CULTURE
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
© Dr. Francis Adu-Febiri, 2012
Experiencing „THE OTHER‟

In Kenya, a group of Canadian students fall in love
with the beauty of Africa and Africans. The young
Canadian women do their hair in a thousand tiny
braids and the men buy rungu fighting clubs and
Samburu spears in a celebration of things African.
Then, their fieldschool professor informs them about
clitoridectomy. Every dignified, graceful woman
walking along the road in spotlessly clean , red khanga
dresses has been sexually mutilated as a teenager,
usually on the evening before joining her husband in
his village…walking many miles across the desert with
fresh wounds (Roberts, Thakur and Tunnell, eds.,
1999: 1).
RESPONSE
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The following day, the fun is gone for the Canadian
students. The hair styles change and the rungus get
stowed beneath the seats. Faces become strained. A
student complains to the professor, ―I‘m not having fun
any more.‖ Several request that the field trip be called
off, ―Let‘s take our losses and leave this place.‖ Others
become mysteriously sick. The professor is blamed for
indicating his high respect for the Samburu in lectures
before the trip. Some students are angry and others
will not talk. They are hot, afraid of malaria and cattle
raids, and suffering from stomach upset.
What are these students experiencing?
―Culture shock.‖
Why are these Canadian students experiencing culture
shock?
WHY CULTURE SHOCK?
Cultural Diversity (Obvious/Surface)
 Cultural differences often result in
travelers feeling a sense of ‗culture
shock‘ only because they rank order

these differences, making their own
cultures the standard.
Ethnocentrism (Unobvious/Deep)
AVOIDING CULTURE SHOCK
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1. Cultural Relativism

All cultures are equally developed according to their own
priorities and values; none is better, more advanced than any
other.
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2. Xenocentrism.
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Definitions:
 the
preference for the products, styles, or ideas of
someone else's culture rather than of one's own
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki )
 The tendency to assume that aspects of other cultures
are superior to one's own.
(www.webref.org/sociology).
MAJOR CONCEPTS:
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Culture Shock
Ethnocentrism
Cultural Relativism
Xenocentrism
Culture: Material and Non-material
Culture Web
Values and Beliefs
Norms: Folkways, Mores, Taboos, Sanctions
Cultural universals and Cultural uniformity
Cultural Diversity and Multiculturalism
Mainstream Culture, Subculture and Counterculture
High Culture and Popular Culture
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis of language
CULTURE WEB
What qualifies as culture?
 The total package of:

Material Culture: the physical aspects of our
daily lives, including food, houses, factories,
raw materials.
 Nonmaterial Culture: customs, ideas,
expressions, beliefs, knowledge, philosophies,
values, governments, patterns of
communication, and ways of using material
objects.

CULTURAL WEB: Material
Culture & Nonmaterial Culture
Emotions
& Rituals
Decorations
Ideas
VALUES
Food
Technology &
Infrastructure
Norms &
Beliefs
Customs/
Traditions
Symbols &
Entertainment
CANADIAN CULTURAL
VALUES

See pages 122-124 of Textbook.
QUIZ 10
Mark Tonto, a Camosun Anthropology
Student thinks that the realm of the “ideal, the
spiritual, emotional and the moral” (as
opposed to the “material, technological, and
the social-structural”) is the only way culture
exists in human society. Is Mr. Tonto‟s
definition of culture sociologically correct?
a)
b)
c)
d)
YES
NO
Both Yes and No
None of the above
CORE DIMENSIONS OF
CULTURE
VALUES:--Ideologies used to
judge.
 This is a structure of ideas that
people have about good and bad,
about beautiful and ugly, and about
right and wrong, which are the
justifications that people cite to
explain their actions (Bartle 2004:5-6).

CORE DIMENSIONS OF
CULTURE
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NORMS: Socially defined rules of
behavior:

A) Folkways:
 Less
important rules of behavior—violations are not
taken seriously. E.g. a) belching in front of others;
b) Eating cereal for dinner and pizza for breakfast.

B) Mores:
 Very
important rules of behavior—violations invoke
punishment. E.G.?

C) Taboos:
 Most
important rules of behavior—even the thought
of violating them upsets people. E.G.?
CULTURAL UNIVERSALS

Elements of culture that all societies have in
common:
 Values
 Beliefs
 Symbols
 Norms
 Institutions
 Politics
 Economics
 Technology
CULTURAL UNIVERSALS

Specifics examples of cultural universals:
 Sports,
cooking, marriage
ceremonies, funeral ceremonies,
sexual restrictions, medicine,
and language (verbal and nonverbal).
CULTURAL UNIFORMITY OR
MONOCULTURALISM
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Similarity in in the expression of cultural
universals.
CLOBAL CULTURE?
Example:
 Similar forms of clothing, pop music, consumer
goods and services, language
(English/Spanish/French) and consumer values
found in Seoul, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur,
Madras, Paris, New York, Cairo, Lagos, Accra,
Nairobi, Toronto, Moscow, Tokyo, Singapore,
Camberra, Bonies Aires, Mexico City,
Kingston, London, etc.
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
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variations in the expression of cultural universals
across space and time: E.G.?
VARIATIONS IN LANGUAGE:
Did You Know….that 1) there are approximately
7000 languages spoken in the world today? 2)
Lakota is a gendered language in which women
and men speak slightly different dialects? 3)
According to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, the
language a person uses shapes his or her
perception of reality and therefore his or her
thoughts and actions?
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
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VARIATIONS IN CULTURES: (Pages 126128 of Textbook)
1. Value Orientations:
 High
Secular-Rational and High Self-Expressive
Values (INDIVIDUALISM)
 Low Secular-Rational and Low Self-Expressive
Values (COLLECTIVISM)
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2. Emphasis on Human Development:
 Human Choice (INDIVIDUALISM)
 Human Constraint (COLLECTIVISM)
CULTURAL DIVERSITY:
MULTICULTURALISM:
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The IDEAL CULTURE of societies such as
Canada, Australia, Singapore.
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seeks to promote the maintenance of the cultures of
immigrants and indigenous people as horizontal mosaic
or cultural equality.
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The REAL CULTURE of Canada:
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Consists of cultural practices that constitute
a vertical mosaic or cultural inequality :
Discrimination against people that practice
or perceived to be members of nonmainstream cultures.
MAINSTREAM CULTURE
Dominant expressions of cultural universals
--values, beliefs, attitudes, symbols,
artifacts, norms, expectations, technology,
infrastructure, etc.
 Examples:

 The
WASP culture of Canada.
 Popular cultures of every society.
SUB-CULTURE
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A world within the mainstream culture, with
distinctive expression pattern of traditions,
customs, beliefs, rituals, folkways, language,
but remains compatible with the dominant
values, expectations, norms, etc.
Examples:
 The
cultures of minority ethnic groups in Canada,
cabdrivers, the police, the army, prostitutes, thieves,
etc.,
 High culture of every society –E.G., Polo, Golf, Ball
Room Dance, Classical Music etc.
COUNTER-CULTURE
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Special form of subculture
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Cultures of groups whose values set their
members apart and in opposition to certain
aspects of the mainstream culture. They
challenge some core values of the mainstream
culture. Often the members of the mainstream
culture feel threatened by counter culture.
Example: Cultures of

 Hell‘s
Angels, the Mafia, Gangs, terrorist groups.
DIVERSITY: CULTURAL CONFLICT &
CULTURAL HEGEMONY
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The existence of mainstream culture, subcultures,
and countercultures on the same territory or space
is the basis of culture conflict and cultural
hegemony.
1. Cultural Hegemony:
 domination of a cultural group by another
2. Culture Conflict:
 Incompatible
values, beliefs and practices:
CULTURAL STATIC & CHANGE
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Cultural Static: Persistence of cultural systems and/or
practices: E,g.: Traditions and customs
Culture Change: Transformation of cultural elements
and/or practices through discovery,
invention/innovation, and diffusion: E,g.: Changes in
the economy, beliefs, and technology.
Cultural lag: represents uneven change in the
cultural elements—changes in the elements of
the cultural system at different times and
speeds—material culture changing faster than
non-material culture. In other words, a change
gap between material culture and non-material
culture.
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF
CULTURE: Sociobiology vs. Sociology
SOCIOBIOLOGY: Biological factors
determine human social behavior
 Cultural patterns are a product of
biological factors to a significant degree.
This is evident in the existence of
CULTURAL UNIVERSALS such as
marriages and language
 SOCIOLOGY:
 Culture is socially constructed and
transmitted, not DNA based.
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Sociological CRITICISMS of
Sociobiology:
 1. Lack of scientific proof of DNA
producing culture, but there is empirical
evidence showing that culture is not a
product of DNA: The Victor Story.
 2. Culture is the product of human
interaction with each other, the
environment, the social structure.
 3.
supports racism, ethnocentrism,
classicism xenocentrism, and sexism
QUIZ 11

When a wife and husband argue about who‟ll
clean the bathroom, for example, or who‟ll take
care of a sick child when they both work outside
the home, the issue is simply about a cultural
universal reflective of biological reproductive
factors. What theoretical perspective would agree
with this view about gender relations?
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A) Sociobiology
B) Social Conflict
C) Feminism
D) Symbolic Interactionism
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THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF CULTURE
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FUNCTIONALIST PARADIGM:
HOMEOSTASIS
 Culture is produced by the social structure
to meet the homeostasis (social
stability/order/solidarity) needs of society.
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF CULTURE
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SOCIAL CONFLICT PARADIGM:
POLITICAL ECONOMY AND SOCIAL
CLOSURE
 The powerful, wealthy, and prestigious
members of society, the central players of the
dominant culture of existing political economy
and social closure, use culture to rationalize or
legitimize inequality, exploitation and
oppression.
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF CULTURE
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INTERACTIONIST PARADIGM: HUMAN
AGENCY: Definitions of symbolic situations:
 “Culture is actively created and recreated
through social interaction as people go about
their everyday lives engaged in negotiations of
reality based on shared meanings grounded in
cultural symbols.”
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF CULTURE
FEMINISM: PATRIARCHY
 ―Culture is made by those in power—
men. Males make the rules and laws and
women transmit them‖ (Anzaldua 1999:
38).
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 Patriarchal
culture rationalizes and supports
inequality and oppression of females/women.