Overview Slide 1 What is Culture? Culture Lag Elements of Culture Process of Culture Change Aspects Cultural Diversity/Variation © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. What is culture? Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." It refers to the total lifestyle of a people, including all of their ideas, values, knowledge, behaviors, & material objects that are passed from one generation to the next in a society. Slide 2 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Culture determines… Food we eat Clothing we wear Music Games we play How to express emotions What is good or bad Cooking style Funeral ceremonies Sexual restrictions Slide 3 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Characteristics of Culture Slide 4 Culture is learnt; it is not inherited biologically. Culture is social. It is a product of the society. Culture is shared; it is not something that an individual alone can possess. Culture is transmissive; it is passed from one generation to the next by means of language. Culture is dynamic & variable; it is subject to slow but constant changes. Culture varies not only from time to time but also from one society to another & even within a society. © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. An indigenous person of Australia wears traditional ornaments Slide 5 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Culture of Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh Slide 6 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Material Vs. Nonmaterial Material culture: physical or technological aspects of our daily lives (hardware) Food items Houses Factories Raw materials Nonmaterial culture: abstract or intangible human creations of society, people's way of thinking (software) Customs Beliefs values Philosophies Governments Patterns of communication Slide 7 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Culture Lag American sociologist William F. Ogburn developed the concept of culture lag, a period of maladjustment when nonmaterial culture is still struggling to adapt to new material conditions. According to Ogburn, when culture change occurs, the change is usually not evenly distributed across material and non-material dimensions of culture. Material culture may change at a faster rate than non- material culture. For example, the growth in science and technology in western industrialized societies, does not seem to be matched by the necessary changes in adaptive culture. Slide 8 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Elements of Culture Symbols - Language Values Norms Sanctions Slide 9 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Symbols Symbol: Anything that meaningfully represents something else. The meaning of the same symbols varies from society to society, within a single society, & over time. - Language: a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another. It can be either written or spoken or both. Language is the key to cultural transmission, the process by which one generation passes culture to the next. Slide 10 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Non-Verbal Gestures Slide 11 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Non-Verbal Gestures Slide 12 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Non-Verbal Gestures Slide 13 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Values Slide 14 Values are the collective ideas about what is right or wrong, desirable or undesirable, acceptable or unacceptable, ethical or unethical in a particular culture. They can be positive or negative. For example, honesty, truth-telling, respect for others, hospitality, helping those in need, etc. are positive values. Examples of negative values include theft, indecency, disrespect, dishonesty, falsehood, frugality, etc. © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Norms (formal & informal) Norms are derived from values. They are the social rules that provide guidelines for appropriate behavior for specific situations. They tell us how to do something, what to do, what not to do, when to do it, why to do it, etc. In other words, norms are established standards of behavior maintained by a society. Formal norms have been written down & involve strict rules or punishment of violators. Examples: laws are the formal norms of the society. Informal norms are generally understood but are not precisely recorded. Examples: standards of proper dress. Slide 15 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Example of an informal norms of greeting maintained in Bhutan According to the informal norms of culture of Bhutan, people greet each other by extending their tongues & hands Slide 16 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Norms (contd.) Mores are norms considered as highly necessary to the welfare of a society. Each society demands obedience to its mores (violation can lead to severe penalties) Examples: Incest, violations of laws such as child abuse, murder etc. Folkways are norms guiding everyday behavior whose violation might cause a dirty look or disapproving comment. Folkways are distinguished from mores in that they are designed, maintained & enforced by public sentiment, whereas laws are institutionalized, designed, maintained & enforced by the political authority of the society. Examples: Correct manners, appropriate dress, proper eating behavior etc. Slide 17 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Picture: violation of mores A man wearing nothing on the lower half of his body is violating one of mores in many societies Slide 18 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Process of culture change Most human cultures change & expand through innovation & diffusion Diffusion: process by which a cultural item spreads from group to group or society to society. Innovation: process of introducing a new idea or object to a culture. Innovation may take the form of either discovery or invention. Slide 19 Discovery: making known or sharing existence of an aspect of reality Invention: when existing cultural items are combined into a form that did not exist before © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Aspects of Cultural Variation Subcultures consist of certain segments of the population who share certain beliefs, lifestyles, values & norms which are distinctive from the larger society. Subculture of Chakma indigenous group Bangladeshi Culture The notion of subculture does not Relationship suggest an inferior culture— between culture & rather, that it is a distinctive subculture culture within a larger culture Slide 20 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Counter culture Counter-culture: It describes the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the mainstream culture. Subculture that deliberately opposes certain aspects of the larger culture & seeks alternative lifestyles. Slide 21 Terrorists JMB group in Bangladesh © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Aspects of Cultural Variation Culture shock- is the disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture & can no longer depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life Slide 22 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Segments of the populations of Australia, Asia, & Africa consume protein-rich insects. In the photograph, a woman enjoys a dry-roasted insect Slide 23 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. An American tourist who goes out to dinner in Seoul, Korea and learns that a local specialty is dog meat might well experience cultural shock Slide 24 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Slide 25 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Attitudes Toward Cultural Variation Ethnocentrism The belief that one’s own group or culture is superior to all other groups or cultures. The tendency of most people to use their own way of life as a standard for judging others Cultural relativism: The belief that the behaviors & customs of any culture must be viewed from the perspective of their own culture. Xenocentrism: Belief that products, styles, or ideas of one’s society are inferior to those that originate elsewhere. Slide 26 © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.