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Culture
The values, beliefs, behavior, and material
objects that together form a people’s
way of life
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
CULTURE
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a
i9pRv_t3y8
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Terminology
• Nonmaterial culture
– The intangible world of ideas created by
members of a society (Music, art,
religion)
• Material culture
– The tangible things created by members of
a society (clothing, furniture, etc.)
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Figure 3.1
Human Languages: A Variety of Symbols
Here the English word “read” is written in twelve of the hundreds of languages humans use to communicate with each other.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Same Word--Different
Expression
• Each method of displaying the word “read”
is based on the language and ideas of a
particular culture.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Terminology
• Culture shock
– Disorientation due to the inability to make sense
out of one’s surroundings
• Domestic and foreign travel
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFbPCj_cajY
• Ethnocentrism
– A biased “cultural yardstick” Judging another
culture based on your own culture.
• Cultural relativism
– More accurate understanding because you
judge a culture on it’s own standards.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Culture and Human Intelligence
• Animals behavior is guided by instinct.
• Humans behavior / survival is guided mostly
by culture.
• Man (Homo Sapien) developed mentally as
they developed physically.
• The “birth of civilization” and the reliance
on culture as a guiding force occurred
12,000 years ago.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Culture and Globalization
• Past identification of culture was based on
languages.
• Globally there are almost 7000 languages.
– Languages or Dialects?
• The United States reports over 200
languages?
– Do we see the U.S. as over 200 cultures?
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
The Elements of Culture
•
•
•
•
•
•
There are 4 elements which identify culture:
Symbols
Language
Values and Beliefs
Norms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwH16U
Gi_Oo
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
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(symbols) carry with
them.
– The basis of culture; makes social life
possible
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Symbols
• People must be mindful that
meanings vary from culture to
culture.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji
W-7hMorvA
• Meanings can even vary greatly
within the same groups of people.
– Fur coats, Confederate flags, etc.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
LANGUAGE
• A system of symbols and spoken word that
allows people to communicate with one
another.
• Establishes “Cultural Transmission”--how
parents pass their culture on to their
children.
• People see and understand the world
through the “lens” of their language.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Global Map 3.1
Language in Global Perspective
Detail on next three slides
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Global Map 3.1a
Language in Global Perspective–Chinese
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.
Although all Chinese people read and write with the same characters, they use several dozen dialects. The “official” dialect, taught in schools throughout the
People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Taiwan, is Mandarin (the dialect of Beijing, China’s historical capital city). Cantonese, the language of
Canton, is the second most common Chinese dialect.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Global Map 3.1b
Language in Global Perspective–English
English is the native tongue or official language in several world regions (spoken by one-tenth of humanity) and has become the preferred second
language in most of the world.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Global Map 3.1c
Language in Global Perspective–Spanish
The largest concentration of Spanish speakers is in Latin America and, or course, Spain. Spanish is also the second most widely spoken language in the
United States.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Language
• A system of symbols that allows
people to communicate with one
another
• Cultural transmission
– The process by which one generation
passes culture to the next
• Sapir-Whorf thesis
– People perceive the world through the
cultural lens of language.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
MUSIC AS A LANGUAGE
IDENTIFIES A CULTURE
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvs
mRuRp4cM&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U5
SxHdQZKI
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Values and Beliefs
• Values
– Culturally defined standards of desirability,
goodness, and beauty, which serve as broad
guidelines for social living. Values support
beliefs. They define right and wrong.
• Beliefs
– Specific statements that people hold to be true.
– Particular matters that individuals consider to
be true or false.
– They define what people expect or allow.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sociologist Robin Williams’ Ten Values
That Are Central to American Life
1.
2.
Equal opportunity
Achievement and success--Winner
Mentality
3. Material comfort-Money Can buy
happiness
4. Activity and work-The “doers
succeed!”
5. Practicality and efficiency--Do don’t
dream!
6. Progress
7. Science--Solve problems
8. Democracy and free enterprise
9. Freedom
10. Racism and group superiority
Are some of these values inconsistent with one another?
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Values Sometimes Conflict
• Williams's list includes examples of value
clusters.(values that support one another)
• Sometimes one key cultural value contradicts
another. (#1 and #10)
• Value conflict causes strain.
• Values change over time.
A Global Perspective
• Cultures have their own values.
• Lower-income nations have cultures that value
survival and family.
• Higher-income countries have cultures that
value individualism and self-expression.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Norms
Rules and expectations by which society
guides its members’ behavior
• Types
– Proscriptive
• Should-nots, prohibited--(Casual sex)
– Prescriptive
• Shoulds, prescribed like medicine-(Safe Sex)
• Mores and Folkways(as defined by William
Graham Sumner)
– Mores (pronounced "more-rays")
• Widely observed and have great moral significance
• Usually strict observance.
• Ex.--Improper relationships.
– Folkways--Not as strict.
• Norms for routine and casual interaction
• Ex. --Proper greetings and dress. Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Defined gender as a Norm.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R58TIW
M-Q8U
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Figure 3.2
Cultural Values of Selected Countries
Higher-income countries are secular-rational and favor self-expression. The cultures of lower-income countries are more traditional and concerned with
economic survival.
Source: Modernization, Cultural Change and Democracy by Ronald Inglehart and Christian Weizel, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Social Control
Various means by which members of society
encourage conformity to norms
• Guilt
– A negative judgment we make about
ourselves
• Shame
– The painful sense that others
disapprove of our actions
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Ideal Versus Real Culture
• Ideal culture
– The way things should be
– Social patterns mandated by values and
norms
– Example--Faithfulness in marriage
• Real culture
– They way things actually occur in everyday life
– Social patterns that only approximate cultural
expectations
– Example--reality states that 25% of men and
10-15 % of women are not faithful.
– “do as I say not as I do”
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Material Culture and
Technology
• Culture includes a wide range of physical human
creations or artifacts.
• A society's artifacts partly reflect underlying
cultural values.
– Example--Americans regard for
automobiles,clothing, food.
• In addition to reflecting values, material culture
also reflects a society's technology or
knowledge that people use to make a way of life
in their surroundings.
• Technology is not equally distributed in our
society.
• Americans tend to view cultures with little
Sociology, 12 Edition by John Macionis
technology asCopyright
inferior.
 2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
th
Cultural Diversity
• High culture–Cultural patterns that
distinguish a society’s elite.
• Popular culture–Cultural patterns that are
widespread among society’s population.
– Example--The difference between the violin and
the fiddle!
• Subculture–Cultural patterns that set apart
some segment of society’s population.
• Counterculture–Cultural patterns that
strongly oppose those widely accepted within
a society.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU6KOOvPdg
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze0UsW
KXGQw&feature=related
• Not all people believe in diversity!
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6YMhgH
cTiU&feature=related
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
National Map 3.1
Language Diversity across the United States
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Multiculturalism
An educational program recognizing the cultural
diversity of the United States and promoting the
equality of all cultural traditions.
• Eurocentrism–The dominance of
European (especially English) cultural
patterns. ( Molefi Asante)
• Some people in this culture also embrace
“Social Darwinism”.
• Afrocentrism–The dominance of African
cultural patterns
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Interdependence---The Cultural
Change
• Culture integration
– The close relationships among various elements of
a cultural system--as one changes it affects other
parts of the culture
• Example: Computers and changes in our language or More
women in the workforce.
• Culture lag
– The fact that some cultural elements change more
quickly than others, which might disrupt a cultural
system
• Example: Medical procedures and ethic. How does In vitro
fertilization affect the cultural standards of “fatherhood”.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Figure 3.3
Life Objectives of First-Year College
Students, 1969-2006
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Culture Changes
in Three Ways
• Invention–Creating new cultural elements
– Telephone or airplane
• Discovery–Recognizing and better
understanding of something already in
existence
– X-rays or DNA
• Diffusion–The spread of cultural traits
from one society to another
– Jazz music or much of the English language
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxMb6HqY
h_s
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Ethnocentrism
and Cultural Relativism
• Ethnocentrism
– The practice of judging another culture
by the standards of one’s own culture
• Cultural relativism
– The practice of judging a culture by its
own standards
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Figure 3.4
The View from “Down Under”
North America should be “up” and South America “down,” or so we
think. But because we live on a globe, “up” and “down” have no
meaning at all. The reason this map of the Western Hemisphere
looks wrong to us is not that it is geographically inaccurate; it simply
violates our ethnocentric assumption that the United States should
be “above” the rest of the Americas.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Is There a Global Culture?
• The Basic Thesis
– The flow of goods–Material product trading has
never been as important.
– The flow of information–Few, if any, places are left
where worldwide communication isn’t possible.
– The flow of people–Knowledge means people
learn about places where they feel life might be
better.
• Limitations to the thesis
– All the flows have been uneven.
– Assumes affordability of goods
– People don’t attach the same meaning to material
goods.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Theoretical Analysis of Culture
• Structural-functional
– Culture is a complex strategy for meeting
human needs.
– Cultural universals–Traits that are part of
every known culture; includes family,
funeral rites, and jokes
• Critical evaluation
– Ignores cultural diversity and downplays
importance of change
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Inequality and Culture
• Social-conflict
– Cultural traits benefit some members at the
expense of others.
– Approach rooted in Karl Marx and materialism;
society’s system of material production has a
powerful effect on the rest of a culture.
• Critical evaluation
– Understates the ways cultural patterns
integrate members into society
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Evolution and Culture
• Sociobiology
– A theoretical paradigm that explores ways in
which human biology affects how we create
culture.
– Approach rooted in Charles Darwin and evolution;
living organisms change over long periods of time
based on natural selection.
• Critical evaluation
– Might be used to support racism or sexism
– Little evidence to support theory; people learn
behavior within a cultural system
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Culture and Human Freedom
• Culture as constraint
– We only 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.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Applying Theory: Culture
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Summing Up
Sociocultural Evolution (continued on next slide)
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Summing Up (cont.)
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis
Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.