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Components of Culture
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Culture: a society’s (group’s) system of shared, learned
values and norms; these are the society’s (group’s) design
for living
 Values: abstract ideas about the good, the right, the
desirable
 Norms: social rules and guidelines; guide appropriate
behavior for specific situations
 Folkways: norms of little moral significance
dress code; table manners; timeliness
 Mores: norms central to functioning of social life
 bring serious retribution: thievery, adultery,
alcohol
Components of Culture
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Symbols
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Language
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A set of symbols that expresses ideas and enable people to
think and communicate with one another
Values
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Anything that meaningfully represents something else
Collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad,
and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture
Norms
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Established rules of behavior or standards of conduct
Values
- ideals or beliefs that guide the way people
live
Values
are collective concepts of what is
considered good, desirable, and proper-or
bad, undesirable, and improper- in a
culture
 Values indicate what people find important
and morally right (or wrong)
 Values influence people's behavior and
serve as criteria for evaluation the actions
of others
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Values
Values determine for us what is desirable
in our life;
 If we learn other people’s values we learn
about other people;
 Values underlie our preferences, our
choices, indicate what we deem as
worthwhile in our society.
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Cultural Diversity
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Values represent personal or
socially preferable modes of
conduct or states of existence that
are enduring.
Why doesn’t McDonald’s sell
hamburgers in India?
Americans traditionally prized success through
individual effort and initiative, Japanese emphasize
collectivism and loyalty to the company
What is culture?
Standard 10.1
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Values comprise ideas about what in life
seems important.
(Fast write) What are the Values in the
United States and why?
An overview of U.S. Values made by
sociologists Robin Williams (1965)
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Achievement and success
Individualism
Activity and work
Efficiency and practicality
Material comfort
Freedom
Democracy
Equality
Components of Culture:
Norms
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Norms are specific to a culture, time
period, and situation.
Norms can be either formal, such as a
law (a common type of formally defined
norm that provides an explicit statement
about what is permissible and what is
illegal in a society) or the rules for
playing soccer, or informal, which are
not written down and are unspoken.
Introduction to Sociology: Culture
10
Norms
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Norms are established standards of
behavior maintained by a society
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Formal norms have been written down and
involve strict rules or punishment of
violators (Law is the “body of rules ,made
by government for society, interpreted by
courts, and backed by the power of the
state” (Wise, 1993)
Norms
Informal norms are generally understood
but are not precisely recorded
 Examples: standards of proper dress or
proper behavior at school
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According to the informal norms of culture of the
mountainous Asian kingdom of Bhutan, people greet
each other by extending their tongues and hands
What is culture?
Standard 10.1
Norms consist of expectations of how
people will behave in various situations.
(Fast write) What are the norms in the
United states?
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Components of Culture:
Norms
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Types of norms can also be
distinguished by the strictness with
which they are enforced.
A folkway is a loosely enforced norm
that involves common customs,
practices, or procedures that ensure
smooth social interaction and
acceptance.
Introduction to Sociology: Culture
15
Types of Norms (according to
their relative importance to
society)
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Folkways are norms governing
everyday behavior whose violation
might cause a dirty look, rolled eyes, or
disapproving comment
Example: Walking up a “down”
escalator in a department store
challenges our standards of appropriate
behavior
Folkways
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Less important rules of society
Violation of rules hurts nobody except
the person breaking the rule
Usually a violation of etiquette or habits
not acceptable to society
Violators are usually ridiculed/made fun
of or people avoid them
Manners not followed
Types of Norms
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Folkways: These are norms that are
not strictly enforced, we expect people
to comply, but if they don’t we don’t
make a big deal about it. Situational:
Walking on one side of the sidewalk,
going up and down stairs, elevator
behavior
Customs, habits, commonly accepted
practices
Types of Norms
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Folkways: Usually involve unimportant
matters: table manners, accepting your
place in line rather than cutting ahead,
wearing appropriate clothing.
Few restrictions, and mild sanctions.
Cultural Diversity
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Customs are norms and expectations about
the way people do things in a specific
country.
Why were 3M executives perplexed
concerning lukewarm sales of Scotch-Brite
floor cleaner in the Philippines?
Types of Norms
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Mores: Means “manners” in French.
Mores are norms that are essential to
American Values, close to legalistic.
Attitudes from the past, habituated, very
little deviation allowed
Duties, obligations, common to cultural
morality
Types of Norms (according to their
relative importance to society)
Mores are norms deemed highly
necessary to the welfare of a society, often
because they embody the most cherished
principles of people
 Each society demands obedience to its
mores (violation can lead to severe
penalties
 Examples: murder, child abuse
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Mos, Mores
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(Latin) Tradition or custom
Moral attitudes
Manners , ways
(Thesaurus) socially correct behavior :
decorum, etiquette, good form, manner
• This often serve as moral guidelines for
acceptable behavior but are not necessarily
religion or ethics
• (Science Dictionary) the custom and
manners of a social group and cultures
Types of Norms
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Mores: The fundamental ideas about
what is right/wrong, virtuous and sinful.
Important because they involve moral
vision based on social cohesion,
continuity, and community in human life.
Mores eventually become LAWS.
Part of social life, not changing.
Mores
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Strict enforcement, and insistence on
conformity, we learn through
socialization via our institutions in
society.
Examples: “prescribed” gender roles;
Americans eat beef, not horse, dog, cat;
you do not expose your genitals in
public
Components of Culture:
Norms
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A more (more-ray) is a norm that carries greater
moral significance, is closely related to the core
values of a group, and often involves severe
repercussions for violators.
A taboo is a norm engrained so deeply that even
thinking about violating it evokes strong feelings
of disgust, horror, or revulsion for most people.
Introduction to Sociology: Culture
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In traditional Ethics, the word “custom”
mean more or less permanent moral
behavior in accordance with the
precepts of the natural moral law which
is universally known and common to all
men and women.
Such are the customs of telling the
truth, of paying debts, honoring one’s
parents and respecting life and property
of others.
Sociologists Ian Robertson illustrated the difference between Folkways
and Mores: “A man who walks down a street wearing nothing on the upper
half of his body is violating a folkway; a man is wearing nothing on the
lower half of his body is violating one of mores (requirement that people
cover their genitals and buttocks in public “(1987)
Types of Norms (according to their
relative importance to society)
Taboos are norms that are so deeply held
that even the thought of violating them
upset people
 In the U.S. There is a taboo against
eating human flesh
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Taboo
A taboo is a norm so strongly ingrained
that to violate it creates disgust, revulsion,
horror - the thought of it makes people
sick:
 Eating human flesh - cannibalism
 Incest - having sex with relatives
 Pedophilia - adults having sex with
children
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Taboo
a very extreme more in a society
 proscription
 almost unthinkable it is so unacceptable to
people
 people do not like to acknowledge that it
can occur in their society
 people are usually executed or given long
prison sentences for violations
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LAWS
Norms which have been formalized
 written down by legislature or courts
 punishment told before hand
 can be based on folkway or more
 can be code of law not based on folkway
or more
 folkways tough to enforce of all laws
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Law
Laws are norms with strict and formal
sanctions, punishments - to violate a law is
to violate society itself.
 Codified, and enforcement is reserved for
those in positions of authority.
 Formal legal codes are necessary to
manage relationships in interdependent,
self interested, contractual societies.
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Sanctions
Sanctions are penalties and rewards for
conduct concerning a social norm
 Conformity to a norm can lead to positive
sanctions such as pay raise, a medal, a
word of gratitude, or a pat on a back
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Social Control and Sanctions
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Sanctions are positive or negative reactions to the
ways that people follow or disobey norms, including
rewards for conformity and punishments for norm
violators.
Sanctions help to establish social control, the
formal and informal mechanisms used to increase
conformity to values and norms and thus increase
social cohesion.
Introduction to
Sociology: Culture
Norms and Sanctions
SANCTIONS
NORMS
Formal
Informal
POSITIVE
NEGATIVE
Salary bonus
Fine
Medal
Jail sentence
Diploma
Execution
Testimonial dinner
Expulsion
Smile
Frown
Compliment
Humiliation
Cheers
Ostracism
What is culture?
Standard 10.1
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Institutions are the structures of a
society within which values and norms
are transmitted.
Fast write) What institution do you go to
daily and show values and social
norms?
What is culture?
Standard 10.1
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Artifacts—things, or aspects of material
culture derive from a culture's values
and norms.
Fast write) What artifact in your life
describes you?
Cultural Shock
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“Culture becomes the lens through which we
perceive and evaluate what is going around us”
We have expectations of “the way people ought
to be”
Cultural shock- is the disorientation that people
experience when they come in contact with a
fundamentally different culture and can no
longer depend on their taken-for-granted
assumptions about life
Segments of the populations of Australia, Asia, and Africa
consume protein-rich insects. In the photograph, a woman
enjoys a dry-roasted insect
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
Attitudes toward Cultural Variation
Ethnocentrism is a tendency to evaluate
and judge the customs and traditions of
others according to one’s own cultural
tastes, beliefs, and standards
 We learn that the ways of our own group
are good, right, proper, and superior to
other ways
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Subservience to Males?
Moral Depravity?
Ethnocentrism
Has both positive and negative
consequences
 On the positive side, it creates in-group
loyalty
 On the negative side, ethnocentrism can
lead to harmful discrimination against
people whose ways differ from ours
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AIM: How does culture influence peoples’ lives?
Do now: Identify one thing that represents your culture.
Example: American culture - baseball
HW – Pick five artifacts in your home, describe the item, and
describe why it is important to your culture?
*NOTES*
WHAT IS CULTURE?????
(1) The unique way in which a group of people live
(2) Generally refers to the patterns of human activity
(3) "The total, generally organized way of life, including
values, norms, institutions, and artifacts, that is passed on
from generation to generation by learning alone"
WHY IS CULTURE SOMETIMES COMPARED TO AN ICEBERG?
1. Facial expressions
2. Religious beliefs
YOU CAN SEE
3. Foods
4. Eating habits
5. Paintings
YOU CAN’T SEE
6. Concept of self
7. Work ethic
8. Styles of dress
9. Literature
10. Concept of fairness
11. Childraising beliefs
Whose culture is being identified in the following images???:
writing
Architecture/
religion
Art
Art/mythology
clothing
food
What elements of culture do we see in these images?
Whose culture is identified in these images?
TAPAS/
FOOD
ARCHITECTURE
DANCE/
CLOTHING
SPORTS/ GAMES ARCHITECTURE
*NOTES*
Cultural diffusion- the exchanging of ideas from one culture to
another usually done through trade and warfare
Example: baseball in Japan
Cultural Assimilation- taking elements of one’s culture and
making it your own (absorbing into a new culture)
At the end of your notes in your graphic organizer, answer
ONE of the following questions.
Everyone has a culture. It shapes how we
see the world, ourselves, and others.
1. How does my culture shape me?
2. How does culture shape the way we see
ourselves, others, and the world?
3. Why is it important to understand
culture?