Cultural Diversity
Chapter 2
What is Diversity?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLu
K-EBkcww&safe=active
• http://vod.nort2h.com/SAFARI/monta
ge/play.php?keyindex=5557&chapters
keyindex=-1&keyconceptskeyindex=1&sceneclipskeyindex=1&location=local
Culture
• Culture: The shared products of human groups
• The physical objects and the beliefs, values,
and behaviors shared by a group.
• Material Culture: The physical objects that
people create
• Automobiles, books, buildings, clothing, music,
computers, cooking utensils, etc.
• Nonmaterial Culture: Abstract human creations
• Beliefs, family patterns, ideas, language,
political and economic systems, rules, skills,
work practices
Society v. Culture
• People tend to use society and culture
interchangeably, but they aren’t
interchangeable.
• Society: A group of interdependent people who
have organized in such a way as to share a
common culture and feeling of unity.
• Society consists of people
• Culture consists of the material and
nonmaterial products that people create.
The Components of Culture
• Technology: Knowledge and tools
people use for practical reasons.
• Sociologists are not only interested in
skills, but also in the rules of acceptable
behavior when using material culture.
• Ex. Computer hacking, illegal internet
sites, texting, sexting, T.V chips, mod
chips in video game consoles.
The Components of Culture
• Symbols: Anything that represents
something else.
• What are some symbols here at
school? In the community? In the
country?
The Components of Culture
• Language: The organization of written
or spoken symbols into a standardized
system.
• We all speak the American form of
English, but do we all speak it the
same way?
The Components of Culture
• Chevy Nova is not selling in Spanish
speaking countries because No Va = It
won’t go in Spanish…
• John F. Kennedy..Ich bin ein Berliner…
• Other examples?
The Components of Culture
• Gestures- the way people use their bodies
to communicate- hand, face, body
language.
• Vary widely from culture to culture.
The Components of Culture
• Values: Shared beliefs about what is
good or bad, right or wrong, desirable
or undesirable.
• The types of values held by a group
help to determine the character of its
people and the kinds of material and
nonmaterial culture they create.
Cultural Comparison
• Yanomamo- Border of Brazil and Venezuela
• Warfare and feats of male strength common.
• 30% of all deaths of males are from wounds
sustained in battle.
• Farming villages can support 500 to 1,000
people, but the Yanomamo can only support 200
at a time.
• War splits the village into new settlements.
Cultural Comparison
• San• Society based on cooperation.
• The San groups have their own territories
and they don’t trespass on other land.
• All take part in search for food, except old,
very young, sick.
• The game they hunt is shared throughout
the group.
Values
• Norms: Shared rules of conduct that tell
people how to act in specific situations.
• Norms are expectations for behavior not
actual behavior!
• Norms range from the unimportant to the
very important
• What are some unimportant norms?
• What are some important norms?
Norms
• Are all norms specific to all people and all
locations across the country?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_Hrz
DoSHn4&safety_mode=true&persist_safet
y_mode=1&safe=active
• Sociologists distinguish between two types
of norms;
• Folkways
• Mores (MAWR-ayz)
Folkways
• Norms that describe socially acceptable behavior
but do not have great moral significance attached to
them.
• They outline the common customs of everyday life.
• Don’t put food in your mouth with a knife.
• Don’t let the American flag touch the ground
when raising and lowering it.
• Shake hands when introduced to someone.
• Hold doors for women.
• Don’t spit
• Don’t burp after meals.
Mores
• Norms that have great moral significance
attached to them.
• Dishonesty, fraud, murder
Laws
• Written rules of conduct enacted and
enforced by the government.
• Laws enforce mores (rape, theft, murder,
arson) as well as folkways (not parking in
handicap spaces).
Three Levels of Culture
Culture Trait
Culture
Complex
Culture Pattern
Culture Traits
• An individual tool, act, or belief that is
related to a particular situation or need.
• Using knives, forks, and spoons when
eating.
• Greeting a friend by saying “Hi”, but
being more formal when meeting a
human-resource manager at a job
interview.
Culture Complexes
• Culture traits combine to form the next level- culture
complexes.
• A culture complex is a cluster of interrelated traits.
• Ex. Football, think of…material traits (football, chains, cleats,
helmets, pads, first-aid kits, benches), specific acts (kicking,
passing ,tackling, running, catching), specific beliefs (rules
followed, penalties for rule violations, etc.), and sport culture
(marketing, T.V. rights, advertising, financing).
Culture Patterns
• Culture complexes combine to form
larger levels called culture patterns.
• Culture patterns are the combination
of a number of culture complexes
into an interrelated whole.
Culture Patterns
• The complexes of baseball, basketball, football,
soccer, swimming, tennis, etc. combine to form
the American athletic pattern.
• Other patterns include; agriculture, education,
family life, religion.
Culture Variations
• Basic needs that all societies must develop
to ensure fulfillment of basic needs.
• Cultures can be different, but people have
basic needs that need to be met.
• Humans have the ability to meet those
needs in a vast number of ways.
Murdock’s Cultural Universals
• George Murdock- Anthropologist.
• What general traits are common to all cultures?
• Identified 65 cultural universals.
• *Body Adornment
*Religion
• *Family
*Dancing
• *Language
*Music
• *Myths/folklore
*Sports
• *Funeral ceremonies
Ethnocentrism
• The tendency to view one’s own culture
and group as superior.
• People in all societies are, at times,
ethnocentric.
• The belief that the characteristics of one’s
group or society are right and good helps
build group unity.
Ethnocentrism
• At times, belief of the superiority of a
society results from technological
advances that make one group see others
as inferior.
• When ethnocentrism, becomes extreme,
culture can stagnate.
• By limiting the pool of acceptable
members, groups and societies run the
risk of excluding new influences that might
prove beneficial.
Cultural Relativism
• The belief that cultures should be judged by
their own standards rather than by applying the
standards of another culture.
• In other words, people who practice cultural
relativism attempt to understand cultural
practices from the points of view of the
members of the society being studied.
• Cultural relativism helps sociologists
understand practices that seem strange or
different from those of their own culture.
• Ex. Cows in India
Variation Within Society
• Cultural variations exist among societies
and also within societies.
• Variation within a society come from
different cultural subgroups.
• Subculture: A group with its own unique
values, norms, and behaviors that exists
within a larger culture.
• What are some examples of subcultures at
NRHS? The United States?
Subcultures
Subcultures
• Most subcultures do not reject all of the
values and practices of the larger society.
• Ex. Students who live in Chinatown in San
Francisco still have many broad American
cultural traits.
• Ex. going to public schools, playing with
American toys, and working similar jobs.
• At the same time, they celebrate Chinese
New Year and have different traditions and
customs outside of American culture.
Counterculture
• In some instances, subcultural practices are
consciously intended to challenge the values of
the larger society.
• Sometimes a group rejects the major values,
norms and practices of the larger society and
replaces them with a new set of cultural
patterns.
• These groups are called countercultures
• Ex. anarchists, hippies, organized crime
families, etc.