1. CULTURE Sociology 1301: Introduction to Sociology Week Five

2. Culture  Culture: the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together form a people’s way of life  Real vs. Ideal  Nature vs. Nurture Sociobiology: A theoretical approach that explores ways in which human biology affects how we create culture  Two Types (Nonmaterial vs. Material)  Culture includes technology Technology: knowledge that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings  Culture is made of cultural scripts  Culture is a method of social control Social Control: attempts by society to regulate people’s thoughts and behavior

3. Elements of Culture  Values & Norms  Mores: Norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance  Folkways: Norms for routine or casual interaction; not strictly enforced  Taboos: A Norm so strong that it often brings revulsion if violated  Symbols: Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture  Gestures: the ways in which people use their bodies to communicate with one another  Ideology: A system of concepts and relationships, an understanding of cause and effect

4. Language  Language: A system of symbols that allow people to communicate with one another  Language allows human experience to be cumulative  Language provides a social or shared past  Language provides social and shared future  Language allows shared perspectives  Language allows complex, shared, goal-directed behavior

5. Sanctions  Sanctions: Expressions of approval or disapproval given to people for upholding or violating norms  Positive Sanctions: reward “good” behavior  Negative Sanctions: punish “bad” behavior

6. US Cultural Values  Achievement and success  Individualism  Activity and work  Practicality and efficiency  Progress  Material comfort  Humanitarianism  Freedom  Democracy  Education  Romantic love

7. Value Contradictions  Value Contradiction: Values that contradict one another; to follow the one means to come into conflict with the other  Science & technology  Religiosity  Equality  Racism & group superiority

8. Emerging Values  Leisure  Self-fulfillment  Physical fitness  Youthfulness  Concern for the environment

9. Culture Over Time  Cultural Transmission: The process by which one generation passes culture to the next  Causes of Cultural Change:  Invention  Discovery  Diffusion  Cultural Integration: The close relationships among various elements of a cultural system  Cultural changes are linked  Cultural Lag: The fact that some cultural elements change more quickly than others, disrupting a cultural system

10. Experiencing Cultural Differences  Culture Shock: Personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life  You can experience culture shock or inflict it  Ethnocentrism  Cultural Relativism  Pluralistic Society: A society made up of many different groups  Multiculturalism: A perspective recognizing the cultural diversity of the United States and promoting equal standing for all cultural traditions  Counterculture: Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society

11. Globalization & Culture  Cultural Diffusion: The spread of cultural characteristics from one group to another  Globalization has impacted culture around the world due to the:  Flow of goods  Flow of information  Flow of people  Limitations to globalization:  Uneven impact  Economic inequality  Different meanings

12. Culture & the Structural-Functional Perspective  Functionalism/Structural-Functional (Macro): Framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability  What purpose does culture serve? Cultural Universals: Traits that are part of every known culture

13. Culture & the Social-Conflict Perspective  Conflict Theory/Social-Conflict (Macro): Inequality exists as a result of political struggles among different groups in a particular society  How is culture linked to inequality? Materialism: A society’s system of material production has a powerful effect on the rest of a culture High Culture vs. Popular Culture Subcultures

14. Culture & the Symbolic Interaction Perspective  Symbolic interactionism (Micro): A micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivation behind people's actions  How do we use the symbols in culture to inform how we interact with others?

15. References  Conley, D. (2008). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.  Henslin, J. M. (2008). Sociology: A down-to-earth approach (9th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.  Macionis, J. J. (2010). SOC100: Sociology: 2011 custom edition (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Custom Publishing.  Massey, G. (Ed.) (2006). Readings for sociology (5 th Ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.