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3-1

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SOCIOLOGY:

Richard T. Schaefer

Eighth Edition

chapter

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

• Culture and Society• Development of Culture around the World• Elements of Culture• Culture and the Dominant Ideology• Cultural Variation• Social Policy and Culture: Bilingualism

3CULTURE

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3-3Culture and Society

–Culture includes all objects and ideas within a society, values, customs, and artifacts of groups of people• Does not refer to fine arts or intellectual

taste

█Culture: totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior

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3-4Tattooing?

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3-5Development of Culture

Around the World

█We have come a long way from our prehistoric age and we are remarkably different from other species of the animal kingdom.

█Human culture has been evolving for thousands of years.

█Tracing human culture is not easy.

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3-6Development of Culture

Around the World

– All societies have developed certain common practices and beliefs.

– They are not uniform– Most human cultures

change and expand through innovation and diffusion

█Cultural Universals

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3-7Development of Culture

Around the World

–Process of introducing a new idea or object to a culture

– Innovation may take the form of either discovery or invention• 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

█Innovation

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3-8Development of Culture

Around the World

–Globalization: worldwide integration of government policies, cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trades and the exchange of ideas

█Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology

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3-9Development of Culture

Around the World

–Diffusion: process by which a cultural item spreads from group to group or society to society

█Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology

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3-10Development of Culture

Around the World

–Technology: “cultural information about how to use the material resources of the environment to satisfy human needs and desires” (Nolan and Lenski 1999).• Accelerates the diffusion of scientific

innovations• Transmits culture

█Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology

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3-11Development of Culture

Around the World

–Material culture: physical or technological aspects of our daily lives

█Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology

• Food• Houses• Factories• Raw materials

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3-12Development of Culture

Around the World

–Nonmaterial Culture: ways of using material objectsas well as:

•Customs•Beliefs•Government•Patterns of communication•Philosophies

█Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology

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3-13Development of Culture

Around the World

–Culture Lag: period of maladjustment when nonmaterial culture is still struggling to adapt to new material conditions.

█Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology

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3-14Elements of Culture

–Abstract system of word meanings and symbols for all aspects of culture.

Includes speech, written characters, numerals, symbols, and gestures and expressions of nonverbal communication

█Language

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3-15Elements of Culture

█Language–Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Language precedes thought.

Language is not a given.

Language is culturally determined.

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3-16Elements of Culture

• Use of gestures, facial expressions, and other visual images to communicate

• Not the same in all cultures• Learned just as we learn other forms of

language

█Language–Nonverbal Communication

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3-17

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3-18Elements of Culture

█Norms–Established standards of behavior

maintained by a society

To be significant, must be widely shared and understood

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3-19Elements of Culture

• Formal norms– Generally written down; specify strict

punishments for violations

• Informal norms– Generally understood but not precisely

recorded

█Norms–Types of Norms

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3-20Elements of Culture

• Mores– Norms deemed highly necessary to the welfare

of a society, often because they embody the most cherished principles of a people

• Folkways– Norms governing everyday behavior

█Norms–Types of Norms

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3-21Elements of Culture

• Subject to change as political, economic, and social conditions of a culture are transformed

█Norms–Acceptance of Norms

–Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm• May be either positive or negative

█Sanctions

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3-22Elements of Culture

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3-23Elements of Culture

█Values–Collective conceptions of what is good,

desirable, and proper—or bad, undesirable, and improper—in a culture

Influence people’s behavior

Criteria for evaluating actions of others

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3-24Elements of Culture

█ Values may be specific or they may be more general.

█ Values may change but only slowly.

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3-25Culture and the Dominant

Ideology

–Describes the set of cultural beliefs and practices that help to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests• Control wealth and property• Control the means of producing beliefs

about reality through:– religion– education– the media

█Dominant Ideology

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3-26Cultural Variation

–Subculture: Segment of society that shares distinctive pattern of mores, folkways, and values that differs from the larger society• A subculture is

a culture existing within a larger, dominant culture

█Aspects of Cultural Variation

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3-27Cultural Variation

• Hippies• JMB

█Aspects of Cultural Variation–Counterculture: subculture that

conspicuously and deliberately opposes certain aspects of the larger culture

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3-28Cultural Variation

█Cultural Variation–Culture shock: Feeling disoriented,

uncertain, out of place, or fearful when immersed in an unfamiliar culture

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3-29Cultural Variation

– Ethnocentrism: Tendency to assume that one’s own culture and way of life represents the norm or is superior to all others.

– Cultural relativism: views people’s behaviors from the perspective of their own culture

– Xenocentrism: Belief that products, styles, or ideas of one’s society are inferior to those that originate elsewhere

█ Attitudes Toward Cultural Variation