Culture

A Framework for the Individual

WHAT IS CULTURE?
 The knowledge, values, customs,
and material objects passed from
one group to another group or society
 (Culture is) “A toolkit for the survival of mankind”
 Society and Culture are independent, neither could exist without the
other
 In order for a society to survive there must be laws, rules, and guidelines,
all of which are culture driven
 Functionalists might call it a “symbiotic” relationship
 Some cultures vary widely from others
 For instance the “Horns” sign commonly used at sports events in the U.S.
implies that your spouse is unfaithful in Italy
 Even more diametric; the symbol for “ok,” in Tunisia means “I’ll kill you!”
 I hope at least the “peace” sign is universal…
THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE
 We (humans) are not born with the information
necessary to survive, i.e. we have no instincts
 Nurture and not Nature
 An instinct is an unlearned biological behavior common to members
of the same species (Spiders do not need to learn how to build webs,
they just know instinctually)
 Reflexes and Drives
 A reflex is an involuntary response to physical stimuli
 Sneezing and blinking when faced with an irritant

 A drive is an unlearned impulse that satisfy basic needs

 Sleep, food, water, and (ahem) “procreation”

 Culture however can channel these reflexes and drives

 For sneezing, the appropriate way to respond to a sneeze
Culture is…
• A series of learned
behaviors, beliefs,
traits, and customs
transmitted through
generations by
imitation, instruction,
and example.
• Creates a framework
for group and
individual
relationships
• Culture is universal;
all humans have a
culture
 ACTIVITY: Social Interaction & Culture:

Male-Female Female-Female

Male-Male

• I need 3 sets of 2 volunteers to come to the

front of the room….first
• Start a conversation with each other
about anything you like. Each one of
you should make a comment.
• After 1 exchange, take a step closer to
one another.
• Repeat until you personally feel
uncomfortably close to the other
person…
Micro-Sociological Interactions
Personal Space Discussion:
What did you notice about the different personal
space interactions?

What factors impacted how comfortable or

uncomfortable people felt?

Why do you think this is?

How might this differ in other cultures?

Here are some facts about personal space
bubbles:
1. The bubble is larger if you are talking to a stranger.
2. The better you know the person you're talking to,
the smaller the bubble may be.
3. The bubble is usually larger for two men than for
two women.
4. The bubble may be very small for a man and a
women if they are in a relationship.
5. The bubble may be larger than normal for a man
and a women who are strangers to each other.
6. The bubble size may differ for different cultures.
Americans have 4 social distance zones: Public, social,
personal, and intimate

Public: beyond 12 ft. Social: 4 to 12 ft.

Personal: 18 in. to 4 ft. Intimate: under 18 in.

Cultural Word Association (notebook):
List # 1-4 on a sheet of paper.
For each of the following terms, write down the
first word that comes to mind that you associate
with the original word.

TRANSPORTATION CALL

SUCCESS PARTY
 List 1 color that The number of
you associate with children in a
happiness typical family

What did you notice

about the commonality
of answers?

Why is
this?
 Discussion:
What did you notice
about your collective
responses?

Why was this?

How might answers

have differed in culture
other than your own? (“party,
success, transportation,
call”)
 What is Culture?
• Culture consists of
– Material Culture items within a
society that you can taste, touch or feel
• Which includes concepts such as
– Symbols
– Language Universal Grammar, Cultural
Transmission
 …and
– Nonmaterial Culture nonphysical
products of society
– Gestures
– Values
– Norms Mores, Folkways, Taboos
 The Study of Culture
• Is influenced by
– Ethnocentrism
– The use of one's own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of
other individuals or societies
-Has both positive and negative consequences:
+ POSITIVE: creates in-group loyalties
- NEGATIVE: can lead to discrimination against people whose way of
life differ from ours
– Xenophobia
– Literally means the fear of other, foreigners, and those who are
different. Means the act of discriminating against anyone who is seen
as other or different.
The Study of Culture (Cont.)
– Xenocentrism
– the opposite of ethnocentrism; refers to the belief that
another culture is superior to one's own
– Cultural Relativism
-Understanding a culture on its own terms
-Looking at how the elements of a culture fit
together without judging them as being superior or
inferior to our own way of life.
Child Brides in Yemen. The girls are 10 and 13 years of age. Is this
practice acceptable in your opinion? Are you a cultural relativist or
ethnocentric?
 Various Types of Cultures
• Ideal Culture the values to which a culture
aspires
• Real Culture the way people actually behave
• Subcultures subsets of the dominant culture that
have distinct values, beliefs, and norms
• Counterculture subcultures whose values and/or
beliefs are in opposition to the dominant group
 And might discuss
• Multiculturalism concept that supports the
inherent value of different cultures in a society
• Assimilation process by which minority
groups adapt to the dominant culture
 Closer look at Material Culture
• One category of culture is material culture:
items within a society that you can taste,
touch, and feel.
– The jewelry, art, music, clothing, architecture, and
crafts a society creates are all examples of material
culture.
 Example of Material Culture
• While seven countries (US, Japan, Russia,
Canada, Germany, France & UK) use more
than 46% of the world’s electricity and oil,
these countries combined hold only about 12%
of the world’s population.
– What do these statistics tell you about their
material culture?
• You would likely stumble across many cars, air
conditioners, heaters, blow dryers and modern
convienences.
 Closer look at Nonmaterial Culture
• Nonmaterial culture consists of the
nonphysical products of society, including our
symbols, values, rules and sanctions.
 Nonmaterial Culture: Symbols
• Symbols represent, suggest, or stand for
something else.
• They can be words, gestures, or even objects,
and they often represent abstract or complex
concepts.
The Meaning of this red light
depends on the context

Introduction to Sociology: Culture 27

Examples of common symbols
 Text language

 What are some other 

OMG
symbols common 
WTF
today in language?

LMAO

Are these symbols
recognized all over

LOL
the world? Why or 
:-)
Why not? 
;-)

:-(
 Nonmaterial Culture: Language
• Language is a system of speech and/or
written symbols used to convey meaning and
communicate.
• Some languages exist only in the oral
tradition, while other languages are expressed
through both speech and writing systems.
All cultures use some form of language.
 Languages
• There are more than 6,000 different languages
on the planet.
• Due to conquest, commerce, and failure to
write down some languages, about half of
these are in danger of extinction.
• Two main factors determine the number of
speakers of a language: population size and
colonial history
 The English language ignores women! Quite often in the English
language people often
 It uses masculine forms of words to refer to human inadvertently connote
beings in general predispositions to men and

LANGUAGE AND GENDER

women when asked to
 Chairman, mankind describe them.
 Certain words carry connotations, either negative or For example:
positive
•Women are often described
 Connotations are implied definitions, dictated by a persons by their sexual objectivity as
opinion often foxes, broads, babes, chicks,
 Denotations are the accepted, dictionary definition of the or miss/ mrs.
word •Men tend to be described
by their sexual prowess as
dudes, studs, or hunks

(Keep in mind connotations

vary greatly from generation
to generation)
 Nonmaterial Culture: Universal
Grammar
• Noam Chomsky suggests that human beings’
ability to use language comes from common
roots.
• All language contain what Chomsky calls a
“universal grammar”
– This term refers not to particular language rules
but the way in which language is constructed.
• The subject of a sentence generally is found at the
beginning of the sentence.
 Nonmaterial Culture: Cultural
Transmission
• Culture often passes from one generation to
the next through language cultural
transmission
• Thanks to cultural transmission, you can use
the information others have learned to improve
your own life.
• Cultural transmission also helps spread
technology.
• Language not only advances our knowledge;
it also brings us together by helping us create
social consensus, or agreement.
• Language is inherently social: it serves as a
tool for sharing memories, making plans, and
building relationships.
 The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
• Whorf & Sapir suggested that language and
thinking patterns are directly connected.
• Sapir & Whorf reached the conclusion, known
as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, after studying
many different languages and the people who
spoke them
 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Proposes:
1. The difference in the structure of language
parallel differences in the thinking of the
people who speak the languages.
2. The structure of a language strongly
influences the speaker’s worldview.
 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis in Real
Terms
Imagine the English language did not have words
for left, right, backward, forward. Would you
still be able to understand these concepts?
Probably not.

• Ongoing research into the Sapir-Whorf

Hypothesis suggests that because language
influences thinking, it also influences culture.
 Nonmaterial Culture: Gesture
• Another symbol system that differs by culture
is gesture.
• Gestures are symbols we make using our
bodies, such as facial expressions, hand
movements, eye contact, and other types of
body language.
• A gesture’s symbolic meaning can vary widely
between cultures.
Texting Gestures
 Nonmaterial Culture: Values
• Values, part of a society’s nonmaterial culture,
represent cultural standards by which we
determine what is good, bad, right, or wrong.
• Sometimes, these values are expressed as
proverbs or sayings that teach us how to live.
 Values are collective ideas about right and wrong, good or • Value contradictions:
bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture Mutually exclusive values
 Do we have Core Values in the United States?
(We may want to help but it
 Ten Core Values identified by Robin M. Williams, Jr. in the
might be impossible to do
1970’s so)
 Not THE Robin Williams, this guy is much less funny… • Ideal Culture

Values and standards in

1) Individualism (ability, work ethic, responsibility) society profess to hold

VALUES
2) Achievement and Success (do better in life) • Realistic Culture

3) Activity and Work (“work in play,” active lifestyle) Values and standards
people actually follow
4) Science and Technology (expectations from…)
For example:
5) Progress and Comfort (goods, services, and necessities)
People claim to be very law
6) Efficiency and Practicality (bigger, better, faster things) abiding, yet smoke
marijuana (hmm…)
7) Equality (class equality and opportunity)
People think themselves to
8) Morality and Humanitarianism (aiding others in need) be good drivers, yet
constantly drive over the
9) Freedom and Liberty (self explanatory) speed limit

10) Racism and Superiority (value group above others)

EMERGING U.S. VALUES
leisure
self-fulfillment
physical fitness
youthfulness
concern for the environment
 English Proverbs
• A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
– It's better to have a lesser but certain advantage than the possibility of a greater
one that may come to nothing
• A chain is only as strong as its weakest link
– The proverb has a literal meaning, although the 'weakest link' referred to is
figurative and usually applies to a person or technical feature rather than the
link of an actual chain.
• A friend in need is a friend indeed
– A friend, (when you are) in need, is indeed a true friend. ('indeed')
• A leopard cannot change its spots
– The notion that things cannot change their innate nature
• A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client
– Literal meaning
• A picture paints a thousand words
– A picture tells a story just as well as a large amount of descriptive text.
• Cultures are capable of growth and change, so
it is possible for a culture’s values to change
over time.
Value Pairs, Clusters & Conflict
• Value pairs help us define values, usually in
terms of opposites.
– For every positive value, we have a negative one.
– We may also hold values that support or contradict
our other values
• Value clusters are two or more values that
support each other.
– Let’s say you value both equality and tolerance;
these values form a value cluster because they are
similar concepts that strengthen each other.
• When two or more values are at odds,
however, a value conflict occurs.
– For example, equality and racism are conflicting
values.
 Cultural Etiquette
Country Custom
England/Scotland & Appointments are essential. You may be ten minutes late but not ten
Wales minutes early!
Greece Be careful not to praise a specific object too enthusiastically or the
host may insist on giving it to you.
Libya If you are invited to a Libyan home for dinner, only men will be
present. Take a gift for the host but not for his wife.
Senegal Never eat food with the left hand, as this is considered offensive
Zambia Avoid direct eye contact with members of the opposite sex—it may
suggest romantic overtures
Saudi Arabia It is an insult to sit in such as way as to face your host with the soles of
your shoes showing.
China A visit to a Chinese home is rare—unless the government has given
prior approval
 Cultural Etiquette Continued
• Visit http://www.culturecrossing.net/ on your
phones.
• Select 6 countries not already mentioned so far and
find two examples of cultural etiquette that you find
the most strange or interesting.
• Write your findings on a piece of paper with your
name on it!
 Culture: Norms
How can people uphold and enforce values in
everyday life?
• They might develop rules for appropriate
behavior based on those values, called norms.
– Norms are conditional, can vary from place to
place.
NORMS
 Established rules of behavior or standards of conduct
 Prescriptive Norms
 What behavior is appropriate or acceptable

 Proscriptive Norms
 What behavior is inappropriate or unacceptable

 Formal and Informal Norms

 Formal norms are written down, and often carry specific punishments for
violators
 Positive or negative; praise and honors; versus, disapproval to the

death penalty!
 Informal norms are unwritten, often carry informal sanctions and are
often not clearly defined (they often vary among sub-groups)
 Informal sanctions may include but are not limited to: frowns, gestures,

scoffs, remarks, etc.

 Example of a Norm
The way you behave at a football game is
certainly different then how you behave at a
funeral.
– Our behaviors are linked to the situation.

It is normal to cry at a funeral, and not so

acceptable to cry at a football game unless your
team got spanked!
 Culture: Sanctions
• Norms provide the justification for sanctions.
• A sanction is a prize or punishment you
receive when you either abide by a norm or
violate it.
– If you do as you are supposed to, you get a
positive sanction; if you break the rules you get a
negative sanction.
 Sanctions: Formal vs. Informal
• Most sanctions are informal, like when your friend
rolls her eyes at your terrible joke.
• However, if we violate a law or some formal written
rule, we receive a formal negative sanction.
• Sanctions are both positive and negative, can
reinforce values by rewarding people who hold
those values and punishing those who have
opposing values.
Examples of Positive Sanctions
A person who performs well at his or her job and is
given a salary raise or a promotion is receiving a
positive sanction. When parents reward a child
with money for earning good grades, they are
positively sanctioning that child’s behavior.
Examples of Negative Sanctions
Imprisoning a criminal for breaking the law,
cutting off a thief’s hands for stealing, and
taking away a teenager’s television privileges
for breaking curfew are all negative
sanctions.
 Folkways, Mores, Taboos, OH MY!

• Folkways are informal types of norms.

– They provide a framework for our behavior and are
based on social expectations.
– Because they are a less serious type of norms, the
sanctions applied are less severe
For example, if you see a person struggling with
packages, you will hold the door for him or her. If you
let the door slam on the person, you might be
considered rude, but won’t go to jail.
• Folkways are often social customs that, when
violated, call for minor informal negative
sanctions if any at all.
 Mores (pronounced MORE-ayes)
• Although folkways are informal norms, mores
are more serious.
• Mores are norms that represent a community’s
most important values.
• Taboo is an act that is socially unacceptable.
 Examples of Mores & Taboos
If you murder a person, you’ve violated one of
society’s mores. People who violate mores are
given a particularly serious type of formal
negative sanction.
• In this way, mores can be considered the basis of
laws in a society.
Acts that lead us to feel revulsion, such as murder
itself are taboo.
 Silly Laws Still on the Books
State Law
Alabama It is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while driving.
Arizona Hunting camels is prohibited
Florida If an elephant is left tied to a parking meter, it still has to pay the meter fee

Illinois Cannot contact the police before entering the city in a car
Iowa Kisses can last for up to but not longer than 5 minutes
Maine You must not step out of a plane in flight
Massachusetts No gorilla is allowed in the back seat of a car
Minnesota You may not cross state lines with a duck on your head
Vermont Whistling underwater is illegal
Washington It is illegal to pretend your parents are rich
 Norms are often classified by their relative
The following are
social importance considered to be of
increasing degree as one
 Folkways progresses downward
 Informal, everyday customs that if violated carry
little consequences, and are not enforced

DEGREES OF NORMS
 Lack of: deodorant, brushing teeth, or

appropriate clothing
 Mores
 (“Mor-ays”) A particular cultures strongly held
norms with moral and ethical connotations that
may not be violated without serious
consequences
 May result in loss of employment, ridicule, or

imprisonment
 “Taboos,” strong mores that their violation is

extremely offensive, and unmentionable

 Incest is a widely accepted taboo

 Laws
 Formal, standardized norms enacted by
legislatures and enforced throughout
 The Study of Culture
• When you study culture it’s a good idea to
consider whether a particular behavior or
event is a cultural universal, or common to
all cultures.
For example, funeral rites are a cultural
universal because all cultures have methods
of disposing of the dead.
– George Murdock
• Specific customs differ from one
group to another
• Customs found were courtship,
marriage, funerals, games, laws,
music, myths, incest taboos and
toilet training.
Cultural Universals: Adaptations that meet human
needs that all societies practice…

Can you
think of any
other cultural
universals?
 Micronesia Case Study
Bronislaw Malinowski witnessed a funeral
ritual in which native islanders ate part of the
dead person to maintain a connection. After
eating, they would vomit in an attempts to
create distance from the deceased.
 Ethnocentrism & Cultural
Relativism
When studying culture from a sociological
perspective, you must not allow your personal
biases to complicate your understanding
(Weber).
 Ethnocentrism
• Ethnocentrism occurs when a person uses his
or her own culture to judge another culture.
Nearly all people in the world are ethnocentric, but
ethnocentrism is potentially dangerous to
sociologists because it can lead to incorrect
assumptions about different cultures.
 Xenophobia
• Xenophobia refers to fear and hostility toward
people who are from other countries or
cultures.
When the United States entered World War II after
Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, people in
the US began to fear Japanese Americans and
locked many in internment camps.
 Xenocentrism
Not all personal biases result in a negative view
of foreign cultures.
• Sometimes, we engage in xenocentrism when
we perceive other groups or societies as
superior to our own.
 Cultural Relativism
Thinking like a sociologist means striving to
practice cultural relativism when studying
other cultures.
• Cultural relativism consists of a deliberate
effort to appreciate a group’s ways of life in
it’s own context, without prejudice.
• Philosophers sometimes refer to this effort as
normative relativism because it bases the
evaluation of a society on that society’s own
norms.
 Examples of Normative Relativism
In some Islamic countries, women are not
encouraged to seek education. Within the
context of these countries, this practice could be
interpreted as a normal function of that culture.

However, if women in the US were not granted an

education, the practice would seem unfair
because it would violate US cultural norms.
 Criticisms
• Some people, however, argue that there are
universal human values that are standards by
which we should evaluate cultures.
• According to this argument, women in every
culture should be educated, and any culture that
does not allow this is inferior and exploitive of
women.
CULTURAL CHANGE
 Cultures are not static, they often change over time
 Typically, cultures change with the onset of major technology
(and understanding), or a radical regime change
 Cultural Lag
 Cultural Lag (coined by William Ogburn) is the gap between
technical development and its moral and legal institutions
 Occurs when material culture changes faster than non-material culture
 Onset of computers and personal privacy for instance

 Changes that can alter culture:

 Discovery, invention, and diffusion
 Learning and recognizing, new technology, transmission of other culture
 Culture Lag
• Culture Lag happens when social and
cultural changes occur at a slower pace than
technological changes.
• This is often the case when new technology
enters and changes a culture.

William Ogburn
 Culture Shock
Have you ever traveled to a foreign country and
been stunned by how the culture differed
from your own? If so, you were probably
experiencing culture shock.
• Culture shock occurs when a person
encounters a culture foreign to his or her own
and has an emotional response to the
differences between the cultures.
 Ideal versus Real Culture
Is there a difference between culture as we’d
like it to be and culture as it really is?
Often the answer is, YES.
• Ideal culture represents the values to which a
culture aspires, and real culture represents a
culture’s actual behaviors.
 Examples of Ideal & Real Culture
Our society aspires to equality, and yet a brief
look at the data shows that minorities still
suffer from inequality in the United States.
They experience more poverty, lower incomes,
and less access to health insurance.
 Sub-Cultures (a culture within a culture):
groups with their own dress, specific language (argot),
values, norms, rituals, and perspectives on the world.
Sub-cultures have values that exist harmoniously
within
the dominant culture of their society.
Subcultures
Subcultures
• In complex societies, subcultures allow people
to connect with other people who have similar
interests.
Churches, civic organizations, clubs and even
online communities can become subcultures.
 Counter-Cultures:
A sub-culture whose
Values run in
opposition to the
dominant culture

--Think of examples of counter-culture?

How do their values go against what the dominant
culture finds important?
Countercultures
 Cultural Imperialism:
 High Culture versus Popular Culture •

 High Culture consists of classical music, opera, ballet, The extensive infusion of

GLOBAL POPULAR CULTURE

one nation’s culture into
live theater, heavy European influence other nations
 Typically found among Upper and Upper-middle class
For Example
persons
 Popular Culture consists of activities, products, and •The widespread infusion
of the English language
services that are assumed to appeal to the middle and
working class • The second most
exported item in the U.S.
 Rock concerts, sports events, sit-coms, etc. is its culture in the form of
 U.S. pop-culture is considered “homegrown” films, clothing, and pop-
culture
 Forms of Pop-Culture
 Fad
 A temporary but widely copied activity, followed
enthusiastically by a large number of people
 Four sub-categories: object, activity, idea, personality
 Fashion
 Currently valued style of behavior, thinking, or
appearance, usually more widespread than a fad
 Leisure Activity
 Culturally accepted form of activity
A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF
CULTURE
Macro-level
 Functionalist
 Culture helps people meet their
biological, instrumental, and
expressive needs
 Conflict
 Ideas are a cultural creation of
society’s most powerful members
and can be used by the ruling
class to affect the thoughts and
actions of members of other
classes
 Control via cultural
occupation of lower class
Micro-level
 Symbolic-Interactionist
 People create, maintain, and
modify culture during their
everyday activities; however,
cultural creations can take on a
life of their own and end up
controlling people
 Postmodern
 Much of culture today is based
on simulation of reality rather
than reality itself
 How television and internet
depict reality
 Cultural Diversity – “Chevy Nova Award”

 Clairol introduced the “Mist

Stick”, a curling iron into Germany

 Only to find out that “mist” is

German slang for manure.
Cultural Diversity – “Chevy Nova Award”

 Dairy Association’s huge success with

the campaign “Got Milk?” prompted
them to expand advertising to Mexico

 It was brought to their attention

the Spanish translation read, “Are you
lactating?”
 Cultural Diversity
Chevy Nova Award

When Gerber started selling baby food

in Africa, they used US packaging with
the smiling baby on the label.

In Africa, companies routinely put

pictures on labels of what’s inside, since
many people can’t read.
 Diffusion and Leveling
• cultural diffusion –
the spread of cultural
characteristics from
one group to another
• cultural leveling – the
cultures become
similar to one another
– Example: U.S. culture
being exported and
diffused into other
nations
CULTURE CHANGES IN ONE OF THREE WAYS:

 DISCOVERY -
UNDERSTANDING HAS
INCREASED
 INVENTION -
CREATING NEW
CULTURE
 DIFFUSION -
ELEMENTS CROSSING
BORDERS
 Technology in the Global Village
• technology
– narrow sense: tools
– broader sense: skills or procedures necessary to
make and use those tools
• new technology – the emerging technology of
an era that have a significant impact on social
life
– technology sets the framework for a groups non-
material culture
 Global Village?
• In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan popularized the
term “global village,” which refers to the
“shrinking” of the world through immediate
electronic communications.
• McLuhan’s work suggests that time and space
differences are rapidly becoming irrelevant as a
result of technology.
 Virtual “Global Village”
Is technology really bringing people closer together?
 Facebook Activity
• Log on to your Facebook (if you have one, or
look on with a friend)
– Identify a group you belong to on Facebook.
• Make a list of the values of that culture.
• What do those values tell you about that group?