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Culture and the Culture
Learning Process
Chapter 3
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
©2012 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
What Is Culture?
• One of the greatest difficulties people have
when beginning to explore concepts related to
culture and culture learning is that of agreeing
upon what it is they are talking about.
• Sociologists identify four important assumptions
for the understanding of culture:
o Culture is constructed by humans
o Culture is shared by its members
o Culture is both objective and subjective
o Culture is nurtured
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Subculture
• Subcultures share
characteristics that
distinguish them from
the larger society in
which they are
embedded; these
characteristics may be
a set of ideas and
practices or some
demographic
similarity.
• Some examples of
subcultures are:
o
o
o
Corporate culture
Adolescent culture
Drug culture
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Microculture
• Microcultures also share • Some examples of
microcultures are:
distinguishing
o The family
characteristics, but tend
o The workplace
to be more closely
o The classroom
linked to the larger
o The school
society, often serving in
mediating roles; they
often interpret and
transmit the ideas,
values, and institutions
of the larger political
community.
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Minority Group
• Members of minority
• Some examples of
groups occupy a
minority groups in the
United States are:
subordinate position in
o Racial minorities
a society; they may be
o Women
separated from the
o People with disabilities
dominant society by
o Language minorities
disapproval and
discrimination.
3-5
Ethnic Group
• Members of ethnic
groups share common
heritage, history,
celebrations and
traditions, similar
foods; and might
speak a common
language other than
English. Loyalty to
one’s ethnic identity
can be very powerful.
• Some examples of
ethnic groups are:
o
o
o
o
Irish American
Native American
Lebanese American
African American
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People of Color
• This term refers to
members of non-white
minority groups; it is
often preferred to the
term “minority group,”
but does not clearly
identify specific
loyalties.
• For example, native
Spanish-speakers
may identify
themselves as
“Hispanic people of
color,” but their
cultural identity may
be Puerto Rican,
Mexican, or
Salvadoran.
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Humans Construct Culture
• Culture is one factor that determines the kinds of
guidelines to which an individual is exposed.
• The concept of culture usually refers to things,
both physical and mental, that are made or
constructed by human beings, rather than to
things that naturally occur in the environment.
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Culture is Shared
• Culture is socially constructed by human beings in
interaction with one another.
• Cultural ideas and understandings are shared by a
group of people who recognize the knowledge, attitudes,
and values of one another.
• Moreover, human beings agree on which cultural
elements are better than others, arranging these in a
hierarchy of value, which can also change over time.
• In nearly all instances, shared cultural identification is
transmitted from one generation to the next.
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Culture Is Both Objective and
Subjective
• Objective culture
o
o
o
o
o
Physical artifacts
Language
Clothing
Food
Decorative objects
• Subjective culture
o
o
o
o
o
Attitudes
Values
Norms of behavior
Social roles
Meaning of objective
cultural elements
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Two Ways to Understand
Culture
Culture-Specific
Culture-General
Approaches:
Approaches:
• Helps to understand a • Helps to understand
particular cultural
how culture affects the
individual
group, for example,
Native Americans
• Suggests questions to
• A problem with this
ask of any culture
approach is that it
does not account for
in-group differences
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The Culture-Learning Process
• Sources of Cultural Knowledge and Identity
Individuals in complex societies like the United States
tend to identify themselves as belonging to various
cultural and social groups, depending on their
personal biographies.
o There are twelve major sources of cultural identity
that influence teaching and learning: race,
sex/gender, health, ability/disability, social class,
ethnicity/nationality, religion/spirituality, geographic
location/region, age, sexuality, language, and social
status.
o
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Sources of Cultural Identity
3-13
Cultural Knowledge Is Transmitted
by People and Experiences
• We gain the knowledge that contributes to our
cultural identities through interaction with various
socializing agents.
• These agents mediate our cultural knowledge in
particular ways.
3-14
Important Socializing Agents
•
•
•
•
•
•
Family
School
House of worship
Community
Neighborhood
Peer group
•
•
•
•
•
•
Electronic media
Sports
The Arts
Print media
Workplace
Technology
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When We Learn Culture:
Socialization
• Three stages of socialization
• Primary socialization—of infants and young
children by the family and early caregivers
• Secondary socialization—in childhood and
adolescence, by the school, the religious
affiliation, the peer group, the neighborhood, and
the media
• Adult socialization—the workplace, travel, and
assuming new roles in life
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Ethnocentrism
• The tendency people have to evaluate others
according to their own standards and experience
• While this tendency can help bind people
together, it can also become a serious obstacle
when those who have internalized different ideas
and behaviors begin to interact with one another.
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Perception
• Stimuli received by our senses would overwhelm
us if it weren’t somehow reduced; thus,
• What we perceive—what we see, hear, feel,
taste, and smell—is shaped in part by our
culture.
3-18
Categorization
• Categorization is the
cognitive process by
which all human
beings simplify their
world by grouping
similar stimuli.
• Our categories give
meaning to our
perceptions.
• A prototype image
best characterizes the
meaning of a
category.
• Example: for the
category “bird,” we
usually think of robins,
not chickens.
3-19
Stereotypes
• Stereotypes are socially constructed categories
of people.
• They usually obscure differences within groups.
• They are frequently negative and play to
ethnocentric ideas of “the other.”
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Some Limits on Socialization
• While socialization is a powerful process, it does
have limits.
o
o
o
It is limited by a child’s physical limits.
It is limited because it is never finished, and thus never
absolute; it can be changed.
It is limited because human beings are not just passive
recipients but also actors in their environments.
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Understanding Cultural
Differences
• In a complex, pluralistic society like the United
States, all people are in some ways multicultural.
• While we all draw on common sources of
knowledge, we are socialized by different agents,
with different perspectives on that knowledge.
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Variations in Cultural
Environments
• Although the sources of cultural identity are the same in
all societies, the content in those sources may be
different.
• Moreover, each community varies considerably in the
number and character of its socializing agents.
• Given this complexity, it is wise to consider the possible
cultural elements in our own lives and in the lives of
others.
• Despite this potential for variation among individuals and
within groups, there are similarities or generalizations
that can be made about individuals who identify with
particular groups.
3-23