Download Part 1 - Intro to Soc & Soc Imagination - Lesson 3

Understanding Culture
Part One: Intro to Sociology and Development
of the Sociological Imagination
Agenda
Objective:
1. To understand culture and its effect on
individual and social behavior.
2. To define and understand habitus
3. To see how our habitus shapes our
lives
Schedule:
1. What is culture?
2. Understanding culture through an
examination of baby names
Homework:
None
Two Perspectives in Modern
Sociology
• Modern day sociologists tend to
be divided over what they see as
the primary “shaper” of human
behavior:
– Culture
– Structure
– (The interaction between
the two)?
• Within each of the subfields we
study we will see different
sociologists adopting either a
cultural or structural perspective
to study issues like race, class,
gender, etc.
Culture
• Generally speaking we might
define culture as:
– A set of shared attitudes, values,
goals, and practices that
characterize a group.
• Culture is reflected in:
– Ways of Thinking
– Ways of Acting
– Material Objects
“American Culture”
• Is there an
American Culture?
• What are its
characteristics?
– Ways of Thinking
– Ways of Acting
– Material Objects
• How does American Idol reflect American
Culture?
Culture as Habitus
• In contemporary sociology, culture takes on a slightly more
nuanced definition.
• Sociologists speak of culture as habitus
– Term coined by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in the 1970s.
• Habitus refers to the idea of culture as it exists in us and as
shaped by our membership in certain groups (for example race
and class).
• Habitus refers to a set of tastes, dispositions, and attitudes that
we each hold as a result of our status positions.
– For example, members of the intellectual elite often prefer the
ballet while members of the middle class prefer to attend sporting
events.
– These taste differences that vary by class are
examples of habitus.
Culture as Determinant of
Human Behavior
• Sociologists who see culture as the
primary determinant of human behavior
thus argue that our tastes, attitudes,
preferences derived from our
membership in certain
groups are what
motivate our behavior.
Habitus and Lunch
• Sociologists argue that virtually all
of our preferences, attitudes, and
values are shaped by our
membership in cultural groups.
• Even our literal tastes…like lunch!
• You might think of food preferences
as being a matter of taste buds, but
sociologists argue that the things
that we eat and the tastes we like,
are shaped more by our habitus
than our taste buds!
• Think about what you had for
lunch, how did your membership in
certain groups (race, class, gender)
influence what you ate?
Understanding The Effect
of Culture on Behavior
Through an Examination
of Baby Names
Culture Activity
• Part One:
– Share with the person sitting next to you
the story of how you got your first name.
Why did your parents name you what they
did?
Culture Activity
• Part Two
– Go to the website:
• http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames
• Under the “Popularity of a Name” Section
enter your name, sex, and “25” in the “number
of years box”
• Make a rough graph of the results (perhaps
graph the 5 years before you were born
through the 5 years after you were born).
Understanding Culture with Baby Names
• What do your findings about your name
reveal about the effects of culture of
behavior?
• What might your name suggest about the
power of habitus?
– How might status
positions (race, class)
influence name
preferences.
Understanding Culture with Baby Names
• Stanley Lieberson in A Matter of Taste (2000)
suggests that parents balance the desire to
have a unique name for their child with the
desire to not have a name that is wildly
divergent from the rest of children in their
culture (American culture, racial cultures, class
cultures).
• However, parents want their child to be
recognized as special or as a unique human
being, so they also don’t want to name their
child something too generic or too common.
• What emerges from this naming process is a
trend: Many names go in and out of fashion;
trending up in popularity and then back down
depending on shifts in culture:
– Ex: Edward, Jacob, and Bella from Twighlight
The “Special Case” of African
American Names
• Salon article
• How might the the
uniqueness of African
American naming,
ironically not be unique at
all, but rather represent an
action done to signal
membership in (and
conformity to) a culture?
• Again, culture may shape
behaviors even in
situations where names
are 100% unique…