c h a p t er
2
Culture and
Society
Sociology Now
1st Edition (Brief)
Kimmel/Aronson
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Culture
• Culture
– Material
• things made and used
– Nonmaterial
• ideas, values and beliefs
• Cultural Diversity
– the world’s cultures are vastly different from
each other
• culture shock
• ethnocentrism
• cultural relativism
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Culture
• Subcultures and Countercultures
– creation of cultural forms – music,
literature, news media, art
– Subcultures
• prejudice
• social power
– Countercultures
• difference and opposition
• often seen as a threat
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Elements of Culture
• Material Culture
– Environment we inhabit; tools to survive in it
– Meets basic subsistence needs
– Basic need for meaning
• Symbols
– Anything that takes on additional meaning
beyond itself to others
• can be created at anytime
• meanings can change over time
• not universally shared
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Elements of Culture
• Language
– set of symbols
– not solely a human trait
– Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
• language shapes thought and perception
• Ritual
– Example: singing of the national
anthem at most professional sporting
events
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Elements of Culture
• Norms
– rules of behavior
• folkways
• mores (MO-rays)
• laws
• Values
– ethical foundations of culture
– right and wrong/good and bad
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Elements of Culture
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Elements of Culture
• What Are American Values?
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Achievement and Success
Individualism
Activity and work
Efficiency and practicality
Science and technology
Progress
Material Comfort
Humanitarianism
Freedom
Democracy
Equality
Racism and group superiority
•
value contradictions
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Elements of Culture
•
•
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Luck and pluck
Community
Leisure and cheating
Luxury
Religion
Karma
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Distrust the rich
Entitlement
Tolerance has its limits
Security over democracy
Inequality
We’re all just people
• Emerging Values
• Changing and Contradictory Values
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Cultural Expressions
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Cultural Expressions
• Universality and Localism
– cultural universals
• High Culture and Popular
Culture
– high culture – affluence
– popular culture – the “masses”
– cultural capital
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Cultural Expressions
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Cultural Expressions
• Forms of Popular Culture
– Fads
–
–
–
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Objects
Activities
Ideas
Personalities
– Fashion
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Cultural Expressions
• The Politics of Popular Culture
• The Globalization of Popular Culture
– cultural imperialism
• Culture as Tool Kit
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Cultural Change
– culture lag
– cultural diffusion
• Culture in the 21st Century
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Cultural Change
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009