Chapter 2 Culture

What is the young Chinese female eating? © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

What is Culture? Culture: The language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

What is Culture? Material Culture: The material objects that distinguish a group of people, such as their art, buildings, weapons, utensils, machines, hairstyles, clothing, and jewelry. Non-material Culture: A group’s ways of thinking (including its beliefs, values, and other assumptions about the world) and doing (its common patterns of behavior, including language, gestures and other forms of interaction) © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Body Ritual of the Nacirema (Horace Miner) Nacirema: Inhabited the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. See map to left. Origins Mythology. Came from the East. Their nation was originated by a culture hero, Notgnihsaw, who is otherwise known for two great feats of strength— the throwing of a piece of wampum across the river Pa-To-Mac and the chopping down of a tree in which the Spirit of Truth resided. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Body Ritual of the Nacirema (Cont.) Daily Rituals: Extreme, exotic customs with focus on body. Exaggerated concern with health. Body prone to decay. Social relations centered around mouth. Nacirema homes have special shrines (wealthier families have more than one). Daily rituals attempt to ward off decay by rubbing special powders in mouth with magic sticks. Shrines: Number of significant objects. On wall of each box in which magic charms and potions kept. Obtained from medicine men with great magical powers who tell them how to mix and use potions. Below box is basin in which holy waters mixed. Mysterious altar attached to floor found in these shrines. Other Rituals: Men scrape faces with sharp objects; women allow their heads to be baked in small ovens. Possibility Nacirema are masochists. Conclusion: Nacirema obsessed with body and physical decay. Devote time and energy in daily rituals meant to drive off evil spirits that cause physical decline. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Breaking the Nacirema Code Body Ritual of the Nacirema (Cont.) Breaking the Nacirema Code Miner’s “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” illustrates that character of a culture is not evident in the objects themselves (the material culture) but in the non-material meanings that underlie their use and value (i.e. their “symbolic expression” or non-material culture). © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture and Taken-for-Granted Orientations What is Normal, Natural, or Usual? The Culture Within Us Culture as Lens © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture and Taken-for-Granted Orientations Culture shock: The disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture and can no longer depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture and Taken-for-Granted Orientations Ethnocentrism: The use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies, generally leading to a negative evaluation of their values, norms, and behaviors. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture and Taken-for-Granted Orientations Cultural relativism: Not judging a culture, but trying to understand it on its own. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Food and Culture: An illustration of cultural relativism Can you figure the food items on the next slide? © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

1 2 3 4 5 7 6 8 © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Food and Culture (cont.) What is considered a delicacy in one culture would be regarded as unfit for human consumption by members of another culture. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Components of Symbolic Culture Symbolic Culture: Another term for nonmaterial culture. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Components of Symbolic Culture Symbol: Something to which people attach meaning and then use to communicate with others. Symbols include gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, and mores. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Components of Symbolic Culture Gestures: The ways in which people use their bodies to communicate with one another. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Components of Symbolic Culture Use of Gestures: Conveying Messages without Words. Gestures’ Meaning Differ Among Cultures. Can Lead to Misunderstandings. Are there any universal gestures? © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Components of Symbolic Culture Language: A system of symbols that can represent not only objects, but can be combined in an infinite number of ways for the purpose of communicating abstract thought. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Components of Symbolic Culture Use of Language: Allows Cumulative Human Experience. Provides Social or Shared Past. Provides Social or Shared Future. Allows Shared Perspective. Allows Complex, Shared, Goal-Directed Behavior. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Language and Perception: Sapir-Whorf Hypotheis Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (Theory of Linguistic Relativity) Reverses Common Sense Rather than objects and events forcing themselves onto our consciousness, it is language that determines our consciousness, & hence our perception of objects and events. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Language and Perception (cont.): Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Language precedes thought Language is not a given Language is culturally determined Language may color how we see the world © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Norms and Sanctions Norms: Expectations or rules for behavior. Sanctions: Expressions of approval or disapproval given to people for upholding or violating norms. Positive Sanctions Negative Sanctions © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Norms and Sanctions Norms and Sanctions © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Folkways and Mores Folkways: Customs or daily habits. Not strictly enforced. Mores: Rules essential to core values. One group’s folkways may be another group’s mores. Taboos: Norms so deeply ingrained that even the thought of them is greeted with revulsion. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Values Values: The standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Values in U.S. Society (Williams) Achievement and Success Individualism Hard Work Efficiency and Practicality Science and Technology Material Comfort Freedom © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Values in U.S. Society (cont). Democracy Equality Group Superiority Education Religiosity Romantic Love Values listed in bright red Added to William’s list by Henslin © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Emerging Values (Emergent Value Cluster) Leisure. Self-fulfillment. Physical Fitness. Youthfulness. Concern for the Environment. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Values and Culture Culture Wars: When values clash. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

“Ideal” vs. “Real” Culture. Ideal Culture: The values, norms, and goals that a group considers ideal, worth aiming for. Real Culture: The norms and values that people actually follow. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Many Cultural Worlds Subculture: A world within the dominant culture. Countercultures: Groups with norms and values at odds with the dominant culture. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Technology and Cultural Lag. Technology: In its narrow sense, tools; its broader sense includes the skills or procedures necessary to make and use those tools. Cultural Lag: William Ogburn’s term for one part of a culture changing, with other parts being left behind. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cultural Leveling and Cultural Diffusion. Cultural Leveling: The process by which cultures become similar to one another, and especially by which Western industrial culture is imported and diffused into industrializing nations. Cultural Diffusion: Spread of cultural characteristics from one group to another. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.