CULTURAL VARIATION
Sociology
Chapter 2 section 2
Cultural Diversity
• High culture
– Cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite
• Popular culture
– Cultural patterns that are widespread among society’s
population
• Subculture
– Cultural patterns set apart some segment of society’s
population
• Counterculture
– Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely
accepted within a society
Subcultures
• Subcultures are cultures that exist within a
dominant culture that follow the dominant
cultures norms and values while still following
a different set of norms and values
– They coexist with the dominant culture
• Ex. Latin American communities, teenagers, religious
denominations, etc.
Sub Culture
* Rave
* Ecstasy
Countercultures
• Countercultures exist within a culture with
different norms and values, just like
subcultures
– Countercultures often oppose the dominant
culture, forming from a conflict a social group may
have with the dominant culture
• Ex. The Hippie movement, Skinheads, cults, etc.
Counter Culture
Pop Culture
The latest trend
High Culture
Museum, art gallery, opera, etc
Cultural elements
• Cultural Traits: individual tool/act/belief of a
culture
• Cultural Complex: combines traits into related
clusters
• Cultural patterns – combinations of complexes
• “education” is a cultural pattern
Traits – Complex- Pattern
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Traits
Complex
Pattern
Cleats, uniforms
Football
Sports
Rules skills
Helmets, football______________________
Soccer ball, cleats Soccer
Sports
Rules, goalie
Nets, skills
What do cultures have in
common?
• CULTURAL UNIVERSALS:
• Features that are common to all cultures. In
World Cultures you most likely learned there
are 21 universals. Your text cites
anthropologist George Murdock’s model
which has more than 65 universals.
Cultural Variations
• Cultural Universals, some examples…
– George Murdoch (1945)
• Athletic Sports
• Cooking
• Funeral Ceremonies
• Medicine
• Dancing
among others...
CULTURAL UNIVERSALS…
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Language, communication, and records
Food quest, processing, distribution and consumption
Territoriality
Securing and processing raw materials
Clothing and adornment
Construction, arrangement in settlement patterns, dwellings, and other structures
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When sociologists compare 2 societies they will often use cultural universal traits as points
of comparison. They will try to account for differences between cultures by considering
things such as geography, history and other outside influences.
Manufacturing and use of instruments,
tools and appliances
Ownership and exchange of property by individuals
and groups
Travel and transportation
Fine arts, recreation, and entertainment
Sex and reproduction
Kinship, marriage and the family
Education (trans-generational learning)
Social stratification
Political organization (government)
Law – offences, sanctions and justice
Military technology
Medical practices and pharmacology
Religious practices and beliefs
Numbers and measurers
Ethno science
Other Concepts:
• Ethnocentrism
– The practice of judging another culture by
the standards of one’s own culture
• Cultural relativism
– The practice of judging a culture by its
own standards