1. Culture

2. What is culture, and what role does it play in society and in its members lives?  culture - The way of life in a particular society. Knowledge, values, customs and physical objects shared by members of a society.  1. The particular content of culture varies from place to place, but all human cultures have the same basic elements.  2. cultural elements - values, norms, symbols, language, knowledge, religion, music, art, food, clothes, housing, leisure activities, media, etc.

3. What is culture, and what role does it play in society and in its members lives?  B. Human behavior is based on culture  1. our way of thinking: our hopes and fears, our likes and dislikes, our beliefs and habits (influenced by the time and place in which we live)  2. virtually everything we say or do - from shaking hands to falling in love.  3. culture is developed, used and modified as necessary (it is constantly changing.

4. Heredity - genetic inheritance  1. instincts - innate inheritance (unlearned)patterns of behavior Is instinct or culture more important in determining human behavior? Why?  2. nature vs. nurture  3. reflexes - automatic reaction to physical stimulus (babies cry when pinched, eyes contract in bright light)  4. drives - impulse to reduce discomfort (eat when hungry, sleep when tired)  5. culture channels these expressions of biological charac.

5. Norms and Values  norms - rules defining appropriate and inappropriate behavior (3 basic types)  1. folkways - norms that lack moral significance - everyday habits (sleeping on a bed, supporting school activites, a male taking off a hat in church) (breaking a folkway is not considered wicked)  2. mores - norms that have moral dimensions and that should be followed by members of the society (standing up for the National Anthem, swearing in church) (breaking a more brings strong disapproval)  a. taboo - most serious mores (a rule of behavior, the violation of which calls for strong punishment) (incest)

6. Norms and Values  law - a norm that is formally defined and enforced by officials  a. sanctions - rewards and punishments used to encourage people to follow norms  1. formal sanctions - imposed by persons given special authority (judges, teachers, gov.)  2. informal sanctions - imposed by most members of a group  3. both can be positive or negative

7. Norms and Values  Values - deeply held criteria for judging what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable, beautiful or ugly.  1. Why are values important? They have a tremendous influence on human social behavior because they form the basis for norms

8. Beliefs and Material Culture  A. non-material culture - beliefs, ideas, knowledge that influence people’s behavior  1. beliefs - ideas about the nature of reality (true or false) People base their behavior on what they believe regardless of how true or false the beliefs are.  B. material culture - concrete, tangible objects of a culture - autos, basketballs, chairs, highways, art (physical objects have no meaning apart from what people give them)

9. Beliefs and Material Culture  Ideal and real culture  1. ideal culture - cultural guidelines that group members claim to accept  2. real culture - actual behavior patterns of members of a group  ex. - honesty - explain?

10. Cultural diversity and similarities  cultural change - 3 reasons  1. discovery - finding something that already exists (athletic ability of females)  2. invention - creation of something new (cell phones)  3. diffusion - borrowing aspects from other cultures (food, democracy)  Cultural diversity  1. social categories - groupings of persons who share a social characteristic (age, gender, religion)  2. subculture - a group that is part of the dominant culture but that differs in some important respects (San Francisco’s Chinatown)  3. counterculture - a subculture deliberately and consciously opposed to certain central beliefs

11. Cultural diversity and similarity  Ethnocentrism - judging others in terms of one’s own cultural standards (olympics, states, members of schools)  1. advantages - stability is promoted because traditions and behaviors are highly valued  2. disadvantages - group becomes too rigid and inflexible and cannot change for the better  Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - our idea of reality largely depends upon language

12. Cultural diversity and similarity  Cultural universals - general traits that exist in all cultures (sports, cooking, courtship, education, etiquette, government, housing, music)  1. cultural particulars - the ways in which a culture expresses universal traits  ex. - role of women/men:  *In the U.S. women are mainly responsible for child rearing  * in New Guinea men are in charge of child rearing  * The Navajo Indians share domestic and economic tasks equally