1. Ch. 3
Culture

2. What is Culture?
Culture is the entire way of life for a group of people; consists of material objects, patterns of thinking, feeling, language, beliefs, values, norms, and behaviors passed from one generation to the next
Material Culture - includes the objects associated with a cultural group, such as tools, machines, utensils, buildings, and artwork.
Nonmaterial/Symbolic Culture - includes ways of thinking (beliefs, values, and assumptions) and ways of behaving (norms, interactions, and communication).

3. Culture and Taken-for-Granted Orientations
What is Normal, Natural, or Usual?
Learned - passed from one generation to the next through communication—not genetics
Culture as Lens: through which we perceive and evaluate things
Provides implicit instructions and a moral imperative that defines what we think is right and wrong
Culture Shock
Ethnocentrism

4. Practicing Cultural Relativism
Consists of trying to appreciate other group’s ways of like in the context in which they exist, w/out judging them as superior or inferior to our own.
Understanding Cultures on Their Own Terms
When studying any group, it is important to try to employ cultural relativism because it helps sociologists see others more objectively.
“Sick Cultures” based on “quality of life - Robert Edgerton

5. Components of Symbolic Culture
Gestures
Conveying Messages without Words
Gestures’ Meaning Differ Among Cultures
Can Lead to Misunderstandings

6. Components of Symbolic Culture
The creation and transmission of culture depends heavily on the capacity to develop symbols.
Symbols (signs) - things that stand for, or represent, something else. Can also include gestures (e.g., a hand wave).
Language – a system of symbols (vocal, written, gestures) that can be combined in an infinite number of ways, to communicate abstract thought.
This is probably the most significant component of culture because it allows and serves as primary means of communicate.

7. Components of Symbolic Culture
Language
Allows Human Experience to be Cumulative
Provides Social or Shared Past
Provides Social or Shared Future
Allows Shared Perspective
Allows Complex, Shared, Goal-Directed Behavior

8. Language and Perception: Sapir-Whorf
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - the idea that language is so important because it has embedded within it ways of looking at the world
Language shapes our reality.
Our perception of reality is at the mercy of the words and grammatical rules of our language.
Studies demonstrate that language significantly shapes thought.

9. Values, Norms, and Sanctions
Values – Standards by which we define good/bad, desirable; guide the creation of norms
Norms - Expectations or rules for behavior as acceptable and appropriate within a culture; guide the creation of laws
Sanctions - Reaction to following or breaking norms; used to encourage conformity to norms; help to establish social control, the formal and informal mechanisms used to increase conformity to values and norms and thus increase social cohesion.
Positive sanctions
Negative sanctions
Taboos – Norms so strongly ingrained that eve the thought of them is greeted with revulsion

10. Cultural Diversity
Multiculturalism values diverse racial, ethnic, national, and linguistic backgrounds and thus encourages the retention of cultural differences within society, rather than assimilation.
However, we still often see the dominant culture as the norm, and therefore many minority cultures feel pressure to conform.
The dominant culture refers to the values, norms, and practices of the group within society that is most powerful in terms of wealth, prestige, status, and influence; varies from culture to culture.
Examples: WASPs, men

11. Subcultures
Subculture - a group within society that is differentiated by its distinctive values, norms, and lifestyle; a world within the dominant culture; a group that is part of the dominant culture but differs from it in some important respects.
By tradition, Americans like to see themselves as part of a large, single culture. Yet there are many subgroups with cultural uniqueness.

12. Countercultures
Countercultures - groups within society that openly reject, and may actively oppose, society’s values and norms
Openly/deliberately/and consciously defies norms, values, and/or beliefs of the dominant culture.
Rebelling against the dominant culture is central to their members.
Examples: militia movement, skinheads, hippies

13. Values in U.S. Society
Values – broad cultural principles that most people in a society consider desirable.
They do not specify precisely what to think, feel, or behave. Rather, they are ideas about what a group of people believe is good/bad, acceptable/unacceptable
They are important because they have a tremendous influence on social behavior.
Norms are based on a culture’s values.
Handout: 15 US Values…

14. Activity:
Scavenger Hunt! !!