CULTURE:
“The Content and Product of Socialization”
Cultural Lag:
Experiencing Queue-Jumping
going to the Great Wall of China,
June 2014
© Dr. Francis Adu-Febiri, 2016
Contents of the Presentation
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Central Question, Main Thesis, and Argument
Culture: Experiencing the “Other”
Explaining FGM/FGC
The Major Concepts of culture
Culture web
Core dimensions of Culture
Cultural universals, uniformity & diversity
Theoretical Perspectives of culture: Sociobiology versus
Sociology
Sociological Paradigms of culture: Functionalism, Social
Conflict, Interactionism, Feminism, Postmodernism
Central Question

Does culture adequately account for the
immense similarities and differences in the
ways people feel, think, dream, live and
behave?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/nelly-o-canada-1.3448430
Main Thesis
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The Functionalist answer is YES:
 Culture
Matters because it is a social force that
integrates the social structure and interaction,
guides social action, and provides the content of
socialization and/or its rationalization.

Our private troubles [and our day to day behaviours, feelings and
thinking] are motivated by the culture characterizing the social
relationships in which we find ourselves (Russell Westhaver 2013,
p. 134).
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Our very existence and understanding of ourselves is a product of our
culture, we cannot and do not exist outside of culture. (Bartle 2004: Page
59).
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Culture is exterior, interior and anterior to people in social
groups (Emile Durkheim).
The Main Argument
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DNA is not destiny:
 ‘There’s
nothing “natural” about’ queuejumping, spitting in public, shirt-rolling, crime,
high drop-out rates in education, the origins of
the human mind, our mental architecture, IQ,
moral development, pre-socialized ability,
terrorism, etc. (Lorne Tepperman 2015, chapter
5). Rather, these are social scripts that culture
creates as responses to social structural
conditions.
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/lnq34gntfmr8o40/Camosun%20College%20E
vent%20Promo.mp4?dl=0&preview=Camosun+College+Event+Promo.m
p4
CULTURE: Before Experiencing ‘THE OTHER
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9zThc
MJzQU
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http://faculty.camosun.ca/francisadufebiri/m
edia-resources/
CULTURE: Experiencing ‘THE OTHER’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOGQ_o3Lq0
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7p0tX
IcIzM
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kNMC
65pNsg

WHY DO PEOPLE PRACTISE
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION/CUTTING?
WHY DO PEOPLE PRACTICE FEMALE
GENITAL MUTILATION/CUTTING?
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Sociological Answer:
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Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or
Female Genital Cutting (FGC) is the
product of social interaction in the context
of the patriarchal culture of non-industrial
societies.
WHY DO PEOPLE PRACTISE FGM or FGC?
Sociological Paradigms
Homeostasis:
FGC is a
cultural
practice that
persists
because it
contributes to
homeostasis
of the social
structure
Social Class
Inequality:
Patriarchy:
Positive
FGC is a
definitions of weapon to
Females are
victims of
FGC by people keep girls
FGC because offering the
and women
women as part practice and
under the
of lower social those
class in a non- undergoing it or control or
industrial
their acceptance power of
political
of socially
males
constructed
economy lack
power
Human Agency:
Cultural
hegemony
CULTURE: Experiencing ‘THE OTHER’
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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).
CULTURE: Experiencing the “Other”:
RESPONSES TO FGM/FGC
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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 (Roberts,
Thakur and Tunnell, eds., 1999: 1).
What are these students experiencing?
“Culture shock.”
Why did these Canadian students experience culture
shock?
THE MAJOR CONCEPTS OF CULTURE:
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Culture Shock
Ethnocentrism
Cultural Relativism
Xenocentrism
Culture Web: Material and Non-material
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: Experiencing the “Other”:
WHY CULTURE SHOCK?
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Cultural Diversity (Obvious/Superficial answer)
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
answer)
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Eurocentrism and Westernocentrism: Are particular kinds of
Ethnocentrism
CULTURE: Experiencing the “Other”:
AVOIDING CULTURE SHOCK
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1. Cultural Relativism
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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).
CULTURE WEB
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What qualifies as culture?

The total package of material culture and non-material
culture (see diagram on page 162 of Tepperman 2015):
 Material Culture: the physical aspects of our daily
lives, including food, houses, factories, raw materials
and technology.
 Nonmaterial Culture: Values, beliefs, ideas, customs,
symbols (including language), expressions, knowledge,
philosophies, governments, patterns of communication,
and ways of using material objects.
Cultural Lag: The change gap between material culture
and non-material culture (see story on p. 140 of Tepperman 2015)

CULTURAL WEB: Connections
Between Material Culture & Nonmaterial Culture
Emotions
& Rituals
Artifacts &
Tools
Ideas &
knowledge
VALUES &
BELIEFS
Food & Clothes
Technology &
Infrastructure
Norms
Customs/
Traditions
Symbols &
Entertainment
IDEALIST (NONMATERIAL) PERSPECTIVE OF
CULTURE (Malinowski’s Theory)
Y
Technology
X
Y
Artifacts & Tools
X
VALUES,
BELIEFS, IDEAS,
NORMS &
RITUALS
X
Food & Clothes
Y
X
Y
Infrastructure
MATERIALIST PERSPECTIVE OF
CULTURE (Harris’ Theory)
Y
Y
Values
Beliefs &
Rituals
x
TECHNOLOGY
INFRASTRUCTURE
FOOD & CLOTHING
ARTIFACTS & TOOLS
x
Ideas &
Norms
Y
x
CULTURAL WEB: Interaction Between
Material Culture & Nonmaterial Culture
INTERACTION OF
COMMUNICATION
AND TECHNOLOGY
QUIZ 1
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
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VALUES:--Ideologies used to
judge.
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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 2004:56).
“What makes a Woman Beautiful?” (See page 135
of Ravelli and Webber 2014).
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CANADIAN CULTURAL VALUES
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See page 166 of Tepperman 2015 and
pages 128-131 of Ravelli and Webber
2014).
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According to functionalism, a society’s cultural
values determine the NORMS the society
constructs to produce stability and cohesion
through social control.
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Video Clip on Norms:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JJFBtHcBnM
HIERARCHY OF NORMS
Most Important Norms
TABOOS
MORES
FOLKWAYS
Very Important Norms
Least Important
Norms
CORE DIMENSIONS OF CULTURE
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NORMS: Socially defined rules of
behavior:
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A) Taboos:
 Most
important rules of behavior—even the thought
of violating them upsets people. E.G.?
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B) Mores:
 Very
important rules of behavior—violations invoke
punishment. E.G.?
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C) 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 hot pizza for breakfast?.
CULTURAL UNIVERSALS
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Elements of culture that all societies have in
common:
 Values
 Beliefs
 Symbols/language
 Norms
 Communication
 Institutions
 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 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 (see
p.123-125 of Ravelli & Webber 2014), 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 the expression of cultural
universals across social classes: E.G.?
 High
Culture versus Popular Culture
 Thorstein
Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class
(see pp. 164 and 165 in Tepperman 2015).
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
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VARIATIONS IN CULTURES: (Pages 131134 of Ravelli and Webber 2014)
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)
INDIVIDUALISM
COLLECTIVISM
Source: Pacific Resources Education Programs, Inc.
Independence
Dependence
•I’m
an individual, unique and special in my own right
•My heroes are those who can claim to be “self-made”.
•My
Competition
Cooperation
•Competition brings
out the best in me.
•Competition acts as a motivator to stimulate me to
excel.
•We
Directness
Indirectness or Saving Face
•To
be assertive and sometimes even aggressive is
positive.
•Don’t beat around the bush.
•One
Time and Task as Priority
Interaction as Priority
•Agendas,
•Courtesy,
timetables, and promptness help me to
diligently utilize time
•Time
is an invaluable resource not to be wasted
identity, well-being, survival and self-esteem are
derived from being a member of the group.
•I avoid individual recognition or attention.
are only as strong as our weakest link.
•Achievement and success are dependent on how well we
are able to cooperate
is careful not to embarrass or cause dishonor to
another.
•Loss of face has deep meaning and impact on self-esteem
respect, and sensitivity are key to my
interactions with others.
•Getting to know one another has a certain formality to it
and can take time
IDEAL CULTURE: DIVERSITY AS
EQUAL CULTURES: “Horizontal Mosaic”
SOCIETY
“High” Culture
Ideal culture
MAINSTREAN CULTURE
Popular Culture
Real
culture
Ideal
“High”
SUBCULTURE
Real
“High”
Ideal
SUB-CULTURES
COUNTER-CULTURES
Popular
Real
Popular
REAL CULTURE: CULTURAL DIVERSITY AS
INEQUALITY OF CULTURES: “Vertical Mosaic”
High
MAINSTREAM CULTURE
The Dominant Culture
SUBCULTURE
Accepts the dominant culture
Low
COUNTERCULTURE
Lower
Special subculture that rejects
the dominant culture
POLITICS OR IDEOLOGY OF CULTURAL
DIVERSITY: MULTICULTURALISM
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Ideal Culture = cultural aspirations
Real Culture = cultural practices
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Illustration:

The IDEAL CULTURE of societies such as Canada, Australia and
Singapore.
seeks to promote the maintenance of the cultures of immigrants
and indigenous people as horizontal mosaic or cultural equality to
mainstream culture.
The REAL CULTURE of Canada:
Consists of cultural practices that constitute a vertical mosaic or
cultural inequality : Discrimination against people that practice or
perceived to be members of non-mainstream cultures.
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QUIZ 2
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Research findings suggest that Canadian society claims to
cherish/value multiculturalism as a horizontal mosaic.
However, cultural exclusion is widespread in Canadian
institutions and communities. Multiculturalism is
therefore………culture in the social structure of Canada.
A) a real
B) an ideal
C) a counter
D) a popular
E) a cultural lag
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


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

A Special form of subculture

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, diffusion, and acculturation:
E,g.: Changes in the economy, values, beliefs, and
Cultural Lag:
technology.
Experiencing
Cultural lag: represents uneven change in the cultural elements—
Queuechanges in the elements of the cultural system at different Jumping
times
and speeds—material culture changing faster than non-material
going to the
Great Wall of
culture. In other words, a change gap between material culture
China,
and non-material culture.
June 2014
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
marriage and language
 SOCIOLOGY:
 Culture is socially constructed and
transmitted, not DNA based.

Sociological CRITICISMS of
Sociobiology:
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1. Sociobiology lacks scientific proof of DNA
producing culture, but there is empirical
evidence showing that culture is not a product
of DNA: The Victor Story.
2. Sociological evidence shows that culture is
the product of human interaction with each
other, the environment, the social structure.
3. Sociobiology supports racism, ethnocentrism,
classicism, xenocentrism, and sexism without
scientific facts
QUIZ 3

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?

A) Sociobiology
B) Social Conflict
C) Feminism
D) Symbolic Interactionism
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Does culture adequately account for the immense
similarities and differences in the ways people feel,
think, dream, live and behave?
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SOCIOLOGICAL PARADIGMS OF CULTURE
 Functionalism—YES: HOMEOSTASIS: CULTURAL
CONSENSUS & ADAPTATIONS
 Social Conflict—NO: POLITICAL ECONOMY:
SOCIAL CLASS & SOCIAL CLOSURE
 Interactionism—NO: HUMAN AGENCY:
SUBJECTIVE DEFINITION OF CULTURAL
SYMBOLS
 Feminism—NO: PATRIACHAL STRUCTURE &
IDEOLOGY
 Postmodernism—YES: CULTURAL HEGEMONY
SOCIOLOGICAL PARADIGMS OF CULTURE
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FUNCTIONALIST PARADIGM: HOMEOSTASIS
Culture is produced by the social structure to meet the
homeostasis (social stability) needs of society.
Cultural universals, uniformities and diversities
develop and persist because they are functional -contribute to cultural consensus and adaptations that
help maintain homeostasis that is of collective benefit.
Any cultural practices that are dysfunctional--don’t
contribute to collective benefit--are eliminated.
Values, beliefs and ideas components of culture
dictate/control the material elements of culture and the
behavior of all individual members and groups of
society
FUNCTIONALIST CLAIMS
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1. Culture is a symbolic-material system as well as practices that
determine peoples’ reality and define their personalities and ways
of life.
2. Culture is the key to what humans become. It is our culture that
superimposes the specifics of what we become on our biological
inheritance. It is culture that distinguishes humans from animals
3. Babies do not ‘naturally’ develop into human adults. Human
interaction is necessary to acquire the normal human traits.
4. The individual ‘self’ (‘I’/’Me’) is culturally constructed. That is,
our active creative parts, thoughts, dreams, and attitudes are the
products of our interaction with culture.

5. Culture inhabits every aspects of our lives. Culture is the vehicle for our
lives, but is not a prison, for there is no outside: culture is anterior,
interior and exterior to us.

6. Culture is hegemonic (dominating): It has a limiting effect on
thoughts, speech, behavior, action, inquiry and morality; it
exercises power over individuals and groups.
CRITUQUES OF FUCTIONALIST
PERSPECTIVE OF CULTURE

See page 137 Ravelli & Webber 2014.
SOCIOLOGICAL PARADIGMS OF CULTURE

SOCIAL CONFLICT PARADIGM: POLITICAL
ECONOMY AND SOCIAL CLOSURE (Pages 137-139
of Ravelli & Webber 2014)
 The
powerful, wealthy, and prestigious
members of society, the central players of the
dominant culture of existing political economy
use culture to justify or rationalize or legitimize
assimilation, inequality, exploitation and
oppression that are the manifestations of class
conflict.
 Culture works against lower classes more
than upper classes.
CRITIQUES OF SOCIAL CONFLICT
PERSPECTIVE OF CULTURE

See page 139 paragraphs 2-4 of Ravelli and
Webber 2014
SOCIOLOGICAL PARADIGMS OF CULTURE

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.”

Culture is liberating for those who define it as
opportunities, but constrains those who define it as
dominating.
CRITIQUES OF INTERACTIONIST
PERSPECTIVE OF CULTURE
See the last paragraph of page 139 of Ravelli
& Webber 2014.
SOCIOLOGICAL PARADIGMS 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).

Patriarchal culture rationalizes and supports
patriarchal structure (inequality and oppression of
females/women) and the ideology of sexism that
drives it.

Culture works against the lives and behavior of
females/women more than males/men.
Women’s resistance of patriarchal culture causes
gender conflict that initiates egalitarian changes in
culture

CRITIQUES OF FEMINIST
PERSPECTIVE OF CULTURE

Underestimates the power of
women in the construction of the
core values of a culture.
SOCIOLOGICAL PARADIGMS OF CULTURE


POSTMODERNISM: CULTURAL HEGEMONY
Hegemonic Culture is constructed by the powerful.

This hegemonic culture constructs hyperreality,
particularly consumerism, and propagates it as reality.

Hyperreality works against the lives and behavior of the less
powerful and the marginalized more than powerful.
The resistance of the less powerful and the marginalized to the
hyperreal culture causes conflict that initiates egalitarian changes
in culture that eventually results in in minimized consumerism and
real multiculturalism—horizontal cultural mosaic

CRITIQUES OF POSTMODERN
PERSPECTIVE OF CULTURE

Underestimates
the
power
of
hyperreality in the preventing the
construction of the core values of a
culture to produce real multiculturalism.
In this context multiculturalism may
remain an IDEAL cultural reality.
CONCLUSION

Because our very existence and understanding
of ourselves is a product of our culture, and our
socialization into it, we are not aware of the
nature of that culture. Like a fish that has
never been out of water, and able to compare it
with its absence, we cannot and do not exist
outside of culture. Conversely, social scientists
who know more about the nature of society and
culture are not normal—we’re weird (Bartle
2004: Page 59).