Core 5

Understanding Culture,
Society, and Politics Notes
By: Yiela Lim (11 - Loyola)
Culture and Society undergo change

What is culture?

➢ The ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that
together form a people’s way of life (Macionis, 2018).

➢ The languages, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors and even material objects
are passed from one generation to the next (Henslin, 2017).

➢ The values, norms, and material goods characteristic of a given group

(Giddens, 2018).

Culture becomes the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what’s going
on around us.

➢ Ethnocentrism
○ A tendency to use our own group’s ways of doing things as
yardsticks for judging others.

Two kinds of Culture

Material The material objects that distinguish a

group of people, such as their art,
buildings, weapons, utensils,
machines, hairstyles, and jewelry.

Nonmaterial (Symbolic) A group’s way of thinking (beliefs,

values, and other assumptions about
the world) and doing (its common
patterns of behavior, including
language and other forms of
interactions)

Material Culture

Technology is a crucial form of material culture. New Technology is an emerging

technological era that has a significant impact on one's social life. In a narrow
sense, tools; it’s broader sense the skills or procedures necessary to make and
use those tools.

Technology sets the framework for a group’s nonmaterial culture. A group’s

material culture usually changes first, with nonmaterial culture lagging behind
(Ogburn, 1922).

Nonmaterial Culture

Gestures The way in which people use their

bodies to communicate with one
another.

Language A system of symbols that can be

combined in an infinite number of
ways and can represent objects as
well as abstract thoughts.

Values Standards by which people define

what is desirable or undesirable.

Norms Expectations of “right” behavior

Sanctions Either expressions of approval for

upholding norms (positive) or
expressions of disapproval for
violating them (negative)

Folkways Norms that are not strictly enforced

Laws Norms that are enforced by the

government of a state

Taboo A norm so strong that it often brings

revulsion if violated

Mores (more-rays) Norms that are strictly enforced

because they are though essential to
the core values or the well-being of
the group
What is ethnocentrism?

Ethnocentrism is a belief in the superiority of your own culture. It results from

judging other cultures by your own cultural ideals. Ethnocentrism is a term
applied to the cultural or ethnic bias—whether conscious or unconscious—in
which an individual views the world from the perspective of his or her own
group, establishing the in-group as archetypal and rating all other groups with
reference to this ideal.

Ethnocentrism is the term anthropologists use to describe the opinion that one's
own way of life is natural or correct. An example of ethnocentrism in culture is
the Asian cultures across all the countries of Asia. Throughout Asia, the way of
eating is to use chopsticks with every meal.

Why is there so much cultural variation?

Ethnocentrism often leads to incorrect assumptions about others' behavior

based on your own norms, values, and beliefs. Cultural relativism tries to counter
ethnocentrism by promoting the understanding of cultural practices that are
unfamiliar to other cultures such as eating insects, genocides or genital cutting.

Cultural variation refers to the rich diversity in social practices that different
cultures exhibit around the world. Cuisine and art all change from one culture to
the next, but so do gender roles, economic systems, and social hierarchy among
any number of other humanly organised behaviours

Cultural Relativism

Cultural relativism maintains that man's opinion within a given culture defines
what is right and wrong. Cultural relativism is the mistaken idea that there are
no objective standards by which our society can be judged because each culture
is entitled to its own beliefs and accepted practices.

➢ The practice of judging a culture by its own standards. -Macionis

➢ Not judging a culture but trying to understand it on its own terms.

-Henslin
 ➢ The practice of judging a society by its own standards. -Giddens

Practicing Cultural Relativism

➢ Openness to unfamiliar values and norms

➢ Putting aside the cultural standards we have known all our lives

Cultural relativism refers to not judging a culture to our own standards of what
is right or wrong, strange or normal. Instead, we should try to understand the
cultural practices of other groups in their own cultural context. For example,
instead of thinking, “Fried crickets are disgusting!

The goal of this is to promote understanding of cultural practices that are not
typically part of one's own culture. Using the perspective of cultural relativism
leads to the view that no one culture is superior to another culture when
compared to systems of morality, law, politics, etc.

Cultural Universals

➢ A value, norm, or other cultural trait that is found in every group.

➢ Specific customs differ from one group to another.

What is Socialization?

The process begins during childhood by which individuals acquire the values,
habits, and attitudes of a society. However, certainly dealing with shame and its
boundaries is soon a constant factor in the socialization of the child, because
standards and rules are everywhere

Socialization prepares people to participate in a social group by teaching them

its norms and expectations. Socialization has three primary goals: teaching
impulse control and developing a conscience, preparing people to perform
certain social roles, and cultivating shared sources of meaning and value.
Examples of the first kind of socialization, where an individual learns the rules is,
by making friends and having an interaction, participating in different cultural
activities of the society. peoples belonging to Hindu culture participates in the
festivals; hence learns different things of their god/goddess

➢ The social processes through which children develop an awareness of

social norms and values and achieve a distinct sense of self. -Giddens

➢ The lifelong social experience by which people develop their human

potential and learn culture. -Macionis

Aspects of Socialization

Context The theatre or stage in which

socialization occurs
➢ Everything that isn’t you

Process Those interactions that convey to the

new members.
➢ How they are to:
○ Speak
○ Behave
○ Think
○ Feel

Content Refers specifically to what is passed

from member to novice

Consequence What happens later, after someone

has been exposed to content and
processes