Culture Culture language beliefs values norms behaviors and
Culture
Culture: language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors and material objects passed from generations. Is this culture?
Culture includes how we think, act and what we own. Material vs. Nonmaterial Culture also influences our personalities
Examples of Material Culture
Symbolic Culture - Gestures - Language
Examples of Non-Material Culture American African Russia verses America All Over
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE Symbols: anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture
Language: system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another Values: what is desirable in life Beliefs: statements that people hold to be true Norms: rules and expectations that guide behavior
Mores: norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance Folkways: norms for routine or casual interaction
Culture becomes the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us. Culture provides implicit instructions about what we ought to do and how we ought to think.
There is no “natural” culture. What is culture shock?
The Culture Within Us Learned and shared ways of believing and doing are learned at an early age. These become part of our assumptions about what is “normal” behavior. We seldom question these assumptions.
“The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water”
A consequence of The Culture Within Us is ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism: a tendency to use our own group’s way of doing things as a yardstick for judging others. We all learn that the ways of our own group are good, right and even superior to others.
Ethnocentrism can be positive and negative. It creates in-group loyalties (positive). It also can lead to discrimination against people whose ways are different than ours (negative).
Cultural Relativism: trying to understand a culture on its own terms. NO JUDGEMENT. Why do we need to practice cultural relativism? Are there any draw backs to cultural relativism?
Structural-Functional Analysis of Culture * complex strategy for meeting needs * give meaning to life * bind people together
Social Conflict Analysis of Culture * cultural traits benefit some members and not others *culture is shaped by a society’s system of economic production * materialism has powerful effect on culture
Other “Cultural Worlds” “Ideal” and “Real” Culture “High culture” and “Popular culture” Subculture and Counter-culture
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