1. Cultural Variation, Subcultures, and Countercultures
Dr. Urban

2. Cultural Universals Arts and Leisure Basic Needs Beliefs
Athletic sports, dancing, decorative art, games, music
Basic Needs
Clothing, cooking, housing
Beliefs
Folklore, funeral rites, religious ritual
Communication & Education
Education, language
Family
Kinship, marriage
Government & Economy
Division of labor, law, rights, trade, calendar
Technology
Medicine, tools
Cultural Universals

3. Cultural Variation Cultural diversity, pluralism, and multiculturalism
Subcultures – groups whose values and related behaviors are so distinct that they set their members off from the general culture.
1,000s of subcultures in U.S.
Examples -
Countercultures – groups whose values set their members in opposition to dominant culture.
Challenge dominant culture’s core values
Cultural Variation

4. Responses to Cultural Variation
Ethnocentrism – tendency to view one’s own culture and group as superior.
Leads to discrimination, cultural stagnation
Cultural Relativism – belief that cultures should be judged by their own standards rather than by applying the standards of another culture.
Understand cultural practices from points of view of members of a particular society.
But, cultural practices that result in exploitation should be judged as morally inferior
Responses to Cultural Variation

5. Cultural Diffusion – spreading of cultural traits from one society to another
Cultural Lag – time between cultural change, when ideas and beliefs are adapting to new material conditions.
Material culture changes more readily than nonmaterial culture
Cultural Leveling – process in which cultures become more and more alike
E.g., McDonald’s, Starbucks, NY Yankees, etc.
Cultural Change