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Chapter 2
Culture
Chapter Outline
 Introduction to Culture
 Theoretical Perspectives on Culture
 Bases of Human Behavior: Culture and
Biology
 The Carriers of Culture
 Cultural Diversity and Change
 Sources of Cultural Diversity and Change
 Consequences of Cultural Diversity and
Change
 Globalization
 Where this leaves us
What Is Culture?
 Culture – the total way of life shared by
members of a community. It includes
not only language, values, and symbolic
meanings but also technology and
material objects.
 Society – the population that shares the
same territory and is bound together by
economic and political ties.
Culture
 Nonmaterial culture – language, values,
rules and knowledge shared by a society.
 Material culture – physical objects a society
produces such as tools, streets, sculptures,
and toys.
 Material objects depend on the nonmaterial
culture for meaning.
Theoretical Perspectives on
Culture
The Structural-Functionalist Approach
 Treats culture as the underlying basis of
interaction.
 Views culture as a ‘given’.
 Emphasizes how culture shapes us rather
than in how culture itself is shaped.
 This approach concentrates on illustrating
how norms, values, and language guide our
behavior.
Theoretical Perspectives on
Culture
The Conflict Theory Approach
 Focuses on culture as a social product.
 Queries whose interests are served by how
culture develops.
 Investigates how culture can reinforce power
divisions within society.
 Argues that money brings power and status,
and that cultural capital does the same.
Cultural Capital:
 Refers to the attitudes and knowledge that
characterize the upper social classes.
 If you lack some of the cultural capital needed
to marry into or work in the upper classes you
may be ridiculed if you try to break into these
social circles.
 In this way, culture serves as a symbolic
boundary that keeps the social classes apart.
Theoretical Perspectives on
Culture
The Symbolic Interactionist Approach
 Interested in how people interpret and use
what they see.
 Explores the meanings people derive from
culture and cultural products, and how those
meanings result from social interaction.
Bases of Human Behavior:
Culture and Biology
Cultural perspective
Regardless of theoretical perspective,
sociologists hold that culture is:
1. Problem solving
2. Relative
3. A social product
Bases of Human Behavior:
Culture and Biology
Culture is problem solving …

Cultural patterns evolve to provide solutions
to recurrent problems that humans
encounter in their physical environments.

Although these problems are universal, the
solutions people adopt vary considerably.
Bases of Human Behavior:
Culture and Biology
Culture is relative…


Cultural relativity – requires that each
cultural trait be evaluated in the context of its
own culture.
Ethnocentrism – the tendency to judge
other cultures according to the norms and
values of our own culture
Ethnocentrism
In 1911, a British team and a Norwegian team raced to
become the first explorers to reach Antarctica. The British
team relied on man-hauled sleds and perished. The
Norwegian team adapted Inuit dog sleds and skiing
techniques and succeeded.
Bases of Human Behavior:
Culture and Biology
 Culture is a social product…

Immense cultural diversity in human
societies results not from unique gene pools,
but from cultural evolution.

Some aspects are deliberately produced

Culture depends on language

People learn culture, and, as they use it,
they modify it and change it.
Culture and Biology
Biological Perspective
 Sociobiology is the study of biological basis
of all forms of human behavior.
 Maintains that human behavior is based in
biology developed through evolution and
natural selection.
 Sociobiologists argue that humans have
developed altruism (unselfish behavior) as an
adaptive mechanism.
The Carriers of Culture
 Language
 Values
 Norms
The Carriers of Culture
Language - is the ability to communicate in
symbols – orally, by manual sign, or by writing.
◦ language as embodiment of culture
◦language as symbol
◦language as framework
The Carriers of Culture
Language as symbol
 Language symbolizes a group’s separation
from others while it simultaneously
symbolizes unity within the group of
speakers (Joseph et al. 2003; Romaine 2000;
Trudgill 2000).
The Carriers of Culture
Language as a framework
• Sapir-Whorf hypothesis – argues that the
grammar, structure, and categories embodied
in each language affect how its speakers see
reality. Also known as the linguistic relativity
hypothesis.
• Example: Hopi grammar does not have past, present,
and future grammatical tenses. This explains why
Hopi speakers think differently about time than do
English speakers.
The Carriers of Culture
Values – are shared ideas about desirable goals


Tenderness and cooperation, or toughness
and competition, these are examples of
group values.
Some values tend to be universal – nearly
all groups value stability and security, a
strong family, and good health
The Carriers of Culture
Norms – are shared rules of conduct that
specify how people out to think
Two basic categories:
 Folkways are norms that are the customary,
normal, habitual ways a group does things.

Mores are norms associated with fairly
strong ideas of right or wrong; they carry a
moral connotation.
◦ Laws are mores that are enforced and
sanctioned by the authority of government
Connections: Rules and us…
 Norms that govern daily life are usually not as explicit
as in the example above. Nevertheless, most of us
figure out social norms without much trouble just from
observing those around us.
Values, Norms, and Laws
Definition
Values
Shared goals
Norms
Shared rules of
conduct
Example
(from Marriage)
Marriage includes physical love
between wife and husband.
Have regular sexual intercourse
only with each other.
Folkways Customary norms Kids sleep in a different room
Mores
Strong feelings
Thou shalt not commit adultery
of right & wrong
Laws
Formal standards Illegal for husband to rape wife.
of conducts
Social Control
 Through indoctrination, learning, and
experience, many of society’s norms come to
seem so natural that we cannot imagine
acting differently.
 No society relies completely on this voluntary
compliance, all encourage conformity by the
use of sanctions.
 Sanctions are rewards for conformity or
punishments for nonconformity.
Cultural Diversity and Change
Subcultures
 groups that share the overall culture of a
society but maintain a distinctive set of
values, norms, lifestyles and language.
Counterculture
 groups whose values, interests, beliefs,
and lifestyles conflict with those of the
larger culture
Cultural Diversity and Change
Assimilation
 the process through which individuals learn
and adopt the values and social practices of
the dominant group, more or less giving up
their own values in the process.
Multiculturalism

is the belief that the different cultural
strands within a culture should be valued and
nourished.
Connections: Deafness as a
Subculture
 These deaf students believe that they share a
common culture and should have rights like those
given to any minority culture.
Sources of Cultural
Diversity and Change
 Environment
 Isolation
 Cultural diffusion
 Technology
 Exposure to mass media
Sources of Cultural
Diversity and Change
Environment
 different environmental conditions in which
people live determine things like which
kind of economies can flourish, which
kinds of foods are practical, the degree of
scarcity or abundance
Sources of Cultural
Diversity and Change
Isolation
 When a culture is cut off from interaction
with other cultures, it is likely to develop
unique norms and values.
Sources of Cultural
Diversity and Change
Cultural Diffusion
 the process by which
aspects of one
culture or subculture
are incorporated into
another.
 Globalization of
culture spreads
cultural elements
around the world
Sources of Cultural
Diversity and Change
Technology
 tools available to a culture will affect its
norms and values and its economic and
social relationships
Example: Facebook
Sources of Cultural
Diversity and Change
Mass Media
 Popular culture refers to aspects of
culture that are widely accessible and
commonly shared by most members of a
society, especially those in the middle,
working, and lower classes.
 High culture refers to the cultural
preferences associated with the upper
class.
Sources of Cultural
Diversity and Change
Dominant Cultural Themes
 Cultures generally contain dominant
themes that give them a distinct character
and direction. Those themes can help
create a closed system.
 New ideas, values, and inventions gain
acceptance when they fit into the existing
culture without too greatly distorting
existing patterns. .
Connection: US Consumer Culture
Consumerism
 The philosophy that
says “buying is good”
because “we are what
we buy.”
 Americans incur dept
to buy expensive items
to ‘prove’ their success
and social status
U.S. Consumer Debt, as % of
Income, 1975–2005
Consequences of
Cultural Diversity and Change
 Cultural lag occurs when one part of a
culture changes more rapidly than another.
 Culture Shock refers to the discomfort that
arises from exposure to a different culture.
 Globalization of culture is the process
through which cultural elements (including
musical styles, fashion trends, and cultural
values) spread around the globe.
Globalization
 The process through which ideas, resources,
practices, and people increasingly operate in
a worldwide rather than local framework.
 Globalization has had political, cultural, and
economic impacts.
Globalization
Sources of globalization
 Technological change: cell phones, fax,
email, Internet
 Political change: collapse of Soviet Union,
emergence of European Union, NAFTA
Globalization
Impact of globalization
 Cultural: global spread of culture: movies,
television shows, music, literature, and other
arts distributed and enjoyed around the world.
 Economic: economic activity takes place
between people who live in different nations
as goods and services are sold internationally.

 Political: powerful transnational corporations
(Coca Cola, United Fruit Company) and
international organizations (World Bank)
Where this leaves us…
 Culture is a ‘tool kit’ that helps people adapt
to their circumstances.
 Culture is learned, but has biological roots.
 Language and values are central
components.
 Cultural diversity is adaptive to conditions;
cultural lag occurs when parts of a culture do
not adapt at the same time.
 Globalization operates at a worldwide
framework rather than local, with political,
cultural and economic effects.