© copyright cengage learning. all rights reserved. chapter 3 culture

© Copyright Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 3Culture


Chapter Outline

• Culture and Society in a Changing World• Components of Culture• Technology, Cultural Change, and Diversity• Sociological Analysis of Culture• Culture in the Future


• Culture is the knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or society.


Culture and Society in a Changing World• Culture is essential

• Culture is learned


Discussion

• What are some ways that members of our society pass on culture to their children?


• Material culture consists of the physical or tangible creations that members of a society make, use, and share.o Ex: raw materials, tools, technology, clothing

• Nonmaterial culture consists of the abstract or intangible human creations of society that influence people’s behavior.o Ex: language, values, beliefs, political systems


• Cultural universals are customs and practices that occur across all societies.o Ex: appearance, activities, social institutions,

customary practices


Components of Culture

• Symbols are anything that meaningfully represents something else.

• Language is a set of symbols that expresses ideas and enables people to think and communicate with one another.o Sapir-Wharf hypothesis: language shapes the view of

reality of its speakers


• Values are collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture.o Core American Values:

• individualism• achievement and success• activity and work• science and technology• progress and material comfort• efficiency and practicality• equality• morality and humanitarianism• freedom and liberty• ethnocentrism and group superiority


• Value contradictions are values that conflict with one another or are mutually exclusive.

• Ideal culture refers to the values and standards of behavior that people in a society profess to hold.

• Real culture refers to the values and standards of behavior that people actually follow.


• Norms are established rules of behavior or standards of conduct.

o Prescriptive norms are norms that dictate what behavior is appropriate or acceptable.

o Proscriptive norms are those norms that state what behavior is inappropriate or unacceptable.


o Formal norms are norms that are written and involve specific punishments for violator (ex: laws).

oSanctions are rewards for appropriate behavior and penalties for inappropriate behavior.• Positive sanctions• Negative sanctions

o Informal norms are those that are unwritten standards of behavior that are understood by people who share a common identity.


• Folkways are informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture.

• Mores are strongly held norms with moral and ethical considerations that may not be violated without serious consequences in a particular culture.

o Taboos are mores so strong that their violation is considered to be extremely offensive and even unmentionable.


• Laws are formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and are enforced by formal sanctions.


Discussion

• What are some examples of norms, mores, taboos, and laws?

• How do norms, mores, taboos, and laws change over time?


Technology, Cultural Change, and Diversity• Cultural lag a gap between the technical

development of a society and its moral and legal institutions.o Cultural lag occurs when material culture changes

faster than nonmaterial culture.o Discovery is the process of learning about something

previously unknown or unrecognized.o Invention is the process of reshaping existing cultural

items into a new form.o Diffusion is the transmission of cultural items or social

practices from one group or society to another.


• Cultural diversity between countries may be the result of natural circumstances or social circumstances.

• Subcultures are a category of people who share distinguishing attributes, beliefs, values, and/or norms that set them apart in some significant manner from the dominant culture.

• Countercultures are groups that strongly reject dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles.


• Culture shock is the disorientation that people feel when they encounter cultures radically different from their own and believe they cannot depend on their own taken-for-granted assumptions about life.


• Ethnocentrism is the practice of judging all other culture by one’s own culture.

• Cultural relativism is the belief that the behaviors and customs of any culture must be viewed and analyzed by the culture’s own standards.


Discussion

• What are the advantages of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism?

• What are the disadvantages of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism?


A Global Popular Culture?

• High culture consists of classical music, opera, ballet, live theater, and other activities usually patronized by elite audiences.

• Popular culture consists of activities, products, and services that are assumed to appeal primarily to members of the working and middle classes.o Ex: fads, fashions


Sociological Analysis of Culture

• Functionalist Perspectiveo Culture helps people meet their biological,

instrumental, and integrative needs.

o Popular culture is the “glue” that holds society together.


• Conflict Perspectiveo Values and norms help create and sustain the

privileged position of the powerful in society.

o Popular culture is part of the capitalist economy.


• Symbolic Interactionist Perspectiveo People create, maintain, and modify culture as they go

about their daily activities.


• Postmodernist Perspectiveso Cultures are based on simulation, and not on reality.


Culture in the Future

• increased cultural diversity

• impact of technology


Quick Quiz


1. _____ consists of knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects. a. Social structure

b. Society

c. Culture

d. Social organization

Answer: cCulture consists of knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects.


2. Language, beliefs, values, rules of behavior, family patterns, and political systems are examples of:a. material culture

b. high culture

c. nonmaterial culture

d. cultural universals

Answer: cLanguage, beliefs, values, rules of behavior, family patterns, and political systems are examples of nonmaterial culture.


3. According to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: a. reality is objective and is easily understood by humans

b. language shapes the view of reality of its speakers

c. reality is based on the interactions of individuals

d. with more knowledge, a person minimizes the influence of language

Answer: bAccording to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, language shapes the view of reality of its speakers.


4. According to the conflict perspective:a. ideas are used by agents of the wealthy to affect the thoughts

and actions of members of other classes

b. ideas are effective for the working classes to motivate the wealthy

c. ideas have little impact on the relations between the wealthy and poor in societies

d. none of the choices

Answer: aAccording to conflict theorists, ideas are used by agents of the wealthy to affect the thoughts and actions of members of other classes.


5. Popular culture consists of:a. activities, products, and services that are assumed to appeal

primarily to members of the middle and working classesb. media events, which are typically on TV or the Internet c. ideas that can transform a society, but have yet to take

shape or formd. fads to keep the populace uninterested in politics, which then

removes them from power and disrupts organization and stability in everyday life

Answers: aPopular culture consists of activities, products, and services that are assumed to appeal primarily to members of the middle and working classes.

© copyright cengage learning. all rights reserved. chapter 3 culture

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