Ch. 2: Culture
I. Individualism v. Group
Identity
Individualism: Individual beliefs,
ideas, and actions are more
important than the group
Group Identity: The good of the
group is more important than
the rights of the individual
II. High culture and
popular culture
High culture:
Popular Culture:
High culture and
popular culture
High culture: Elite
culture
Popular Culture:
Everyday culture
High Culture
III. Material and nonmaterial culture
Material culture: All physical objects or
artifacts, that people make and attach meaning
to
 Cars, books, clothing, churches
Non-Material Culture: Human creations
that are not embodied in physical objects
 Values, beliefs, norms, system of governments,
traditions
Non-Material Culture
IV. Values
-Value: General idea that
people share about what is
good or bad, desirable or
undesirable.
- American Values: Competition, achievement,
success, activity and work, humanitarianism,
efficiency and practicality, progress, material
comfort, equality, freedom, conformity, science
and rationality, nationalism and patriotism,
democracy, individuality, racial and ethnic group
superiority
V. Norms
Norm: A specific guideline for action
– how should people behave in
certain situations?
-They’re unspoken customs that
people know and follow
1. Shaking hands
2. Raising hands in classroom
What is the difference between a
norm and a value?
V. Norms
Folkways: Norms that are simply
everyday habits and convention of
a group of people – ex. shake
hands, eat dessert after dinner,
go to movies for a date, say bless
you when someone sneezes
V. Norms
Mores: Norms people consider
vital to their well-being and to
their most cherished values
- ex. no cannibalism
Laws: Rules enacted by a
political body and enforced by
the power of the state (police
or military)
Laws
VI. Symbols and
Language
Symbols: Objects, gestures, sounds, or
images that represent something other
than themselves
Language: A system of verbal and, in
many cases, written symbols with rules
about how those symbols can be strung
together to convey a more complex
meaning
Symbol
Language
VII. Cultural Universals: Features that
are common to all cultures
Ex. Body adornment, cooking, dancing,
feasting, forms of greeting, family, funeral
ceremonies, gift giving, housing, language,
music, myths, religion, toolmaking
VIII. Cultural Integration
and Diversity
A. A culture with high Cultural Integration
means that everything - what people do,
how they think, their values, and society as
a whole all fit together without much
conflict
B. Cultural Diversity is cultures staying
separate – in a Culture with a high level of
diversity there may be conflict
VIII. Cultural Integration
and Diversity
C. Assimilation: the process by which
newcomers to a society give up their
culturally distinct beliefs, values, and
customs, and take on those of the
dominant culture.
VIII. Cultural Integration
and Diversity
D. Dominant Culture: The culture that is
treated normal for the society as a whole
-Subculture: A culture within a larger
culture
-Counter Culture: Subcultures that are
oriented towards challenging the
dominant culture or deliberately trying to
change it
Counter Culture
IX. Ethnocentrism and
Cultural Relativism
 Ethnocentrism: The tendency to view one’s
own cultural patterns as good and right and
those of others as strange or even immoral
 Cultural Relativism: The belief that cultures
should be judged by their own standards,
rather than by applying the standards of
another culture
X. How is culture made?
 Cultural Gate Keepers: The group of people
who have a hand in disseminating (spreading)
culture
TV, music, advertisers, and more pick which
culture to promote over others
Gatekeepers
XI. Globalization
Cultures around the world becoming
more and more mixed
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Sources
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