SOCIOLOGY
A Down-to-Earth Approach 8/e
James M. Henslin
Chapter Two
Culture
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Culture
Chapter 2: Culture
 What is it?

Language, beliefs, values, norms, behavior passed from
one generation to the next
 Story in Morocco – pgs. 37-38

unfamiliar territory and universal norms
 Material Culture

– jewelry, art, buildings, weapons, clothing, etc.
 Nonmaterial (also call symbolic) Culture

beliefs, values, etc.
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Chapter 2: Culture
Culture and Taken-for-Granted Orientations
 Using your sociological imagination in culture



Meeting someone new and seeing the effects of a much
different culture
Internalization of our norms – eye contact, space, etc.
OUR speech, OUR gestures, OUR beliefs, and OUR
customs—we usually take for granted.

WE assume they are normal or natural
 Culture touches almost every aspect of who and what we
are


Came into the world without language, values, and no ideas
about money, religion, or love…
Yet by now, we have acquired all of them

Sociologists call that “The culture within us”

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Learned ways of sharing and believing
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Chapter 2: Culture
 Culture Shock

When your material and non-material fail you

When you are no longer able to make sense out of the
world

I.e. The pushing to buy a ticket
 Ethnocentrism

The use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging
ways of other individuals or societies.


Generally leads to negative evaluation of values, beliefs, &
norms
Positive and Negative consequences


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Pos- creates in-group loyaties
Neg- can lead to discrimination against people whose ways
are different from ours.
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Practicing Cultural Relativism
Chapter 2: Culture
 What is it?


Not judging a culture BUT trying to understand its own terms
Not seeing the culture as inferior or superior
 None of us can be entirely successful at practicing
cultural relativism.


Strange foods. p.39
Evaluation through our lens.
 “Sick Cultures” – Robert Edgerton



We evaluate cultures based on “quality of life”
Confronting contrasting views of reality
“Cultural values that result in exploitation are inferior to those
that enhance people’s lives.”
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Components of Symbolic Culture or NonMaterial Culture
Chapter 2: Culture
 Symbol – something to which people attach meaning
and that they use to communicate
Gestures
 Using ones body to convey messages without words
 Gestures’ meaning differ among cultures
 Can Lead to Misunderstandings
 Left handed Americans
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Chapter 2: Culture
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Chapter 2: Culture
Components of Symbolic Culture
Language
 Because written language lacks subtle cues

Emoticons – online use
 Provides social or shared past
 Provides social or shared future
 Allows shared perspective
 Allows complex, shared, goal-directed behavior
 Like gestures the same sound in one culture is entirely
different in another
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Chapter 2: Culture
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Chapter 2: Culture
Language and Perception:
Sapir-Whorf
 Language has embedded within it ways of looking at the
world
 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Hopi Indians (past, present,
future)


reverses common sense
Instead of objects and events forcing themselves into our
consciousness, it is our language that determines our
consciousness—hence our perception of objects and events
 Language both reflects and shapes cultural experiences
 Ex. Goth’s, Jock’s

Seeing people in ways than others who don’t understand the
classification
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Values, Norms, and Sanctions
Chapter 2: Culture
 Values – Ideas of what is desirable in life

The standards at which we determine what is good or bad
 Norms - Expectations or rules for behavior

“Should Do”

Expectations in our societies
 Sanctions - Reaction to following or breaking norms
 Positive Sanctions

Approval for following the norm (high fives, $, prizes, smiles, hugs)
 Negative Sanctions

Reflects disapproval for breaking the norm (fines, frowns, stares)
 Moral Holidays – Specified times when people are allowed to
break the norms

Mardi Gras, Spring Break
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Chapter 2: Culture
Folkways and Mores
 Folkways - Norms not strictly enforced
Walking on the right side of the sidewalk
 Holding a door
 Mores -strong and important norms of a society
Violation of mores will evoke severe punishment.


Typically tend to be illegal (bigamy, stealing, murder)
 Taboo – More that is so ingrained that the thought of
its violation is greeted with revulsion

Cannibalism, incest
 Laws
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Chapter 2: Culture
Subcultures & Countercultures
 Subculture – A world within the dominant culture (pg54-55)

Example – Doctors, Politicians (occupational groups)
 Tens of thousands of subcultures in US society
Some broad (teenagers)

Some specific (body builders)

Can also have ethnic subcultures
 Countercultures – Groups with norms and values at odds with
the dominant culture




Motorcycle enthusiasts vs Hell’s Angels
Hippies
Mormons- 1800s challenged monogamy

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Driven west; conditions of Utah’s statehood
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Chapter 2: Culture
Values in U.S. Society (pg 53)
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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
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Values Clusters, Contradictions,
and Social Change
Chapter 2: Culture
 Value Clusters – values that together form a larger whole

Hard work, education, efficiency, material comfort, and individualism
are bound together
 Value Contradiction – to follow the one means that you will
come in conflict with another.

Freedom, democracy applied only to some groups. Women's
Liberation, Racism, Sexism
“It is precisely at the point of value contradictions, then, that one
can see a major force for social change in a society.”
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Emerging Values
Chapter 2: Culture
 Leisure

Cruises, computer games, sporting events, flatscreen/HD
 Self-fulfillment
 Self help, reaching full potential, “be all one can be”
 Physical Fitness

Nutrition/Organic foods, weightloss centers, Personal
trainers
 Youthfulness
 Botox, anti-aging creams, plastic surgery
 Concern for the Environment
 Recycle; Go “green”
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Values and Culture
Chapter 2: Culture
 Culture Wars:

Traditions being threatened and challenged


Gay Marriage
Efforts to change gender roles
 Value as Blinders – Everyone can make it!

Despite obstacles they may face-poverty, family, education
 “Ideal” vs. “Real” Culture

Norms, values etc. that the group sees as ideal



Being successful—worth aspiring to
Being a millionaire or famous
However most people don’t reach these ideals, this is
what sociologist call real—norms and values that people
actually follow.
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Chapter 2: Culture
Cultural Universals
 Some Activities are Universal - Courtship,
Marriage, Funerals, Games

Page 56
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Chapter 2: Culture
Sociobiology
 Controversial View of Human Behavior
 Biology Cause of Human Behavior
 Charles Darwin and Natural Selection
 Sociologists and Social Biologists on Opposite
Sides
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Chapter 2: Culture
Technology in the Global Village
 The New Technology - New Tools
 Cultural Lag and Cultural Change
 Technology and Cultural Leveling
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