Culture

cultural universals: practices norms: established rules of behavouir or standards of

counterculture: challenges the existing and customs that occur in all
dominant culture (hippies) conduct (such as staring)
- hunting - communication
~ proscriptive norms - unacceptable behavouir (ex.
culture shock: the disorientation that people feel when - emotions - religion
culturally diversed: how exposed to a culture radically different than their own - manners - adornment murder, cannibalism, incest)
heterogeneous a culture is
~ subcultres and dominant - institutions - greeting ~ prescriptive norms - acceptable behavouir (ex. honor
cultures will come into - leardership elders, clothing)
four main categories...
conflict ~ folkways - everyday habits, done without thought (ex.
1. body appearence (peircing)
2. social institutions (gov’t) facing forwards in the elveator, sleep on bed)
cultural integration: degree to which a culture is
3. activites (sports, dance) 1. if you fail to conform to a folkway,

violating folkways
functionally integrated

is not illegal
4. customary practicies (gifts) your name may be slung around
~ characteristics - religion, economic and and all
2. you are looked at oddly
family lives are integrated t
ha 3. nothing immoral going on
if one peice changes, other aspects g es 4. no formal punishments
will too ma s
o r i elve ~ mores - deeply, deeply held beliefs about how people
s s should behave ---- definiatly immoral and ends in
1. america = loose integration u nd hem
o t
2. england = intermediate ss n punishment, usually turns into law
u re r tha ost ~ sanctions - mechanisims of social control to enforce
3. japan = exreamly integrated st e m
, ge oth d by norms 1. formal sanctions
t s g e
ec in ar
values: general ideas that people shaire, : obj meth d sh positive - rewards
ls so an negative - fines and imprisonment
wether if it is important or not m
bo ent ood
sy pres erst o 2. informal sanctions
et
re und iqu positive - smile/praise
american values un ture
cul
~ negative - ridicule
1. individuality
beliefs: mental acceptance of which ~ taboos - behavours that bring the most serious
2. acheivement and sucess sanctions (cannibalism, incest)
is true or false
3. activity and work ~ all shared ideas people hold within
4. science and technology a culture (ex. incarnation)
5. progress and material comfort Elements of Culture
6. efficianty and practicality material culture: physical objects nonmaterial culture: abstract
7. equality or artifacts that people make and human creations of society that
8. morality and humanirism attach meaning too influences people’s behaviour
9. freedom and liberty
pop culture: beliefs, practices and customs
10. racisim and group superiority found in everyday life and typically enjoyed by Sapir-Whorf Theory:
the middle class
~ fad - temporary, but is widely copied and is language shapes other
followed by a large majority of the population
value contridictions: values that object (high school musical) aspects of culture
each other ~ chracteristics -
1. mass produced and consumed

~ language preceds everything

they usually have more than one word for it
~ if it is really important to a culture, then
~ it is our guide to society
~ focus is mainly on structure
meaning
symbols with rules on how they convey
language: system of verbal and written
2. shapes the pattern of consumption
cultural lag: delay in adjustments made to a culture as a result 3. transmitted through the media
of changing social conditions ~ elite culture - enjoyed by a small amount of
the population in the elite and upper class
~ material culture changes with non-material culture (privacy,
cloning people) we have the materials, but not the mentality mass media: types of communication that is
avalible to a large section of the people
~ television is the most commonly used form
sources of cultural change:
~ mass media and TV influence and shapes
1. changed conditions and economic changes the peoples perceptions (like school
2. cultural diffusion - transitmition of elements from one shootings)
society to another (exploration, mass media)
3. cultural innovation - introduction of new tech and advances ethnocentrisim: to view one’s own culture as right and
4. culture change can be imposed - powerful groups can take good while seeing others as strange
over another group (us to native americans) ~ characteristics ~
1. they consider their culture as part of
why cultures are heterogeneous: human nature
1. minorities do not want to assimilate 2. it will unite the groups, but will also
2. dominant groups want to keep their power cause conflict between them
(subcultures change the dominant culture) cultural relativisim: any element of a culture is
meaningful if it is examined in it’s own setting
subcultures: the distinct norms, values, knowl- ~ chracteristics ~
edge and languages that members of a minority 1. cultural relativism supports diversity
that shares beleifs to distinguish themselves from 2. ethnocentrisim supports assimilation
the dominant culture