HUMANITIES GCSE

Culture and Beliefs

CONTENTS

• Culture what is it, subcultures...

• Socialisation primary, secondary, agents...

• Nature vs. Nurture how it influences you...

• Identity as a person, as a student...

• Immigration + multiculturalism religions, groups...

• Issues abortion, euthanasia, donation...

• Case Studies all the case studies you need!

• Quiz can you ace the quiz?

CULTURE

Culture is the whole way of life for a community or social group. It is a shared set of beliefs, values, norms, traditions, attitudes, practices and customs.

For example, Britain’s culture is that we like fish and chips, all go to school (and most to college), and like national events, like football games or Royal Weddings. It may seem stereotypical, but it is how other cultures view our own culture.

The seven parts of culture• PRACTICES – the way our beliefs and values are put into action, like how

Christians go to church.• ATTITUDES – positive or negative feelings towards other things or people,

like how Britain is negative towards terrorism.• BELIEFS – a set of ideas about the world, like how Muslims believe in Allah.• TRADITIONS – the handing down from generation to generation of

customs and beliefs, like how it is traditional to eat a roast dinner on Sunday.

• CUSTOMS – the long-established habits of a society, like how it is customary to watch national sport.

• NORMS – unwritten rules defining the appropriate behaviour of a society, like how it is normal to not be rude to someone.

• VALUES – what a person feels is important, like how royalists value our royal family.

Sub-cultures

• Sub-cultures are cultures within cultures – for example, a gang culture within a town’s culture. The gang culture has a different attitude to the town/country’s culture.

• Gangs differ from mainstream culture because most people in the mainstream culture don’t carry weapons to feel protected, and don’t choose certain areas of their community as their ‘territory’.

How order is maintained

• LAW – when people in society break norms, it can be dealt with formally. Sometimes, breaking social norms becomes illegal, and then the law and formal agencies of social control are used (the police, the army, etc.)

• MORALS – providing guidance on what’s wrong and what’s right in the society.

• VALUES – identify what someone feels to be important – for example, Western societies value achievement.

SOCIALISATION

• Socialisation is the process in which we learn.

• PRIMARY SOCIALISATION – the first stages of socialisation, from 0-4 years old. You learn from family and friends.

• SECONDARY SOCIALISATION – after the age of 4 to time of death, always learning from experiences and other people.

Agencies of socialisation

• FAMILY• EDUCATION• PEER GROUP• MEDIA• WORK• RELIGION

Resocialisation

• When people meet new experiences, they have to adapt to them. No part of their socialisation could have prepared them for this new experience, so it’s resocialisation. For example, if someone has experienced bringing up a child, they would be better at it the second time round, as they had already experienced it.

NATURE VS. NURTURE

• Nature vs. Nature is the famous debate between scientists and members of society, choosing which is more important when it comes to your behaviour as an adult: your upbringing as a child (nurture) or the genes/attitude you were born with (nature.)

Nature

• Nature is your instincts and your genes. You cannot change your natural genes, but your later identity could be influenced by your genes – for example, if you inherited punctuality from your mother, this could affect your socialisation process (you could be known for your punctuality, and be respected for it.)

Nurture

• Nurture is how you learn, and your upbringing. It is the socialisation side of the debate. This involves the people around you (e.g. kind people would encourage you to be kind), the area you’re in (in an area where jobs are hard to find, you are more likely to work hard to get a job), and the era in which you were brought up (children born in the 1940s and 50s would be used to rationing, so would value food more).

IDENTITY

Identi ty

gender

sexualityage

religionethnicity

nationality

disability

social class

What is identity?

• Identity is who you are, and you might have several identities – for example, you might have the identity of a student, where you may obey rules and not talk; you might have an alternative identity of a daughter/son, obeying your parents and doing chores; another identity could be girlfriend/boyfriend, keeping secrets and being loyal.

• IDENTITY-GIVING: an act or process that defines part of a person’s identity.

IMMIGRATION + MULTICULTURALISM

• Multiculturalism is the mix of many cultures in one country or region. Britain is a multicultural society, because we have all of the main religions here, and have a mix of many ethnicities. We can see this because of recent census replies, and national questionnaires.

• When people from different countries move to Britain in order to live and work here, they are immigrating. To do the opposite (to leave this country and move to another country to live and work) you are migrating.

Push + pull factors

• PUSH FACTOR – a push factor is something that ‘pushes’ someone to another country – they have been forced to leave. This is often caused by persecution or invasion from their native country.

• PULL FACTOR – a pull factor is something that ‘pulls’ someone to another country – they wanted to leave because they saw something they would like to have in Britain. This includes new opportunities and better living and working standards – many people ‘pulled’ to Britain are from poor countries where the standards of living are bad.

What is multiculturalism in the UK?

Contributions to UK culture

new words

food

music

fashion

art

events

festivals

dancesporting success

TV programmes

Issues produced by immigration

• Conflicts of culture can cause problems – could include religious issues (like arranged marriages) and terrorism fears.

• Some people think that immigrants steal jobs that should be given to native people.

• There are often fears that although immigrants work in the country and therefore contribute to the economy, they do not pay their taxes.

ISSUES

• An issue is an argument or situation over which there are several different views.

• Examples of issues: euthanasia, abortion, capital punishment (death penalty), organ donation.

• For your exam, you should probably choose one of these issues, and study into it so that you know it off-by-heart! You’ll need at least one issue memorised to use as an example!

CASE STUDIES

• A list of all the case studies you could use for each topic is here. That’s just a list I’ve made recently of all the case studies in detail – of course, you can use your own case studies if you want to!

QUIZ

This is a quiz to test your knowledge on culture and beliefs! To begin, click any of the six bubbles.

GREEN BUBBLE

Which of the following is not a push factor?

PERSECUTIONINVASION

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

DISCRIMINATION

Which of these is not an agent of socialisation?

BLUE BUBBLE

FAMILY PEER GROUP

EDUCATION RECREATION

ORANGE BUBBLE

What is a belief?

IDEAS ABOUT THE WORLD

FEELINGS TOWARDS

SOMETHING

WHAT YOU FEEL TO BE

IMPORTANT

LONG-ESTABLISHED HABITS OF A COMMUNITY

RED BUBBLE

Which of these is not a contribution to UK culture?

MAGAZINES FASHION

DANCEFOOD

PURPLE BUBBLE

What is an issue? People have...

DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON

IT

NO OPINION ON IT

VIOLENT ARGUMENTS

ABOUT IT

NO RESPECT FOR IT

GREY BUBBLE

What is multiculturalism?

SEPARATION OF CULTURES

BELIEFS OF ONE

CULTURE

MANY CULTURES IN A COMMUNITY

MULTIPLE PARTS OF ONE CULTURE

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