Download Cultural Universals

Components of Culture
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Symbols
Language
Values
Norms:
• Rules and expectations by which a society guides the
behavior to its members
• Folkways
• Norms for routine or casual interaction
• Mores
• Norms that have great moral significance
• Laws
Cultural Universals
• The need for the same common tools in order to
survive
• Food, shelter, clothing, etc
• Murdock complied a list of cultural universals that
occur in all societies
Ideal and Real Culture
• Ideal culture is what people profess to value
• Real culture is what they actually do
Cultural Lag
• William F. Ogburn referred to the uneven rate of
change that cultures experience as cultural lag
• A gap between the technical development of a
society and its moral and legal institutions
• Cell phones, computers, cars
Cultural differences
• Cultural Diversity
• Refers to the wide range of cultural differences found
between and within nations
• Cultural homogeneity
• Refers to societies with very similar social, religious
and political backgrounds
• Cultural heterogeneity
• Refers to societies with very diverse cultural
components
Counter/Sub Culture
• Counterculture
• Strongly reject dominant social values and norms and
therefore seek alternative lifestyles
• Subculture
• Category of people who share distinguishing
attributes, beliefs, values, and/or norms that set them
apart in some significant manner form the dominant
culture
Culture Shock
• The disorientation that people feel when they
encounter cultures radically different form their
own
• When people experience culture shock they
cannot depend upon their own taken-for-granted
assumptions about life
Cultural Imperialism
• The extensive infusion of one nation’s culture into
other nations
• The world is becoming westernized
Cultural Transmission
• The process by which one generation passes
culture to the next
Taboos
• Mores so strongly held that their violation is
considered to be extremely offensive
Sapir-Whof Hypothesis
• Language shapes the view of its speakers
• Language may create and reinforce inaccurate
perceptions based on gender, race, ethnicity, or
other human attributes
• Most sociologists believe that language may
influence behaviors, but it does not determine
them
US Core Values
• According to Robin Williams, Jr. there are 10 core
values in the U.S.
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.
Individualism
Activity/work
Freedom/liberty
Equality
Progress/material
• comfort
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Achievement/success
Morality/humanitarianism
Racism/group superiority
Efficiency/practicality
Science/technology