Sociology and Current Affairs

Chapter 3 Culture

Multicultural of the United States

• The most multicultural of the world• Drawn from the Nation’s history of

immigration• Preferences and tastes differ by culture

– More/fewer children– Honor of elderly/young– Peaceful/warlike– What is polite, rude, beautiful, ugly, etc

What is Culture

• Values, beliefs, behavior and material objects that together form a people’s way of life

• Our link to the past and our guide to the future• Nonmaterial Culture—the ideas created by

members of a society• Material culture—the physical things created by

members of a society

Culture Shock

• Personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life

Culture Shock—Even in the US

• A trip to the Amish countryside in Ohio

• A New Yorker visits a small southern town

• Other examples?

Question

• What specific practices or social patterns familiar to us in the United States that would shock people from another society?

Humanity—No natural Way

• Since humans have the capacity to think, there is no one way for them to build a culture or act

• Only humans rely on culture rather than instinct to create a way of life and ensure our survival

Culture and Human Intelligence

• From primates of 12 million years ago – Animals with largest brains/body size– Closest relative

• Homo Sapiens of 40,000 years ago– People looked more or less like ourselves

River Valley Civilizations

• Permanent settlements

• Fashioning the natural environment for ourselves– Iraq– Egypt

Culture, Nation, and Society

• Culture—a shared way of life

• Nation—political entity, with borders—but not necessarily

• Society—the organized interaction of people who typically live in a nation or some specific territory

• The US is both a nation and a society

How Many cultures in the US• Census Bureau list 200 languages

– 100 languages spoken in the LA school system

• 7000 languages spoken globally– But half are spoken by 10,000 people– Number spoken commonly is declining

• High technology, communication, international migration, expanding global economy accounts for decline

The elements of Culture

• Symbols

• Languages

• Values

• Norms

• etc

Symbols

• Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture– Word– Whistle (verb)– Graffiti– Raised fist– Flag– Winking the eye

• Interest, understanding, or insult

New Symbols are Created All the Time

• :-() I am shocked

• :- I am smiling

• :-II I am angry with you

• Etc

Symbols and Culture Shock

• The inability to “read” meaning in new surroundings

• Not sure how to act

• Fear

• What about seeing people burning the flag

Differences

• People in parts of Asia roast dogs for dinner• We may offend people in India by asking for a

hamburger because cows are sacred• A fur coat may represent success or inhumanity

to animals• Confederate Flag—regional pride/history or a

symbol of racial oppression

Language

• Helen Keller (1880-1968)– Blind and deaf– Brought to understanding through sign language– Became famous educator

• 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

Literacy

• The US—about 10% are illiterate• Low income countries—about 50% are illiterate• Language sets humans apart as the only

creatures who are self-conscious, aware of our limitations, and ultimate mortality—able to dream and hope for the future and better

Does Language Shape Reality?

• Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf—yes!– Symbols are distinctive and build reality– Language has words or expressions not

found in any other symbolic system– A single idea may “feel differently” in another

language

Values and Beliefs

• Values: Culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, beautiful, and that serves as broad guidelines for social living. Values support beliefs

• Beliefs: Specific statements that people hold to be true

• Different—values are more abstract and beliefs more specific

Values and Beliefs (cont)

• Culturally mosaic nation

• The US differs from Asian countries like Japan and China—more culturally homogeneous

Key Values of U.S. Culture

• Equal opportunity• Achievement and success• Material comfort• Activity and work• Practicality and efficiency• Progress• Science• Democracy and free enterprise• Freedom• Racism and group superiority

Values Sometimes in Conflict

• Do our values of equal opportunity conflict with our ways we view race and sex?

• Do we view values in a hierarchy?

• Are we becoming a “Culture of Victimization?” – Where has rugged individualism gone?– Where is accepting our responsibilities gone?

Values: A Global Perspective

• Higher income countries have different values than lower—Lower:– Lower income countries value survival– Physical safety– Economic security– Traditional values– Celebrate the past– Family, religion, obedience to authority,

conformity

Higher Income Countries

• Individualism• Self expression• High quality of life• Lifestyle• Happiness• Tolerant• Divorce• Abortion

Norms

• Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members

• Proscriptive—what we should not do

• Prescriptive—what we should do

• Example: we are expected to applaud at the end of a musical entertainment event but not after a sermon

Mores (more-rays) and Folkways

• Mores: norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance

• Folkways: norms for routine or casual interaction– Appropriate greetings – Proper dress– Draw a line between the right and rude

Social Control

• Mores and folkways make dealings with others more orderly and predictable

• Social control—attempts by society to regulate people’s thoughts and behavior– Help to give people a conscious– “Downloading a term paper on the internet” can cuase

some guilt– Mark Twain—people “are the only animals that that

blush—or need to.”

Ideal and Real Culture

• We may not make achieve the ideal actions or behavior, but we should strive for it

Material Culture and Technology

• Physical human creations called “artifacts”

• We own 230 vehicles and half bought in recent years were SUVs– Rugged individualism– Consistent with the U.S.

Material Culture and Technology

• Technology—Knowledge that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings– The better the technology, the more people

can make a life– The better to shape society around them

Technology Downside

• Has contributed to unhealthy levels of stress

• Created weapons capable of destroying mankind

• Amish of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana live simple live amid “commercialism and technology run wild”

New Information Technology and Culture

• Not so much working with your hands as working with symbols– Ability to speak– Ability to write– Ability to compute– Ability to design– Ability to create

Computer-Based Economy

• Generating new cultural ideas, images and products

Cultural Diversity: Many Ways of Life in One World

• The U.S. is the most multicultural of all high-income

• Japan, due to historic isolation, is the most monocultural of all high income nations

• Between 1820 and 2003, 69 million people came to our shores

• One million newcomers now arrive each year.

High Cultural and Popular Culture

• High culture—cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite

• Popular culture—cultural patters that are widespread among a society’s population

• The text author suggests we may praise high culture more simply because people have more money in that culture—oh, really? What about:– Dangers that may exist in more popular culture– Untried new habits that sprang up as just popular, in

the culture’s face, hooky actions– Just because it’s different

Subculture

• Subculture—cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society’s population– “chopper” riders (author forgets…now

yuppies)– Polish Americans– New England “Yankees”– Etc.

What Kind of Commitment ot Subculture

• Can set people apart from one another—sometimes referred to as “tribal mentalities” or “Balkanism”

• Yugoslavia– 1990s civil war fueled by extreme diversity– Two alphabets, three religions, four languages, five

major nationalities, six political republics, absorbing cultures of seven surrounding countries

– The above was a source of pleasing variety but also outright violence

The “Melting Pot” is Questioned

• Out of many, one• The author suggests that one subculture is

as good as another—the rich skier in Aspen is equal to the skateboarder in L.A. (can’t a rich skier also be a skateboarder in L.A.?)

• Therefore, some sociologists prefer to level the playing field by emphasizing multiculturalism

Multiculturalism

• An educational program recognizing the cultural diversity of the United States and promoting the equality of all cultural traditions (how do you do that?)

• Formally, we defined ourselves through Western (primarily English) culture

• Historical traditions or contemporary diversity—is that the real question?

Eurocentrism

• The dominance of European (especially English) cultural patterns

• But the country is moving to where people of African, Asian, and Hispanic ancestry will be the majority (really?? Then what about the tendencies to cross-marry, etc)

• Some educators call for Afrocentrism—emphasizing and promoting African cultural patterns (OK, but what about the Asians, Hispanics and Indians)—or is it really just the loudest voices speaking?

Multicultural Criticism

• Divides people by looking at their skin pigment rather than looking at people as individuals – Is it better to live, breathe, and “ooze” in the color of

one’s skin or is it better to simply accept all people as equals and children of God as made in the image of God.

– Do we obsess over our differences through the philosophy of multiculturalism rather than embracing each other through the simple faith that we are all seekers of God and the promise of everlasting life?

Multiculturalism Criticism (cont)

• Does multiculturalism unify? Or does it d separate us by pointing out divisions and differences among us?

• Instead of recognizing “truth”, does not multiculturalism interpret truth through the “prism” of race? Or gender?

• Do we not dissolve into an “African experience” or “Asian experience” instead of a human experience

Multiculturalism Criticized (cont)

• What ever happened to Dr. Martin Luther King’s statement that implores people to evaluate people based not upon the color of one’s skin but on the content of one’s character?

• Are we to study only certain topics and issues from one point of view? How intellectual is that?

Cultural Change

• Change remains a constant

• Today’s students more interested in making money rather than developing a philosophy of life—true?

• Cultural integration—when one thing changes, the change(s) effects other things.

Cultural Lag

• When some things change faster than others

• Does the laboratory fertilization of an egg with sperm from a stranger change the traditional ideas of motherhood and fatherhood? If yes, then what about adoption?

Causes of Cultural Change

• Invention: like the telephone, airplane, and computer

• Discovery: a better understanding of something already in existence—such as new elements

• Diffusion: the spread of cultural traits from one cultural to another

Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

• Confucius: “All people are the same; it’s only their habits that are different”

• Ethnocentrism: the practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture– Common to “come from some place” when

evaluating others– But, there can be conflict

Cultural Relativism

• Judging a culture by its own standards

• Requires openness

• Requires putting aside cultural standards known

Problems—Are Some Cultural Norms Just Plain Wrong?

• What about the children of Indian and Moroccan families who worked long hours

• Before judging, first ask what do they think about the norm

A Global Culture

• The world is flat

• Everyone is wearing jeans

• More people are speaking English

• Migration

• Communications

• Economy

The World is Flat Limitations?

• The author say the advantages go to North America and Europe—really? What about the internet?

• Poverty sets people apart from others

• People see cultural differences differently—Harry Potter has more influence in one nation than another

The Functions of Culture: Structural-Functional Analysis

• Complex—strategies for trying to meet human needs

• Cultural values bind us together

• Think functionally—why do these people live this way? The Amish?

• Cultural universals: family, funerals, care of children, etc

Critical Review—Structural-Functional

• Emphasizes dominant cultural patterns

• Downplays change

Inequality and Culture: Social-Conflict Analysis

• Link between culture and inequality– Any trait benefits some members more than

others– Marx said that man’s social being determines

his consciousness– Materialism verses structural functionalism

Capitalism

• Serves the interests of the countries wealthy elite. (your author) Really? What about all those who have moved from poor to middle class and middle class to wealthy in this system?

• Teaches us that the rich work harder and are more deserving—Oh?

• Disparages economic equality—Oh, how?

Evolution and Culture

• Sociobiology—a theoretical approach that explores ways in which human biology affects how we create culture

• Rests on Charles Darwin—natural selection—organisms change over time

• Adaptation and survival of the fittest

• But—is one race superior to another?

Culture as a Constraint

• Habit– Racial prejudices– Gender discrimination

Culture As Freedom

We are forced to chose and we make choices—having that freedom

We continue to make and re-makeGood?