Parillo, Chapter 2
Culture and Social Structure
The Concept of Culture
• Definition: Culture consists of customs,
ideas, language, norms, physical objects,
values, and social institutions.
• Material Culture; Physical objects
• Nonmaterial Culture; abstract human
creations
• Culture shapes our behavior, … thinking
Culture Cont.
• Norms: Culture’s rules of behavior
– Internalized
– Society’s fundamental expectations
– (Soc 1) Folkways, … Mores
• Acculturation
– To learn a society’s cultural patterns
• Values
– Figure 2.1, Robin Williams 15 values
Culture and the Construction of
Reality
• Culture, Language, and Reality
– Reality is related to our culture
• Symbols of culture, … words
• Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-Whorf
Hypothesis)
– We interpret our world, … reality by language
– Language determines how we interpret reality
Culture Cont.
• The Thomas Theorem
– If people define situations as real, they are
real in their consequences
• The vicious-circle phenomenon
– People create a culturally determined world of
reality, - Prejudice, . Discrimination, .
Prejudice
• Cultural Transmission, …(South Pacific)
– “We have to be carefully taught to hate…”
Cultural Change
• Culture changes through, … discoveries, ..
Inventions, .. Technology, .. Innovations,
..natural / environmental events
• Cultural Diffusion
– Cultures are influenced by other cultures
• Borrowed Cultural Elements
– Ralph Lipton, “100 percent American”
• Culture Contact
– Immigration
Subcultures
• Chain Migration
– Settling in an area where friends, .. family live
• Parallel Social Institutions
– Duplicate social institutions, (Banks, Clubs, ...)
• Ethnic subcultures
– Americanized subcultures, usually first and
second generation
– Marginality, … neither ethnic nor American
Subcultures Cont.
• Ethnogenesis: an adaptation to the core
culture
– A group consciousness unknown in the ”old
country”
– Modification of immigrant cultural elements
– Adaptation of core cultural elements
• Convergent Subcultures
– Tend toward assimilation to the core culture
• Persistent Subcultures, … Unassimilated
Structural Conditions
• Social Stratification
– The hierarchical classification of members of
society based on the unequal distribution of
• Resources, … Power, … Prestige
• Resources, … income, property, prestige
• Power, … ability to influence or control
others
• Prestige, … ones status, achieved or
ascribed
Social Class
• One’s place in the social hierarchy
– Similar income, property, power, status,
lifestyle
• Socioeconomic Scale (SEC)
– Education, … Income, … Occupation
• Upper Class to Lower Class
• W. Lloyd Warner: Reputational method
• Minority Social Class status
– Usually low, … lowest
Ethnicity and Social Class
• Milton Gordon’s explanation of our
pluralistic society
• Four factors that help form subsocieties
– Ethnicity (also Race)
– Social Class
– Rural or Urban residence
– Regionalism
• Combined, … form an Ethclass
– The intersection of the stratification by race,
ethnicity and the stratification of social class
Blaming the Poor or Society
• E. Franklin Frazier (1932)
– Theorized of the disorganization and
pathology of lower class culture
• Daniel P. Moynihan (1965)
– Presented his work on the culture-of-poverty
• Moynihan argued: … family
disorganization was the core cause of
lower class (racial, ethnic) problems
– “…At the heart of the deterioration … (p. 50)
– Black males occupied a unstable place …
Blaming the Poor Cont.
• See quoted material on pp. 50 and 51
• Oscar Lewis, The Children of Sanchez
– The Perpetuation of Poverty, … “The culture of
poverty, … (p.51).
• Criticisms of the Culture of Poverty theory
– Is it cultural determinism?
– Is it economic, structural determinism?
Intergroup Conflict
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Robert E. Park: Race-relation Cycle
Four Stages
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4.
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Contact: between groups
Competition for economic, social resources
Adjustment or Accommodation
Eventual assimilation and amalgamation
Race referred to racial and ethnic groups
Assimilation may be halted for a time but
eventually all groups would assimilate
Robert E. Park Cont.
• Park’s theory fit NW Europeans nicely
• Not testable because of … “eventually …”
• Lack of assimilation attributable to
temporary obstacles
• Parks theory may not (does not) apply to all
societies
Cultural Differentiation
• Similarities between immigrant groups and
the dominant core tend to promote
harmonious relations and assimilation.
• The greater and more visible the cultural
differentiation, the greater the likelihood
that conflict will occur.
Structural Differentiation
• How structural conditions affect intergroup
relations
• Functionalist: How economic and
technological conditions facilitate minority
integration
– With a healthy economy immigrants find an
easier time to get established
– A healthy economy provides occupational
mobility
Ethnic Stratification Theories
• Lieberson: Power Differential Theory
• Intergroup relations depend on the relative
power of the migrant and indigenous
groups
– Which group becomes superordinate and
which become subordinate governs ethnic
relations
• If the newcomer posses superior
technology, … ?
• If the indigenous group has superior
technology and power, … ?
Internal Colonialism Theory
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Robert Blauner (1960)
Structural relations of Native Americans,
African Americans, Mexican Americans
reflect a colonial relationship
Example: Black Ghettoes, .. three
features
1. Blacks forced to live in ghettoes, (North)
2. Ethnic culture was destroyed
3. Controlled from without economically,
politically and administratively (p. 60)
Assimilation Theories
• Majority Conformity theory (Anglo
Conformity), … A+B+C = A
• English Influence, … language, institutions,
values, attitudes and culture
• Americanization movement, … early 1900s
– Encourage immigrants to become 100%
American
– Government agencies and private
organizations
– Divest themselves of ethnic characteristics
Types of Assimilation
• Milton Gordon: (1964) Assimilation has
several phases:
• Cultural Assimilation, (acculturation)
• Structural Assimilation, (primary relations)
• Marital Assimilation, (amalgamation)
• Identificational Assimilation (like the Core)
• Attitude Receptional Assimilation (less
prejudice)
• Behavioral Receptional Assimilation
• Civic Assimilation, (absence of conflict)
Milton Gordon Cont.
• Gordon, … Structural Assimilation is seen
as the “keystone” to other phases
• Some sociologists disagree, … “cultural
assimilation does not lead to structural
assimilation
• Secondary Structural Assimilation
– Impersonal, public social interaction
• Primary Structural Assimilation
– Involves close personal interaction
– [Note the Bogardus Social Distance Scale]
Melting Pot Theory
• Amalgamation (Melting Pot) Theory
– A+B +C = D “E Pluribus Unum”
• J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, “Here
individuals of all nations are melted into a
new race of men.”
• Israel Zangwill (1908), “America is Gods
Crucible, the great Melting Pot where all
the races of Europe are melting and
reforming - …”
• Did We Melt? Did We All Melt?
Assimilation Theories Cont.
• Ruby Jo Kennedy: Triple Melting Pot
– Intermarriage within major religious groupings
• Anglo-Conformity
– Take on Anglo-Saxon (English) cultural
characteristics
– A+B+C = A
– Suggests the “Melting Pot” concept is a myth
– The American is not a composite or synthesis
of various ethnic elements
Accommodation (Pluralistic) Theory
• Pluralistic Theory recognizes the
persistence of racial and ethnic diversity
– A+B+C = A+B+C
• Horace Kallen (1915) “Democracy versus
the Melting Pot
– Rejected Assimilation and Amalgamation
theories
• Each group tends to preserve its own
language, institutions, and cultural heritage
• Democracy gives them the right to do so
Pluralistic Theory Cont.
• Pluralistic Reality
– From its beginning, America has been a
pluralistic country
• A+B+C = A+B+C
• Cultural Pluralism: two or more culturally
distinct groups
• Structural Pluralism: the coexistence of
racial and ethnic groups in subsocieties
within social-class and regional boundaries
• [ A+B+C = A+b+c ]
White Culture?
• Is There a White Culture?
• If there is, is it independent of American
culture? Is it identifiable as separate from
American culture? (See quote on p. 70)
Key Terms
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Accommodation (Pluralistic Theory)
Acculturation
Amalgamation (Melting Pot Theory)
Americanization movement
Anglo-conformity
Assimilation (Majority conformity) Theory
Chain migration
Convergent subcultures
Cultural assimilation
Key Terms Cont.
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Cultural diffusion
Cultural pluralism
Cultural transmission
Culture [ An American culture? ]
Culture of poverty
Economic determinism
Ethclass
Ethnic stratification
Ethnic subcultures
Key Terms Cont.
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Internal-colonialism Theory
Linguistic relativity
Marginality
Marital Assimilation (Amalgamation)
Norms
Parallel social institutions
Persistent subcultures
Power-differential theory
Social stratification
Key Terms Cont.
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Structural assimilation
Structural pluralism
Thomas theorem
Vicious-circle phenomenon