Notes on Culture
I. Culture
• 1. Consists of the values the members of a
given group hold, the norms they follow and
the material goods they create.
2. Composed of material and non
material
• a. Material: all things humans make and use
•
b. Nonmaterial: totality of
knowledge, beliefs, values, and rules for
appropriate behaviors.
• c. Norms: rules of behavior agreed and shared
within culture that prescribes limits to
behavior.
II. 2 types of Norm violations.
• 1. Mores: strong norms based on
values/morals of the culture.
•
2. Folkways: informal, loosely enforced
rules and traditions.
• 3. Sanctions: formal and informal reactions to
the breaking of norms
•
Formal- Written, documented sanctions
•
Informal- Not written
III. Cultural Variation-Material culture
changes much faster than a non
material culture.
• 1. Change occurs due to borrowing.
• 2. Change also occurs due to invention.
• 3. Cultural diffusion-spreading of cultural traits.
• IV. 1. Ethnocentrism- judging another culture
based on your own customs and values.
Avoid by using- cultural relativism:
judge an action by their own cultural
standards.
• 2. Universals of culture-elements of culture
that can be found in ALL cultures; examples
include: rites of passage, incest taboo, division
of labor, ideologies
3. Culture shock-experiencing a new
culture for the first time.
V. Subcultures-groups within a bigger
culture with shared norms, etc.
• Ethnic
Political
•
Religious
•
Social class
Occupational
Deviant
Geographic
VI. Art forms and pastimes
• 1. Art forms-physical manifestations/symbols
of culture.
• 2. Pastimes-what people do when they are not
working, recreation, do not have to do it.
•