1. Culture and Society: Hardware and Software of Our Social World

2. Culture and Society
Society as hardware
Culture as software

3. The Importance of Software
Culture makes societies unique. Culture is the way of life shared by a group of people.
Knowledge
Beliefs
Values
Rules or laws
Language
Customs
Symbols
Material products
Culture provides a guideline for carrying out tasks

4. Society: The Hardware Societies are composed of structures
Positions we hold
Groups we belong to
Institutions

5. Society: The Hardware
Society develops in stages depending on many things
Availability of resources
Contact with other societies
Cultural beliefs
Political events and changes

6. Evolution of Societies
Mechanic societies
Small, simple, pre-modern societies
Held together by common beliefs, values, and emotional ties
Labor is divided by male/female distinctions and age groupings.
Organic societies
Large, complex societies
Held together by the specialization of tasks
Division of labor
Efficiency
Institutions and bureaucratic organizations begin to exist

7. Types of Societies Hunting and Gathering Societies
Rely on vegetation and animals to live
Organized around kinship
Nomadic
Small (between members)
Gendered division of labor
Resources shared fairly
Actions and behaviors dictated through tradition or survival
Lack material possessions

8. Types of Societies Herding societies Horticultural societies
Herding and Horticultural Societies
Herding societies
produce small herds of domesticated animals for food and survival, and
Horticultural societies
maintain small garden plots for food and survival

9. Types of Societies Herding and Horticultural Societies Semi-Nomadic
Relatively small (50 - 3,000 members)
Status differences become important and produce inequality
“Traditional” gender roles emerge:
Some material possessions

10. Types of Societies Agricultural Societies
Rely on raising crops for food
Use technological advances for increased efficiency and higher crop yields
Plows
Irrigation
Use of animals
Fertilization

11. Types of Societies Agricultural Societies Permanent settlements
Use of advanced technologies
Populations can be large (1,000,000 or more)
Stratification intensifies
Peasant classes
Ruling classes
Institutions beyond the family are established
Religious
Political
Military organizations

12. Types of Societies Industrial Societies Rely on mechanized production
Pronounced division of labor
Rise in standard of living
Wide gaps between owners and laborers
Population concentrates in cities
Kinship patters change
Social change more rapid

13. Types of Societies Postindustrial Societies
Technology, or scientific knowledge used for utilitarian or economic purposes, is very important
Majority of labor force in service positions
The division of labor more pronounced
Technical and professional education increasingly important
Stratification based on technological knowledge and education
Emphasis on science to solve social problems including:
Creating alternate energy sources
Finding automated ways of completing tasks
Using computers and robots to complete tasks formerly done by individuals

14. Culture: The Software
Culture is the way of shared life by a group of people—the knowledge, beliefs, values, rules or lays, language, customs, symbols, and material products within a society that help meet human needs

15. Real Versus Ideal Culture
We teach new members of our society the ideal culture, or the practices and beliefs that are most desirable
However, the real culture of a society refers to the way things in society are actually done

16. Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativity
Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view one’s own group and its cultural expectations as right, proper, and superior to others
Cultural relativism is setting aside personal beliefs and prejudices to understand a culture by its own standards or as a member of that culture would

17. Society, Culture, and Our Social World

18. Micro-level Analysis: Microstructures
Microcultures – organizations that influence only a small segment of an individual’s lives or only affects an individual’s life for a small period of time

19. Meso-level Analysis: Subcultures and Countercultures
A subculture is a social unit smaller than a nation but large enough to sustain people throughout the life span
Elements that make them unique
Share conventions and expectations of dominant culture
Influence people’s lives in pervasive ways

20. Meso-level Analysis: Subcultures and Countercultures
A counterculture is a group with expectations and values that contrast sharply with the dominant values of a particular society
Values or practices that go against laws and regulations of the dominant culture
May wish to replace values of the larger culture
Most often short-lived
Some aspects accepted by the dominant culture
Countercultures can challenge unfair treatment of powerless groups in society

21. Macro-level Analysis: National and Global Culture
Natural Culture and Society
Every culture intricately related to a society
Global Society and Culture
Globalization is the process where the entire globe is becoming a “single socio-cultural place”
Globalization or Westernization?
Global culture is the behavioral standards, symbols, values, and material objects that have become common across the globe

22. Material Culture: The Artifacts of Life
Material culture includes all the objects we can see or touch, all the artifacts of a group of people

23. Nonmaterial Culture: Beliefs, Values, Rules, and Language
Nonmaterial culture is the invisible and intangible parts of culture
Beliefs
Values
Norms/Rules
Language

24. Nonmaterial Culture: Beliefs
Beliefs are ideas we hold about life, about the way the society works, and about where we fit into it
Based in tradition
Influence choices we make

25. Nonmaterial Culture: Values
Values are nonmaterial shared judgments about what is desirable or undesirable, right or wrong, good or bad
So much a part of the way of life that they can be hard to identify
Groups in society can have different values
can lead to group conflict

26. Nonmaterial Culture: Rules
Norms are rules of behavior shared by members of a society and rooted in the value system
Folkways
Mores
Taboos
Laws

27. Non-material Culture: Rules
Sanctions are behaviors that reinforce norms through rewards and penalties
Formal sanctions
Positive formal sanctions
Negative formal sanctions
Informal sanctions
Positive informal sanctions

28. Nonmaterial Culture: Language
Language is the spoken, written, or nonverbal use of symbols to convey meaning, objects, or ideas
The foundation of every culture
Makes culture possible
Takes three forms:
Spoken
Written
Nonverbal

29. Nonmaterial Culture: Language
Spoken language
Uses a set of sounds to symbolize objects or ideas
Sounds generally hold common meaning to all members of a culture
Written language
Uses a set of images to symbolize objects or ideas
Societies tend to store information through written language
Makes communication over distances possible
Nonverbal language
Uses gestures, facial expression, and body posture to symbolize an object or idea

30. Nonmaterial Culture: Language
The linguistic relativity theory posits that people who speak a specific language make interpretations of their reality based on their knowledge of language

31. Understanding Culture: Symbolic Interaction Theory
How we learn to share meanings of symbols
Symbols are the basic element of all cultures
“Humanness” comes from the impact we have upon each other through shared understandings of symbols
We learn meanings of symbols through interaction with others
We define how we should act through our definition of situations and symbols

32. Understanding Culture: Symbolic Interaction Theory
Three steps through symbols gain meaning and importance
The symbol is created
The symbol is objectified, assuming a reality independent of the creator
The group internalizes the symbol

33. Understanding Culture: Structural Functionalism
Looks for the functions or purposes behind the actions and practices of a culture
Shared norms, values, and beliefs serve the function of holding a society or a subculture together
However sometimes shared norms, values, and beliefs are dysfunctional for individuals or groups of individuals within a society

34. Understanding Culture: Conflict Theory
Societies are composed of groups; each of which protects its own self-interests and struggles to make its own cultural ways dominant in the society
Dominant groups may impose their cultural beliefs on minorities and other subcultural groups
This practice can create conflict
People with privilege and power in society manipulate agents of socialization so people learn the values, beliefs, and norms of the privileged group(s)
However, conflict theory does not explain stable societies

35. Policy and Cultural Change
Technology is bringing change to societies around the world
Cultural lag occurs when shifts in society occur unequally between material culture and nonmaterial culture
New technologies must be used cautiously
Some can save lives
Others can disrupt and destroy cultures