What is Culture?
DEFINITION
Culture is the
abstract, learned,
shared rules and
standards for
generating
behavior and
understanding
experience.
KEY COMPONENTS
 Abstraction means that culture is ideas
in people’s heads, not physical objects.
Culture is learned, not genetically
programmed.
Culture is shared and social, not personal
and individual.
Culture is rules and patterns, whether
conscious or unconsciously followed .
People decide how to behave using their
culture’s rules and patterns.
People understand the world through
their culture’s patterns of belief.
What is Society?
DEFINITION
A society is a
group of people
living according to
a shared culture.
KEY COMPONENTS
A society is a concrete
phenomenon
A society is a group of
people living their lives
The thing that makes a
group of people a society is
that they share a common
culture
What is Ethnocentrism?
KEY COMPONENTS
DEFINITION
Ethnocentrism is
judging another
culture using your
own culture’s rules
and standards.
 Judgement or evaluation of
the behaviors and ideas of
others
 Imposing your own
standards when they may
not apply
 Thinking your way is the
best or only correct way
What is Cultural
Relativism?
DEFINITION
Cultural relativism
is judging another
culture using its
own rules and
standards.
KEY COMPONENTS
 Looking at ideas and behaviors
from the perspective of the
culture you are viewing.
 Trying on other points of view
 This does not mean that you
abandon your own morals and
ethics, only that you suspend
them to try to better understand
other points of view.
What is Gender?
KEY COMPONENTS
DEFINITION
The social and
cultural rules
and behavior
patterns
associated with
maleness and
femaleness.
Traditional definitions of gender do
NOT include biological factors.
Gender identity is one’s own sense of
being a male or a female person
Gender assignment is the designation of
an individual as male or female by parents
and/or other members of the society.
In Western society gender tends to be
polarized into two mutually exclusive
categories.
In some other societies, there may be
more than two gender categories.
What is Sex?
DEFINITION
KEY COMPONENTS
The biological
aspects of
maleness and
femaleness.
Genetics is sexual.
Anatomy is sexual.
Physiology is sexual.