Culture vs. Instinct
Why is culture more important than instinct in
determining human behavior?
Instincts  innate (unlearned) patterns of
behavior
Reflexes  automatic reaction to physical stimulus
Drives  impulse to reduce discomfort
What is culture?
It consists of all the shared products of human
groups
Material Culture  physical objects created by
human groups, also known as artifacts
Nonmaterial Culture  abstract human creations
such as language, ideas, beliefs, rules, skills, family
patterns, work practices, and political and
economic systems
Culture vs. Society
Society is a group of mutually
interdependent people who have
organized in such a way as to share a
common culture and feeling of unity
Culture and society ARE NOT the same!!
Components of Culture
Symbols
Language
Values
Norms (folkways, mores, taboos, laws)
Breaking it down…
Food
Ethnic
Language
Tradition
Religion
Standard of Living
Entertainment
Government
Clothing
Education
Cultural Universals
Cultural Universals – general cultural traits that
exist in all cultures
How are these cultural universals expressed?
Cultural particulars  the ways in which a culture
expresses universal traits
Why do cultural universals exists?
Cultural Universals
Researchers have identified more than 70 traits in all cultures
Economy
Clothing, Food, Shelter, Communications,
Transportation, Business, Jobs, Services, Goods,
Technology, Tools, Trade
Institutions
Economy, Religion, Education, Government, Family
Arts
Folk Tales, Crafts, Music, Theater, Dance, Literature,
Art
Language
Environment
Recreation
Beliefs
Words, Expressions, Pronunciations, Alphabet,
Symbols
Communities, Geography, Geology, Habitat, Wildlife,
Climates, Resources
Games, Toys, Arts, Media, Holidays, Festivals
Values, Traditions, Ethnicity, Customs, Religions,
Morals
Examining Culture
Culture is DYNAMIC not static – it is always
changing!
Sociologists divide culture into three parts:
Traits
Complexes
Patterns
Levels of Culture
***Diagram on my website under CULTURE folder!***
Beliefs and Physical
Objects
Nonmaterial culture – Ideas, knowledge, and
beliefs that influence people’s behavior
Beliefs – ideas about the nature of reality
Material Culture – the concrete, tangible objects
of a culture
How are these two related??
Ideal Culture vs.
Real Culture
Ideal Culture  Cultural guidelines that group
member claim to accept
Real Culture  Actual behavior of members of a
group
Cultural Diversity
Social Categories  groupings of persons who
share social characteristics
Subculture – a group that is part of the dominant
culture but that differs from it in some important
respects
Counterculture – a subculture deliberately and
consciously opposed to certain central beliefs
or attitudes of the dominant culture
Ethnocentrism
Judging others in terms of one’s own cultural
standards
Examples?
Does ethnocentrism help or hurt society?
Norms
Norms are the specific cultural expectations for
how to behave in a given situation
They are the agreed-upon expectations and
rules by which the members of a culture behave
Norms can be broken down into FOUR
categories
Folkways
Often referred to as "customs”
Standards of behavior that are socially approved but
not morally significant
They are norms for everyday behavior that people
follow for the sake of tradition or convenience
Breaking a folkway does not usually have serious
consequences
Mores
Strict norms that control moral and ethical
behavior
Mores are norms based on definitions of right
and wrong
Unlike folkways, mores are morally significant
People feel strongly about them and violating
them typically results in disapproval
Taboos
A norm that society holds so strongly that
violating it results in extreme disgust
Often times the violator of the taboo is
considered unfit to live in that society
Laws
A law is a norm that is written down and
enforced by an official law enforcement agency