1. Characteristics of Culture
The Concept of Culture
Culture is Learned
Culture is Shared
Culture is Based on Symbols
Culture Gives Meaning to Reality
Religion
Language
Customs

2. WHAT IS CULTURE?
Culture: a society’s (group’s) system of shared, learned values and norms; these are the society’s (group’s) design for living
Values: abstract ideas about the good, the right, the desirable
Norms: social rules and guidelines; guide appropriate behavior for specific situations
Folkways: norms of little moral significance
dress code; table manners; timeliness
Mores: norms central to functioning of social life
bring serious retribution: thievery, adultery, alcohol

3. The Barrel Model of Culture
What is Culture?
Superstructure: A culture’s worldview, including morals and values, oftentimes grounded in religion
Social structure: The rule-governed relationships—with all their rights and obligations—that hold members of a society together. This includes households, families, associations, and power relations, including politics.
Infrastructure: The economic foundation of a society, including its subsistence practices and the tools and other material equipment used to make a living.
The Barrel Model of Culture

4. What is Culture? Iceberg example…
The beliefs and behaviors of a society
Culture consists of abstract ideas, values, and perceptions of the world that inform and are reflected in people’s behavior
Culture is the lens through which we view our world, it “invents” our reality
Iceberg example…

5. Culture is like an Iceberg…

6. Culture is Learned Rather than inherited biologically
Enculturation: The transmission of culture from one generation to the next
Mammals in general display cultural behavior (I.e. we all have the urge to eat/sleep, but when we do/with whom/in what order is determined by our social relationships). With humans, our social rules are more varied and complex.

7. Culture is Shared
By members of a society and produces behavior that is intelligible (able to be understood) to other members of that society
Society vs. Culture
Society: An organized group or groups of interdependent people who generally share a common territory, language, and culture and who act together for collective survival and well-being.
There can be no culture without a society, there are no known human societies that do not exhibit culture.

8. Subcultures
Cultural variation between subgroups in societies that share an overarching culture.
Ex: Ethnic group (A type of subculture).
People who collectively and publicly identify themselves as a distinct group based on various cultural features such as shared ancestry and common origin, language customs and traditional beliefs.
Ethnicity: The expression of the set of cultural ideas held by an ethnic group
Pluralistic Society: A society in which two or more ethnic groups or nationalities are politically organized into one territorial state but maintain their cultural differences
Sometimes can lead to some pretty nasty misunderstandings…
Ex: Yearning for Zion Ranch Texas, Warren Jeffs, Polygamy
Ex: Branch Davidians, Waco Texas

9. Culture is Based on Symbols
What are some symbols of U.S. pop culture? What do they mean?

10. Cultures Change In response to environmental or societal pressures.
Ex: North American apparel
Capitalism, need market growth = fashion changes constantly. Ideas about what is “proper” always evolving.
Compare to ancient Egypt: ~3,000 years style of dress pretty much the same. No capitalism, instead a Theocracy. Balance, harmony, emphasis on sameness and repetition of cycles.
Ex: New symbols emerge or are invented to convey changed cultural meanings
Ex: Religion Osiris + Zeus = Sarapis

11. Religion and Ethics
Religion: system of shared beliefs about the sacred
Ethical systems: moral principles or values that shape and guide behavior; often products of religion
Major religious groups and some economic implications
Christianity protestant work ethic
Islam Islamic economic principles
Hinduism anti-materialistic, socially stratified
Buddhism anti-materialistic

12. Language Language, spoken Language, unspoken
“private” does not exist as a word in many languages
Eskimos: 24 words for snow
Words which describe moral concepts can be unique to countries or areas
Spoken language precision important in low-context cultures
Language, unspoken
Context... more important than spoken word in high context cultures