SOCIOLOGY A Down-to-Earth Approach 8/e SOCIOLOGY Chapter Two Culture This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; any rental, lease, or lending of the program. James M. Henslin

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Language, Beliefs, Values, Norms, Behavior Passed from One Generation to the Next  Story in Morocco – unfamiliar territory and universal norms  Material – Jewelry, art, buildings, etc.  Nonmaterial Cultures – beliefs, values, etc. What is Culture? - Basics in Sociology What is Culture? - Basics in Sociology

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Using your sociological imagination in culture  Meeting someone new and seeing the effects of a much different culture  Internalization of our norms – eye contact, space, etc.  Culture Shock – When your material and non-material fail you. The eerie feeling is culture shock. Ex. Pushing  Ethnocentrism – “Culture within us” - Positive/Negative Culture and Taken-for-Granted Orientations

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Understanding cultures on their own terms  Not seeing the culture as inferior or superior  None of us can be entirely successful at practicing cultural relativism. Strange foods. p.39 Evaluation through our lens.  “Sick Cultures” – Robert Edgerton - Lack of enhancement in our lives  Confronting Contrasting Views of Reality Practicing Cultural Relativism

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Symbol – something to which people attach meaning and that they use to communicate Gestures  Using ones body to convey messages without words  Gestures’ meaning differ among cultures  Can Lead to Misunderstandings  Looking like a Monkey – “Your momma is a whore”  Left handed Americans Components of Symbolic Culture or Non-Material Culture

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon Language  Because written language lacks subtle cues, Emoticons – online use  Provides social or shared past  Provides social or shared future  Allows shared perspective  Allows complex, shared, goal-directed behavior  Like Gestures the same sound in one culture is entirely different in another Components of Symbolic Culture

Chapter 2: Culture Emoticons - Mike Jones Microsoft Programmer :-)Smile;-) Smile with a wink :<}) User with mustache, smiling :-||Mad :-))Really happy:-DBig grin :-*A kiss:' -(Crying :-P~A lick:-P Sticking out your tongue =8O Bug-eyed with fright :-~~~Drooling =:O Frightened (hair standing on end) -:-) User sports a mohawk and admires Mr. T Copyright © Allyn & Bacon

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Language Has Embedded Within It Ways of Looking at the World  Sapir-Whorf Reverses Common Sense  It is our language that determines our consciousness  Language both reflects and shapes cultural experiences  Ex. Goth’s, Jock’s Language and Perception: Sapir-Whorf

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Values - What is desirable in life  The standards at which we determine what is good or bad  Norms - Expectations or rules for behavior  “Should Do”  Expectations in our societies  Sanctions - Reaction to following or breaking norms  Positive Sanctions  Negative Sanctions  Moral Holidays – Mardi Gras, Party Cove Values, Norms, and Sanctions

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Folkways - Norms not strictly enforced  Walking on the right side of the sidewalk  Holding a door  Mores - Core Values: We insist on conformity  Taboo – Most extreme more  Law Folkways and Mores

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Subculture - A World Within the Dominant Culture  Example – Physicians  Tens of thousands of subcultures  Some broad – Some specific  Countercultures - Groups With Norms and Values at Odds With the Dominant Culture  Survivalists -a person who anticipates and prepares for a future disruption  Enthusiasts v. Gangs Subcultures and Countercultures

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon Values in U.S. Society Romantic Love Democracy Science and Technology Religiosity Freedom Efficiency and Practicality Education Humanitarianism Activity and Work Racism and Group Superiority Material Comfort Individualism Equality Progress Achievement and Success

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Value Clusters – values that together form a larger whole  Hard work, education, efficiency, material comfort, and individualism are bound together  Value Contradiction – to follow the one means that you will come in conflict with another. Freedom, democracy applied only to some groups. Women's Liberation, Racism, Sexism “It is precisely at the point of value contradictions, then, that one can see a major force for social change in a society.” Values Clusters, Contradictions, and Social Change

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Leisure  Luxury Crusies  Self-fulfillment  Self help movement  Physical Fitness  Fitness centers, IE Curves For Women  Youthfulness  Botox  Concern for the Environment Emerging Values

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Culture Wars: When Values Clash  Homosexuality  Value as Blinders – What is attainable?  “Ideal” vs. “Real” Culture  Norms, values etc. that the group sees as ideal  However most people don’t reach these ideals, this is what sociologist call Real Values and Culture

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Some Activities are Universal - Courtship, Marriage, Funerals, Games  Page 56 Cultural Universals

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  Controversial View of Human Behavior  Biology Cause of Human Behavior  Charles Darwin and Natural Selection  Sociologists and Social Biologists on Opposite Sides Sociobiology

Chapter 2: Culture Copyright © Allyn & Bacon  The New Technology - New Tools  Cultural Lag and Cultural Change  Technology and Cultural Leveling Technology in the Global Village