  than a billion.
• Many languages are extinct or on the verge of
  extinctionGaelic.
• Problems with language and cultural unitycan
  occur when a culture has many languagesIndia has
  more than 700 different languages. (How can a
  culture be unified with so many languages? Which
  language to use? Loyalty to local language?)
  Since language reflects identity cultures can
  feel threatened by other languages. (In
  America--Spanish? What about the French?)

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Arts and Literature

• Are products of the human imaginationthey often
  teach us about our cultures values
• Strengthen a cultures identity thats why
  governments invest in the artsthey increase
  cultural pride and unity.
• Very often symbolic something that stands for
  something elsewords, gestures, images, sounds,
  events, objects.

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Religion

• helps society answer basic questions about the
  meaning and purpose of life a social creation
  universalall cultures have religion, the form it
  takes from society to society varies.
• 3 belief systems
• Animism spirits are active in influencing human
  lifeanimals, plants, rivers, mountains, the wind
  all have spirits.
• Theism belief in one or more deities
  monotheism one god polytheism many gods
• Ethicalism religion based on ethical principles,
  meditation and purity of thought and action.

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Religion continued

• Relationship between government and religion
• Theocracy government controlled by a religious
  leader or leaders. Tibet and the Dalai LamaIran
  under the Ayatollahs
• State-sponsored church the government backs an
  official religion often gives money to the
  organization. Great BritainChurch of England
• Secular state is one that has no official
  religion, people are free to practice any
  religion they choose, little to no participation
  of the government in religion.

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When is a Nation a Country?

• There are four specific characteristics that
  define it as a country
• Clearly defined territory (land and water within
  its boundaries and resources)
• Population (it is not the size that determines
  the existence of a country) look at the people
  who makeup the population, how are they protected
  by the existing government, do they serve in the
  military, and the taxes the population pays for
  these services.
• Sovereignty a sovereign country is one that can
  rule itself by establishing it own policies and
  determining its own course of action. A
  countrys sovereignty entitles it to act
  independently, deal equally with other sovereign
  countries, and protect its territory and
  citizens.
• Government

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Forms of Government

• 3 Methods of categorizing governmental types
• 1. Geographic power of distributionHow authority
  is divided between the states and the central
  government
• Unitary the central government makes laws for
  the entire nation and gives local governments
  only limited power and authority (e.g. Great
  Britain, Japan, and France)
• Federal system gives the national government
  certain powers and reserves others for the states
  (e.g. United States, Mexico)
• Confederation Smaller political units keep their
  sovereignty and give the central government very
  limited powers (e.g. Articles of Confederation,
  Switzerland)

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Forms of Government continued

• 2. Participation Who has the decision making
  power when ruling a state?
• Autocracy rule by one person2 common
  authoritarian governments are
• dictatorship--(most common) ruler gains and keeps
  power by military force or political terror.
  People are not free to express opinions.
• monarchy--ruler inherits their position by virtue
  of being born into the ruling family.
• Oligarchy rule by a groupcan be an aristocracy
  (people with wealth and social positions),
  religious leaders, a council of elders, a junta
  (group of military officers who seize the state
  and establish their own governmentcommon in
  Latin America and Africa), or a political
  partylike the communist party in China.
• Democracy rule by the peopleor representatives
  (chosen by the adult citizens) who respond to
  their wishes.

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Forms of Government continued

• NOTE Republics and democracies are often mixed
  upa republic is a government where the people
  with the right to vote elect their leaders and no
  governmental position is inherited. (The United
  Kingdom is a democracy but not a republic because
  it has a monarch. In Ancient Rome only the rich
  could vote it was an aristocratic republic but
  not a democracy. In the US adult citizensa
  democratic republic. In the Former USSR (the R
  stood for republic) party members vote for one
  persona republic but a dictatorship.
• Two types of democracies you should be familiar
  with
• presidential- has three separate branches
  executive, legislative and judicial branches are
  independent of each other
• parliamentary- has only two branches a combined
  executive and legislative branch and a separate
  judicial branch

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Forms of Government continued

• 3. Degree of authority by the government
• Anarchy absence of any governmental authority or
  law
• Totalitarian (Authoritarian) leaders control
  every part of societypolitics, economy, even
  people's personal lives
• Limited or Constitutional the power of the state
  is limited by a constitutionthe state must
  maintain civil liberties (the personal rights of
  citizens, such as freedom of speech, thought and
  action), and civil rights (the right of every
  citizen to be treated equally under the law and
  to have equality of opportunity).

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Economic Systems

• Free enterprise capitalism- in a pure or free
  enterprise capitalist society there would be
  "laissez faire" economics a French term meaning
  leave things alone (another words no government
  in the economy). Explained in Adam Smith's
  Wealth of Nations (1776), if government stayed
  out of economic decisions the "invisible hand of
  free competition would improve the lot of
  everyone in society.
• Regulated capitalism government plays a limited
  role in regulating business--to protect the
  public--they offer some goods and services such
  as a postal service, highway system and
  education. People as consumers determine what
  buying or not buying certain products--also
  called a market economy or demand economy, will
  produce.

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Economic Systems continued

• Socialism for the good of society the state owns
  and runs basic industries but there is also
  private enterprisealso called mixed economies or
  welfare statesbecause they provide many social
  services (cradle to grave services). In most
  socialist economies the citizens pay very high
  taxes "born free and taxed to death".
• Several types of socialismone is democratic
  socialism an economic system in which the major
  industries are owned by a democratically elected
  government (many in Western Europe). Since the
  basic means of production should be owned be the
  government--the process by which the government
  takes over private industry is called
  nationalizationpeople pick which industries to
  take over and owners are compensated.
• Communism the state makes all economic
  decisions and owns all means of production and
  natural resourcesalso called planned economies
  or command economies. Originated from the ideas
  of Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto (1848)
  "Let the ruling class tremble at a communist
  revolution. The proletarians have nothing to
  lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
  Workers of the world unite".

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Causes of Cultural Change

• Diffusion the movement of customs or ideas from
  one place to another.
• Fusion when two cultures come together to create
  an entirely new systemDravidians and
  AryansHinduism
• Syncretism when cultures adopt a system of
  culture and inject some of their customs into
  itCatholicism in Latin America
• Technology the skills and tools people use from
  stone tools to the automobile (discoveries and
  inventions).
• Changing environment the natural environment has
  shaped human cultureexamples??
• New ideas

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Cultural Control

• 1. Dominant Culture the culture of the most
  dominant group in society
• Receives the most support from major institutions
  and usually represents the major belief system
• Not the only culture in a society it is commonly
  believed to be the culture of a society despite
  other cultures present
• Does not have to be the culture of the majority
• 2. Subcultures a group whose values, beliefs and
  norms of behavior are somewhat different from
  those of the dominant culture and exist with in
  the larger culture
• Develop because groups live in different
  conditions or because new groups enter a society
  bringing different cultural patterns
• Subcultures maybe forced as when groups are
  excluded from participating in the dominant group

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Understanding other Cultures

• Cultural Relativism when cultures are judged by
  their own standards not our cultures standards.
• Helps make sense out of practices that seem
  strange or illogical for example it is illegal to
  kill cows in India even though people are
  starving Cows play a vital role in feeding the
  people they pull plows and provide milk Hindu
  religious significance is rooted in practical
  environmental concerns.

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Understanding other Cultures

• Ethnocentrism viewing ones own culture and
  group as superior seeing things only from the
  point of view of ones own group
• Judging one culture by the standards of another
  is ethnocentric
• Prevents a person from understanding the world as
  it is experienced by others and can lead to
  narrow-minded conclusions about the worth of
  other diverse cultures
• Can create unity and pride but it can also cause
  discrimination and arrogance. A form of
  ethnocentrism is racism the belief that one
  racial group is naturally superior to another

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Understanding other Cultures

• Nationalism the sense of identity that arises
  when a group glorifies its own culture over all
  others and organizes politically and socially
  around this principle
• Nationalism can be dangerous when one group
  rejects those who do not share their culture and
  judge other cultures as inferior. This can lead
  to genocide the mass killing of people based on
  their membership in a particular group a.k.a.
  ethnic cleansing
• Nationalism is also defined by the many groups
  who fought for independence during colonization.

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Globalization of Culture

• Despite the enormous diversity of cultures
  worldwide, fashions, foods, entertainment, and
  other cultural values are increasingly dominated
  by U.S. markets, thereby creating a more
  homogenous world culture
• Globalization describes an ongoing process by
  which regional economies, societies, and cultures
  have become integrated through a globe-spanning
  network of communication and execution.