What is Culture?
Culture – the values, beliefs, behavior, and material
objects that form people’s way of life.
Nonmaterial culture – ideas created by members of a
society.
Material culture – tangible things created by
members of a society.
Only humans rely on culture rather than instinct to
ensure survival.
Society and Culture
Society refers to people who interact in a defined
territory and share culture.
Culture shock refers to a personal disorientation when
experiencing an unfamiliar way of life.
The Census Bureau lists more than 200 languages in
the U.S. Globally, experts document almost 7,000
languages, suggesting the existence of as many
cultures.
The Components of
Culture
Although cultures vary, they all have five
common components:
Symbols
Language
Values
Beliefs
Norms
Components of Culture Symbols
SYMBOLS – anything that carries a particular
meaning recognized by people who share
culture.
Not understanding the symbols of a culture
leaves a person feeling lost and isolated.
Symbolic meaning may also vary within a single
society.
Components of Culture Language
LANGUAGE – a system of symbols that allows
people to communicate with one another.
Language allows for the continuity of culture.
CULTURAL TRANSMISSION – the process by
which one generation passes culture to the next.
Every society transmits culture through speech.
The Sapir-Whorf Thesis
Languages are not just different sets of labels
for the same reality.
All languages fuse symbols with distinctive
emotions.
THE SAPIR-WHORF THESIS – people perceive
the world through the cultural lens of language.
Components of Culture Values and Beliefs
VALUES – culturally defined standards by which
people assess desirability, goodness, and beauty and
that serve as broad guidelines for social living.
BELIEFS – specific statements that people hold to be
true.
Values are abstract standards of goodness.
Beliefs are particular matters that individuals
consider true or false.
Key Values of United
States Culture
Equal Opportunity
+ Progress
Achievement & Success
# Science
Material Comfort
+ Democracy and
Activity and Work
Free Enterprise
Practicality & Efficiency
# Freedom
Racism and Group Superiority
Components of Culture –
Norms
NORMS – rules and expectations by which a
society guides the behavior of its members
Most important norms in a culture apply
everywhere and at all times.
MORES – norms that are widely observed and have
great moral significance.
FOLKWAYS – norms for routine, casual interaction.
Material Culture
MATERIAL CULTURE – artifacts
Every culture includes a wide range of tangible
human creations.
A society’s artifacts reflect underlying culture.
Material culture also reflects a society’s
TECHNOLOGY – knowledge that people use to
make a way of life in their surroundings.
Cultural Diversity
Cultural diversity can involve social class.
Many cultural patterns are readily accessible to only
some members of a society.
HIGH CULTURE – cultural patterns that distinguish a
society’s elite.
POPULAR CULTURE – cultural patterns that are
widespread.
Subcultures
SUBCULTURE – cultural patterns that set apart
some segment of society’s population.
Almost everyone participates in many
subcultures without having much commitment to
any of them.
What we view as the DOMINANT CULTURE – a
set of patterns favored by powerful segments of
the population.
Multiculturalism
MULTICULTURALISM – an educational program
recognizing the cultural diversity of the United
States and promoting the equality of all cultural
traditions.
EUROCENTRISM – the dominance of European
cultural patterns.
AFROCENTRISM – the dominance of African
cultural patterns
Counterculture
COUNTERCULTURE – cultural patterns that
strongly oppose those widely accepted within a
society.
In many cultures, counterculture is linked with
youth.
This is the outright rejection of conventional
ideas.
Cultural Change
Change in one dimension of culture usually sparks
change in another.
CULTURAL INTEGRATION – the close relationships
among various elements of a cultural system.
Some elements of cultural change faster than others
– CULTURAL LAG
Cultural change may be spurred by invention,
discovery, or diffusion.
Ethnocentrism and
Cultural Relativism
ETHNOCENTRISM – the practice of judging another
culture by the standards of one’s own culture.
A particular culture is the basis for everyone’s
reality.
CULTURAL RELATIVISM – the practice of evaluating
a culture by its own standards.
It requires understanding unfamiliar values and
norms.
A Global Culture?
Global economy – the flow of goods
Global communication – the flow of information
Global migration – the flow of people
Limitations to Global culture thesis:
Global culture is much more advanced in some parts of
the world than others
Many can not afford to participate in the material aspects
Different people attribute different meaning to various
aspects of global culture.
Theoretical Analysis of
Culture
The STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL PARADIGM
predicts culture as a complex strategy for meeting
human needs.
The SOCIAL-CONFLICT PARADIGM suggests that
many cultural traits function to the advantage of
some and the disadvantage of others.
SOCIOBIOLOGY explores ways in which human
biology affects how we create culture.
Culture and Human
Freedom
Humans cannot live without culture.
Culture is largely a matter of habit, and limits our
choices.
Our society’s emphasis on competitive
achievement isolates us from one another.
Learning about cultural diversity prepares us to
use the freedom it offers.