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Chapter 2
Culture
Terminology
• Culture shock
– Disorientation due to the inability to make
sense out of one’s surroundings
• Domestic and foreign travel
• Nonmaterial culture
– The intangible world of ideas created by
members of a society
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Terminology
• Material culture
– Tangible things created by members of
society
• Cultural relativism
– More accurate understanding
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Terminology
• Culture
– The ways of thinking, the ways of acting, the
material objects that form people’s way of life
• Society
– People who interact in a defined territory and
share a culture
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What is Culture?
• Culture and Human Intelligence
• Culture, Nation, and Society
• How Many Cultures?
– One indicator of culture is language
– Globally, experts document almost 7,000
languages
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Symbols
• Anything that carries a particular meaning
recognized by people who share a culture
• Societies create new symbols all the time.
• Reality for humans is found in the meaning
things carry with them
– The basis of culture; makes social life
possible
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Symbols
• People must be mindful that meanings
vary from culture to culture.
• Meanings can even vary greatly within the
same groups of people.
– Fur coats, Confederate flags, etc.
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Language
• Does Language Shape Reality?
• A system of symbols that allows people to
communicate with one another
• Cultural transmission
• Sapir-Whorf thesis
– People perceive the world through the cultural
lens of language
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Window on the World
Global Map 2–1 Language in Global Perspective
Chinese (including Mandarin, Cantonese, and
dozens of other dialects) is the native tongue of
one-fifth of the world’s people, almost all of
whom live in Asia.
English is the native tongue or official language in
several world regions (spoken by 5 percent of
humanity) and has become the preferred second
language in most of the world.
The largest concentration of Spanish speakers
is in Latin America and, of course, Spain.
Spanish is also the second most widely
spoken language in the United States.
Sources: Lewis (2009), and Central Intelligence
Agency (2009).
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Sociologist Robin Williams’ Ten
Values Central to American Life
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Equal opportunity
Achievement and success
Material comfort
Activity and work
Practicality and efficiency
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Sociologist Robin Williams’ Ten
Values Central to American Life
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Progress
Science
Democracy and free enterprise
Freedom
Racism and group superiority
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Values Sometimes Conflict
• Emerging Values
• Values: A Global Perspective
• Sometimes one key cultural value
contradicts another
• Value conflict causes strain
• Values change over time
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Norms
• Mores and Folkways
– Mores (pronounced "more-rays")
• Widely observed and have great moral significance
– Folkways
• Norms for routine and casual interaction
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Ideal Versus Real Culture
• Ideal culture
– The way things should be
– Social patterns mandated by values & norms
• Real culture
– Way things actually occur in everyday life
– Social patterns that only approximate cultural
expectations
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Cultural Values of Selected Countries
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Technology and Culture
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Hunting and Gathering Societies
Horticultural and Pastoral Societies
Agrarian Societies
Industrial Societies
Postindustrial Societies
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Cultural Diversity
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High Culture and Popular Culture
Subculture
Multiculturalism
Counterculture
Cultural Change
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Cultural Diversity
• Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
• A Global Culture?
– The global economy: The flow of goods
– Global communications: The flow of
information
– Global migration: The flow of people
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Language Diversity across the United States
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Life Objectives of
First-Year College
Students,
1969 and 2010
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Theories of Culture
• The Functions of Culture: StructuralFunctional Theory
• Inequality and Culture: Social-Conflict
Theory
• Evolution and Culture: Sociobiology
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Culture and Human Freedom
• Culture as constraint
– We know our world in terms of our culture
• Culture as freedom
– Culture is changing and offers a variety of
opportunities
– Sociologists share the goal of learning more
about cultural diversity
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