Culture:
Cultural Diversity and Conformity
• Culture consists of all the shared
products of human groups.
• These products include both
physical objects and the beliefs,
values, and behaviors shared by a
group.
• Diversity exists between cultures
and within a culture.
Components of Culture
Culture is both learned and shared.
ALL cultures have certain basic components
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Technology
Symbols
Language
Values
Norms
A woman looks at a dish of worms during the
Taipei Chinese Food Festival in Taiwan.
Spinach Pierogi
Members of a 1960s commune pose together for
a group portrait
Harajuku girls stroll down a street in Tokyo, Japan
Papua New Guinean men in traditional clothing and
face paint at the Sing- Sing Annual Cultural show.
Bocce
Cologne Cathedral, built in the Middle Ages, stands at the
center of Cologne, Germany, and towers over the city,
symbolizing the central role Christianity played in
medieval European life.
Over 90 percent of the people who live in industrial
societies live in cities or towns.
Women waiting in line for food in Calcutta, India
Using the Internet to connect with the world around
them is common among young people across cultures.
Culture
Material Culture
The physical objects that people create and
use.
Nonmaterial Culture
Abstract human creations: beliefs/values, family
patterns, language, political and economic
systems, rules, skills, and work practices
Technology
Culture consists of not only physical
objects but also the rules for using those
objects.
Using items of material culture, particularly tools, requires
knowledge of various skills which is part of nonmaterial culture
Example: an understanding of how silicon chips work,
knowledge of computer languages, and the ability to surf the
internet are all skills related to the computer (a material culture
item)
Examples of Material Culture
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Food
Clothing and Adornment of the Body
Tools and Weapons
Housing and Shelter
Transportation
Personal Possessions
Household Articles
“Culture for Sale!!”:
What does our stuff say about us?
Buried Treasure Activity
• For the item you selected to place in the time
capsule, identify the following:
– Role in society, use, purpose, etc.
– Rules associated with item
– Change agent? How has the item changed
culture or behavioral patterns?
Symbols
The use of symbols is the very basis of human culture.
A symbol is anything that represents something else.
Word, gestures, images, sounds, physical objects, events, or elements
of the natural world.
ALL cultures communicate symbolically.
ANYTHING THAT CARRIES A PARTICULAR MEANING RECOGNIZED BY
PEOPLE WHO SHARE CULTURE
• REALITY FOR HUMANS IS FOUND IN THE MEANING
THINGS CARRY WITH THEM
– THE BASIS OF CULTURE; MAKES LIFE POSSIBLE
• PEOPLE MUST BE MINDFUL THAT MEANINGS VARY
FROM CULTURE TO CULTURE
– WHY AMERICANS ARE AT TIMES CALLED “UGLY”
• MEANINGS CAN EVEN VARY GREATLY WITHIN THE
SAME GROUPS OF PEOPLE
– FUR COATS, CONFEDERATE FLAGS, ETC.
Language
The organization of written or spoken symbols into a
standardized system
Formal language—written and spoken
Informal language—slang, texting, accents, regional
A SYSTEM OF SYMBOLS THAT ALLOWS PEOPLE TO
COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER
• CULTURAL TRANSMISSION
– PASSING ON CULTURE
• SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
– WE KNOW THE WORLD ONLY IN
TERMS OF OUR LANGUAGE
– i.e. self
• NON-VERBAL LANGUAGE
– BEWARE OF USING GESTURES
Values
• Language and symbols are important
partly because they allow us to
communicate our values to one
another.
• Values are shared beliefs about what
is good or bad, right or wrong,
desirable or undesirable
Influences kind of culture created
• American Values – Sometimes a
contradiction
–EQUALITY
–ACHIEVEMENT AND SUCCESS
–INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM
HOW DO WE SHARE OUR VALUES
WITH MEMBERS OF SOCIETY?
Public Service Announcements
• Prevent Forest Fires
• Register to Vote
• Rock the Vote
• Humane Society: Fight against Dog Fighting
Norms
•All groups create norms to enforce
their cultural values
•Norms are shared rules of conduct that
tell people how to act in specific
situations
•Norms are expectations for behavior,
not actual behavior
•Some norms apply to everyone in
society, others are applied selectively
• TYPES
– FOLKWAYS
• LESS SERIOUS OFFENSES
• PREFERRED BEHAVIOR
– MORES
• MORALLY SIGNIFICANT
– TABOOS
• EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT
– Laws
• Formalized norms
LAWS ARE NORMS
WHICH CAN BE
ENFORCED BY
AGENTS OF THE
STATE.
SOCIAL CONTROL
MEANS BY WHICH MEMBERS
OF SOCIETY ENCOURAGE
CONFORMITY
FORMAL SANCTIONS
• Rewards/punishments given
by formal organization
– Positive – promotions, raises,
bonuses
– Negative: fines, low grades,
termination
INFORMAL SANCTIONS
• Spontaneous expressions of
approval/ or disapproval
given by an individual or
group
– Positive: smile, praise,
– Negative: frowns, scolding,
ignored
“Welcome to America”
• You will create a rough draft for a pamphlet to be
handed out to newly arriving immigrants.
• Identify one place/institution/group in American
society and complete the following tasks:
– Identify as many norms as you can think of for the
place you identified
– Identify what kind of norms they are
– Identify at least one value that the norms represent
– Identify two types of sanctions (formal or informal,
negative or positive)
What Do We All Have in Common?
• Humans have ability to meet needs in a vast number of
ways
•Ability only limited by biological makeup and physical environment
•Ability leads to great diversity in many ways
Cultural Universals
• Cultural universals are features developed by all
societies to fulfill basic needs
• George Murdock compiled list of over 65 cultural
universals
• Specific nature of the universals may vary widely
between cultures
Cultural Universals
• In your small group, identify one of the
categories you researched in your Culturegrams
activity.
• Create a Powerpoint slide that highlights the
differences/similarities of the cultural universal
in each of the countries your group members
researched and the U.S. (compare and contrast)
• Include pictures!!
Cultural Universals
• Copy the T-chart to the
right onto p. 6 of your
packet. Choose one of
the countries from your
Culturegrams activity.
• Choose four of the
cultural universals and
identify one example
for each culture.
U.S.
Your
choice
DIVERSITY IN CULTURE
• DIVERSE NATION: BUILT ON
IMMIGRATION
• ONE OF THE MOST MULTICULTURAL
COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD
– Ethnic Diversity
• MELTING POT OR MOSAIC
– Economic Diversity
• Class structure
– Age
• Youth Culture
DIFFERENT PATTERNS OF CULTURE
– HIGH CULTURE
• CULTURAL PATTERNS FOUND WITHIN A SOCIETY’S
ELITE GROUPS
– POPULAR CULTURE
• PATTERNS THAT ARE WIDESPREAD
THERE ARE TIMES WHEN CULTURAL DIVERSITY IS
GOOD FOR A SOCIETY, AS WELL AS TIMES WHEN
IT SEEMS TO WORK AGAINST “THE GRAIN”
• SUBCULTURES
– GROUPS WHOSE CULTURAL PATTERNS SET THEM APART
FROM WIDER SOCIETY
– ACCEPT PRIMARY NORMS AND VALUES OF MAINSTREAM
• RELIGIOUS CULTS, INNER-CITY TEENS, COWBOYS, THE AMISH,
FARMERS,
• COUNTERCULTURES
– GROUPS WHOSE CULTURAL PATTERNS ARE AT GREAT
ODDS WITH WIDER SOCIETY
– REJECT MAINSTREAM NORMS AND VALUES
• RADICAL MILITIA GROUPS, THE KLAN, THE SKINHEAD GROUPS
Responses to Cultural Variation
Ethnocentrism
• Judging other cultures
based on the norms of
our own culture
• Can lead to culture
clash (conflict
between cultures)
Cultural Relativism
• Use their cultural standards
to judge
Postville: When Cultures Collide
• As you watch the film:
– Components of Culture
• Create a chart with 3 columns and 4 rows.
• Each each row label with a component of culture (symbols,
language, values, norms)
• Each column label with one of the ethnic groups in Postville
(Anglo-American/white mid-westerners, Orthodox Jews, and
Hispanic)
• Identify examples from the film of the component of culture you
identify
– Cultural Encounters
• As you watch the film, identify examples of the following:
– Ethnocentrism
– Culture clash
– Cultural change
5-Minute Warm-up
• Make a list of 15 things, both material and
nonmaterial, that you value.
• Rank each item (#1 is the most important to
you and #15 is the least).
• You’ve been given $1000. Decide how you
much of your money you will spend on each
item. You may spread out your money or put
it all on one item.
Quick Fire:
Changes in America
• Task:
–Identify one major change in American
culture during the last hundred years.
• What is the change? (before and after)
• What was the reason for the change?
Cultural Change
• Cultural diffusion
• Cultural diffusion is the spreading of culture traits from one
society to another
• Today it can happen almost instantly
• Cultural lag
• Cultural lag is the time it takes for nonmaterial culture to “catch
up” to changes in material culture
• Cultural leveling
• Cultural leveling is a process by which cultures become more
and more alike
• Some suggest it is the first step toward a global culture
• DISCOVERY UNDERSTANDING HAS
INCREASED
• INVENTION - CREATING
NEW CULTURE
Cultural Diversity and Sociology
The Adaptive American Culture
The long history of immigration to the United States has resulted in an
American culture that embraces values, behaviors, and material culture from
other cultures around the world.
• Latino influence is especially strong
as Hispanics are the largest
minority group
• South Asians are becoming a larger
and larger portion of U.S.
population
• Influences food, clothes, and cars
available
• Pakistani and Indian food has
quickly become more popular
• Latino holidays are celebrated
• Bollywood movies are popular
• Spanish-language advertisements
are common
How important is
work in the American
value system?
Other Core Values
• Nationalism
• Patriotism
• Science and rationality
• Racial and group superiority
• Education
• Religion
• Romantic love
Our Changing Values
While the United States has a set of core values, new
values or changed values are sometimes noted.
New Values
Self-fulfillment and Narcissism
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• Some scholars see selffulfillment as a healthy new
value, while others view its
extreme, narcissism, as
detrimental to society as a
whole.
Leisure
Physical fitness
Youthfulness
Self-fulfillment
Environmentalism
Progress
Values in the U.S.
• Create a collage of images that represent the
eight core values of American culture.
• You may include photos from magazines or your
own illustrations. You’ll only have 20 minutes to
choose the eight images for your collage.
• On the back of the collage, for each of the
American values,
– In your own words, define the value and write a one
sentence summary of your rationale for choosing the
image. How does it represent the value?