Society & Culture What is “culture”? Two Parts of culture Values and Beliefs Norms Hierarchy of Cultures The Interaction of Cultures

I. What is “culture”? Culture is everything made, learned, or shared by the members of a society, including values, beliefs, behaviors, and material objects. culture: affects how we perceive things; guides our thoughts and actions; must be studied while keeping these differences in mind. Culture is learned, and it varies tremendously from society to society. We begin learning our culture from the moment we’re born, as the people who raise us encourage certain behaviors and teach their version of right and wrong

II. Two Parts of culture Although cultures vary dramatically, they all consist of two parts: material culture and nonmaterial culture. Material culture consists of the concrete, visible parts of a culture, such as food, clothing, cars, weapons, and buildings. Aspects of material culture differ from society to society Nonmaterial culture consists of the intangible aspects of a culture, such as values and beliefs. Nonmaterial culture consists of concepts and ideas that shape who we are and make us different from members of other societies.

III. Values and Beliefs A value is a culturally approved concept about what is right or wrong, desirable or undesirable. Values are a culture’s principles about how things should be and differ greatly from society to society. Beliefs are specific ideas that people feel to be true. Values support beliefs.

IV. Norms A norm is a guideline or an expectation for behavior. Every society has expectations about how its members should and should not behave. Each society makes up its own rules for behavior and decides when those rules have been violated and what to do about it. Norms change constantly. Norms differ widely among societies, and they can even differ from group to group within the same society. Sociologists have separated norms into four categories: folkways, mores, laws, and taboos. A folkway is a norm for everyday behavior that people follow for the sake of convenience or tradition A more (pronounced MORE-ay) is a norm based on morality, or definitions of right and wrong A law is a norm that is written down and enforced by an official agency. Violating a law results in a specific punishment. A taboo is a norm that society holds so strongly that violating it results in extreme disgust. The violator is often considered unfit to live in that society.

V. Hierarchy of Cultures In societies where there are different kinds of people, one group is usually larger or more powerful than the others. Generally, societies consist of a dominant culture, subcultures, and countercultures. The dominant culture in a society is the group whose members are in the majority or who wield more power than other groups. In the United States, the dominant culture is that of white, middle-class, Protestant people of northern European descent. There are more white people here than African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, or Native Americans, and there are more middle-class people than there are rich or poor people.

A subculture is a group that lives differently from, but not opposed to, the dominant culture. A subculture is a culture within a culture. For example, Jews form a subculture in the largely Christian United States. Catholics also form a subculture, since the majority of Americans are Protestant. Members of these subcultures do belong to the dominant culture but also have a material and nonmaterial culture specific to their subcultures. Religion is not the only defining aspect of a subculture. The following elements can also define a subculture: Occupation Financial status Political ideals Sexual orientation, Age, Geographical location, Hobbies

A counterculture is a subculture that opposes the dominant culture. For example, the hippies of the 1960s were a counterculture, as they opposed the core values held by most citizens of the United States.

VI. What differentiates one culture form another? Cultural differences manifest themselves in different ways and differing levels of depth. Symbols represent the most superficial and values the deepest manifestations of culture, with heroes and rituals in between. Symbols are words, gestures, pictures, or objects that carry a particular meaning which is only recognized by those who share a particular culture. New symbols easily develop, old ones disappear. Symbols from one particular group are regularly copied by others. This is why symbols represent the outermost layer of a culture. Heroes are persons, past or present, real or fictitious, who possess characteristics that are highly prized in a culture. They also serve as models for behavior.

Rituals are collective activities, sometimes superfluous in reaching desired objectives, but are considered as socially essential. They are therefore carried out most of the times for their own sake (ways of greetings, paying respect to others, religious and social ceremonies, etc.). The core of a culture is formed by values. They are broad tendencies for preferences of certain state of affairs to others (good-evil, right-wrong, natural-unnatural). Many values remain unconscious to those who hold them. Therefore they often cannot be discussed, nor they can be directly observed by others. Values can only be inferred from the way people act under different circumstances. Symbols, heroes, and rituals are the tangible or visual aspects of the practices of a culture. The true cultural meaning of the practices is intangible; this is revealed only when the practices are interpreted by the insiders.

VII. The Interaction of Cultures When many different cultures live together in one society, misunderstandings, biases, and judgments are inevitable—but fair evaluations, relationships, and learning experiences are also possible.  Cultures cannot remain entirely separate, no matter how different they are, and the resulting effects are varied and widespread Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge another culture by the standards of one’s own culture. cultural relativism—the examination of a cultural trait within the context of that culture. Cultural relativists try to understand unfamiliar values and norms without judging them and without applying the standards of their own culture.

Culture shock is the surprise, disorientation, and fear people can experience when they encounter a new culture. Culture lag refers to the tendency for changes in material and nonmaterial culture to occur at different rates. Cultural diffusion is the process whereby an aspect of culture spreads throughout a culture or from one culture to another.