Components of Culture

Culture: a society’s (group’s) system of shared, learned values and norms; these are the society’s (group’s) design for living Values: abstract ideas about the good, the right, the

desirable Norms: social rules and guidelines; guide appropriate

behavior for specific situations Folkways: norms of little moral significance

dress code; table manners; timeliness Mores: norms central to functioning of social life

bring serious retribution: thievery, adultery, alcohol

Components of Culture

Symbols Anything that meaningfully represents something else

Language A set of symbols that expresses ideas and enable people to

think and communicate with one another Values

Collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture

Norms Established rules of behavior or standards of conduct

Values

- ideals or beliefs that guide the way people live

Values are collective concepts of what is considered

good, desirable, and proper-or bad, undesirable, and improper- in a culture

Values indicate what people find important and morally right (or wrong)

Values influence people's behavior and serve as criteria for evaluation the actions of others

Values

Values determine for us what is desirable in our life;

If we learn other people’s values we learn about other people;

Values underlie our preferences, our choices, indicate what we deem as worthwhile in our society.

Cultural Diversity

Values represent personal or socially preferable modes of conduct or states of existence that are enduring.

Why doesn’t McDonald’s sell hamburgers in India?

Americans traditionally prized success through individual effort and initiative, Japanese emphasize collectivism and loyalty to the company

What is culture?Standard 10.1

Values comprise ideas about what in life seems important.

(Fast write) What are the Values in the United States and why?

An overview of U.S. Values made by sociologists Robin Williams (1965)

Achievement and success Individualism Activity and work Efficiency and practicality Material comfort Freedom Democracy Equality

Introduction to Sociology: Culture 10

Components of Culture: Norms Norms are specific to a culture, time

period, and situation. Norms can be either formal, such as a

law (a common type of formally defined norm that provides an explicit statement about what is permissible and what is illegal in a society) or the rules for playing soccer, or informal, which are not written down and are unspoken.

Norms Norms are established standards of

behavior maintained by a society

Formal norms have been written down and involve strict rules or punishment of violators (Law is the “body of rules ,made by government for society, interpreted by courts, and backed by the power of the state” (Wise, 1993)

Norms

Informal norms are generally understood but are not precisely recorded

Examples: standards of proper dress or proper behavior at school

According to the informal norms of culture of the mountainous Asian kingdom of Bhutan, people greet each other by extending their tongues and hands

What is culture?Standard 10.1

Norms consist of expectations of how people will behave in various situations.

(Fast write) What are the norms in the United states?

Introduction to Sociology: Culture 15

Components of Culture: Norms Types of norms can also be

distinguished by the strictness with which they are enforced.

A folkway is a loosely enforced norm that involves common customs, practices, or procedures that ensure smooth social interaction and acceptance.

Types of Norms (according to their relative importance to society)

Folkways are norms governing everyday behavior whose violation might cause a dirty look, rolled eyes, or disapproving comment

Example: Walking up a “down” escalator in a department store challenges our standards of appropriate behavior

Folkways Less important rules of society Violation of rules hurts nobody except the

person breaking the rule Usually a violation of etiquette or habits

not acceptable to society Violators are usually ridiculed/made fun

of or people avoid them Manners not followed

Types of Norms Folkways: These are norms that are not

strictly enforced, we expect people to comply, but if they don’t we don’t make a big deal about it. Situational: Walking on one side of the sidewalk, going up and down stairs, elevator behavior

Customs, habits, commonly accepted practices

Types of Norms Folkways: Usually involve unimportant

matters: table manners, accepting your place in line rather than cutting ahead, wearing appropriate clothing.

Few restrictions, and mild sanctions.

Cultural Diversity Customs are norms and expectations about

the way people do things in a specific country.

Why were 3M executives perplexed concerning lukewarm sales of Scotch-Brite floor cleaner in the Philippines?

Types of Norms Mores: Means “manners” in French.

Mores are norms that are essential to American Values, close to legalistic.

Attitudes from the past, habituated, very little deviation allowed

Duties, obligations, common to cultural morality

Types of Norms (according to their relative importance to society) Mores are norms deemed highly

necessary to the welfare of a society, often because they embody the most cherished principles of people

Each society demands obedience to its mores (violation can lead to severe penalties

Examples: murder, child abuse

• (Latin) Tradition or custom• Moral attitudes• Manners , ways• (Thesaurus) socially correct behavior :

decorum, etiquette, good form, manner• This often serve as moral guidelines for

acceptable behavior but are not necessarily religion or ethics

• (Science Dictionary) the custom and manners of a social group and cultures

Mos, Mores

Types of Norms Mores: The fundamental ideas about

what is right/wrong, virtuous and sinful. Important because they involve moral

vision based on social cohesion, continuity, and community in human life.

Mores eventually become LAWS. Part of social life, not changing.

Mores Strict enforcement, and insistence on

conformity, we learn through socialization via our institutions in society.

Examples: “prescribed” gender roles; Americans eat beef, not horse, dog, cat; you do not expose your genitals in public

Introduction to Sociology: Culture 26

Components of Culture: Norms A more (more-ray) is a norm that carries greater

moral significance, is closely related to the core values of a group, and often involves severe repercussions for violators.

A taboo is a norm engrained so deeply that even thinking about violating it evokes strong feelings of disgust, horror, or revulsion for most people.

In traditional Ethics, the word “custom” mean more or less permanent moral behavior in accordance with the precepts of the natural moral law which is universally known and common to all men and women.

Such are the customs of telling the truth, of paying debts, honoring one’s parents and respecting life and property of others.

Sociologists Ian Robertson illustrated the difference between Folkways and Mores: “A man who walks down a street wearing nothing on the upper half of his body is violating a folkway; a man is wearing nothing on the lower half of his body is violating one of mores (requirement that people cover their genitals and buttocks in public “(1987)

Types of Norms (according to their relative importance to society) Taboos are norms that are so deeply held

that even the thought of violating them upset people

In the U.S. There is a taboo against eating human flesh

Taboo

A taboo is a norm so strongly ingrained that to violate it creates disgust, revulsion, horror - the thought of it makes people sick:

Eating human flesh - cannibalism Incest - having sex with relatives Pedophilia - adults having sex with children

Taboo

a very extreme more in a society proscription almost unthinkable it is so unacceptable to

people people do not like to acknowledge that it can

occur in their society people are usually executed or given long

prison sentences for violations

LAWS

Norms which have been formalized written down by legislature or courts punishment told before hand can be based on folkway or more can be code of law not based on folkway

or more folkways tough to enforce of all laws

Law

Laws are norms with strict and formal sanctions, punishments - to violate a law is to violate society itself.

Codified, and enforcement is reserved for those in positions of authority.

Formal legal codes are necessary to manage relationships in interdependent, self interested, contractual societies.

Sanctions

Sanctions are penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm

Conformity to a norm can lead to positive sanctions such as pay raise, a medal, a word of gratitude, or a pat on a back

Introduction to Sociology: Culture35

Social Control and Sanctions

Sanctions are positive or negative reactions to the ways that people follow or disobey norms, including rewards for conformity and punishments for norm violators.

Sanctions help to establish social control, the formal and informal mechanisms used to increase conformity to values and norms and thus increase social cohesion.

Norms and Sanctions

NORMSSANCTIONS

POSITIVE NEGATIVE

Formal

Salary bonus Fine

Medal Jail sentence

Diploma Execution

Testimonial dinner

Expulsion

Informal

Smile Frown

Compliment Humiliation

Cheers Ostracism

What is culture?Standard 10.1

Institutions are the structures of a society within which values and norms are transmitted.

Fast write) What institution do you go to daily and show values and social norms?

What is culture?Standard 10.1

Artifacts—things, or aspects of material culture derive from a culture's values and norms.

Fast write) What artifact in your life describes you?

Cultural Shock “Culture becomes the lens through which we

perceive and evaluate what is going around us” We have expectations of “the way people ought

to be” Cultural shock- is the disorientation that people

experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture and can no longer depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life

Segments of the populations of Australia, Asia, and Africa consume protein-rich insects. In the photograph, a woman enjoys a dry-roasted insect

An American tourist who goes out to dinner in Seoul, Korea and learns that a local specialty is dog meat might well experience cultural shock

Attitudes toward Cultural Variation

Ethnocentrism is a tendency to evaluate and judge the customs and traditions of others according to one’s own cultural tastes, beliefs, and standards

We learn that the ways of our own group are good, right, proper, and superior to other ways

Subservience to Males? Moral Depravity?

Ethnocentrism

Has both positive and negative consequences

On the positive side, it creates in-group loyalty

On the negative side, ethnocentrism can lead to harmful discrimination against people whose ways differ from ours

AIM: How does culture influence peoples’ lives?

Do now: Identify one thing that represents your culture.

Example: American culture - baseball

HW – Pick five artifacts in your home, describe the item, and describe why it is important to your culture?

*NOTES*

WHAT IS CULTURE?????

(1) The unique way in which a group of people live

(2) Generally refers to the patterns of human activity

(3) "The total, generally organized way of life, including values, norms, institutions, and artifacts, that is passed on from generation to generation by learning alone"

YOU CAN SEE

WHY IS CULTURE SOMETIMES COMPARED TO AN ICEBERG?

YOU CAN’T SEE

1. Facial expressions

2. Religious beliefs

3. Foods

4. Eating habits

5. Paintings

6. Concept of self

7. Work ethic

8. Styles of dress

9. Literature

10.Concept of fairness

11.Childraising beliefs

Whose culture is being identified in the following images???:

What elements of culture do we see in these images?

writing Architecture/ religion

ArtArt/mythology

foodclothing

Whose culture is identified in these images?

TAPAS/ FOOD

ARCHITECTURE DANCE/ CLOTHING

SPORTS/ GAMES ARCHITECTURE

*NOTES*

Cultural diffusion- the exchanging of ideas from one culture to another usually done through trade and warfare

Example: baseball in Japan

Cultural Assimilation- taking elements of one’s culture and making it your own (absorbing into a new culture)

Everyone has a culture. It shapes how we see the world, ourselves, and others.

1. How does my culture shape me?

2. How does culture shape the way we see ourselves, others, and the world?

3. Why is it important to understand culture?

At the end of your notes in your graphic organizer, answer ONE of the following questions.