Culture Notes
Courtesy of Stacy Schlepp
Culture is the knowledge, values, language, customs, and items that are passed down from one generation to another
within a society. The lens we use to view reality.
1. (42) Material culture and Nonmaterial Culture
Material Culture – are the items that a society makes, uses and shares. (Things)
Nonmaterial Culture is abstract ideas or beliefs that influence people’s behavior within that society. The ideas or
beliefs may be based on faith, tradition, experience, scientific research or a combination. (Beliefs) Language, norms,
values
2. (42-44) Cultural Universals are customs or practices that happen in all societies.
 Appearance
 Activities
 Social institutions
 Customary practices
3. (45 – 54) Components of Culture
Symbols are anything that meaningfully represents something else.
 Flags stand for patriotism, nationalism, school spirit, or religious beliefs.
Language is symbols that allow people to think, as well as communicate with each other.
 Verbal Spoken language
 Nonverbal written or gestured language
Language and Social Reality
 Sapir Worf hypothesis says that language shapes the reality of the speaker because language is thought and
therefore controls thought.
o Most sociologists agree that language influences behavior and reality but does not determine it.
Language and Gender
 English uses Masculine form (man) to refer to the general (i.e. chairman, mankind). This ignores women.
 Pronouns she or he shows the person we expect. (i.e. nurses are she and doctors are considered he)
 Women are described as sex objects (fox, doll, babe) while men are describe in terms of sexual ability (stud, dude
hunk)
Language, Race, and Ethnicity
 Words may convey multiple meanings and reinforce negatives. (i.e. The chairman’s chance of success (unlikely to
succeed) (Good guys wear white hats (reinforce positive association with white)
 Derogatory Terms such as nigger, kike, gook, hunk, etc. have been popularized by movies. Theses terms are often
used with threats against someone.
 Words are used to reinforce stereotypes. Native Americans referred to as savages and primitives. African
American referred to as cannibalistic and pagan.
 Passive Voice vs. Active Voice
o Passive – African Americans were given the right to vote
o Active – African Americans fought for the right to vote.
Values – Are ideas about what is right and wrong, good and bad, wanted and unwanted in a culture. Collective ideas.
Core American Values
1. Individualism – People are responsible for their own success or failure.
2. Achievement and success – Personal achievement results from successful competition with others.
3. Activity and work – Industrious people are praised, while the lazy are ridiculed.
4. Science and technology – Americans put great faith in science and technology. They expect technological advance to
eventually control nature, the aging process, and death.
5. Progress and material comfort – Material comforts of life include not only basic necessities (Shelter, nutrition, and
medical care) but also the goods and services that make life easier and more pleasant.
6. Efficiency and practicality – People want things to be bigger, better, and faster.
7. Equality – Overt class distinctions are rejected in the U.S. Yet “equality” is defined as “equality of opportunity” an
assumed chance to achieve success – not as “equality of outcome.”
8. Mortality and humanitarianism – Aiding others, especially after natural disasters.
9. Freedom and liberty – Freedom includes the right to ownership of property, engage in private enterprise, and speech
are considered basic rights.
10. Racism and group superiority – People value their own racial or ethnic group above all others, this leads to
discrimination. Superiority of their country and that “the American way is the best.”
Value Contradictions are values that conflict with each other, or achieving one makes it difficult, if not impossible, to
achieve another (mutually exclusive).
Ideal Culture is the values and standards that a society professes to hold.
Real culture refers to the actual values and standards a society follows.
Norms (rules of behavior) that are enforced by sanctions (rewards or punishments)
o
o
o
o

Prescriptive – say what behavior is appropriate or acceptable. Thou Shall
proscriptive - state the behavior wish is unacceptable Thou shall not
Formal – (laws) written and involve a specific punishments for violators. Sanctions are rewards for good behavior
(positive) or penalties for bad (negative). Correlated to the norms.
Informal - less important norms that are unwritten, but understood by people who share a common identity.
Informal Sanctions are not clearly defined and can apply to any member of the society. (i.e. a frown at someone or
making a bad comment or gesture)
types of norms
o Folk (ways) are everyday customs that can be broken without serious consequences. (i.e. underarm
deodorant, brushing your teeth) Etiquette
o Mores – are strongly held norms with moral and ethical connotations that may not be violated without
serious consequences in a particular culture. (illegal / Formal)
o Taboos - the strongest mores – violation is considered extremely offensive and unmentionable.
(Cannibalism) Causes moral revolution.
4. (54) Cultural change: occurs at both material and non material level
o Technology (tools and knowledge) is the knowledge, skill, techniques, and tools that allow people to
change resources into usable forms.
 William Ogburn described the gap between the technical development of a society and its moral
and legal institutions as cultural lag.
 invention (combining)
 discovery (new way of seeing)
 Diffusion (spread) is the spread of culture from one society to another through such
means as exploration, military endeavors, the media, tourism, and immigration.
o cultural leveling
5. (54-55) Cultural Diversity cultural differences found between and within nations.
 Homogeneous society – are those whose people share a common culture, meaning they share the same religious,
political, and economic backgrounds.
 Heterogeneous society – are those whose people share different social characteristics such as religion, income, or
race/ethnicity.
6. (56) Subcultures a group of people who share norms (ethics, values, beliefs) that set them apart from the dominant
culture. Native Americans, Muslims, Generations Xers, could all be considered subcultures.
7. (58) Counter cultures are a group that rejects dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles.
(KKK, Flower children, etc)
8. (58-59) Culture Shock is the disorientation that people feel when they encounter cultures radically different from
their own.
9. (59-60) Ethnocentrism is the practice of judging all other cultures by one’s own culture. Assumes one person’s way
of life is superior to another’s.
Cultural Relativism is the belief that the behaviors and customs of any culture must be viewed and analyzed
by that culture’s own standards.
10. (60-61) High Culture consists of classical music, opera, ballet, live theater; activities characterized by elite
audiences (upper middle and upper classes).
Popular culture consists of activities, products, and services assumed to appeal primarily to members of the middle and
working class.
 Fad is a temporary but widely copied activity followed enthusiastically by large numbers of people.
 Fashion is a currently valued style of behavior, thinking, or appearance that is longer lasting and more
widespread than a fad.
 Leisure Activities
Cultural imperialism – the extensive infusion of one nation’s culture into other nations.
Acculturated – Familiar with the dominant culture, but still retain your own culture
Assimilated – you are now part of the dominant culture.
10. (62-66) Sociological Analysis of Culture
Functionalist
 Popular culture holds a significant function in society in that it may be the “glue” that holds society together.
 May undermine core cultural values rather than reinforce them. (i.e. movies glorifying crime, rather than hard
work)
Conflict
 It is possible for political, economic, and social leaders to use ideology – an integrated system of ideas that is
external to, and coercive of, people – to maintain their positions of dominance in a society.
o Ideas are used by the ruling class to affect the thoughts and actions of members of other classes.
 Some theorists believe the popular culture, which originated with everyday people, has been largely removed for
their domain and has become nothing more than a part of the capitalist economy in the US.
o Symbolic capital” the acquisition of a reputation for competence and an image of respectability and
honorability. Consists of culturally approved intangibles – honor, integrity, esteem, trust, and goodwill.
 Some theorists examine the intertwining relationship among race, gender and popular culture. Pop cultural images
are often linked to negative stereotypes of people of color.
Symbolic Interactionist
 Some theorists believe people continually negotiate their social realities. Values and norms are not independent
realities that automatically determine our behavior.
 Georg Simmel warned that the larger cultural world – including material and nonmaterial culture – eventually take
on a life apart from the actors. As a result, individuals may be more controlled by culture than they realize.
o Money that was created as a means of exchange has acquired a social meaning that extends beyond its
purely economic function.
Postmodernist
 Simulation is what the cultures of the world are based on, not reality.
 Hyper reality a situation in which the simulation of reality is more real than the thing itself.
o Everyday life has been captured by the signs and symbols generated to represent it, and we ultimately
relate to simulations and models as if they were reality. (i.e. TV, internet, video games, computers)