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CHAPTER 3
Culture
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Chapter Outline
• Culture and Society in a Changing World
• Components of Culture
• Technology, Cultural Change, and Diversity
• Sociological Analysis of Culture
• Culture in the Future
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Sharpening Your Focus
• What are the essential components of culture?
• To what degree are we shaped by popular
culture?
• How do subcultures and countercultures refl ect
diversity within a society?
• How do the various sociological perspectives
view culture?
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CIRCLE: “OK (absolutely fi ne)” or “I’ll kill you”
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THUMBS UP: “Great,” or an obscenity
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• Culture is the knowledge, language,
values, customs, and material objects that
are passed from person to person and from
one generation to the next in a human
group or society.
• Society and culture are interdependent;
neither could exist without the other.
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Sociology and Everyday Life
• How Much Do You Know About Global Food and
Culture?
1. Cheese is a universal food enjoyed by people of
all nations and cultures. T/ F
2. Giving round-shaped foods to the parents of
new babies is considered to be lucky in some
cultures. T/ F
3. Wedding cakes are made of similar ingredients
in all countries, regardless of culture or
religion. T/ F
4. Food is an important part of religious
observance for many different faiths. T/ F
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5. In authentic Chinese cuisine, cooking methods are
divided into “yin” and “yang” qualities.
6. Because of the fast pace of life in the United States,
virtually everyone relies on mixes and instant foods at
home and fast foods when eating out.
7. Potatoes are the most popular mainstay in the diet of
first- and second-generation immigrants who have arrived
in the United States over the past forty years.
8. According to sociologists, individuals may be offended
when a person from another culture does not understand
local food preferences or the cultural traditions associated
with eating, even if the person is obviously an “outsider” or
a “tourist.”
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Culture and Society in a Changing World
• Culture is essential
• Culture is learned
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Discussion
• What are some ways that
members of our society pass
on culture to their children?
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• Material culture consists of the physical or
tangible creations that members of a society
make, use, and share.
o Ex: raw materials, tools, technology, clothing
• Nonmaterial culture consists of the abstract or
intangible human creations of society that
influence people’s behavior.
o Ex: language, values, beliefs, political systems
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• Cultural universals are customs and practices
that occur across all societies.
o Ex: appearance, activities, social institutions,
customary practices
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Food is a universal
type of material
culture
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Components of Culture
• Symbols are anything that meaningfully
represents something else.
• Language is a set of symbols that expresses
ideas and enables people to think and
communicate with one another.
o Sapir-Wharf hypothesis: language shapes the view of
reality of its speakers
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• Values are collective ideas about what is right or
wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable
in a particular culture.
o Core American Values:
• individualism
• achievement and success
• activity and work
• science and technology
• progress and material comfort
• efficiency and practicality
• equality
• morality and humanitarianism
• freedom and liberty
• ethnocentrism and group superiority
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• Value contradictions are values that conflict
with one another or are mutually exclusive.
• Ideal culture refers to the values and standards
of behavior that people in a society profess to
hold.
• Real culture refers to the values and standards
of behavior that people actually follow.
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• Norms are established rules of behavior or
standards of conduct.
o Prescriptive norms are norms that dictate what
behavior is appropriate or acceptable.
o Proscriptive norms are those norms that state what
behavior is inappropriate or unacceptable.
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o Formal norms are norms that are written and
involve specific punishments for violator (ex:
laws).
o Sanctions are rewards for appropriate
behavior and penalties for inappropriate
behavior.
• Positive sanctions
• Negative sanctions
o Informal norms are those that are unwritten
standards of behavior that are understood by
people who share a common identity.
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• Folkways are informal norms or everyday
customs that may be violated without serious
consequences within a particular culture.
• Mores are strongly held norms with moral and
ethical considerations that may not be violated
without serious consequences in a particular
culture.
o Taboos are mores so strong that their violation is
considered to be extremely offensive and even
unmentionable.
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• Laws are formal, standardized norms that have
been enacted by legislatures and are enforced by
formal sanctions.
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Discussion
• What are some examples of
norms, mores, taboos, and
laws?
• How do norms, mores,
taboos, and laws change
over time?
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Technology, Cultural Change, and
Diversity
• Cultural lag a gap between the technical
development of a society and its moral and legal
institutions.
o Cultural lag occurs when material culture changes
faster than nonmaterial culture.
o Discovery is the process of learning about something
previously unknown or unrecognized.
o Invention is the process of reshaping existing cultural
items into a new form.
o Diffusion is the transmission of cultural items or social
practices from one group or society to another.
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• Cultural diversity between countries may be the result of
natural circumstances or social circumstances.
• Subcultures are a category of people who share
distinguishing attributes, beliefs, values, and/or norms
that set them apart in some significant manner from the
dominant culture.
• Countercultures are groups that strongly reject dominant
societal values and norms and seeks alternative
lifestyles.
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• Culture shock is the disorientation that people
feel when they encounter cultures radically
different from their own and believe they cannot
depend on their own taken-for-granted
assumptions about life.
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• Ethnocentrism is the practice of judging all other
culture by one’s own culture.
• Cultural relativism is the belief that the
behaviors and customs of any culture must be
viewed and analyzed by the culture’s own
standards.
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Discussion
• What are the advantages of
ethnocentrism and cultural
relativism?
• What are the disadvantages
of ethnocentrism and cultural
relativism?
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A Global Popular Culture?
• High culture consists of classical music, opera,
ballet, live theater, and other activities usually
patronized by elite audiences.
• Popular culture consists of activities, products,
and services that are assumed to appeal
primarily to members of the working and middle
classes.
o Ex: fads, fashions
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Sociological Analysis of Culture
• Functionalist Perspective
o Culture helps people meet their biological,
instrumental, and integrative needs.
o Popular culture is the “glue” that holds society
together.
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• Conflict Perspective
o Values and norms help create and sustain the
privileged position of the powerful in society.
o Popular culture is part of the capitalist economy.
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• Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
o People create, maintain, and modify culture as they go
about their daily activities.
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• Postmodernist Perspectives
o Cultures are based on simulation, and not on reality.
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Culture in the Future
• increased cultural diversity
• impact of technology
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