1. Chapter 3
Cultural
Crossroads

2. Overview What is Culture? Components of Culture Variations in Culture
Exercise
Variations in Culture
Cultural Change

3. What is Culture? Culture is internalized
The entire way of life of a group of people or society
Language, ideas, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors and objects
Passed from one generation to the next
Fundamental feature of who we are
Why we think and act the way we do
Culture is internalized
Lens through which we view the world
Effects tend to remain imperceptible to us

4. YouTube Clip
“Borat” movie trailer

5. PRACTICING CULTURAL RELATIVISM
Each cultural group as relative to others
Seeing differences and distinctions rather than:
right and wrong
normal and abnormal
good and bad
better and worse

6. Suspending ETHNO*CENTRISM:
Use of one’s own culture as a standard to evaluate others, usually leading to a negative judgment

7. “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner
Understanding the Nacirema culture
Who are they?
See article on Everyday Sociology Blog
A study of culturally-prescribed rituals
Highly-developed techniques to care for the body
All members conform to some degree with these practices
They pass these practices along to their children

8. Who are the Nacirema? North American people
Live in a specific geographic territory
They suffer from a negative self-image
They dislike the appearance of unaltered body
They have an aversion to natural bodily functions
Ritual and ceremonial activities
Transform health and appearance
Native cultural aesthetics dictate certain practices
They are obsessed with magic

9. Every household has one or more shrines devoted to the body ritual
Each has a charm-box or chest built into the wall with a small holy-water font below
Other elements
Members visit medicine men, holy-mouth men and other specialized practitioners
To procure potions and implements to use in rituals
Very afflicted people visit certain temples
Where more radical procedures are performed

10. So … Who are the Nacirema?
How might an understanding of the Nacirema culture help us to better understand ourselves?

11. Hint: N A C I R E M A = A M E R I C A N practice culture shock
To understand the Nacirema you must think sociologically:
practice culture shock
suspend ethnocentrism
practice cultural relativism
N A C I R E M A = A M E R I C A N

13. Components of Culture: Material Culture
Physical objects belonging to a culture
To which we give meaning
Art, artifacts, architecture, clothing, utensils, tools, machines, technologies, etc.

15. Components of Culture: Non-Material or Symbolic Culture
Symbols
Signs
Gestures
Language
Symbols allow for abstract concepts
Ideas, beliefs, values, norms, rules
Social systems, patterns, ways of thinking

19. “Hand Gestures Across Cultures”
YouTube Clip
“Hand Gestures Across Cultures”

20. LANGUAGE A human universal A system of communication
Do animals have language?
A system of communication
Vocal sounds and written symbols
The basis of culture
Knowledge and experience is cumulative
Shared and exchanged

21. Language and Perception
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis —
Ways of looking at the world are embedded in language
Language allows us to “see” things
Example of the Inuit or Eskimo
Language structures thought

22. Language and Social Reality
Example of language and culture of high school girls
From the book “Queen Bees and Wannabes”
Basis for the movie “Mean Girls”

23. Mean Girls

25. Can you solve this riddle?
A man and his son are involved in a serious car accident. The man is pronounced dead at the scene, but his son is rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition. A famous surgeon on staff at the hospital is summoned from a golf game to save the boy's life. Arriving at the hospital, the surgeon takes one look at the boy and says, “Oh my God, I can't operate, get someone else. That's my son!"
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

26. Symbolic Culture: VALUES AND NORMS
What a group values and honors
Standards and ideas about good or bad, right or wrong, normal or abnormal
Norms —
Rules and guidelines for acceptable and appropriate behavior
Based on a group’s values
We conform so readily that we are not usually aware

27. Types of Norms Folkways — Mores —
Customs and practices that ensure smooth interaction
Loosely enforced
Mores —
Norms that are key to core values
Serious and formal repercussions
Taboos —
Deeply engrained mores
The thought of violating evokes horror or revulsion

28. SANCTIONS and SOCIAL CONTROL
Positive or negative reactions to people
Reward conformity
Punish violation
Social Control —
Means to insure that people behave in acceptable and expected ways
Formal – through outside authorities
Informal – through internalization
Social Control — > “Self Control”

29. Social Control
Positive Sanctions
Negative Sanctions

30. Moral Holidays

31. VARIATIONS IN CULTURE: Subcultures and Countercultures
A group within dominant culture
Large or small
Each has distinctive values, norms and lifestyle

32. VARIATIONS IN CULTURE: Subcultures and Countercultures
Openly rejects or opposes society’s values and norms
May actively challenge dominant culture

33. CULTURAL GROUP MEMBERSHIP
In-Class Exercise
CULTURAL GROUP MEMBERSHIP

34. VARIATIONS IN CULTURE: “Ideal” Versus “Real” Culture
Ideal culture: what a group aspires to
Values, norms and behaviors that should be followed
Real culture: what a group actually does
Values, norms and behaviors that are practiced in reality
Contradictions

35. VARIATIONS IN CULTURE: Culture Wars
Controversies within mainstream society
Which values and norms to follow
Often described as clashes between:
right and left
conservatives and liberals
Resistance to those who want to change values
Struggle over values can lead to social change

37. Culture Wars

38. Values, Norms and Laws in Flux: The Case of Marijuana
1770: George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grow hemp
Used to make paper for the Declaration of Independence
1937: “Reefer Madness” leads to the outlaw of marijuana use in U.S.
2002: Some states decriminalize, allow for medical use

39. CULTURAL CHANGE Cultural Diffusion
The dissemination of beliefs and practices from one group to another
Material
Symbolic
Exposure to new cultural elements may lead to adoption

41. CULTURAL LEVELING Result of widespread cultural diffusion
Cultures may eventually resemble one another
Loss of distinctiveness
Cultural diffusion tends to come from the West
Process is not necessarily one-way

42. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM
The imposition of one culture’s beliefs, practices and artifacts on another culture
Through mass media and consumer goods
“Invading” and taking over another country
No longer necessary to send military
May not be welcomed
Could threaten local, traditional cultures

43. More about cultural change
Later in the semester …