1. Culture Modules 10, 11 &12

2. What is culture?
Culture is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of people. Culture is the behavior that results when a group arrives at a set of - generally unspoken and unwritten - rules for working together.

3. Norms and Values
All societies have ways to encourage and enforce appropriate behavior, and discourage and punish inappropriate behavior
Collective idea of what is good and desirable, and what is not

4. Norms Norms: established standards of behavior maintained by a society
To be significant, must be widely shared and understood
Example – how to behave in a movie theater (norm of silence)
But, its ok to be noisy in a funny movie.
Persistent social norm in contemporary society: heterosexuality
We learn to accept norms – (2009) A national survey of mothers of 3-6 year-olds found that 1 in 5 mothers teaches their children that homosexuality was wrong.

5. Norms
Types of Norms
Formal norms: generally written; specify strict punishments
Law: governmental social control
Parking at HCC
Informal norms: generally understood but not precisely recorded
How to dress? What is appropriate dress code?

6. Norms Acceptance of Norms People do not follow norms in all situations
Behavior that appears to violate society’s norms may represent adherence to a particular group’s norms
Example – Teenage drinking
WellsFargo – Corporate culture

7. Mores: norms deemed highly necessary to the welfare of a society
Example – child abuse
Folkways: norms governing everyday behavior
Example – walking up – on a down escalator

8. Norms Norms and Sanctions
Sanctions: penalties and rewards for conduct concerning social norm
Positive sanctions: pay raises, medals, words of gratitude
Negative sanctions: fines, threats, imprisonment, and stares of contempt

10. How powerful are norms?
Breaching experiments by Harold Garfinkel

11. Values

12. Values

13. Values
Cultural values: collective conceptions of what is good, desirable, and proper—or bad, undesirable, and improper
Example – democracy, respecting parents
Influence people’s behavior
Criteria for evaluating actions of others
Values may change, but most remain relatively stable during any one person’s lifetime
Example – institution of marriage

14. Role of language Facilitates day-to-day exchanges
Includes both the written and spoken word and nonverbal communication

15. Language: Written and Spoken
Language: abstract system of word meanings and symbols for all aspects of culture
Examples – English language – words dealing with war
Tibetan language – words related to peace
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Language precedes thought
Language is not a given
Language is culturally determined
Language may color how we see the world

16. Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf (1930)
In the 1930s, two anthropologists, became intrigued when they noticed that the Hopi Indians of the southwestern United States had no words to distinguish among the past, the present, and the future.
English, in contrast as well as French, Spanish, Swahili, and other languages distinguishes carefully among these three time frames.
Language not only expresses our thoughts and perceptions but also shapes the way we think and perceive. When we learn a language, we learn not only words but also ways of thinking and perceiving

17. How language shapes social reality
Cancer or Loo Doo na’dziihii -a sore that does not go away
Menopause
Gender-related language – “policeman”

18. Elements of Culture Role of Language
One of the major elements of culture
Important component of cultural capital
The term cultural capital refers to non-financial social assets that promote social mobility beyond economic means. Examples can include education, intellect, style of speech, dress, or physical appearance
Example – “The Blind Side”

19. Cultural capital - is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviors and skills that one can tap into to demonstrate one's cultural competence, and thus one's social status or standing in society

20. Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal communication: use of gestures, facial expressions, and other visual images to communicate
Learned
Differs by culture
Symbols: gestures, objects, and words that form basis of human communication

21. Nonverbal Communication and Culture

22. Norms may be violated because they conflict with other norms
Example – privacy and “doing the right thing”
WikiLeaks??
Acceptance of norms is subject to change
Example – inter-racial marriages
Sudden change can upset an entire population and change norms – 911 and norms about privacy

23. Global Culture War
Culture war: polarization of society over controversial cultural elements
In 1990s, referred to political debates over abortion, religious expression, gun control, and sexual orientation
After U.S. established military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, foreign opinion of U.S. became quite negative

24. Sociological Perspectives on Culture
Functionalists maintain that social stability requires a consensus and the support of society’s members; strong central values and common norms provide that support
Conflict theorists argue that common culture serves to maintain the privileges of certain groups

25. Sociological Perspectives on Culture
Dominant ideology: set of cultural beliefs and practices that help maintain powerful interests
Social interests
Economic interests
Political interests

26. Conflict perspective: dominant ideology has major social significance

27. Cultural universals Cultural universals
•George Murdock –Family •Basic human survival (food and shelter) and  shared human experiences, such as…
–Birth, death, illness
–Care of children/ elderly
•Other cultural universals
‐Language
‐Personal Names 
‐Humor

28. Ethnocentrism & Cultural relativism
What do we eat ? What  do we eat?
Cultural relativism
•Assessing a culture from its own standard  rather than viewing it through the lens of ones  own 
culture.
•Xeno‐centrism –a  belief that another culture  is superior to one’s own.

29. Cultural Variation Cultures adapt to meet specific circumstances
Climate, level of technology, population, geography
Groups within a single nation develop cultural patterns that differ from those of the dominant society

30. Subcultures
Subculture: segment of society that shares distinctive pattern of mores, folkways, and values that differs from larger society
A subculture may develop an argot, a specialized language that distinguishes a subculture from the wider society

31. Countercultures
Counterculture: subculture that conspicuously and deliberately opposes certain aspects of the larger culture
Typically thrive among the young
Counterterrorism experts concerned about growth of ultraconservative militia groups

32. Culture Shock
Occurs when someone feels disoriented, uncertain, out of place, or fearful when immersed in an unfamiliar culture
People tend to take for granted cultural practices of their society