1. Final Thoughts on Culture

2. Components of Culture Normative Culture Material Culture
There are three main components of culture. The material and the two aspects of the non-material culture: the cognitive and the normative. The circles are drawn as over-lapping because the components are so connected to one another. For every thing (ie, toaster) you have to have some cognitive information or knowledge (how to plug it in; where to insert the bread; how to push it down and set the control to achieve the appropriate shade) and some norms or rules (don’t immerse it in water; don’t stick a fork or other metal tool into). Further, if you’re mad at your brother, you should not bonk him on the head with the toaster.
Cognitive Culture
Non Material Culture

3. Types of Norms http://www.dumblaws.com/ Folkways Mores Laws customs
habits
minor with few, if any sanctions for violation
Mores
vital
morally significant (sin)
violations result in severe sanctions
Laws
There are three basic types of norms, folkways and mores.
Folkways are everyday customs. In some context we might call them manners. Violations tend to be ignored, although repeated violations may result in the label “eccentric,” “weirdo” or “geek.”
Mores are more socially significant rules. Violations might be considered “sinful.” Obedience to mores is seen as vital to the well-being of the society. Failure to obey could result in a severe punishment--depending on the degree of violation.
Those rules, usually mores, that are taken very seriously are legislated into laws with designated enforcement personnel and specified sanctions. We will explore norms and sanctions (rewards/punishments) more thoroughly in Chapter 6.

4. Levels of Development
Hunting and gathering (!Kung, Invisible People, Plains Indians – Buffalo culture)
Herding (Bedouins, Laplanders, Navajo)
Horticultural (early Chacoans, Shelmickedmu,)
Agricultural (later Chacoans, pioneer Americans in Nebraska and Iowa)
Industrial (Mexico and many European countries)
Post-Industrial (U.S., Japan, much of Europe)
Once we have an understanding of the the three major components of culture (material, cognitive, and normative), we can compare one level of societal development with another. Throughout history and simultaneously at any point, societies reach various stages or levels of development.
If you watched “The Gods Must be Crazy” for Chapter 1 or if you have seen “Dances with Wolves,” you have observed the subsistence-level culture of hunter/gatherers.
Some cultures have settled in areas with fertile plant growth or with animals (goats, sheep, reindeer) that can be domesticated and herded.
Increased application of technology to farming (plow, irrigation, hybridization of seeds) allow for the development of a surplus and the move into an agricultural level of society. Rural America still functions at this level.
The surplus frees some individuals from the daily necessity to get food and enables them to trade their labors in arts, crafts, teaching, healing or religious work for food or money to purchase food.
This led the way to the development of industrial and post-industrial cultures. See Chapter 14 for more information on modernization, industrialization and urbanization.

5. Ethnocentrism
The tendency to use one’s own culture as a standard against which other groups or cultures are measured
Positive features: national pride, patriotism, willingness to fight for one’s way of life
Negative features: prejudice, discrimination

6. Cultural Relativism
The practice of judging a culture by its own standards
Alternative to ethnocentrism
Requires openness to unfamiliar values and norms
Requires the ability to put aside cultural standards known all our lives

7. In-groups versus Out-groups
If we see our way as good, those who are like us are seen as in-groups
All others, then, are viewed as out-groups
We feel different degrees of social distance from out-groups
The more distant, the more we tend to polarize our feelings or judgments

8. Polarity of Judgments In-Group: Our way Good Right Honest Intelligent
Clean
Etc.
Out-Group: Their way
Bad; Evil
Wrong
Dishonest, Sneaky
Stupid
Dirty
Etc.

9. Subcultures
Categories of people who are part of the mainstream culture but who hold some unique and differential identities that give them a “group identity” that is set apart from or different from the mainstream
Subcultural patterns may include language differences, jargon, value systems, beliefs, patterns of behavior, style of dress
May be based on ethnicity, race, national heritage, religion, occupation, socioeconomic status, political perspective, etc.

10. Subcultural Identities
A Few Examples
Etnicity
Race
Recent national heritage
Religion
Occupation
Socioeconomic status
Political Perspective
Irish, Czech, German
Asian; Black; Native American
Sudanese, Mexican
Catholic, Amish, Jewish
Medical, Over-the-road truckers
Jet set; working class; subculture of poverty
Radicals, “Hippies”, Skin-heads