The%20Socio-cultural%20Level%20of%20Analysis

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The Socio-cultural Level of Analysis
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Prologue to Obj. 4.2

• Obj. 4.1 Define the terms culture and cultural
  norms.

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What is culture?

• Define the terms culture and cultural norms.

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Defining culture

• Mr. Freeman defines it as being "mental software"
  or a series of socio-culturally shared schemas
  that are shaped over generations and shared
  through common interactions and reactions.
• As with any software, it can upgraded and change
  over time.

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The difficulty of defining culture

• The world culture itself is not easily definable.
  Matsumoto (2004) mentions a book that contains
  128 definitions just for the one word.

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Surface culture

• For example, on the surface, food in the
  Philippines is drastically different than it is
  in Western Culture
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?featureplayer_detail
  pagevqXHwQKyD0hs

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Surface culture

• Can be describe as the aspects of a culture that
  change at a relatively rapid rate, including
  popular music and entertainment, clothing and
  hair styles, The change in Western Culture

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Deep culture

• Continuing on the idea of culture, there is also
  a "deep culture," as defined by Kuschel (2004).
• Deep Culture can be defined as what causes these
  regional differences in culture, what has allowed
  them to survive in their environment and how it
  has shaped the people it influences.

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The distinction

• Deep culture, which is relatively slow to change,
  including attitudes toward life, religious and
  philosophical beliefs, and values in human
  relationships.
• Whereas surface culture changes daily, weekly,
  yearly, and by decades.
• Deep culture is relatively stable over a long
  period of time - throughout hundreds or
  thousands of years.

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The distinction

• Thus clearer boundaries between cultures may be
  seen at the deep culture level. It is at the deep
  level of culture we find the Great Traditions of
  the world such as Confucianism, Buddhism,
  Christianity, Islam -- the enduring philosophies
  and religions of the world upon which
  civilizations are built.
• These are the values that seem to define a
  society (from a cultural relativist view)

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Deep culture

• Aesthetics consideration of what is beautiful in
  literature, art, music, dance, and architecture
• Beauty is subjective. What is considered
  beautiful in one culture may be considered ugly
  in another.
• In some cultures, great value is-placed on
  hand-crafted items as opposed to
  machine-manufactured items.
• Ceremonies appropriate behavior on particular
  occasions
• Courtship and marriage attitudes about dating,
  marriage, and child rearing
• Ethics the learning and practicing of
  principles, honesty, and morality

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Deep culture

• Precedence customary manners toward older and
  younger people and peers
• In many cultures, titles are given to the elderly
  as a sign of respect.
• Religion attitudes about the divine and
  supernatural and the impact they have on an
  individual's daily life.
• Space attitudes about oneself in relation to the
  physical environment and to others within that
  environment.
• In some cultures, the conversational distance
  between people is smaller than in other cultures.
  

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Cultural Norms

• Norms have been defined as the agreed-upon
  expectations and rules by which a culture guides
  the behavior of its members in any given
  situation. Of course, norms vary widely across
  cultural groups.
• Of course, norms vary widely across cultural
  groups. Americans, for instance, maintain fairly
  direct eye contact when conversing with others.
  Asians, on the other hand, may avert their eyes
  as a sign of politeness and respect.

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Share Buddy Discussion

• Briefly explain a few cultural norms that are
  displayed in your culture.

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Cultural Norms

• Sociologists speak of at least four types of
  norms folkways, mores, taboos, and laws.
• Folkways, sometimes known as conventions or
  customs, are standards of behavior that are
  socially approved but not morally significant.
  For example, belching loudly after eating dinner
  at someone else's home breaks an American
  folkway.

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Cultural Norms

• Mores are norms of morality. Breaking mores will
  offend most people of a culture.
• Certain behaviors are considered taboo, meaning a
  culture absolutely forbids them.
• Finally, laws are a formal body of rules enacted
  by the state and backed by the power of the
  state. Virtually all taboos, like child abuse,
  are enacted into law, although not all mores are.

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Cultural Norms

• They are controlled by the "gatekeepers" such as
  parents, teachers, elders etc.
• They can control almost every element of the
  culture such as marriage, communication, how food
  is eaten, social class structure and its effect
  on interclass communication and the list goes
  on.