Chapter 2 The Role of Culture Understanding Race

Chapter 2 The Role of Culture Understanding Race and Ethnic Relations 5 th Edition This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: • any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; • preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; • any rental, lease, or lending of the program. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2016

Learning Objectives • Develop an awareness of cultural differences and the role they play when people from different cultures meet. • How social structures affect intergroup relations. • The role culture plays in creating gender identities and sexual orientations. • An examination of theoretical constructs and public expectations of how minorities should fit into society.

The Concept of Culture • Culture – The values, attitudes, customs, beliefs, and habits shared by members of a society. Nonmaterial culture Material Culture Consists of abstract human creations and their meaning in life. Consists of all physical objects created by members of a society and the meanings attached to them.

The Reality Construct • Culture is learned behavior, acquired chiefly through verbal communication, or language. Acculturation is the process in which culture becomes internalized. • Thomas Theorem – If people define situations as real, those situations become real in their consequences.

The Reality Construct • Cultural transmission – The process whereby each generation transmits culture to the next generation. • Linguisitic relativity – Individuals interpret the world around them according to the structure of their language’s grammar and vocabulary. Words come to symbolize the world around us.

Walt Lippman: “First we look, then we name, and only then do we see” (34).

Cultural Change • Cultural Diffusion – The process in which ideas, inventions, and practices spread from one culture to another, depending on societal attitudes, conditions, and group distance. – Linton estimates that any given culture borrows 90% of its elements (see pages 39 -40 of text).

Cultural Change • Cultural Change – Can occur anytime people of different cultures come into contact. • Culture Shock – Occurs anytime people’s cultural-bound assumptions are jolted through contact with an unfamiliar culture that supports different expectations. – Culture shock need not always occur. – Two groups may peacefully coexist or they may be in a dominant-subordinate relationship.

Ethnic Subcultures • Chain Migration – Happens when immigrants settle in an area already containing family, friends, or compatriots. • Parallel Social Institutions – The recreation of the social world immigrants left behind, usually in the form of their own clubs, organizations, newspapers, stores, and religious institutions, and schools. • Ethnogenesis – Ethnic subculture retains, modifies, or drops elements from its cultural heritage as it adapts to new country.

Ethnic Subcultures • Parallel Jewish Social Organizations B’nai B’rith (Son of the Covenant): Founded in October, 1843, when fraternal American organizations would not accept Jewish members. Its structures and activities were similar to those of the Elks or Masons. Young Men’s Hebrew Association: Founded in 1874 and modeled after the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), when the later was imported from England in 1851 and refused admissions to Jews.

Ethnic Subcultures • Convergent Subcultures – Ethnic subcultures that tend toward assimilation with the dominant society. – Members may experience problems of marginality. • Persistent Subcultures – Ethnic subcultures that are not assimilated. – Some ethnic groups do not desire to do so, and other ethnic groups find assimilation difficult.

Ethnic Subcultures Irish Americans • Marginality - Living under stress in two cultures simultaneously. Irish Americans are an example of a convergent subculture. While many older Irish still seek to preserve elements of their old culture, the younger generation has largely assimilated into the cultural mainstream.

Ethnic Subcultures AMISH The Amish are a persistent ethnic subculture. Descended from some of the 16 th century Anabaptist groups, the Amish speak a dialect of German known as “Pennsylvania Dutch. ” They have retained their traditional agrarian way of life. Besides keeping their children out of English-speaking public schools, the Amish shun modern appliances and mechanical devices, stressing Amish values, a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible, and plain clothing.

Theories of Minority Integration • Assimilation (Majority-Conformity) Theory – the functioning within a society of racial or ethnic minoritygroup members who lack any marked cultural, social or personal differences from the people of the majority group. A+B+C=A – Types of assimilation • Cultural assimilation (acculturation) • Marital assimilation (amalgamation) • Structural assimilation

Theories of Minority Integration – Types of assimilation (cont) • Identificational assimilation • Attitude receptional assimilation • Civic assimilation

Assimilation (Majority. Conformity) • Anglo-Conformity - As a result of the transplanting of the English language, institutional forms, values, and attitudes, there has always been a tendency towards remaking immigrants according to the idealized Anglo-Saxon mold. - Americanization Movement: A movement that arose during World War I in the aftermath of thirty years of Immigration by southern and eastern European and certain Asian groups. Attempt by government agencies at all levels to encourage more immediate adoption of American ways by all immigrants.

Acculturation (cultural assimilation) Acquisition of the dominant group’s culture by the minority. Acculturation can result either in the partial or total removal of the limitations imposed by the dominant group upon the minority. If all limitations are lifted, the minority group ceases to be a minority and is fully assimilated.

Structural Assimilation Dominant group acceptance of the minority. Under the control of the dominant group, which decides whether or not to open the doors of access to members of a minority group. Two steps: step one occurs at the level of secondary groups (workplace, PTA, classroom, etc); step two occurs at the level of primary relations (dating, marriage, personal relationships).

Assimilation (cont) Secondary Structural Assimilation: Involves more impersonal public sphere of interaction (i. e. mingling in civic, recreational, school, or work environments). Primary Structural Assimilation: Close, personal interactions among dominant-subordinate group members (parties, social clubs, and other interactive settings).

Melting pot (Amalgamation) A multicultural society in which members of different groups intermarry, blending their respective cultures into a new culture that never before existed. A+B+C=D

Amalgamation (Melting Pot) Theory • Amalgamation (Melting Pot) Theory – All the diverse peoples blend their biological and cultural differences into an altogether new breed—the American. – Popularized in 1782 by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur. Spoke of new breed of humanity emerging from society called America. – Frontier Thesis: Coined by F. J. Turner (1893). Challenge of frontier catalyst that fused immigrants into composite new national stock.

Accommodation (Pluralistic) Theory Persistence of racial and ethnic diversity. Minorities can maintain distinctive subcultures and interact with relative equality in larger society. A+B+C=A+B+C

Accomodation (Types) Cultural pluralism: Two or more distinct cultural groups live in same society in relative harmony. Most common form. Structural pluralism: Coexistence of racial and ethnic groups in subsocieties within social-class and regional boundaries.

Cultural Pluralism Switzerland, population 8, 290, 000 (2015), is a multiethnic society that has bucked the recent trend towards geographic and ethnic fragmentation.

Correct Answers (Chitlin Test) The answers are as follows: 1. (c) 2. (c) 3. (c) 4. (c) 5. (c) 6. (c) 7. (c) 8. (a) 9. (c) 10. (d) 11. (d) 12. (a) 13. (b) 14. (a) 15. (b)

White Culture All racial groups have large social/cultural characteristics that change over time. Ethnic Whites have values, attitudes, shared understandings, and behavior patterns that distinguish them from other racial groups.

LECTURE SUPPLEMENT: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality Slides 28 -42 Schaeffer, Sociology in Modules, c 2011 The Mc. Graw Hills Companies Inc. Chapter 14. Society: The Basics, 10 th Edition by John Macionis. Copyright 2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. Chapter 6.

Sex and Gender Sex The biological terms for male and female. n Gender The learned behavior involving how we are expected to act as males and females in society. n Masculinity and femininity are learned. n Schaeffer, Sociology in Modules, c 2011 The Mc. Graw Hills Companies Inc.

Sex and Gender The Biological Perspective Assumes that innate biological differences between men and women shape the contributions that each can make to society. Schaeffer, Sociology in Modules, c 2011 The Mc. Graw Hills Companies Inc.

Human Sexuality Transgender: Is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles. "Transgender" does not necessarily imply any specific form of sexual orientation. Androgyny: Is a person who does not fit cleanly into the typical masculine and feminine gender roles of their society. They may also use the term ambigender to describe themselves. Society: The Basics, 10 th Edition by John Macionis Copyright 2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.

Two-Spirited or Two-Spirit "Two-spirited" or "two-spirit" usually indicates a person whose body simultaneously manifests both a masculine and a feminine spirit. The term can also be used more abstractly, to indicate presence of two contrasting human spirits (such as Warrior and Clan Mother) or two contrasting animal spirits (which, depending on the culture, might be Eagle and Coyote). These individuals were sometimes viewed in certain tribes as having two spirits occupying one body. Their dress is usually a mixture of traditionally male and traditionally female articles. Two-spirit people have distinct gender and social roles in their tribes. Society: The Basics, 10 th Edition by John Macionis Copyright 2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.

Sex and Gender Sexism The belief that one sex is innately superior to the other. Serves as justification for patriarchy. Schaeffer, Sociology in Modules, c 2011 The Mc. Graw Hills Companies Inc.

Gender Socialization in US █ Gender Roles – Boys must be masculine: • • • Active Aggressive Tough Daring Dominant – Girls must be feminine: • • Soft Emotional Sweet Submissive Schaeffer, Sociology in Modules, c 2011 The Mc. Graw Hills Companies Inc.

Gender Socialization in US █ Adults, older siblings, mass media, religious institutions, and educational institutions exert important influence. Parents normally first and most crucial agents of socialization. Schaeffer, Sociology in Modules, c 2011 The Mc. Graw Hills Companies Inc.

Gender Socialization in US █ Women’s Gender Roles – Pervasiveness of traditional gender roles extends to education. – Traditional gender roles have restricted females more than males. Schaeffer, Sociology in Modules, c 2011 The Mc. Graw Hills Companies Inc.

Gender Socialization in US █ Men’s Gender Roles – Attitudes toward parenting changing, but little change in traditional male gender role. – Boys who adapt to cultural standards of masculinity may grow up to be inexpressive men who cannot share their feelings. Multiple masculinities: Men play variety of gender roles. Schaeffer, Sociology in Modules, c 2011 The Mc. Graw Hills Companies Inc.

Table 34 -2: Sociological Perspectives on Gender Schaeffer, Sociology in Modules, c 2011 The Mc. Graw Hills Companies Inc.

Human Sexuality: The capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Sexual orientation: Describes an enduring pattern of attraction—emotional, romantic, sexual, or some combination of these—to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers (i. e. the social construction of reality), the attractions associated with sexual orientations are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, and asexuality. Society: The Basics, 10 th Edition by John Macionis Copyright 2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.

Figure 6. 2 (p. 157) Four Sexual Orientations A person’s level of same-sex attraction and opposite-sex attraction are two distinct dimensions that combine in various ways to produce four major sexual orientations. Source: Adapted from Storms (1990) Society: The Basics, 10 th Edition by John Macionis Copyright 2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.

Sexual Orientation § Heterosexuality § Sexual attraction to someone of the other sex. § Homosexuality § Sexual attraction to someone of the same sex. § Bisexuality § Sexual attraction to people of both sexes. § Asexuality § No sexual attraction to people of either sex. Sexual behavior is not the same as sexual attraction Society: The Basics, 10 th Edition by John Macionis Copyright 2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.

What Gives Us a Sexual Orientation • Sexual orientation: A product of society – Argues that people in any society attach meanings to sexual activity. • Meanings differ from place to place over time. – Patterns of homosexuality differ greatly from one society to another. – Existence of global diverse patterns indicate that sexual expression is socially constructed. Society: The Basics, 10 th Edition by John Macionis Copyright 2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.

• Sexual orientation: A product of biology – Suggests that sexual orientation is innate. – Le. Vay • Studied the brains of heterosexual and homosexual men. • Found small but important difference in the size of the hypothalamus. – Part of the brain that regulates hormones. – Genetics might also influence sexual orientation. • Evidence leads some researchers to think there might be a “gay gene”. Society: The Basics, 10 th Edition by John Macionis Copyright 2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.