Warm UP
• Who can define culture?
• What goes into culture?
Culture and Culture Diversity
Why does Culture Exist?
• Structural Functionalists
• Culture provides order and organization to people- a way to belong to
something
• Symbolic Interactionists
• Culture is what people make of itThey either try to fit in or stand out
• Conflict Theorists
Culture is a way of defining and dividing the haves and have-nots
How to Behave
• Norms
• Taboos
• Behaviors that are
• Behaviors that are outside of the
considered appropriate,
norms in a culture
“normal,” and accepted
in society
• Acting in this way can lead to
formal and informal sanctions
• We usually do not realize
• Ex: Drugs, excessive tattoos, incest
our society’s norms until
someone breaks them
List of various groups
School
Church
Scouting
Choir
Family
Student Union
Clubs
Sports
Fraternities
Sororities
Work Force (after school job)
Band or Orchestra
Group Activity
• Take Your list with you and to move into groups of 4 students (or less.)
• compare their individual lists with other people in their group.
• Identify three things that everyone in their group has in common on their
individual lists.
• On a piece of Chart Paper write down the name of the 3 groups
you and your group members have in common
•
•
•
•
•
Name
Purposes of that group (why it is in existence)
The beliefs of that group
The rules of the group
Is membership voluntary or involuntary?
You will share one of the three things you and your group had in common
with the class, and state the answer(s) you chose for a-e above.
Reflection
• Would you like to live in a place where everyone:
• Is the same? (Homogeneous)
• or
• Is different? (Heterogeneous)
What is Diversity?
• Cultural diversity refers to the wide range of cultural differences
found between and within nations
• Can be a result of natural circumstances (climate, geography) or social
circumstances (technology or demographics)
• Societies can be homogeneous or heterogeneous
Have you ever been made to feel like an outsider?
• When societal tensions arise, people may look for others on whom
they can place blame or single out persons or groups who are the
“outsider”, who do not belong.
Subcultures
• Groups that share many elements of
mainstream culture but maintain their
own distinctive customs, values,
norms, and lifestyles
• Based on:
• Age, gender, wealth, sexual
preference, education,
occupation, ethnicity, music, SES,
etc.
• Examples:
• Residents of China town, circus
people, soldiers in the military
Countercultures
• Deliberately and consciously
opposed to certain central beliefs
or attitudes of the mainstream
culture
• Organize because of:
• Inequalities of class, race, age,
gender, etc.
• Examples:
• Skinheads, Gang members,
Hippies
Ethnocentrism
• The practice of judging all other cultures by one’s own culture
• Based on the assumption that one’s own way of life is superior to all
others
• Can be positive or negative
• Ethnocentrism
• Culture Shock
• Disorientation that is felt when
encountering a radically different
culture
•
•
•
•
Hand signals
Language
Foods
Ways of acting in public
• Judging all other cultures by your
own culture’s standards
• Women’s rights
• Dress/ social behavior
• Thinking your country’s ways
are the best
• Cultural Relativism
• The belief that all countries
should be judged by your
country’s standards
Why might this map be
considered ethnocentric?
Cultural Relativism
• The belief that the behaviors and customs of any culture must be
viewed and analyzed by the culture’s own standards
Types of Sanctions
• Formal Sanctions- Positive or
negative consequences that are
applied by officials
• Positive
• good grade given by a
teacher
• Medal of Honor- Gov’t
• Negative
• Speeding ticket given by a
cop
• Detention given by principal
• Informal Sanctions- Positive or negative
consequences given out by members of the
group
• Positive
• Inviting someone to sit with you in the
cafeteria because they helped you in
class
• Negative
• Giving someone a dirty look for telling on
you in class
• Yelling at someone talking/texting loudly
in a movie theater
Folk Culture
• Tastes and creations used by
working-class and minorities
• Produced for and by ordinary
people:
High Culture
• Tastes and creations used by the
upper classes
• Sets them apart from the rest of
society
• Requires:
• elaborate training
• technical proficiency
• considerable resources
• Ex. Opera, ballet, fine works of art
• Spontaneous
• Familiar
• Practical
• Ex. Quilt making, graffiti, break
dancing
Multiculturalism
• Encourages respect and
appreciation for cultural
differences
• Seeks to reverse centuries of
cultural intolerance and
oppression of minority groups
• Brought changes to American
education and society
• Global languages
• Different ethnic literature
and perspectives
Popular Culture
• Tastes and items that appeal to the
masses
• Consists of products and items
designed for
• Leisure
• Entertainment
• Mass consumption
• Fashion
• Fads- short-lived, widespread
items/ideas
• Ex. Baseball cards, Santa Claus,
*NSYNC
Complete the Assignment
• Use one of the magaizines to
answer the following handout
with your shoulder partner