Essential Question What is Culture?

It is the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us. Culture The language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors and material objects that are passed down from one generation to the next.

“The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water”. -Ralph Linton, Anthropologist, (1936) The Culture within us How much of life do we take for granted?

The Iceberg Theory of Culture Like an iceberg, nine-tenths of culture is below the surface

The tangible objects that distinguish a group of people Material Culture The tangible objects that distinguish a group of people Jewelry Art Buildings Weapons Machines Foods Fashion

Keep in mind the sociological imagination! There is nothing “natural” about material culture. Arabs wear gowns and Americans wear jeans. Both feel NATURAL in doing so.

A group's way of thinking including its beliefs, values Nonmaterial Culture -aka- Symbolic Culture A group's way of thinking including its beliefs, values -and- its common patterns of behavior including language and other forms of interaction.

Keep in mind the sociological imagination! There is nothing “natural” about nonmaterial culture. It is just as arbitrary to stand in line as it is to push and shove.

The disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a different culture and can no longer depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life.

Ethnocentrism The use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies. In general this leads to a negative evaluation of another group or culture’s values, norms and behaviors.

What defines a beautiful woman?

Keep in mind the sociological imagination! Culture penetrates deep into our thinking, becoming a taken-for-granted lens through which we see the world and obtain our perceptions of reality. Culture provides the fundamental basis for our decision making. The culture we have internalized becomes the “right” way of doing things.

Keep in mind the sociological imagination! Coming in contact with a radically different culture challenges our basic assumptions about life. Culture is universal. All people are ethnocentric which has both positive and negative consequences.