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Culture

SOCIOLOGYRichard T. Schaefer

3

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3. Culture

• Culture and Society • Development of Culture Around the Wor

ld • Elements of Culture • Culture and the Dominant Ideology • Cultural Variation • Social Policy and Socialization

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Culture and Society

– Culture includes ideas, values, customs, and artifacts of groups of people

• Culture: totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior

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Culture and Society

– Society members learn culture and transmit from generation to generation

– Common culture simplifies many day-to-day interactions

– Language a critical element of culture that sets humans apart from other species

• Society is largest form of human group

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Development of Culture Around the World

– Societies develop common practices, including:• Athletic sports• Cooking• Funeral ceremonies• Medicine• Sexual restrictions

• Cultural Universals

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Development of Culture Around the World

– Process of introducing new idea or object to a culture•Discovery: making known or sharing

existence of an aspect of reality• Invention: when existing cultural items

are combined into a form that did not exist before

• Innovation

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Development of Culture Around the World

• Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology– Diffusion: process by which a

cultural item spreads from group to group or society to society•McDonalization: process through

which the principles of the fast-food industry have come to dominate certain sectors of society

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• Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology– Technology: information about how to

use the material resources of the environment to satisfy human needs and desires (Nolan and Lenski 2004:37)

Development of Culture Around the World

– Material culture: physical or technological aspects of our daily lives

• Food items• Houses• Factories• Raw materials

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• Customs• Customs• Beliefs• Customs• Beliefs• Philosophies

• Customs• Beliefs• Philosophies• Governments

• Customs• Beliefs• Philosophies• Governments• Patterns of

communication

– Culture Lag: period of maladjustment when nonmaterial culture is still struggling to adapt to new material conditions

Development of Culture Around the World

• Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology– Nonmaterial Culture: ways of using

material objects as well as:

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Development of Culture Around the World

– Systematic study of how biology affects human social behavior• Founded on Charles Darwin’s theory of

evolution

– Sociobiologists assert that many cultural traits are rooted in our genetic makeup

• Sociobiology

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Development of Culture Around the World

Figure 3-1. Languages of the World

Source: J. Allen 2005:330

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Elements of Culture

– Abstract system of word meanings and symbols for all aspects of culture

• Language

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis• Language precedes thought• Language is not a given• Language is culturally determined• Language may color how we see world

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Elements of Culture

• Use of gestures, facial expressions, and other visual images to communicate

• Norms– Established standards of

behavior maintained by a society

• Language– Nonverbal Communication

To be significant, norms must be widely shared and understood

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Elements of Culture

•Formal norms– Generally written; specify strict punishments– In U.S., often formalized into laws

• Informal norms– Generally understood but not precisely

recorded•Mores

– Norms deemed highly necessary to the welfare of a society

•Folkways– Norms governing everyday behavior

• Norms– Types of Norms

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Elements of Culture

• Subject to change as political, economic, and social conditions transform

• Norms– Acceptance of Norms

– Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm

• Sanctions

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Elements of Culture

• Values– Collective conceptions of what is

good, desirable, and proper—or bad, undesirable, and improper

Influence people’s behavior

Criteria for evaluating actions of others

Values may change

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Elements of Culture

Table 3-1. Norms and Sanctions

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Elements of Culture

Figure 3-2. Life Goals of First-Year College Students in the United States, 1996—2004

Source: UCLA Higher Education Research Institute, as reported in Astin et al. 1994; Sax et al. 2004

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Culture and the Dominant Ideology

– Describes the set of cultural beliefs and practices that help to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests

• Dominant Ideology

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Cultural Variation

– Each culture has unique character•Subculture: Segment of society that

shares distinctive pattern of mores, folkways, and values that differs from the larger society

• Aspects of Cultural Variation

Argot: specialized language that distinguishes a subculture from the wider society

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Cultural Variation

• Hippies• Terrorist cells

• Aspects of Cultural Variation– Counterculture: subculture that

conspicuously and deliberately opposes certain aspects of the larger culture

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Cultural Variation

• Aspects of Cultural Variation– Culture shock: Feeling disoriented,

uncertain, out of place, or fearful when immersed in an unfamiliar culture

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Cultural Variation

– Ethnocentrism: Tendency to assume that one’s own culture and way of life represent the norm or is superior to all others

– Cultural relativism: people’s behaviors from the perspective of their own culture

• Aspects of Cultural Variation

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Cultural Variation

Table 3-2. Major Theoretical Perspectives on Culture

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Social Policy and Socialization

• Bilingualism– The Issue

• Bilingualism refers to use of two or more languages in a particular setting, such as the workplace or schoolroom

• Program of bilingual education may instruct children in their native language while gradually introducing the language of the host society

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Social Policy and Socialization

• Bilingualism– The Setting

• Languages know no political boundaries • Minority languages common in many

nations• Schools throughout the world deal with

incoming students speaking many languages

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Social Policy and Socialization

• Bilingualism– Sociological Insights

• For a long time, people in the United States demanded conformity to a single language

• Challenges to this forced obedience to our dominant ideology

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Social Policy and Socialization

• Bilingualism– Policy Initiatives

• Bilingualism has policy implications in efforts to maintain language purity and programs to enhance bilingual education

• Nations vary dramatically in tolerance for a variety of languages

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Social Policy and Socialization

Figure 3-3. States with Official English Laws

Source: U.S. English 2005