Download Technology, Culture Change and Diversity

Culture Shock
 The disorientation that people feel when they
encounter cultures radically different from their own.
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With culture shock there is a feeling of impaired ability to
function due to 3 things:
 The absence of familiar or comforting characteristics of your own
culture
 The presence of seemingly irrational, offensive or even hostile
aspects of a new culture
 The lack of ability, linguistic or otherwise, to gain cultural
understanding rapidly enough to adapt to these changes.

DOES IT ONLY OCCUR WHEN YOU MOVE
GEOGRAPHICALLY??
Ethnocentrism
 The practice of judging all other cultures by one’s
own culture.

Ethnocentrism is the view that one particular ethnic group is
somehow superior to all others.
Cultural Relativism
 The belief that the behaviours and customs of any
culture must be viewed and analyzed by the
cultures own standards.

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What’s right for one culture might be wrong for another and
that’s alright.
There is no absolute standard of right and wrong by which to
compare and contrast morally contradictory cultural values.
Basically the opposite end of the spectrum from ethnocentrism
Cultural Change
 In your textbook find the definition of and provide an
example of the following: (make a chart)

Cultural Lag
Discovery
Invention
Diffusion

TRY AND COME UP WITH YOUR OWN EXAMPLES
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Definition
Examples…
Cultural Lag
A gap between the technical
development of a society and its
moral and legal institutions
Technology and “health
identifiers”
Discovery
The process of learning about
something previously unknown or
unrecognized
Scientific
research…vaccines and
cures for diseases
Invention
The process of reshaping existing
cultural items into a new form
Guns, video games,
airplanes, Charter of
Rights and Freedoms
Diffusion
The transmission of cultural items or
social practices from one group or
society to another
The Pinata
Sub-Culture
 A group of people who share a distinctive set of
cultural beliefs and behaviors that differ in some
significant way from that of the larger society
 HUTTERITES
Counterculture
 A group that strongly rejects dominant societal values
and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles.
 SKINHEADS
HUTTERITES:
 Considered a SUBCULTURE
because their cultural
components differ
significantly from those of
the dominant culture:
 Large communal group
 Do everything for themselves
 Strong faith in God
 Reject worldly concerns
 Joy of work
 Faithfulness
 Thriftiness
 Tradition
 Humility
 Conservative views of the family
 Life is centered on the community, every
decision is based on what is best for the
community
 Non-assimilation: Communities are
located far from other communities
 They do however take advantage of
technologies for farming and trade.
SKINHEADS
 Skinheads strongly reject the
dominant societal values by
believing in racial group
superiority, patriotism, belief
in traditional roles of men
and women, physical violence
to express anger towards
minorities.
 Sometimes referred to as “NeoNazi”
 Primarily young, white, working
class males
 Wear boots, jeans, suspenders,
green flight jackets, chains and
shaved heads
 Some groups are highly organized,
have leaders, hold meetings,
distribute racist propaganda and
attend rallies