Culture defines how people in a society behave in relation to others and to physical objects. Although most behavior among animals is instinctual, human behavior is learned. Even reflexes and drives do not completely determine how humans will behave, because people are heavily influenced by culture.

Culture and Society

• The culture you live in refers to the knowledge, language, values, customs and physical objects that are passed from generation to generation among members of a group.

• Material aspects of our culture include skyscrapers, computers, cell phones and cars.

Culture and Society (cont.)

• Nonmaterial aspects include beliefs, rules, customs, family systems and a capitalist economy.

• Culture and society are interwoven.

• A society is a group of people who live in a defined territory and participate in a common culture.

Culture and Society (cont.)

• A society is a group of people who live in a defined territory and participate in a common culture.

• Culture is that society’s total way of life.

Culture and Heredity

• Instincts are genetically inherited patterns of behavior. Humans, unlike animals, cannot rely on instinct alone for survival, so we rely on our culture.

• However, culture is not the only influence on our behavior.

Culture and Heredity (cont.)

• Other factors include:

– Heredity—genetically inherited traits

• These expressions of such biological factors can vary depending on the culture.

– Reflexes—simple, biologically inherited automatic reactions to physical stimuli.

– Drives—impulses

Sociobiology

• Sociobiology is the study of the biological basis of human behavior.

• Darwin’s theory of natural selection + modern genetics = Sociobiology

• Sociologists believe that behaviors that best help people and animals are biologically based and transmitted in the genetic code.

Sociobiology (cont.)

• Some criticisms of sociobiology:

– Certain races could be labeled as inferior or superior.

– There is too much variation in societies for human behavior to be based on biology alone.

Sociobiology (cont.)

• Middle ground:

– Some sociologists believe that genes work with culture in a complex way to shape and limit human nature and social life.

Humans can create and transmit culture. The symbols of language play a role in determining people’s views of reality.

Symbols, Language, and Culture

• Cultural transmission defines the transmission and creation of culture—or the idea that each generation must be taught about their culture.

• Symbols are things that stand for or represent something else. The most important symbols are those that create language.

Sign Language

Symbols, Language, and Culture (cont.)

• Language and culture are related because language frees humans from the limits of time and space.

• Language allows us to create culture.

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

• The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis or the hypothesis of linguistic relativity—Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf believe that our perceptions of the world depend in part on the particular language we have learned.

• For example, when something is important to a society, its language will have many words to describe it.

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (cont.)

• We can learn other languages, or learn more about our own, to expand our view of the world.

Two essential components of culture are norms and values. There are several types of norms—folkways, mores, and laws. Sanctions are used to encourage conformity to norms. Values, the broadest cultural ideas, form the basis for norms.

Norms: The Rules We Live By

• Norms are rules defining appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Norms are so engrained in humans that they guide behavior without awareness.

Cultural Etiquette

Folkways, Mores, and Laws

• There are three types of norms:

– Folkways—rules that cover customary ways of thinking, feeling and behaving but lack moral overtones.

– Mores—norms of great moral significance.

– Taboo—a norm so strong that its violation demands punishment by the group.

Patterns of Tourism

Folkways, Mores, and Laws (cont.)

• Laws are norms that are formally defined and enforced by officials.

Silly Laws Still on the Books

Enforcing the Rules

• Sanctions are rewards and punishments used to encourage conformity to norms, either formally or informally.

• Formal sanctions are sanctions that may be applied, for positive or negative reasons, only by officially designated persons, such as judges and teachers.

Enforcing the Rules (cont.)

• Informal sanctions can be applied by most members of a group, also for positive or negative reasons.

Values—The Basis for Norms

• Values are broad ideas about what most people in a society consider to be desirable.

• Different groups in the same society can have different norms based on the same value.

Values—The Basis for Norms (cont.)

• Values have a tremendous influence on human social behavior because they form the basis for norms.

The Norm Kite

Basic Values in the United States

• According to sociologist Robin Williams (1970), some of the important values that guide the values of most people in the United States are as follows:

– Achievement and success

– Activity and work

– Efficiency and practicality

– Equality

– Democracy

– Group superiority

Basic Values in the United States (cont.)

• Although many of these values have remained the same over the years, some have changed.

Besides norms and values, beliefs and physical objects make up culture. Ideal culture includes the guidelines we claim to accept, while real culture describes how we actually behave.

Beliefs and Physical Objects

• The nonmaterial culture involves beliefs, ideas, and knowledge.

• The material culture is about how we relate to physical objects. It consists of the concrete, tangible objects within a culture.

Beliefs and Physical Objects (cont.)

• Beliefs are ideas about the nature of reality.

• People base their behavior on what they believe, even if their belief might not be true.

• The uses and meanings of physical objects can vary among societies depending on the beliefs, norms and values people hold with regard to the object.

Ideal and Real Culture

• A gap exists between cultural guidelines and actual behavior, captured by the following two concepts:

– Ideal culture refers to cultural guidelines publicly embraced by members of a society.

– Real culture refers to actual behavior patterns, which often conflict with these guidelines.

Cultures change according to three major processes. Cultures contain groups within them called subcultures and countercultures that differ in important ways from the main culture. People tend to make judgments based on the values of their own cultures. While apparently very different on the surface, all cultures have common traits or elements that sociologists call cultural universals.

Cultural Change

• Culture changes for three reasons:

– Discovery—the process of finding something that already exists.

– Invention—the creation of something new.

– Diffusion—the borrowing of aspects of culture from other cultures.

Cultural Diversity

• Cultural diversity exists in all societies.

• Social categories are groups that share a social characteristic such as age, gender, or religion.

• Subculture is part of the dominant culture but differs from it in some important respects.

Cultural Diversity (cont.)

• Counterculture is a subculture deliberately and consciously opposed to certain beliefs or attitudes of the dominant culture.

Ethnocentrism

• Ethnocentrism is the practice of judging others in terms of one’s own cultural standards.

• Advantages:

– People feel good about themselves and others.

– Stability is promoted.

Ethnocentrism (cont.)

• Disadvantage:

– Inflexibility

Cultural Universals

• Cultural universals are traits that exist in all cultures, such as sports, cooking, and education.

• Cultural particulars are the ways that each culture expresses the universals.

Immigration to the United States

Cultural Universals (cont.)

• Cultural universals exist for three main reasons:

– The biological similarity shared by all human beings.

– The physical environment affecting all human beings.

– Many countries face the same social problems.

Cultural Universals

The Norm Kite

Cultural Universals