Sociology UNIT 6

Culture and Society(structure and

need of cultural in society)

The Concept of Culture

Think of 10 ways in which we use the word culture or cultural.

Eg. Culture shock, Canadian culture, multicultural

Culture Construction Cultural Awareness Deviant Culture.

C. Shock Underground Culture Rural Culture

Agriculture Pop Culture Youth Culture

Global Culture Cultural Identity Cultural Exchange

Cultural Perspective Cultural Assimilation Cross- Culture

Elite Cultural Dead Culture Cultural Diversity

Cultural Sustainability Cafe Culture Multicultural

Canadian Culture Cultural event To be Cultured

Cultural Imperialism Cultural survival High Cultured

Cultural Hegemony drug Culture Enculturation

Cultural Evolution Subculture Cultural Phenomenon

uncultured World Culture Intercultural

Consumer Culture Bacterial Cultural Counter Culture

Safety Culture Corporate Culture Cultural Relativism

The Concept of Culture

A Way of LifeRural Culture. Corporate Culture. Canadian Culture. Youth Culture Cafe Culture. Island Culture

Non-anthropological/sociologicalAgriculture Bacterial . Horticulture, Aquaculture

A continuumGlobal Culture. World Culture Cultured EvolutionPublic Culture

A set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practicesCounter C. Safety C. drug C. Subculture Consumer C C. Perspective

Refinement of mind, tastes, and manners High C. Elite C To be Cultured. Uncultured

An object (of manipulation)C. Sustainability C. Genocide Dead C C. survivalC. Hegemony C. Imperialism C. event C. Heritage

A disparagement of differenceC. Shock Deviant C. Pop C. Underground C. Subculture C. Assimilation

A sense of agencyC. Construction Enculturation

A celebration of differenceC. Diversity C. Awareness MulticulturalC. RelativismIntercultural Cross-CC. Exchange

A sense of identity and othernessC. Identity Canadian C

Edward Burnett Tylor

1832-1917

Culture or civilization, taken in itswide ethnographic sense, is thatcomplex whole which includesknowledge, belief, art, morals,law, custom, and any othercapabilities and habits acquiredmy man as a member of society.

E. B. Tylor 1871

`The sumtotal of knowledge, attitudes and habitual behaviourpatterns shared and transmitted by the members of a particularsociety'

Ralph Linton (1940).

The pattern of life within a community, the regularlyrecurring activities and material and social arrangementscharacteristic of a particular group'.

Ward Goodenough (1957):

“Culture is the framework of beliefs, expressive symbols, andvalues in terms of which individuals define their feelings andmake their judgements”

(Geertz 1957 American Anthropologist 59:32-54).

An historically transmitted pattern of meaning embodied insymbols, a systemof inherited conceptions expressed insymbolic formby means which men communicate'

(Geertz 1973: 89).

“Cultures are traditions and customs, transmitted throughlearning, that formand guide the beliefs and behaviour ofthe people exposed to them.... Cultural traditions includecustoms and opinions developed over the generationsabout proper and improper behaviour”

(Kottak 2008)

• Culture - the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and material objects that are passed from one generation to the next.

• Material culture - the material objects that distinguish a group of people.

• Non-material culture -a group’s way of thinking and doing.

What is Culture?

Culture is a way of life

Material

Objects

Ideas

Attitudes

Values

Behavior

Patterns

“Everything that people have, think, and do as members of a

society”

(Ferraro, 2008)

What is society?

DO NOT CONFUSE CULTURE WITH SOCIETY.

SOCIETY REFERS TOA GROUP OF PEOPLE, INTERACTING WITHIN A GIVEN TERRITORY, WHO ARE GUIDEDIN THEIR DAILY LIVES BY THEIR CULTURES.

MOST CULTURES SHARE COMMON COMPONENTS. WE WILL NOW EXAMINE EACH

IN TURN.

CULTURE SURE HAS AWAY OF CHANGINGWHAT IS MEANT BY“GOING TO THEBEACH!”

� Values

� Norms

� Ideas/Beliefs

Attitudes/Worldviews

� Roles

� Symbols

� Traditions

� Artifacts

Components/ Dimensions of Culture

Culture is learnedHow do we learn our culture?

Culture is unconscious

Culture is shared

USA 89%

French Canada 81%

English Canada 77%

United Kingdom 71%

Italy 69%

France 59%

Australia 25%

Such findings signal that Canadian values, ideas, and attitudes should not be relied upon when

planning marketing forays into foreign consumer markets

Should everyone use

a deodorant?

Culture is Relative

Culture is Integrated

Kinship

Medicine

law

Economics

Religion

Culture is Symbolic

Culture is learned

� Culture is unconscious

� Culture is shared

� Culture is integrated

� Culture is Symbolic

� Culture is a way of life

� Culture is Dynamic

� Culture is Relative

Characteristics of Culture

Architecture and Culture

You have to find out this question

�Symbolic culture -nonmaterial culture whose central components are symbols.◦ A symbol - something

to which people attach meaning and which they use to communicate.

�Gestures- involve using one’s body to communicate.

� Language- a system of symbols that can be strung together in an infinite number of ways for the purpose of communicating.

Components of Symbolic Culture

• All human groups have a language.• Language allows for experiences to be passed

from one generationto the next.• Language allows culture to developby freeing

people to move beyond their immediateexperiences.

• Language provides us a past anda future, as wellas sharedunderstandings.

What Language Does

• The effects of our own culture generally remainimperceptible to us.

• These learned and shared ways penetrate our being.

• Culture becomes the lens through which we perceiveand evaluate what is going on around us.

How Culture Affects Our Lives

�Culture Shock - the disorientation that people experience when they come into contact with a different culture.

�Ethnocentrism - the tendency to use one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other societies.

� It can create in group loyalties or lead to harmful discrimination.

Cultural Orientations

• Values- ideas of what is desirable in life.• Values are the standards by which people

define good and bad.• Norms - describe rules of behavior that

develop out of a group’s values.• Sanctions- positive or negative reactions to

the ways in which people follow norms, including laws and punishments.

Values, Norms, & Sanctions

.CULTURALLY DEFINED STANDARDS OF DESIRABILITY, GOODNESS, AND BEAUTY, WHICH SERVE AS BROAD GUIDELINES FOR SOCIAL LIVING

� VALUES SUPPORT BELIEFS� SPECIFIC STATEMENTS THAT PEOPLE HOLD

TO BE TRUE• CAPITALISM AND ACHIEVEMENT= SUCCESS

� CORE AMERICAN VALUES� VALUE INCONSISTENCY AND SOCIAL

CHANGE Page 66 EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND COMPETITION

• HUMANITARIANISM AND “ME FIRST”

• Folkways - norms that are not strictly enforced.

• If someone does not follow a folkway, we may stare or shrug our shoulders.

• Mores - norms that are considered essential to our core values.

• Taboos - norms so strongly ingrained that even the thought of its violation is greeted with revulsion.

Folkways, Mores, and Taboos