Chapter 3
CULTURE
Chapter Overview

What is Culture?


Components of
Symbolic Culture
Values in U.S.
Society

Technology in the
Global Village

Cultural Lag,
Diffusion, and
Labeling

Many Cultural Worlds:
Subcultures and
Countercultures
2
Culture

What is Culture?
 Culture is:
 The language, beliefs, values, norms, and behaviors
passed on from one generation to the next
 How is this accomplished?
 Two components
 Nonmaterial culture
 Material culture
3
Culture

Nonmaterial
 Belief system, values,
behavior, social interactions,
language, gestures, and
assumptions about the world
Material
 Cultural artifacts and
objects people create and
assign meanings to.
Culture
 Our speech, gestures,
beliefs, customs are usually
taken for granted
 We assume that they are
normal and natural
 Cultural lens
 Perception of reality
 Guides our behavior and
helps us make decisions
Culture
 Sometimes our assumptions are challenged
 Culture Shock
 Ethnocentrism
 Practicing Cultural Relativism
Culture
Ethnocentrism and
Culture Shock
 What is Normal, Natural, or Usual?
 We believe our ways are “Normal”
 Culture Shock- coming into contact with a culture that is
different from what we know
 Cultures are in conflict
 Ethnocentrism-the belief that our culture is the “best” or
superior to all others
• Tendency to evaluate other groups according to one’s own standards
 Negative consequences
 Positive consequences
7
Culture

Cultural
Relativism
 Attempt to understand another culture’s perspective and not
based on one’s own perspective
 Refocus our lens so we can appreciate other ways of life
instead of asserting “our way is right and the only way”
 Examples
 Hindu diet and US diet
Leisure activity is part of a good life
 Bull fighting
 Values
Physical exercise is good for you
Develop your mind

8
Culture
 Cultural values result in exploitation
 Involuntary
 Inhumane
 Oppressive
 Examples
 Honor Killing
 Female Circumcision
Culture
Components of
Symbolic Culture
Symbols
 Something people attach meaning and then use to
communicate with others.
 Nonmaterial culture
 Material culture

10
Culture
Gestures
 Using the body to communicate with others to send messages
without using words
 Universal, but meaning changes completely from one culture to
another
 Can lead to misunderstandings, embarrassment, or conflict
 Some universal gestures
Culture
Language
 System of symbols that can be put together in infinite
number of ways to communicate abstract thought.
 Five Purposes of Languages





Allows Human Experience to Be Cumulative
Provides a Social or Shared Past
Provides a Social or Shared Future
Allows Shared Perspectives
Allows Complex, Shared, Goal-Directed Behavior
Culture
Language & Perceptions
 Language has embedded within it ways of looking at the world
 Part of language is not only to learn it, but also ways of thinking and
perceiving.
 Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
 The language of each culture does not merely influence how people
understand the world it shapes ways of thinking and perceiving
 Meaning beyond words
 EXAMPLES
 Welfare
 Stupid
 Labeling or Stereotyping
 EXAMPLES
 Racial profiling
 Resumes
Culture
Values
 Standards by which people define what is desirable
or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly.
 Guide our choices or preferences in life
 In modern pluralistic societies, such as the U.S.,
value orientations are complex.
Culture
Values in U.S. Society
Achievement and
Success
Progress
Equality
Individualism
Material Comfort
Racism and
Group Superiority
Activity and Work
Humanitarianism
Education
Efficiency and
Practicality
Freedom
Religiosity
Science and
Technology
Democracy
Romantic Love

15
Culture
Value Cluster
 Values together form a larger whole
 Values do not exist alone
 Examples
Value Clash
 When core values change causing conflict between social
groups
 Change is viewed as a threat to their life, an undermining of
both their present and their future.
Ideal Culture
 Values that society views as important and worth aspiring up to
 What people "should do“
 Real Culture
 The values and norms and people actually follow
 What people "actually do"
Culture
Emerging Values
 A value cluster of 4 interrelated core values
 Leisure
 self fulfillment
 Physical fitness
 Youthfulness
 Environmental consciousness
Culture
Components of Symbolic Culture
Norms




Norms - Expectations or rules for behavior
Informal and Formal Norms
Norms will change as cultures change
Sanctions - Reaction to following or breaking
norms
 Positive Sanctions
 Negative Sanctions
 Moral holidays

18
Culture
Components of Symbolic Culture
Types of Norms
 Folkways - Norms that are not strictly enforced
 Weak social norms
 Not a threat to society
 Examples
 Mores - Norms, when broken, go against a society’s basic core
values
 Strictly enforced norms

Norms are viewed as essential and everyone must follow
 Examples
 Taboos - Norms, when broken, are considered repulsive

People who violate these norms are viewed as unfit for society

Examples

19
Culture
Many Cultural Worlds
Subculture:
 A world within the dominant culture
 Groups that share many elements of mainstream culture
but maintain their own distinctive customs, values,
norms, and lifestyles.
 The norms and values do not clash with those of the
dominant culture
Countercultures:
 A world within the dominant culture
 Groups whose values, lifestyles, norms, attitudes, and
other behaviors are in opposition to the broader society
 The norms and values clash with those of the dominant
culture

20
Culture
Cultural Diffusion and
Cultural Leveling
 Cultural Diffusion: The spreading of cultural
characteristics from one culture to another
 Why is this happening so rapidly?
 Cultural Leveling: When cultures start to become
similar to each other

21
Culture
Functionalist Perspective
 All cultures are in part practical responses to
environmental conditions
 Cultural ecological approach
 Examines the relationship between a culture and its total environment
 Example: Hindu culture
 Prevents ethnocentrism
 Cultural integration approach
 Show how the cultural practices of groups tend to “fit together”
 Changes in one element may have broad repercussions for the culture
of any group.
 Example: Technological changes
Culture
Conflict Perspective
 The values, beliefs, and traditions of a nation or
society are not necessarily a product of consensus and
“social need”
 Culture is highly complex with many strains and
contradictions between conflicting group interests and
needs.
 Groups with power and wealth have the resources to
control and influence national culture
 Examples: slave era, corporate capitalism
 Cultural hegemony
 The domination of cultural industries by elite groups
Culture
Symbolic Interaction Perspective
 Focuses on how individuals and groups use symbols to
define and interpret reality.
 People everywhere live in “symbolic worlds” that are
created and reproduced by diverse social groups
 Our daily lives are structured by the symbols and
meanings of many groups
 If groups define something as real, whether or not they truly exist,
“they are real in their consequences”
Culture