CULTURE What is ‘culture’? What diversities and changes are found within cultures? How can we understand culture?

Culture and Society Culture: totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior Society: largest form of human group Society members learn culture and transmit it from generation to generation

Non-Material Culture Symbols Language

Non-Material Culture (continued) Beliefs Values Norms: folkways, mores, taboos, laws

Norms & Sanctions

How are beliefs, values, and norms related? Example of education: Beliefs? Values? Norms?

Culture: Sometimes inconsistent and contradictory Overt and Covert Culture High Culture and Popular Culture

Explaining Cultural Similarities and Differences Variation between cultures Similarities Differences Variation within cultures Subcultures Countercultures

Questions: The Case of Turkey Is there a distinctive “Turkish” culture? If so, what is it and what are its roots? Does it have a coherence or does it conceal other voices? How is it changing?

A global culture? The global economy: the flow of goods Global communication: the flow of information Global migration: the flow of people Social/cultural implications and debates?

Alternative approaches of culture Functionalist view: Culture is a system for meeting human needs Culture promotes integration, stability, order Conflict view: Cultural practices benefit some people more  dominant ideology Materialism: How people meet their material needs affects their culture The rise of the “culture industry” (Adorno and the Frankfurt School) The role of cultural hegemony (Gramsci) Interactionist view: Culture produced, reproduced, and redefined through social interaction

Thinking About Culture: Old & New Ethnocentrism Cultural Relativity Multiculturalism