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Chapter 3
Culture
Charles Schwab & Co.
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In 1990, Charles Schwab & Co. began
looking for ways to expand. They decided
one way to increase profits would be to
take greater account of the increasing
ethnic and racial diversity in America…
….why?
The United States is the most
multicultural of all the
world’s nations.
What is Culture
“The values, beliefs, behaviors,
and material objects that
together form a people’s way
of life…”
Culture
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When looking at a culture, Sociologists
find it useful to distinguish between
Material and Non-material aspects of
culture…
…Between things and thoughts
Non-material Culture
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The intangible world of ideas created by
members of a society.
Examples?
Material Culture
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The tangible things created by members
of a society.
Examples?
Culture
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Culture shapes how we think, the ways we
act, what we do, and helps form our
personalities.
Effects all aspects of a person’s life, even
if they are unaware of it.
Culture
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Only humans rely on culture rather than
instinct to ensure the survival of their kind.
Every other form of life behaves in
uniform, species-specific ways.
Instincts tell a creature how to successfully
navigate its environment, but through
culture we create an artificial environment
of our own to meet our needs.
Culture Shock
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Personal disorientation one feels when
experiencing an unfamiliar way of life that
is different from their own.
Common for travelers though you may
experience culture shock within your own
culture.
Examples?
No one way of life is ‘natural’…
…what does come naturally to
humans is creating culture.
Yąnomamö Case Study
Culture & YOU
What
is culture and
why is it important to
you?
Components of Culture

Although Cultures vary greatly as we
have seen, they all have 5 common
components….
 Symbols
 Language
 Values
and Beliefs
 Norms
 Material
Culture
Symbols

Anything that carries a particular meaning
recognized by people who share a culture.
Examples?
Culture and Symbols
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Symbols can vary greatly between
cultures.
Culture shock is really the inability to read
or interpret the meaning in their
surroundings.
Symbols can vary within a single society.
Symbols
Language

A system of symbols that allows people to
communicate with one another.
“… the key to the world of culture.”
Language and Cultural Transmission
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Language not only allows communication
but also ensures the continuity of culture.
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Cultural Transmission
The process by which one generation passes
culture to the next.
Sapir-Whorf Thesis
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People perceive the world through the
cultural lens of language.
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Each language has its own distinct symbols
that serve as building blocks of reality
Each language has expressions not found in
other symbolic systems.
All languages fuse symbols with distinctive
emotions so that a single idea may feel
different in different languages.
Values and Beliefs
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Values:
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Culturally defined standards by which people
assess desirability, goodness, and beauty
that serve as broad guidelines for social
living.
Beliefs

Specific statements that people hold to be
true.
Values and Beliefs Simplified

More simply put:

Values are abstract standards of what
ought to be

Beliefs are particulars matters that people
consider true or false
Examples?
Norms
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Rules and expectations by which a society
guides the behavior of its members.
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Proscriptive: what members of a society
should NOT do
Prescriptive: what we should do
Mores and folkways
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Mores- norms that are widely observed
and have great moral significance.

Folkways- norms for routine or casual
interaction.
Social Control
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Attempts by society to regulate people’s
thoughts and behaviors.
Values and norms do not describe actual
behavior so much as they suggest how we
should behave.
Ideal vs. Real
Material Culture and Technology

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Culture also includes a wide range of
things/ artifacts that are created by a
society.
This also includes technology- knowledge
that people use to make a way of life in
their surroundings.
What does it mean to you?
Explain…
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Taking a step back…
…Key Values of U.S. Culture
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In 1970, sociologist Robin Williams identified ten
values that he considered central to our way of life.
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Equal Opportunity- Everybody should have the chance to get ahead
Achievement and Success- Competition, rewards, worthiness
Material Comfort- Pursuit of wealth and material goods
Activity and work- Culture of ‘doers,’ value action over reflection
Practicality and efficiency- Activity has value when it earns money
Progress- Optimistic, “very latest”= “very best”
Science- expect science to solve problems and improve lives, rational
Democracy and free enterprise-Elected leaders, capitalism, rights
Freedom- free to pursue personal goals, individual trumps group
Racism and group superiority- History of treating some ‘more equal’
than others
* Note: some values are inconsistent and even in conflict
Values in Conflict:
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What causes values within a single society
to be at times in conflict with one another?
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Conflict between values reflects the
cultural diversity of U.S. society.
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It also reflects cultural change.
Cultural Diversity
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We can observe cultural diversity when we
compare two societies as we did with the
Yąnomamö
We can also see cultural diversity within a
single society as in the United States:
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U.S. is the most multicultural of the world’s
high-income countries
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In what ways?
Japan is the most monocultural of all highincome countries
High Culture and Popular Culture
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High culture: cultural patterns that
distinguish society’s elite
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Opera, theatre, Beethoven
Popular Culture: cultural patterns that are
widespread among a society’s population
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Blues, football,
Subculture
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A subculture is any cultural pattern that
sets apart some segment of society’s
population.
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Examples?
Almost everybody participates in multiple
subcultures, often without ever even
knowing it
Examples?
Multiculturalism
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An educational program recognizing the
cultural diversity of the United States and
promoting the equality of all cultural
traditions.
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E pluribus unum
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How do you think we should handle
cultural diversity?
Other views
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Eurocentrism- the dominance of European
cultural patterns
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Afrocentrism- the dominance of African
cultural patterns
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Offered as a corrective for centuries of
minimizing or altogether ignoring the cultural
achievements of African societies and African
Americans
How do you feel about this?
Counterculture
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Cultural patterns that strongly oppose or
outright reject those widely accepted
within a society.
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Example: 1960’s youth movement which
rejected the mainstream culture as overly
competitive, self-centered, and
materialistic
Ethnocentrism vs. Cultural Relativism
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Ethnocentrism: The practice of judging
another culture by the standards of one’s
own culture.
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Cultural Relativism: The practice of
evaluating culture by its own standards.
Material Culture and Technology
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Culture also includes a wide range of
things/ artifacts that are created by a
society.
This also includes technology- knowledge
that people use to make a way of life in
their surroundings.
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“All things shall pass…”
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Culture is constantly in a state of change
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What elements may cause cultural change
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Change in one dimension of a culture
usually sparks a change in others
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Cultural Integration
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The close relationship among various
elements of a cultural system
Cultural Change
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Some elements of culture change faster
than others.
William Ogburn
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Observed that technology moves quickly,
generating new elements of material culture
(like test-tube babies) faster than nonmaterial
culture (such as ideas about parenthood) can
keep up with them.
Ogburn called this delay ‘Cultural Lag’
The fact that some cultural elements change
more quickly than others, disrupting a cultural
system Lag
Cultural
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Examples?
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Cultural Changes are set in motion in three ways…
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Invention
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Discovery
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Diffusion
Causes of Cultural Change
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Invention- the process of creating new cultural elements
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Telephone (1876)
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Airplane (1903)
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Computer (1947)
The process of invention goes on constantly
Examples?
HINT: Think of Commercials.
Invention
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Discovery- recognizing and better understanding
something already in existence
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Food of another culture, distant star, new species
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Many discoveries result from painstaking scientific research
Examples?
Discovery
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Diffusion- the spread of cultural traits from one society to
another
Because of new means of communication,
information can be sent around the globe in
seconds and cultural diffusion has never been
greater
 America has contributed many cultural
elements to the world (ex. Computers, jazz,
etc.)
 Diffusion works the other way too- much of
what we consider to be “American” actually
Diffusion
comes from elsewhere (ex. Clothing, furniture,
clocks)
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Today more than ever we find many of the
same cultural practices the world over
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Jeans, pop music, familiar products can be
found in many of the major cities of the world
English is emerging as the preferred second
language worldwide
Societies now have more contact with one
another than ever before
Are we witnessing the birth of a single
global culture?
Global Culture
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The Global economy- the flow of goods:
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Global communication- the flow of information:
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There has never been more international trade. The global
economy has spread many of the same consumer goods
throughout the world.
Satellite-based communications allow people to experience
the sights and sounds of events taking place thousands of
miles away, often as they happen.
Global migration- the flow of people
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Today’s transportation technology, especially air travel,
makes relocating easier than ever
In the United States 33 million people (12 % of the
population) were born elsewhere
Global Contact
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The global links previously discussed may
make the world more similar but there are
three major limitations to the global culture
thesis
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Global flow of goods, information and people is uneven (cities
vs. rural areas)
Desperate poverty in much of the world deprives people of
even the most basic necessities
Although many cultural practices are now found throughout
the world, people everywhere do not attach the same
meanings to them
Limitations to Global Culture
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Would the development of a single global
culture be a positive thing or a negative
thing?
•
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May decrease the number of cultural
misunderstandings between people of different
cultures
May lead to the loss of many existing cultures
Greater economic and military powers in North
American and Europe would have a greater influence
than the rest of the world
Global Culture
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Structural-Functional Analysis
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Social-Conflict Analysis
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Sociobiology
Theoretical Analysis of Culture
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The structural-functional paradigm depicts
culture as a complex strategy for meeting
human needs.
Considers values the core of culture
Thinking functionally helps us understand
an unfamiliar way of life
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Example from the case-study
Structural-Functional Analysis
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The social-conflict paradigm stresses the
link between culture and inequality.
Asks why certain values dominate society
in the first place.
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Example: Social-conflict analysis ties our
competitive values to our society’s capitalist
economy, which serves the interests of the
nation’s wealthy elite
Social Conflict Analysis
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Sociobiology is a theoretical paradigm that
explores ways in which biology affects
how we create culture.
Rests on Darwin’s theory of Evolution
All living things live to reproduce themselves
 The blueprint for reproduction is in the genes
 Random variations in the genes allow a
species to try out new life patterns
 Over thousands of generations, the genetic
patterns that promote the continuation of a
Sociobiology
species survive and become dominant
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Cultural Universals refer to traits that are part of every
know culture.
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George Murdock compared hundreds of cultures and found
dozens of cultural universals
Family
Funeral rites
Child care
Jokes
Sociobiology claims that the large number of cultural
universals reflect the fact that all humans are members
of a single biological species
Cultural Universal
Standards
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PDE 430 Category III- Instructional Delivery: Student teacher/candidate,
through knowledge of content, pedagogy and skill in delivering instruction,
engages students in learning by using a variety of instructional strategies.
PDE Chapter 354.33 G- Instructional Planning Skills: The teacher plans
instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the
community and curriculum goals.
PSSA Title 7.3- The Human Characteristics of Places and Regions
PA Academic Standard 7.3.9.B- Explain the human characteristics of
places and regions by their cultural characteristics.
ESL/ELL English Language Proficiency Standard 5: Social Studies.
Grade Level Cluster 9-12; Writing Level 5 Bridging: Explain and evaluate
contributions of significant individuals or historical times in politics,
economics, or society.
PA Alternative Academic 1.2.11.D- Reading Critically in All Content
Areas: Demonstrate after reading understanding and interpretation of both
fiction and nonfiction text.
Assessment Anchor R11.A.2- Demonstrate the ability to understand and
interpret nonfiction text.