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Society: the basics
Eleventh Edition
CHAPTER
2
Culture
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Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
What is Culture?
• Culture
– The ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and
the material objects that together form a
people’s way of life
– Non-Material Culture
 Includes ideas created by members of a society
– Material Culture
 Refers to physical things
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
What is the difference between
the terms culture and society?
• Culture is a shared way of life or social
heritage
• Society
– Refers to people who interact in a defined
territory and share a culture
• Neither society nor culture could exist
without the other
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Have you ever traveled to another land that
you did not know much about? How did you
feel in this unfamiliar environment?
• Culture Shock
– Personal disorientation when experiencing an
unfamiliar way of life
• No way of life is “natural” to humanity
• Animal behavior is determined by instinct
– Biological programming over which each
species has no control
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Culture and Human Intelligence: Do humans
rely upon instinct or culture for survival?
• History took a crucial turn with the
appearance of primates
– Have the largest brains relative to body size
of all living creatures
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Culture and Human Intelligence: Do humans
rely upon instinct or culture for survival?
• 12 million years ago, primates evolved
along two different lines
– Humans
– Great apes
– Distant human ancestors evolved in central
Africa
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Culture and Human Intelligence: Do humans
rely upon instinct or culture for survival?
• Stone Age achievements marked the
points when our ancestors embarked on a
distinct evolutionary course
– Made culture their primary strategy for
survival
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Culture and Human Intelligence: Do humans
rely upon instinct or culture for survival?
• Homo Sapiens
– “Thinking Person”
• Modern Homo Sapiens
– Larger brains
– Developed culture rapidly
– Used wide range of tools and cave art
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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How Many Cultures?
• One indication of culture is language
• Globally, experts document 7,000
languages
• Coming decades might see the
disappearance of hundreds of languages
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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How Many Cultures?
• Why the decline?
– High-technology communication
– Increasing international migration
– Expanding global economy
 All are reducing global diversity
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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The Elements of Culture
• Though cultures vary greatly, they have
common elements
– Symbols
– Language
– Values
– Norms
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Symbols
• Humans sense the surrounding world and
give it meaning
• Symbols
– Anything that carries a particular meaning
recognized by people who share a culture
• Human capacity to create and manipulate
symbols is almost limitless
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Symbols
• What meaning do you attach to a red
light? What about a dozen roses?
• Entering an unfamiliar culture reminds us
of the power of symbols
– Culture shock is really the inability to “read”
meaning in unfamiliar surroundings
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Symbols
• Why is culture shock considered a twoway process?
• Symbolic meanings also vary within a
single society
– What meaning is attached to the confederate
flag in the U.S.?
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Language
• A system of symbols that allows people to
communicate with one another
• Heart of the symbolic system
– Rules for writing differ
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Language
• Key to Cultural Transmission
– The process by which one generation passes
culture to the next
• What is meant by the following statement?
– “Language is the key that unlocks centuries of
accumulated wisdom.”
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Does language shape reality?
• Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf
– Each language has its own distinct symbols
 Serve as the building blocks of reality
• All languages connect symbols with
distinctive emotions
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Does language shape reality?
• Sapir-Whorf thesis
– People see and understand the world through
the cultural lens of language
– Evidence does not support the notion that
language determines reality the way Sapir
and Whorf claimed
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Values and Beliefs
• Values
– Culturally defined standards that people use
to decide what is desirable, good, and
beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines
for social living
• Beliefs
– Specific statements that people hold to be
true
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Key Values of U.S. Culture
• Robin Williams, Jr. (1970)
1. Equal opportunity
2. Individual achievement and personal
success
3. Material comfort
4. Activity and Work
5. Practicality and Efficiency
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Key Values of U.S. Culture
• Robin Williams, Jr. (1970) (continued)
6. Progress
7. Science
8. Democracy and Free Enterprise
9. Freedom
10.Racism and Group Superiority
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Key Values of U.S. Culture
• Do you believe that William’s list of key
values are still reflective of the core
cultural values central in today’s society?
• Can you see how cultural values can
shape the way people see the world?
• For example, how does our cultural
emphasis on individual achievement blind
us to the power of society to give some
people great advantages over others?
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Values: Often in Harmony,
Sometimes in Conflict
• Cultural values go together
• One core cultural value contradicts
another
– Equal opportunity vs. racism and group
superiority
– Can you recognize any other value
contradictions?
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Values: Often in Harmony,
Sometimes in Conflict
• Value conflicts
– Causes strain
– Often leads to awkward balancing acts in our
beliefs
– One value is more important than another
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Emerging Values
• Can you think of any values that have
changed over time in the U.S.?
• U.S. has always valued hard work
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Emerging Values
• Recently, placed increasing importance on
leisure
– Time off from work to
 Travel
 Read
 Community service
– Importance of material comfort remains strong
– More people are seeking personal growth
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Values: A Global Perspective
• Values vary from culture to culture
• Lower-income nations develop cultures
that value survival and tend to be
traditional
• Higher-income nations develop cultures
that value individualism and selfexpression
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Norms
• Norms
– Rules and expectations by which a society
guides the behavior of its members
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Norms
• People respond to each other with
sanctions
– Rewards or punishments that encourage
conformity to cultural norms
– If you violate a cultural norm, how are you
sanctioned? If you conform to cultural norms
how are you rewarded?
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Norms
• Mores (“more-ayz”) or taboos
– Norms that are widely observed and have
great moral significance
• Folkways
– Norms for routine or casual interaction
– People pay less attention to folkways
• What would our society look like if there
were no norms governing peoples’
behavior?
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Norms
• As we learn cultural norms, we gain the
capacity to evaluate our own behavior
• Shame
– The painful sense that others disapprove of
our actions
• Guilt
– A negative judgment we make of ourselves
– Only cultural creatures can experience shame
and guilt
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Ideal and Real Culture
• Values and norms do not describe actual
behavior so much as they suggest how we
should behave
• How does Ideal culture differ from real
culture? Hint: Infidelity
• A culture’s moral standards are important
– “Do as I say, not as I do”
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Image Bank
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Technology and Culture
• Every culture includes a wide range of
physical human creations called artifacts
• Material culture can seem as strange to
outsiders as their language, values, and
norms
• Society’s artifacts partly reflect underlying
cultural values
• Why do we value automobiles in the U.S.?
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Technology and Culture
• Material culture reflects a society’s level of
technology
– Knowledge that people use to make a way of
life in their surroundings
• The more complex a society’s technology,
the easier it is for members of that society
to shape the world for themselves
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Technology and Culture
• Lenski
– A society’s level of technology is crucial in
determining what cultural ideas and artifacts
emerge or are even possible
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Technology and Culture
• Lenski (continued)
– Sociocultural Evolution
 The historical changes in culture brought about by
new technology
 In terms of four major levels of development
–
–
–
–
Hunting and gathering
Horticulture and pastoralism
Agriculture
Industry
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Technology and Culture
• Lenski (continued)
– How would our lives be different if our society
had not evolved to an industrial level of
development?
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Hunting and Gathering
• The use of simple tools to hunt animals
and gather vegetation for food
• Oldest and most basic way of living
• Today, supports only a few societies
• Societies are small
• Simple and egalitarian way of life
• Limited technology
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Hunting and Gathering
• These societies are vanishing as
technology closes in
• Studying their way of life produced
valuable information about our sociocultural history and our fundamental ties to
the natural environment
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Horticulture and Pastoralism
• Horticulture
– The use of hand tools to raise crops
• Pastoralism
– The domestication of animals
• Many societies combine agriculture and
pastoralism
• Pastoral and horticultural societies are
more unequal
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Agriculture
• Large-scale cultivation using plows
harnessed to animals or machines
• “Dawn of Civilization” because of
inventions
• Large food surpluses
• Agrarian society members became more
specialized in their work
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Agriculture
• Agriculture brought about a dramatic
increase in social inequity
• Men gained pronounced power over
women at all levels
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Industry
• The production of goods using advanced
sources of energy to drive large machinery
• Occurred as societies replaced muscles of
animals and humans
• Industrialization pushed aside traditional
cultural values
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Industry
• Schooling is important because industrial
jobs demand more skills
• Industrial societies reduce economic
inequality and weaken human community
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Post-Industrial
Information Technology
• Many industrial societies have entered a
post-industrial era
– New information technology
– Industrial societies center on factories that
make things
– Post-industrial production centers on
computers and other electronic devices
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Post-Industrial
Information Technology
• Many industrial societies have entered a
post-industrial era (continued)
– Information economy changes skills that
define a way of life
– People must learn to work with symbols as
society now creates symbolic culture on an
unprecedented scale
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Cultural Diversity
• In the U.S., we are aware of our cultural
diversity
• Japan
– Historical isolation
– Most monocultural of all high-income
countries
• U.S.
– Centuries of heavy immigration
– Most multicultural of all high-income countries
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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High Culture and Popular Culture
• Cultural diversity can involve social class
• In the U.S., what type of person is more
likely to attend the opera? Rich or Poor?
• Does high culture mean superior culture?
• High Culture
– Refers to cultural patterns that distinguish a
society’s elite
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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High Culture and Popular Culture
• Popular Culture
– Describes cultural patterns that are
widespread among a society’s population
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Subculture
• Subculture
– Cultural patterns that set apart some segment
of a society’s population
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Subculture
• Why is it considered easy but inaccurate
to put people in sub-cultural categories?
– Almost everyone participates in many
subcultures without much commitment to one
of them
– Ethnicity and religion set people apart with
tragic results
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Subculture
• Why is the U.S. viewed as a melting pot?
– Nationalities blend into a single “American”
culture
– How accurate is the melting pot image?
 Subcultures involve not just difference but
hierarchy
 What we view as dominant or “mainstream” culture
– View the lives of disadvantaged people as “subculture”
• Sociologists prefer to level the playing field
of society by emphasizing multiculturalism
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Multiculturalism
• Multiculturalism
– A perspective recognizing the cultural
diversity of the United States and promoting
respect and equal standing for all cultural
traditions
– U.S. society downplayed cultural diversity
 Defines itself in terms of its European immigrants,
especially the English
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Multiculturalism
• E pluribus unum
– “Out of many, one”
 Motto symbolizes not only our national political
union but also the idea that the varied experiences
of immigrants from around the world come together
to form new ways of life
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Multiculturalism
• English way of life
– Historians reported events from the English
and European point of view
– Eurocentric
 The dominance of European (especially English)
cultural patterns
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Multiculturalism
• Language
– Controversial issue
– Some believe English should be U.S. official
language
– Afrocentrism
 Emphasizing and promoting African cultural
patterns
 A strategy for correcting centuries of ignoring the
cultural achievements of African societies and
African-Americans
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Multiculturalism
• What are some arguments that you can
think of in favor of our society sharing a
common culture? Further, can you think
of any arguments against multiculturalism?
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Counterculture
• Cultural diversity includes outright
rejection of conventional ideas or behavior
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Counterculture
• Counterculture
– Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those
widely accepted within a society
– Counterculturalists favor a collective and
cooperative lifestyle
 “Being” more important than “doing”
– Some people “dropped out” of the larger
society
– Do countercultures exist in the U.S. today?
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Cultural Change
• Most basic human truth, “all things shall
pass”
 Change in one dimension of a cultural system
usually sparks changes in others
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Cultural Change
• Cultural Integration
 The close relationships among various elements of
a cultural system
– Some parts of a cultural system change faster
than others
– William Ogburn (1964)
 Technology moves quickly, generating new
elements of material culture faster than nonmaterial culture can keep up
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Cultural Change
• Cultural Lag
– The fact that some cultural elements change
more quickly than others, disrupting a cultural
system
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Cultural Change
• Cultural changes are set in motion in three
ways:
– Invention
 The process of creating new cultural elements that
change our way of life
– Discovery
 Recognizing and better understanding something
already in existence
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Cultural Change
• Cultural changes are set in motion in three
ways: (continued)
– Diffusion
 The spread of objects or ideas from one society to
another
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John J. Macionis
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Ethnocentrism and
Cultural Relativism
• Confucius
– “All people are the same; only their habits are
different”
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John J. Macionis
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Ethnocentrism and
Cultural Relativism
• Ethnocentrism
– The practice of judging another culture by the
standards of one’s own culture
– Exhibited by people everywhere
– Can you give examples of how ethnocentrism
can generate misunderstanding and
sometimes conflict?
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Ethnocentrism and
Cultural Relativism
• Cultural Relativism
– The practice of judging a culture by its own
standards
– Alternative to ethnocentrism
– Requires openness to unfamiliar values and
norms
– Requires the ability to put aside cultural
standards known all our lives
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Ethnocentrism and
Cultural Relativism
• Why is it important for businesses in the
global economy to have an awareness of
cultural patterns around the world?
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John J. Macionis
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Ethnocentrism and
Cultural Relativism
• Cultural relativism problems
– If almost any behavior is the norm somewhere
in the world, does that mean everything is
equally right?
– We are all members of a single human
species, what are the universal standards of
proper conduct?
– In trying to develop universal standards, how
do we avoid imposing our own standards on
others?
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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A Global Culture?
• English is firmly established as the
preferred second language in most parts
of the world
– Are we witnessing the birth of a global
culture?
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John J. Macionis
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A Global Culture?
• Societies around the world have more
contact than ever before
– Flow of goods
– Flow of information
– Flow of people
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John J. Macionis
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A Global Culture?
• Three important limitations to the
global culture thesis:
– Flow of goods, information, and people is
uneven
– The global culture thesis assumes that people
everywhere are able to afford the new goods
and services
– Although many cultural elements spread
throughout the world, people everywhere do
not attach the same meanings to them
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Theoretical Analysis of Culture
• Sociologists investigate how culture helps
us make sense of ourselves and the
surrounding world
– Examine several macro-level theoretical
approaches to understanding culture
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John J. Macionis
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Theoretical Analysis of Culture
• Sociologists investigate how culture helps
us make sense of ourselves and the
surrounding world (continued)
– A micro-level approach to the personal
experience of culture
 Emphasizes how individuals conform to cultural
patterns
 How people create new patterns in their everyday
lives
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John J. Macionis
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The Functions of Culture:
Structural-Functional Analysis
• Explains culture as a complex strategy for
meeting human needs
• Draws from the philosophical doctrine of
idealism
• Structural-functional analysis helps us
understand unfamiliar ways of life
• Cultural universals
– Traits that are part of every known culture
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John J. Macionis
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The Functions of Culture:
Structural-Functional Analysis
• As it relates to culture, what are the
functions of sports, July Fourth
celebrations, and Black History Month?
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John J. Macionis
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The Functions of Culture:
Structural-Functional Analysis
• Strength of structural-functional analysis
lies in showing how culture operates to
meet human needs
• This approach ignores cultural diversity
• Emphasizes cultural stability, downplays
the importance of change
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Inequality and Culture:
Social-Conflict Analysis
• Draws attention to the link between culture
and inequality
• Any cultural trait benefits some members
of society at the expense of others
• Culture is shaped by a society’s system of
economic production
• How might a social-conflict analysis of
college fraternities and sororities differ
from a structural-functional analysis?
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John J. Macionis
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Inequality and Culture:
Social-Conflict Analysis
• Social-conflict theory is rooted in the
philosophy of materialism
• Social conflict analysis ties our cultural
values of competitiveness and material
success to our country’s capitalist
economy
• Views capitalism as “natural”
• Strains of inequality erupt into movements
for social change
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John J. Macionis
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Inequality and Culture:
Social-Conflict Analysis
• Social-conflict approach suggests that
systems do not address human needs
equally
• Inequality, in turn, generates pressure
toward change
• Stressing the divisiveness of culture,
understates ways in which cultural
patterns integrate members of a society
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John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Evolution and Culture:
Sociobiology
• Sociobiology
– A theoretical approach that explores ways in
which human biology affects how we create
culture
– Rests on the theory of evolution proposed by
Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species
– Natural selection
 Organisms change over a long period of time
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
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Four Principles of Natural
Selection
• All living things live to reproduce
themselves
• Some random variation in genes allows
each species to “try out” new life patterns
in a particular environment
• Over thousands of generations, the genes
that promote reproduction survive and
become dominant
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Four Principles of Natural
Selection
• Large number of cultural universals
reflects the fact that all humans are
members of a single biological species
• Sociobiology provides insights into the
biological roots of some cultural patterns
• Defenders state that sociobiology rejects
past pseudoscience of racial and gender
superiority
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Four Principles of Natural
Selection
• Research suggests that biological forces
do not determine human behavior
• Humans learn behavior within a culture
• Contribution of sociobiology lies in
explaining why some cultural patterns are
more common and seem easier to learn
than others
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Culture and Human Freedom
• To what extent are human beings, as
cultural creatures, free? Does culture bind
us to each other and to the past? Or does
it enhance our capacity for individual
thought and independent choice?
• As symbolic creatures, humans cannot live
without culture
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Culture and Human Freedom
• Culture is a matter of habit, which limits
our choices and repetition of troubling
patterns
• Culture forces us to choose as we make
and remake a world for ourselves
• The better we understand the workings of
culture, the better prepared we will be to
use the freedom it offers
Society: the basics, Eleventh Edition
John J. Macionis
Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.