Points for Understanding of Culture, Society & Politics What are the terms Culture, Society & Politics? • In the field of Sociology, Sociologists study all levels of society. • A society is a group of people whose members interact, reside in a definable area, and share a culture. • A culture includes the group’s shared practices, values, beliefs, norms and artifacts. • Society and culture can be studied at different levels of analysis, from the detailed study of face-to-face interactions to the examination of large-scale historical processes affecting entire civilizations. • Sociologists break the study of society down into four separate levels of analysis: micro,meso, macro, and global. The basic distinction, however, is between micro-sociology and macro-sociology. • The study of cultural rules of politeness in conversation is an example of micro-sociology. At the micro-level of analysis,the focus is on the social dynamics of intimate, face-to-face interactions. • Research is conducted with a specific set of individuals such as conversational partners, family members, work associates, or friendship groups. • Macro-sociology focuses on the properties of large-scale, society-wide social interactions: the dynamics of institutions, classes, or whole societies. • The example above of the influence of migration on changing patterns of language usage is a macro-level phenomenon because it refers to structures or processes of social interaction that occur outside or beyond the intimate circle of individual social acquaintances. • These include the economic and other circumstances that lead to migration; the educational, media, and other communication structures that help or hinder the spread of speech patterns; the class, racial, or ethnic divisions that create different slangs or cultures of language use; the relative isolation or integration of different communities within a population; and so on. • The relationship between the micro and the macro remains one of the key problems confronting sociology. • The German sociologist Georg Simmel pointed out that macro-level processes are in fact nothing more than the sum of all the unique interactions between specific individuals at any one time (1908), yet they have properties of their own which would be missed if sociologists only focused on the interactions of specific individuals. • Émile Durkheim’s classic study of suicide (1897) is a case in point. • While suicide is one of the most personal, individual, and intimate acts imaginable, Durkheim demonstrated that rates of suicide differed between religious communities— Protestants, Catholics, and Jews—in a way that could not be explained by the individual factors involved in each specific case. • The different rates of suicide had to be explained by macrolevel variables associated with the different religious beliefs and practices of the faith communities. • Macro-level phenomena like class structures, institutional organizations, legal systems, gender stereotypes, and urban ways of life provide the shared context for everyday life but do not explain its nuances and micro-variations very well • Sociologists also deal with issue of gender, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, religion and nationality. • Sex refers to physical or physiological differences between males and females, including both primary sex characteristics (the reproductive system) and secondary characteristics such as height and muscularity. • Gender is a term that refers to social or cultural distinctions associated with being male or female. • Gender identity is the extent to which one identifies as being either masculine or feminine (Diamond 2002). • A person’s sex, as determined by his or her biology, does not always correspond with his or her gender. Therefore, the terms sex and gender are not interchangeable. • A baby boy who is born with male genitalia will be identified as male. As he grows, however, he may identify with the feminine aspects of his culture. • Since the term sex refers to biological or physical distinctions, characteristics of sex will not vary significantly between different human societies. • For example, all persons of the female sex, in general, regardless of culture, will eventually menstruate and develop breasts that can lactate. • Characteristics of gender, on the other hand, may vary greatly between different societies. • For example, in American culture, it is considered feminine (or a trait of the female gender) to wear a dress or skirt. • However, in many Middle Eastern, Asian, and African cultures, dresses or skirts (often referred to as sarongs, robes, or gowns) can be considered masculine. • The dichotomous view of gender (the notion that one is either male or female) is specific to certain cultures and is not universal. Sexual Orientation: • Sexual orientation refers to a person’s emotional and sexual attraction to a particular sex (male or female). • Sexual orientation is typically divided into four categories: heterosexuality, the attraction to individuals of the opposite sex; homosexuality, the attraction to individuals of one’s own sex; bisexuality, the attraction to individuals of either sex; and asexuality, no attraction to either sex. • Heterosexuals and homosexuals may also be referred to informally as “straight” and “gay,” respectively. • North America is a heteronormative society, meaning it supports heterosexuality as the norm. Consider that homosexuals are often asked, “When did you know you were gay?” but heterosexuals are rarely asked, “When did you know that you were straight?” (Ryle 2011). • According to current scientific understanding, individuals are usually aware of their sexual orientation between middle childhood and early adolescence (American Psychological Association 2008). • They do not have to participate in sexual activity to be aware of these emotional, romantic, and physical attractions; people can be celibate and still recognize their sexual orientation. • At the point of puberty, some may be able to claim their sexual orientations while others may be unready or unwilling to make their homosexuality or bisexuality known since it goes against North American society’s historical norms (APA 2008). Socio-Economic Class: • Socioeconomic status is the social standing or class of an individual or group. It is often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation. • Examinations of socioeconomic status often reveal inequities in access to resources, plus issues related to privilege, power and control (http://www.apa.org/topics/socioeconomicstatus/) Social Stratification: • Sociologists use the term social inequality to describe the unequal distribution of valued resources, rewards, and positions in a society. • Key to the concept is the notion of social differentiation. • Social characteristics— differences, identities, and roles—are used to differentiate people and divide them into different categories, which have implications for social inequality. • Social differentiation by itself does not necessarily imply a division of individuals into a hierarchy of rank, privilege, and power. • Social differentiation by itself does not necessarily imply a division of individuals into a hierarchy of rank, privilege, and power. • However, when a social category like class, occupation, gender, or race puts people in a position in which they can claim a greater share of resources or services, then social differentiation becomes the basis of social inequality. • The term social stratification refers to an institutionalized system of social inequality. • It refers to a situation in which the divisions and relationships of social inequality have solidified into a system that determines who gets what, when, and why.
