McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3-1 McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. SOCIOLOGY: Richard T. Schaefer Eighth Edition

chapter McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. CHAPTER OUTLINE Culture and Society Development of Culture around the World Elements of Culture Culture and the Dominant Ideology Cultural Variation Social Policy and Culture: Bilingualism 3 CULTURE

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3-3 Culture and Society –Culture includes all objects and ideas within a society, values, customs, and artifacts of groups of people Does not refer to fine arts or intellectual taste █ Culture: totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3-4 Tattooing?

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3-5 Development of Culture Around the World █ We have come a long way from our prehistoric age and we are remarkably different from other species of the animal kingdom. █ Human culture has been evolving for thousands of years. █ Tracing human culture is not easy.

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3-6 Development of Culture Around the World –All societies have developed certain common practices and beliefs. –They are not uniform –Most human cultures change and expand through innovation and diffusion █ Cultural Universals

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3-7 Development of Culture Around the World –Process of introducing a new idea or object to a culture –Innovation may take the form of either discovery or invention Discovery: making known or sharing existence of an aspect of reality Invention: when existing cultural items are combined into a form that did not exist before █ Innovation

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3-8 Development of Culture Around the World –Globalization: worldwide integration of government policies, cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trades and the exchange of ideas █ Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3-9 Development of Culture Around the World –Diffusion: process by which a cultural item spreads from group to group or society to society █ Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Development of Culture Around the World –Technology: “cultural information about how to use the material resources of the environment to satisfy human needs and desires” (Nolan and Lenski 1999). Accelerates the diffusion of scientific innovations Transmits culture █ Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Development of Culture Around the World –Material culture: physical or technological aspects of our daily lives █ Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology Food Houses Factories Raw materials

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Development of Culture Around the World –Nonmaterial Culture: ways of using material objects as well as: Customs Beliefs Government Patterns of communication Philosophies █ Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Development of Culture Around the World –Culture Lag: period of maladjustment when nonmaterial culture is still struggling to adapt to new material conditions. █ Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Elements of Culture –Abstract system of word meanings and symbols for all aspects of culture. Includes speech, written characters, numerals, symbols, and gestures and expressions of nonverbal communication █ Language

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Elements of Culture █ Language –Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Language precedes thought. Language is not a given. Language is culturally determined.

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Elements of Culture Use of gestures, facial expressions, and other visual images to communicate Not the same in all cultures Learned just as we learn other forms of language █ Language –Nonverbal Communication

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3-17

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Elements of Culture █ Norms –Established standards of behavior maintained by a society To be significant, must be widely shared and understood

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Elements of Culture Formal norms –Generally written down; specify strict punishments for violations Informal norms –Generally understood but not precisely recorded █ Norms –Types of Norms

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Elements of Culture Mores –Norms deemed highly necessary to the welfare of a society, often because they embody the most cherished principles of a people Folkways –Norms governing everyday behavior █ Norms –Types of Norms

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Elements of Culture Subject to change as political, economic, and social conditions of a culture are transformed █ Norms –Acceptance of Norms –Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm May be either positive or negative █ Sanctions

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Elements of Culture

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Elements of Culture █ Values –Collective conceptions of what is good, desirable, and proper—or bad, undesirable, and improper—in a culture Influence people’s behavior Criteria for evaluating actions of others

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Elements of Culture █ Values may be specific or they may be more general. █ Values may change but only slowly.

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Culture and the Dominant Ideology –Describes the set of cultural beliefs and practices that help to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests Control wealth and property Control the means of producing beliefs about reality through: –religion –education –the media █ Dominant Ideology

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Cultural Variation –Subculture: Segment of society that shares distinctive pattern of mores, folkways, and values that differs from the larger society A subculture is a culture existing within a larger, dominant culture █ Aspects of Cultural Variation

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Cultural Variation Hippies JMB █ Aspects of Cultural Variation –Counterculture: subculture that conspicuously and deliberately opposes certain aspects of the larger culture

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Cultural Variation █ Cultural Variation –Culture shock: Feeling disoriented, uncertain, out of place, or fearful when immersed in an unfamiliar culture

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Cultural Variation –Ethnocentrism: Tendency to assume that one’s own culture and way of life represents the norm or is superior to all others. –Cultural relativism: views people’s behaviors from the perspective of their own culture –Xenocentrism: Belief that products, styles, or ideas of one’s society are inferior to those that originate elsewhere █ Attitudes Toward Cultural Variation