Chapter 3 Culture

Introduction Listen to Saba Safdar, the Director of the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research at the University of Guelph has to say about about culture in her 2012 Ted talk…. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Culture (TedX) Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Culture

CULTURE is: a way of life developed as people interact with one another over time shared, learned, intergenerational the totality of learned, socially transmitted behaviour all the values, norms, and customs that people share with one another all objects and ideas found within a society

Aspects of Culture Material culture Physical things created by members of a society Non-material culture The ideas created by members of a society Ideal culture The way things should be Social patterns mandated by values and norms Real culture They way things actually occur in everyday life Real social patterns we can observe

Material Elements of Culture: Technology Physical human creations or artifacts Material culture reflects cultural values and a society's technology Information Technology: Post- industrial society uses computers and other electronic devices

Non-material Elements of Culture: Symbols Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture Societies create new symbols all the time Symbols have shared meanings which vary from culture to culture and even within a culture

Non-material Elements: Language Language is a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another Experts document 7000 languages Cultural transmission: The process by which one generation passes culture to the next Sapir-Whorf thesis: We perceive the world through the cultural lens of language

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Also known as linguistic determinism Language determines how we understand the world and guides our beliefs and actions “…the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds - and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds…” (Whorf, 1940) Linguistic relativism more accepted today Language only somewhat shapes our thought and behaviour

Can language influence how you spend your money? An application of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis Watch Keith Chen’s Can language influence how you spend your money?Can language influence how you spend your money? Watch Keith Chen’s longer Ted Talk on the same topic.Keith Chen’s longer Ted Talk

Non-material: Values and Beliefs Values: Culturally defined standards of desirability, goodness, and beauty, which serve as broad guidelines for social living; values support beliefs Beliefs: Specific statements that people hold to be true Think of an example of a belief that you have….what values do you hold that support that belief?

Value conflict Sometimes one key cultural value contradicts another: Individualistic interests vs. contribution to larger community Belief in equality vs. racism Cooperativeness vs. competitiveness Value conflict causes strain Values change over time

Global value conflict Cultures have their own values Lower-income nations have cultures that value survival Higher-income countries have cultures that value individualism and self-expression Can you think of an example?

Non-material Elements: Norms, Mores and Folkways Norms: Rules and expectations by which society guides its members’ behaviour Proscriptive (Should-nots) vs Prescriptive (Shoulds) Note that Laws are codified norms Mores: Widely observed and have great moral significance (taboos) Difference between right and wrong Folkways: guide routine and casual interaction

The Transmission of Culture We pass on culture, especially non-material elements through the “stories” we tell one another about life (George Gerbner) Stories told by our families, teachers, books and magazines, fictional and non-fictional television programs, and music are just a few. Many contemporary stories told by the media and through advertising In this way learn the norms and values of our culture i.e. Safdar on jokes and insults

Reading Culture Culture is our code for understanding the meaning behind the messages we convey and receive In Safdar’s talk, insults and jokes are messages Media images, music and advertisements are all messages that carry cultural meaning “breaching experiments” (H. Garfinkel) Griselda Pollock and “gender reversals” A form of breaching experiment Used to uncover hidden sexism in ads

Breaching Experiments (Harold Garfinkel) What’s wrong with this picture?

Gender Reversal

Cultural Diversity: Types of Culture High Culture (elite culture) The culture of “ideas” Middle Culture (most targeted by marketers) The culture of “things” Low Culture (lack wealth) The culture of “people” Subculture: Cultural patterns that set apart some segment of society’s population Counterculture: Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society Other: Folk culture, youth culture, etc. Popular culture: widely spread cultural patterns Transmitted through media and information technology

Cultural Capital French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu distinguishes between: Economic capital (wealth) Social capital (class and status) Cultural capital Education Sophistication of taste esp. in consumption Cultural capital varies across societies and by subcultures within each society

Cultural Capital and Media High advertising Complex, sophisticated imagery Found in “high brow” magazines, etc. Low advertising Simple structure – focus on product “low brow” placement Middle advertising Compound – has elements of low and high Often interesting and/or humourous

Cultural (cont.) We can see class distinctions in advertising in western society Ads reinforce stratified positions in society Can you see class distinctions in the following car advertisements?

Popular Culture Popular culture: widely spread cultural patterns Patterns can be global Transmitted through media and information technology Advertising can be seen as A subset of pop culture (Jib Fowles) As pop culture (Andy Warhol) As a parallel institution to pop culture As the “art” of Western culture  Michael Schudson called it “capitalist realism” as opposed to socialist realism of communist USSR in the 1930’s to 1980’s

Cultural Change Cultural integration and cultural lag Cultural change occurs in three main ways… Invention (new cultural elements are created) Computer technology Discovery of new ideas or technologies The theory of global warming is changing our culture right now Cultural diffusion from one society to another or from one subculture to another subculture within the same society

Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism Ethnocentrism = judging a culture by one’s own standards Cultural relativism = judging a culture by its own standards Canada is a “multicultural” society Culturally diverse Yet “Eurocentrism” is a problem

Culture shock Personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life because of: Immigration Visit a new country Move between social environments No way of life is “natural” to humanity, but most people around the world view their own behaviour in that way Have you experienced it??

Bill S-7: Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act A reaction to culture shock? Passed June 15, 2015 ( on.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&DocId= &File=19) on.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&DocId= &File=19 Should we have a “tip line” to report barbaric cultural practices?tip line What about our own Canadian “barbaric cultural practices”?barbaric cultural practices

Theories of Culture (P. 79)

Watch…. Journeys into Unknown Cultures: the Nacirema Read…. Body Ritual among the Nacirema by anthropologist Horace Miner (1956) Body Ritual among the Nacirema