1. How do we look at culture?
Verstehen
Hermeneutic interpretation
Sociologocial Imagination

2. First, “Culture”
“The system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning”

3. First, “Culture”
There are layers of culture, also known as “sub- cultures”, many times divided along ethnic lines
All cultures share some characteristics, for example, all have definitions of “good” and “bad”, all have some kind of artistic expression, all have a language, games or jokes.

4. Second, “society”
Culture can be invisible (such as ethics, morals, expectations of sexuality) or observable (such as art, language, clothing)
Society is the people who “do” or “make” the culture; biologically speaking, the organisms.
For this class, the “society” is the people who live in the United States.

5. For further reading
For more information on culture, visit this website

6. Three key terms to study culture
“Verstehen”
“Hermeneutic Interpretation”
“Sociological Imagination”

7. Verstehen
Originally coined by Max Weber (he was a very famous German sociologist)
Translated to mean “understand” or “interpret”
BUT different from “Verstand”, which means “intellectual understanding” (in German)
Does not refer to understanding a concept, rather, an experience or interaction.

8. Verstehen
To practice “Verstehen”, one needs to remove or suspend one's own values and judgments.
Understanding is temporal, it exists at one moment in time.

9. Hermeneutic Interpretation
Hermeneutics were originally applied to texts to try to determine the author's intent.
Originally used in Biblical interpretation, started to gain popularity in the 1600s and continued until today
Used in sociology to study interactions and experiences of people (e.g., ethnographies)

10. Sociological Imagination
“Put yourself in their shoes”
“the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society.” (C. Wright Mills)
The ability to see how society and individuals influence and interact with each other.

11. Sociological Imagination
Read the “Example of Applying the Sociological Imagination”