Cultural Diversity
Unit 2
Pick up 2 handouts!
Warm Up – On a piece of
notebook paper, list five
items found in your
house or apartment that
would tell a visitor to
which culture you belong
and explain how that
item is specific to only
your culture. Be
prepared to defend your
choices to the class.
Material or Nonmaterial Culture?
Material culture – physical
objects that people use and
create.
Material or Nonmaterial Culture?
Material culture – physical objects that
people use and create.
Nonmaterial culture – abstract human
creations such as language, religion,
beliefs, ideas, skills, government, etc.
Material or Nonmaterial Culture?
Using the items you wrote down
for the warm up, label each one as
either material or nonmaterial. If all
your items are nonmaterial, think
of at least two objects in your
home that symbolize your
nonmaterial culture. For example, a
Bible would symbolize that you are
a Christian. (NO! You may not use
this one!)
Components of Culture
Component
Technology
Symbols
Language
Values
Norms
Description
Example
Components of Culture
Component
Description
Example
Technology
Objects and rules for
using those objects.
Fork, computer
Symbols
An object, gesture,
word, sound event, etc;
which carries a shared
meaning.
Language
Organization of written
or spoken symbols into
a standardized system.
Values
Shared beliefs about
what is good or bad,
right or wrong, desirable
or undesirable.
Norms
Shared rules of conduct
that tell people how to
act in specific
situations.
Folkways
Folkways are
norms that
describe
socially
acceptable
behavior, but
do not have
great moral
significance.
A handshake is a folkway.
Handshakes
U.S. – customary form of greeting
especially among men and people in
business
Japan – handshake imported during
American occupation after WWII.
Kuwait – only more Westernized men
shake hands with other men, NEVER
with women.
Romania – no matter how many times a
Romanian sees another person during
the day, there is always a handshake
exchanged – used when greeting,
meeting leaving and acknowledging.
Mrs. Bradley needs a brave
volunteer at this point for
purposes of a demonstration
of cultural folkways.
Mores
(Pronounced More A)
Mores have great
moral significance
attached to them
This relation exists
because the
violation of such
rules endanger
society’s well-being
and stability.
Shoplifting violates the cultural
more against theft and dishonesty
Laws
Societies have
established
punishments for
violating mores in
order to protect the
social well-being.
These serious mores
are formalized as
laws – written rules
of conduct enacted In the United States, laws
cover everything from running
and enforced by the stop lights to murder.
government.
Cultural Variation
What do we have in common?
Some needs are so basic that all
societies must develop certain
features to ensure these needs are
met.
Cultural universals – 65 have been
identified: music, feasting, housing,
cooking, etc.
How a society meets its needs is
widely varied.
Make a list of as many of these
cultural universals as you can in 1
minute.
Ethnocentrism
The tendency to
view one’s own
group and culture
as superior.
The cultural traits
of your own
group is right and
good, while those
of others are
wrong and evil.
Cultural Relativism
Belief that
cultures should
be judged by
their own
standards rather
than by applying
the standards of
another culture.
Body Ritual Among The
Nacirema
The fundamental belief underlying the whole system
appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its
natural tendency is to . . . disease. Man’s only hope is to
avert these characteristics through the use of ritual and
ceremony. Every household has one or more shrines
devoted to this purpose. The focal point of each shrine is
a charm box built into the wall. In this chest are kept the
many charms and magical potions without which no
native believes he could live. . . Beneath the charm box is
a small font. Each day every member of the family . . .
enters the shrine room, bows his head before the charm
box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the font and
proceeds with a brief rite of ablution. A distinctive part of
this body ritual is performed only by men, and includes
scraping and lacerating (cutting) the surface of the skin
with a sharp object.
Body Ritual Among The
Nacirema
Unit 2 Field Study Cultural Scavenger Hunt
You and your partner will be given a list of
American cultural elements to search for at
school and around town. The object is to
get digital pictures of as many of these
cultural elements as possible in a limited
time. The team with pictures of the most
elements will be awarded with first prize
and a 100 on the vocabulary test for Unit 2.
Put your digital photos into a PowerPoint
presentation. You may put several pictures
– labeled with the cultural element each
picture represents – onto one slide. If you
cannot obtain a digital camera, there is a
journaling option for this assignment.
Warm Up: Sociology – Tuesday,
January 30, 2007
Define subculture on a piece of
paper.
Today is a WORK DAY and
vocabulary test day.
Complete any remaining Unit 2
Cultural Diversity work.
Subculture
As Americans, we share
a common culture with
all other Americans.
American culture is a
collection of traits that
are distinct from those of
other societies. In
addition to these cultural
features some groups
share values and
behaviors that are not
shared by the entire
population.
Counterculture
A group rejection
of the major
values, norms, and
practices of the
larger society and
replaces them with
a new set of
cultural patterns.
Generally,
countercultures
operate outside the
law.
Warm Up: Sociology – Thursday,
February 1, 2007
Define Counterculture.
Today is a WORK DAY and
vocabulary test day.
Complete any remaining Unit 2
Cultural Diversity work.
Complete your PowerPoint
presentation for your field study.
Presentations will be the last 45
minutes of class.