lecture 5 culture

7/29/2019 Lecture 5 Culture

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CULTURE


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What is culture?

Culture refers to the total lifestyle of a

people, including all of their ideas, values,

knowledge, behaviors, and materialobjects that they share

Culture shapes and guides peoples

perception of reality


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Culture determines

Food we eat

Clothing

Music Games we play

How to express emotions

What is good or bad What is high or low culture (if any)


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High Culture Low Culture


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Culture and appearance


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Society vs. Culture

Societyrefers to a group of people who

are relatively self-sufficient and who share

a common territory and culture Members of the society preserve and

transmit it from one generation to the next

(through literature, art, video recording andother means of expression)


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Society vs. Culture

Culturerefers to that peoples traditions,

customs, and behaviors. It includes ideas,

values, and artifacts Sharing a similar culture helps to define

the society to which we belong


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Characteristics of Culture

Culture is a universal feature of human

social life

Culture is cumulative

Culture is learned

Culture is shared


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Material and Nonmaterial Culture

Material Culture includes all those things thathumans make or adapt from the raw stuff ofnature: houses, computers, jewelry, oil paintings,

etc (Stick from the forest might be a part ofmaterial culture)

Nonmaterial culture is a group's way of thinking(including its beliefs, values) and doing (its

common pattern of behavior, including languageand other forms of interaction) (Poem aboutstick)


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Diffusion

Is the process by which a cultural item is

spread from group to group or society to

society Diffusion can occur through a variety of

means, among them exploration, military

conquest, missionary work, influence ofmass media, and tourism


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Diffusion may take place over long

distance The use of smoking tobacco began when

Indian tribes in the Caribbean invented the

habit of smoking the tobacco plant Over the periods of hundred of years,

tobacco traveled through Central America

and across the North America


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Diffusion is not always easy

Societies resist ideas which seem too

foreign (or threatening to their own beliefs)

Each culture tends to be selective in whatit absorbs (food vs. beliefs)

Europe accepted silk, magnetic compass,

chess, and gunpowder from Chinese butrejected the teaching of philosophy


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Culture and taken-for-granted

orientations in life Ourspeech, ourgestures, ourbeliefs, our

customs are usually taken-for-granted

We assume that they are normal or natural,and almost always we follow them without

questions

Culture provides implicit instructions that tell us

what we ought to do in various situations. It

provides a basis for our decision making.


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Cultural Shock

Culture becomes the lens through which weperceive and evaluate what is going around us

We have expectations of the way people ought

to be

Cultural shock- is the disorientation that peopleexperience when they come in contact with afundamentally different culture and can no

longer depend on their taken-for-grantedassumptions about life


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Segments of the populations of Australia, Asia, and Africa

consume protein-rich insects. In the photograph, a woman

enjoys a dry-roasted insect


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An American tourist who goes out to dinner in

Seoul, Korea and learns that a local specialty is

dog meat might well experience cultural shock


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Attitudes toward Cultural Variation

Ethnocentrism is a tendency to evaluate

and judge the customs and traditions of

others according to ones own culturaltastes, beliefs, and standards

We learn that the ways of our own group

are good, right, proper, and superior toother ways


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Example of ethnocentrism


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Subservience to Males? Moral Depravity?


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Ethnocentrism

Has bothpositive and negative

consequences

On the positive side, it creates in-grouployalty

On the negative side, ethnocentrism can

lead to harmful discrimination againstpeople whose ways differ from ours


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Body Ritual of Nacirema

Pathological horror and fascination with

the mouth

Holy-mouth-man and rituals with mouth

Women bake their head in small ovens

Latipso ceremonies


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Attitudes toward Cultural Variation

Cultural relativism is a tendency tounderstand and evaluate a culture in the

context of its own special circumstances None of us can be entirely successful at

practicing cultural relativism

We cannot help viewing a contrasting wayof life through the lens that our own cultureprovides


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Cultural Relativism and Practice

Chinese immigrant was convicted in a New York court ofbludgeoning his wife to death with a hammer

He was sentenced to only 5 years of probation

The judge took into consideration the culturalconsiderations

The deceased women confessed extramarital affair

Testimony of an expert in Chinese culture revealed thathusbands in China exact severe punishment on their

wives In posttrial hearings, the judge declared that the

defendant took all his culture with him to the U.S. andtherefore was not fully responsible for his violent act///


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Xenocentrism

Reverse to ethnocentrism

Xenocentrism is the belief that the

products, styles, or ideas of ones societyis inferior to those that originate elsewhere

People in the U.S. assume that French

fashion or Japanese electronic devices aresuperior to our own


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People in Saudi Arabia may prefer to buy Pepsi

Cola and other food products that originate in the

United States


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Xenocentrism

People are charmed by the lure of goods from

exotic places?

Such fascination with British china or Danishglassware can be damaging to the U.S.

competitors

Some companies have responded by crating

products that soundEuropean like Haagen-Dazsice cream (made in Teaneck, New Jersey)


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Components of Culture

Norms

Sanctions

Values

Symbols

Language


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Norms

Norms are established standards of

behavior maintained by a society

Formal norms have been written down andinvolve strict rules or punishment of

violators (Law is the body of rules ,made

by government for society, interpreted by

courts, and backed by the power of the

state (Wise, 1993)


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Norms

Informal norms are generally understood

but are not precisely recorded

Examples: standards of proper dress orproper behavior at school


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According to the informal norms of culture of the

mountainous Asian kingdom of Bhutan, people greet

each other by extending their tongues and hands


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Types of Norms (according to their

relative importance to society) Folkways are norms governing everyday

behavior whose violation might cause a

dirty look, rolled eyes, or disapprovingcomment

Example: Walking up a down escalator in

a department store challenges ourstandards of appropriate behavior


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relative importance to society) Mores are norms deemed highly

necessary to the welfare of a society, often

because they embody the most cherishedprinciples of people

Each society demands obedience to itsmores (violation can lead to severe

penalties Examples: murder, child abuse


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Sociologists Ian Robertson illustrated the difference between Folkways

and Mores: A man who walks down a street wearing nothing on the upper

half of his body is violating a folkway; a man is wearing nothing on the

lower half of his body is violating one of mores (requirement that peoplecover their genitals and buttocks in public (1987)


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relative importance to society) Taboos are norms that are so deeply held

that even the thought of violating them

upset people In the U.S. There is a taboo against

eating human flesh


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Sanctions

Sanctions arepenalties and rewards for

conduct concerning a social norm

Conformity to a norm can lead to positivesanctions such as pay raise, a medal, a

word of gratitude, or a pat on a back


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Norms and Sanctions

NORMSSANCTIONS

POSITIVE NEGATIVE

Formal

Salary bonus Fine

Medal Jail sentenceDiploma Execution

Testimonial

dinnerExpulsion

Informal

Smile Frown

Compliment Humiliation

Cheers Ostracism


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Values

are collective concepts of what is

considered good, desirable, and proper-or

bad, undesirable, and improper- in a

culture

Values indicate what people find important

and morally right (or wrong)

Values influence people's behavior andserve as criteria for evaluation the actions

of others


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Americans traditionally prized success throughindividual effort and initiative, Japanese emphasize

collectivism and loyalty to the company


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An overview of U.S. Values made by

sociologists Robin Williams (1965) Achievement and success

Individualism

Activity and work Efficiency and practicality

Material comfort

Freedom

Democracy

Equality


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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Since people can conceptualize the world

only through language, language precedes

thought Word symbols and grammar organize the

world of us and determines our behavior

Language does more than describe reality,it shapes the reality of a culture


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Examples

The Solomon Islanders have 9 distinctwords for coconut, each specifying an

important stage of growth They have only one word for all meals of

the day

The Aleuts (northern Canada) have 33words for snow (texture, temperature,weight, color, load0carrying capacity, etc)


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Examples

The Hanunoo people of the Philippines

have different names for 92 varieties of

riceAmericans use a single word rice

Hanunoo would be incapable of seeing the

distinction b/w a Ford and a Toyota

lecture 5 culture

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