Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

CULTURE

CHAPTER FOCUS QUESTION:What part does culture play in shaping people
and the social relations in which they participate?

BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE

Culture and Society in a Changing World

  • Material and Nonmaterial Culture
  • Cultural Universals

Components of Culture

  • Symbols
  • Language
  • Values
  • Norms

Technology, Cultural Change, and Diversity

  • Cultural Change
  • Cultural Diversity
  • Culture Shock
  • Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

A Global Popular Culture?

  • High Culture and Popular Culture
  • Forms of Popular Culture

Sociological Analysis of Culture

  • Functionalist Perspective
  • Conflict Perspective
  • Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
  • Postmodernist Perspectives

Culture in the Future

QUESTIONS AND ISSUES - Use these to begin class
  1. What part does culture play in shaping people and the social relations in which they participate?
  2. What are the essential components of culture?
  3. To what degree are we shaped by popular culture?
  4. How do subcultures and countercultures reflect diversity within a society?
  5. How do the various sociological perspectives view culture?

CHAPTER SUMMARY

•Culture is the knowledge, language, values, customs, as well as material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next. At the macrolevel, culture can be a stabilizing force or a source of discord, conflict, and even violence. At the microlevel, culture is essential for individual survival.

•Sociologists distinguish betweenmaterial culture - the physical creations of people in society - and nonmaterial culture - the abstract or intangible human ideal creations of society (such as symbols, language, values, and norms).

•According to the SapirWhorf hypothesis, language shapes our understanding of reality. For example, language may create and reinforce inaccurate perceptions based on gender, race, ethnicity, or other human attributes.

•While it is assumed that high culture appeals primarily to elite audiences, popular culture is believed to appeal to members of the middle and working classes.

•Cultural change and diversity are intertwined. In the United States, diversity is reflected through race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religion, occupation, and so forth.

•Culture shock refers to the anxiety people experience when they encounter cultures radically different from their own.

•Ethnocentrism - a belief based on the assumption that one's own culture is superior to others - is counterbalanced by cultural relativism - the belief that the behaviors and customs of a society must be examined within the context of its own culture.

•As we look toward even more diverse and global cultural patterns in the twentyfirst century, it is important to keep our sociological imaginations actively engaged.

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS
These are also found at the end of each chapter in the textbook and are the same ones that are inserted in the lecture outline in this manual

  1. What is culture?
  2. What are cultural universals?
  3. What are the four nonmaterial components of culture that are common to all societies?
  4. What are the main types of norms?
  5. What are high culture and popular culture?
  6. How is cultural diversity reflected in society?
  7. What are culture shock, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism?
  8. How do major sociological perspectives view culture?

KEY TERMSdefined at page number shown and in glossary
Beliefs 44
Counterculture 58
Cultural Imperialism 61
Cultural Lag 53
Cultural Relativism 59
Cultural Universals 45
Culture 39
Culture Shock 58
Ethnocentrism 59 / Folkways 52
High Culture 60
Language 47
Laws 52
Material Culture 41
Mores 52
Nonmaterial Culture 42
Norms 52
Popular Culture 60 / Sanctions 52
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 47
Subculture 57
Symbol 46
Taboos 52
Technology 53
Value Contradictions 51
Values 50

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Chapter 2

STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Student learning objectives can be arranged hierarchically using Bloom’s Taxonomy as a model. Learning develops and becomes more complex as students move from each level to the next. Many of the early objectives must be mastered before moving to later ones.
Knowledge:
Remembering previously learned material /
  • Define the concept of norms and distinguish between folkways, mores, and laws.

Comprehension:
The ability to grasp the meaning of the material /
  • Know the concepts subcultures and countercultures; give examples of each.
  • Explain the difference between high culture and popular culture.
  • List and briefly discuss ten core values in U.S. society.

Application:
The ability to use material in new and concrete situations /
  1. Explain why the rate of cultural change is uneven.
  2. Contrast and compare ideal and real culture and give examples of each.
  3. Know what culture is and explain how it can be both a stabilizing force and a source of conflict in societies.

Analysis: The ability to break down material into its component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood /
  • Describe the functionalist, conflict, symbolic interactionist, and postmodern perspectives on culture.
  • Distinguish between discovery, invention, and diffusion as means of cultural change.

Synthesis: The ability to put parts together to form a new whole /
  • Know the definitions for culture shock, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism, and explain the relationship between these three concepts.

Evaluation: The ability to judge the value of material for a given purpose /
  • Understand and explain the importance of culture in determining how people think and act on a daily basis.
  • Appreciate the importance of language and explain the SapirWhorf hypothesis.

Based on Benjamin S. Bloom (ed.). 1956. Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I, cognitive domain. New York and Toronto: Longmans, Green.

CHAPTER LECTURE OUTLINE
Integrating Chapter Review Questions (CR) and Learning Objectives

I.CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN A CHANGING WORLD

Learning Objective: Know what culture is and explain how it can be both a stabilizing force and a source of conflict in societies.
(CR) What is culture?

A.Culture is the knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or society.

B.As our society has become more diverse, and communication among members of international cultures more frequent, the need to appreciate diversity and to understand how people in other cultures view their world has increased.

C.Material culture consists of the physical or tangible creations that members of a society make, use, and share while nonmaterial culture consists of the abstract or intangible human creations of society that influence people's behavior.

(CR) What are Cultural Universals?

D.According to anthropologist George Murdock, cultural universals are customs and practices that occur across all societies. Examples include appearance, activities, social institutions, and customary practices.

II.COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

Learning Objective: Understand and explain the importance of culture in determining how people think and act on a daily basis.
Learning Objective: Appreciate the importance of language and explain the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.
(CR) What are the four nonmaterial components of culture that are common to all societies?

A.A symbol is anything that meaningfully represents something else.

B.Language is defined as a set of symbols that express ideas and enable people to think and communicate with one another.

1.According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, language not only expresses our thoughts and perceptions but also influences our perception of reality.

2.Language and gender

a.Examples of situations in which the English language ignores women include using the masculine gender to refer to human beings in general, and nouns that show the gender of the person we expect in a particular occupation.

b.Words have positive connotations when relating to male power, prestige, and leadership; when related to women, they convey negative overtones of weakness, inferiority, and immaturity.

3.Language, race, and ethnicity

a. Language may create and reinforce our perceptions about race and ethnicity by transmitting preconceived ideas about the superiority of one category of people over another.

b.The "voice" of verbs may devalue contributions of members of some racialethnic groups.

C.Values are collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture.

Learning Objective: List and briefly discuss ten core values in U.S. society.

1.Ten U.S. core values are:

a.Individualism;

b.Achievement and success;

c.Activity and work;

d.Science and technology;

e.Progress and material comfort;

f.Efficiency and practicality;

g.Equality;

h.Morality and humanitarianism;

i.Freedom and liberty; and

j.Racism and group superiority.

2.Value contradictions are values that conflict with one another or are mutually exclusive (achieving one makes it difficult to achieve another).

Learning Objective: Contrast and compare ideal and real culture and give examples of each.

3.Ideal culture refers to the values and standards of behavior that people in a society profess to hold; real culture refers to the values and standards of behavior that people actually follow.

  1. Norms are established rules of behavior or standards of conduct.

Learning Objectives: Define the concept of norms and distinguish between folkways, mores and laws.
(CR) What are the main types of norms?
  1. Folkways are everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture.

2.Mores are strongly held norms that may not be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture. Taboos are mores so strong that their violation is considered to be extremely offensive.

3.Laws are formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and are enforced by formal sanctions.

4.Sanctions are rewards for appropriate behavior or penalties for inappropriate behavior.

III.TECHNOLOGY, CULTURAL CHANGE, AND DIVERSITY

Learning Objectives: Distinguish between discovery, invention, and diffusion as means of cultural change.
Learning Objective: Explain why the rate of cultural change is often uneven.
(CR) What causes cultural change in societies?

A.Cultural change is continual in societies, and these changes occur in both material as well as non-material culture through the processes of:

1.Discovery is the process of learning about something previously unknown or unrecognized; and

  1. Invention is the process of combining existing cultural items into a new form.
  2. Diffusion is the transmission of cultural items or social practices from one group or society to another.

B.According to William F. Ogburn, cultural lag is a gap between the technical development (material culture) of a society and its moral and legal institutions (nonmaterial culture).

Learning Objective: Know the concepts of subcultures and countercultures; give examples of each.
(CR) How is cultural diversity reflected in society?

C.Cultural diversity refers to the wide range of cultural differences found within nations.

1.A subculture is a group of people who share a distinctive set of cultural beliefs and behaviors that differ in some significant way from that of the larger society. Examples include Old Order Amish and Chinatowns.

  1. A counterculture is a group that strongly rejects dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles. Examples include the Ku Klux Klan and Freemen of Montana.

Learning Objective: Know the definitions for culture shock, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism, and explain the relationship between these three concepts
(CR) What are culture shock, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism?

D.Culture shock is the disorientation that people feel when they encounter cultures radically different from their own, and they believe they cannot depend on their own taken-for-granted assumptions about life.

E.Ethnocentrism is the assumption that one's own culture and way of life are superior to all others. By contrast, cultural relativism is the belief that the behaviors and customs of a society must be viewed and analyzed within the context of its own culture.

IV.GLOBAL POPULAR CULTURE?

Learning Objective: Explain the difference between high culture and popular culture.
(CR) What are high culture and popular culture?

A.High culture consists of activities usually patronized by elite audiences while popular culture consists of activities, products, and services which are assumed to appeal primarily to members of the middle and working classes.

B.Cultural capital theory is based on the assumption that high culture is a device used by the dominant class to exclude the subordinate classes.

C.A fad is a temporary but widely copied activity followed enthusiastically by large numbers of people. Fads may include object fads, activity fads, idea fads, and personality fads. A fashion is a currently valued style of behavior, thinking, or appearance that is longer lasting and more widespread than a fad.

D.A Homogeneous Global Culture?

1.Many forms of popular culture spread from some cultures to other cultures. For example, the United States' second largest export after aircraft is its popular culture.

2.Cultural imperialism is considered to be the extensive infusion of one nation's culture into other nations.

Learning Objective: Describe functionalist, conflict, symbolic interactionist, and postmodern perspectives on culture.
(CR) How do major sociological perspectives view culture?

V.SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF CULTURE

A.According to functionalist theorists, societies where people share a common language and core values are more likely to have consensus and harmony.

B.Conflict theorists suggest that values and norms help create and sustain the privileged position of the powerful in society. According to Karl Marx, people are not aware that their ideologies are being dominated because they have false consciousness.

C.According to symbolic interactionist theorists, people create, maintain, and modify culture as they go about their everyday activities.

D.According to the postmodernist perspective, much that has been written about culture in the Western world is Eurocentric- that is based on the uncritical assumption that European culture is the true, universal culture in which all people ought to believe.

VI. CULTURES IN THE FUTURE

A.Increasing cultural diversity can cause either long-simmering racial and ethnic antagonisms or the creation of truly "rainbow cultures".

B.In the future, the issue of cultural diversity will increase in importance, especially in schools.

C.Technology will continue to have a profound effect on culture. Television and radio, films and videos, and electronic communications will continue to accelerate the flow of information and expand cultural diffusion throughout the world.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Those that are bold and italicized are suggested for use with WebTutor™Advantage

  1. What are some concrete ways that individualism, competition, and materialism are good for society? In what ways can these become destructive for society?
  2. In what ways does American culture shape your personal life goals?
  3. How do items of material culture you have with you in class today reflect your beliefs, values, rules of behavior, and other aspects of nonmaterial culture?
  4. What effect do you think global television coverage and communications networks are having on cultural universals? Will global diversity increase or decrease? Explain your answer.
  5. What effect do you think global television coverage and communications networks are having on perceptions of Western culture in other parts of the world? What misconceptions about Western culture do you think exist in other parts of the world?
  6. Should one group be able to use a flag that others consider to be discriminatory? Why or why not?
  7. Thinking back to your early childhood experiences, when did you first become aware that you were supposed to dress and act in a certain way because you are female or male? Who/what helped convey these cultural messages to you?
  8. How do members of other racial, ethnic, gender, and class categories subscribe to and internalize U.S. core values?
  9. What value is represented by the norm of attending this sociology class?
  10. What are some examples of emerging mores related to dating co-workers?
  11. What are some examples from your own experience of Baudrillard’s idea of simulation?
  12. How do some images found in popular culture contribute to negative stereotypes regarding race, class, and/or gender?
  13. What is the purpose of culture? How can multiple cultures coexist in a single society?
  14. Why do you think that the Americanization of other world cultures is taking place? In what ways is American culture “better”? In what ways is American culture so much more influential in the world? In what ways is American culture a product of other cultures?
  15. Why are societies ethnocentric? What purpose does this way of thinking fulfill? When does ethnocentrism become harmful for a society (not individuals)?
  16. What is the relationship between cultural relativism and Mills’ idea of the sociological imagination?
  17. What did Karl Marx mean by the statement that ideas are cultural creations of a society's most powerful members (ideological hegemony)?
  18. What aspects of your own definitions of reality have been contradicted by interactions with people from different backgrounds?
  19. What will be the dominant cultural patterns in the United States and around the world in the twentyfirst century? Include technology, global culture, and cultural imperialism in your discussion/debate.
  20. What are some of the most important items in your own cultural “tool kit”? Explain how each enables you to survive and succeed.

EXTENSION: Wadsworth’s Sociology Readings Collection

Barbara Kantrowitz, “In Search of the Sacred”

This article explores the search for the sacred that has been taking place in the lives of Americans for the past two decades. The author provides insight into this trend by writing about a variety of personal stories of spiritual quests. The wide variety of options seems to make spiritual seeking more possible today than ever before. These days people use both conventional and new unconventional means toward finding spiritual answers to living. The loss over the past half century of important beliefs about religion and the family may have brought about this deep need to find spiritual meaning in the lives of Baby Boomers.

QUESTIONS FOR CRITICAL THINKING
These are at the end of each chapter – put students in small groups of 3-4 at the end of class and ask them to brainstorm for possible answers. This activity can generate more student questions about topics you have covered.