Culture Change

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Culture Change
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Cultural change

• No culture remains unchanged
• Societies continually experience cultural change
  a both material and non-material levels

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Changes in Technology continue to shape the
material culture of a society.

• Most technological changes are primarily
  modifications of existing technologies new
  technologies are changes that make a significant
  difference in many peoples
• lives.

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Culture change is a process.

• Cultures change in three ways
• Discovery
• Invention
• Diffusion

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Discovery

• is the process of learning about something
  previously unknown or recognized.

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Early discoveries

• Fire provided light warmth and more tasty
  tender food 250000 years ago
• Firing of clay to make it hard around 7000BC

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• Earth revolving around the sun (Galileo Galilei
  1632)
• 1928 Discovery of penicillin by Alex. Fleming

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Many discoveries today come from scientific
research

• Polio vaccination virtually eliminated
  childhood disease
• Modern medical technology has increased our life
  expectancy these innovations have made us aware
  of the importance of a healthy lifestyle through
  better diets and regular exercise

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As more discoveries have occurred people have
been able to reconfigure existing material and
nonmaterial cultural items through invention.
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Invention

• is the process of reshaping existing cultural
  items into a new form.
• Guns Gunpowder from arrows
• Telephone
• Light bulbs
• Flight

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• 1450 The Guttenburg printing press changed the
  way and the speed that people spread information

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How did books get written before the printing
press

• They were transcribed by hand!! Ouch!!
• Therefore they only produced books that were
  guaranteed best sellers.
• What was the best seller in 1455
• The Bible

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Diffusion

• is the transmission of cultural items or social
  practices from one group or society to another

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How does diffusion occur

• Exploration
• Military Endeavors
• Media
• Tourism
• Immigration

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• Some parts of culture are more likely to be
  diffused than others.
• Items of material culture are more likely
  candidates for diffusion than ideas or behavior
  patterns

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Once a cultural element is accepted in a new
culture it may change in form or function.

• Example Piñatas brought to Europe by Marco
  Polo from China in the 12c. It was used in china
  to celebrate the harvest seasons.

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• In Italy the nobles filled them with costly
  gifts and played a game
• In Spain It became part of the Christian Lenten
  tradition
• In Mexico it was used to celebrate the birth of
  the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli

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• Today children in many countries have a great
  time hitting piñatas with sticks at parties
  when it breaks open candy and/or toys fall out
  for all the children.

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There is some resistance to diffusion
France bids Adieu to E-mail PARIS July 18
2003-- Goodbye e-mail the French government
says and hello courriel the term that
linguistically sensitive France is now using to
refer to electronic mail in official documents.
The Culture Ministry has announced a ban on the
use of e-mail in all government ministries
documents publications or websites the latest
step to stem an incursion of English words into
the French lexicon.
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Other causes of culture change

• Pressures arising from
• Political Ideas Monarchy/Democracy/Communism
• Environmental Concerns Global Warming
  Sustainable Development
• Health Concerns - longer life expectancy means
  healthier lifestyles - SARS HIV/AIDS
• Social Issues Civil Rights Movement Feminism
  - Gay Marriages - Equality for all (Declaration
  of Human Rights is an invention)

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Cultural Lag

• a gap between the technical development of a
  society and its moral and legal institutions.
• This happens when material culture changes faster
  than nonmaterial culture and it creates a lag
  (space) between the two cultural components.

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• Ex. Material culture computers and electronic
  coding have made it possible to create a unique
  health identifier for each person in Canada.
  This would enable us to make a data base that
  included everyones individual medical records
  from birth to death it could be used by health
  providers (hospitals doctors) and insurance
  companies to transfer medical records anywhere
  quickly.

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But

• The available technology does not mean that it
  will be accepted by the people who believe
  (non-material culture) that such a national data
  bank would be an invasion of privacy that could
  be abused by others.

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Cultural Lag is also when

• one generation of the culture may adapt to change
  quickly while another does not (computers mp3
  players ipods email blogging cell phones
  text messaging web chatting most young people
  have mastered this technology while their
  parents/guardians/grandparents are unable to
  operate or understand this technology)

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In todays shrinking globe or global village
cultural diffusion moves at a very fast pace as
countries continually seek new markets for their
products.

• Euro Disney
• Disney Japan
• McDonalds in Moscow Tokyo
• Stuff in general

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Cultural Diffusion or Cultural Confusion

• The Global Marketing Hall of Shame

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Coca-Cola

• Launching their drink in China found a phrase
  that sounded perfect
• Ko-kou-ke-la. After printing many signs the
  masterminds at Coke discovered they had names
  their drink
• Bite the wax tadtole

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Ford

• Faced several problems in playing the name game
• Pinto in Brazil is slang for tiny male
  genitals
• They later changed the name to Corcel
• Meaning Horse

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Kentucky Fried Chicken

• Finger Lickin Good
• In China
• Eat your fingers off

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Chevy

• Nova
• In South America no va
• means
• it wont go in Spanish

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Pepsi

• Come alive with the Pepsi Generation
• Translated into Taiwanese as
• Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the
  dead.

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Coors Light Beer

• Promotion aimed at Hispanics in the United States
  with the slogan Turn it Loose
• Translated into Spanish
• Drink Coors and get diarrea.

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• Coca-Cola introduced 2 litre bottles in Japan
  but was unaware the few Japanese refrigerators
  were big enough to hold the bottle
• In the 1960s Betty Crocker tried to market its
  cake mixes in Japan most Japanese homes did not
  have an oven

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• When McDonalds ventured into china the
  corporate mascot Ronald McDonald was at the
  launch but to the Chinese the clown is symbol
  of death
• A toothpaste company ran a commercial in
  Southeast Asia claiming its product would whiten
  teeth.problem
• the target market were in the habit of chewing
  betel nut in order to achieve darkly stained
  teeth a sign of social prestige