1. Topic: Introduction to Culture
Unit 2: Culture
Topic: Introduction to Culture
A Filipino boy participates in Palm Sunday rites outside the Holy Family Parish Church in Quezon city, north of Manila, Philippines on April 13. Palm Sunday marks the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem and ushers in the Holy Week observance among Catholics worldwide.
Culture can be defined as….
Elements of my own culture include…

2. Culture is…
A series of learned behaviors, beliefs, traits, and customs transmitted through generations by imitation, instruction, and example.
Creates a framework for group and individual relationships
Culture is universal; all humans have a culture

3. ACTIVITY: Social Interaction & Culture:
Male-Female
Female-Female
Male-Male
I need 3 sets of 2 volunteers to come to the front of the room….first 3

4. Start a conversation with each other about anything you like
Start a conversation with each other about anything you like. Each one of you should make a comment.
After 1 exchange, take a step closer to one another.
Repeat until you personally feel uncomfortably close to the other person…

5. Micro-Sociological Interactions Personal Space Discussion:
What did you notice about the different personal
space interactions?
What factors impacted how comfortable or
uncomfortable people felt?
Why do you think this is?
How might this differ in other cultures?

6. Here are some facts about personal space bubbles:
The bubble is larger if you are talking to a stranger.
The better you know the person you're talking to, the smaller the bubble may be.
The bubble is usually larger for two men than for two women.
The bubble may be very small for a man and a women if they are in a relationship.
The bubble may be larger than normal for a man and a women who are strangers to each other.
The bubble size may differ for different cultures. 6

7. Americans have 4 social distance zones: Public, social, personal, and intimate
Public: beyond 12 ft.
Social: 4 to 12 ft.
Personal: 18 in. to 4 ft.
Intimate: under 18 in. 7

8. Cultural Word Association (notebook):
List # 1-4 in your notebook
For each of the following terms, write down in your notebook the first word that comes to mind that you associate with the original word.
TRANSPORTATION
CALL
SUCESS
PARTY 8

9. Number 1-4 again: List 1 color that you associate with happiness
The number of
children in a
typical family
What did you notice
about the commonality
of answers? Why is
this?

10. Discussion: What did you notice about your collective responses?
Why was this?
How might answers
have differed in culture
other than your own? (“party,
success, transportation,
call”)

11. Types of Culture:
Material Culture: The tangible objects of a culture -
Examples?
Nonmaterial culture: The non-tangible aspects
Of a culture - examples?
What aspect of each do you personally
Consider the most essential to YOU? 11

12. Ethnocentrism: Using your own culture as a standard against which to judge other cultures
Cultural Relativism: Accepting other cultures as different than your own 12

13. A riddle…which may not be a riddle to you at all…
“A father and son are in a terrible car accident and the father is
killed, but the son is rushed to the hospital and prepare for
surgery. The doctor comes in, looks down at the boy on the
operating table and exclaims: “Oh, God, I can’t operate, that’s
my son!”
-Why does the doctor
Say this?
-Is the riddle obvious
To you?
-How might it not be
Obvious to other
Cultures?

14. Child Brides in Yemen. The girls are 10 and 13 years of age
Child Brides in Yemen. The girls are 10 and 13 years of age. Is this practice acceptable in your opinion? Are you a cultural relativist or ethnocentric? 14

17. Sub-Cultures (a culture within a culture):
groups with their own dress, specific language (argot),
values, norms, rituals, and perspectives on the world. Sub-cultures have values that exist harmoniously
within
the dominant culture of their society.
Let’s take the example of a sports team…

18. Sports Team (any) How do they dress to distinguish themselves?
What do they collectively value?
How are new members initiated into the group?
Specialized argot?

19. Counter-Cultures: A sub-culture whose Values run in opposition to the
dominant culture
--Think of examples of counter-culture?
How do their values go against what the dominant
culture finds important?

20. An annotated reading of…
We’re going to read a few select passages from Horace Miner’s
Famous anthropological cultural study, Body Ritual
Among the Nacirema

21. Identify and describe some aspects of American culture that Miner is
Satirizing in his famous essay
Now…identify one contemporary aspect of American culture
And describe it as Miner would have…can be anything at all.

22. Can you think of any other cultural universals?
Cultural Universals: Adaptations that meet human needs that all societies practice…
Can you think of any other cultural universals? 22