Culture

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Chapter 2

• Culture

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Chapter Outline

• The Origins and Components of Culture
• Culture as Freedom and Constraint
• Culture as Freedom
• Culture as Constraint

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The Origins of Culture

• 100,000 years ago, humans lived in harsh natural
  environments and were slower runners and weaker
  fighters than many other animals.
• They survived, prospered and came to dominate
  nature by creating cultural survival kits.

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Cultural survival kits

• Abstraction - ideas or ways of thinking that are
  not linked to particular instances.
• Cooperation - establishing generally accepted
  ways of doing things.
• Production -making and using tools and techniques
  that improve our ability to take what we want
  from nature.

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Building Blocks of Culture
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The Sapir-Whorf Thesis
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The Sapir-Whorf Thesis

• We experience certain things in our environment
  and form concepts about those things.
• We develop language to express our concepts.
• Language itself influences how we see the world.

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Culture as Freedom and Constraint

• Two Faces of Culture
• Culture provides an opportunity to exercise our
  freedom.
• Existing culture puts limits on what we can think
  and do. In that sense, culture constrains us.

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Cultural Diversity

• American society is undergoing cultural
  diversification in all aspects of life
• growing popularity of Latino music
• increasing influence of Asian design in clothing
  and architecture
• marriage between people of different ethnic groups

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Polling Question

• With which cultural background do you identify
  with the most? Choose only one.
• Anglo (white, non-Hispanic)
• Hispanic
• African American, black
• Native American (American Indian)
• Asian
• Other

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Multiculturalism debate

• Advocates of multiculturalism want curricula to
  reflect ethnic and racial diversity.
• They believe multicultural education will promote
  self-esteem and economic success among racial
  minorities.
• Critics believe multicultural education causes
  political disunity and interracial conflict,
  promoting an extreme form of cultural relativism.

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The Rights Revolution

• The process of socially excluded groups
  struggling to win equal rights under the law.
• womens rights, minority rights, gay and lesbian
  rights, the rights of people with special needs
• Because of the rights revolution, democracy has
  widened and deepened.

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Globalization of Culture

• The globalization of culture has resulted from
  the growth of
• International trade and investment
• Ethnic and racial migration
• Influential transnational organizations
• Inexpensive travel and communication

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Internet Usage by Language Group, June 2001
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Internet Usage by Language Group, September 2003
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Postmodernism Culture

• Involves
• Eclectic mixing of elements from different times
  and places
• The erosion of authority.
• The decline of consensus around some core values.

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Polling Question

• Some people in our culture are very concerned
  about the amount of pornography we have in this
  country others are not much concerned at all.
  How about you? Are you
• Very concerned
• Fairly concerned
• Only somewhat concerned
• Not really concerned at all

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Unconventional Beliefs Among Christian
Fundamentalists
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Confidence in Washington,19581999
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Core American values
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In the long run, do you think scientific
advances will help or harm mankind? ( harm)
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Value Change in the United States and Globally

• Although people in much of the world are freer
  than ever to choose their values, powerful social
  forces constrain their choices.
• These constraints result in the formation of
  distinct value clusters that change gradually
  over time.

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Traditional Value Dimension

• Respondents with traditional values s
• God is important in their life.
• Abortion is never justifiable.
• It is more important for a child to learn
  religious faith than independence and
  determination.

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Modern Value Dimension

• Respondents with modern values
• God is not important in their lives.
• Abortion is justifiable.
• It is more important for children to learn
  independence and determination than religious
  faith.

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Materialist Value Dimension

• Respondents with materialist values
• Give priority to security over self-expression.
• Describe themselves as not very happy.
• Say they never have signed a petition.

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Postmaterialist Value Dimension

• Respondents with postmaterialist values
• Give priority to self-expression and quality of
  life.
• Describe themselves as very happy.
• Tend to have signed, and would again sign, a
  petition.

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Consumerism

• The tendency to define oneself interms of the
  goods purchased.
• Excessive consumption
• puts limits on who we can become
• constrains our capacity to dissent from
  mainstream culture
• degrades the natural environment

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Value Change in Seven Countries, 198197
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Rationalization Weber

• Rationalization is one of the most constraining
  aspects of culture
• The application of the most efficient means to
  achieve goals and the unintended, negative
  consequences of doing so.

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The Rationalization of Chinese Script

• In classical script, listening is depicted as
  involving the eyes, the ears, and the heart.
• Implies that listening demands the utmost empathy
  and involves the whole person.

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The Rationalization of Chinese Script

• Modern script depicts listening as something that
  involves one person speaking and the other
  weighing speech.

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Advertising as of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
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Quick Quiz
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• Which of the tools in the cultural survival kit
  involves the capacity to create a complex social
  life by establishing norms?
• Abstraction
• Cooperation
• Production
• Rationalization
• none of these choices

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Answer b

• Cooperation is the tool in the cultural survival
  kit that involves the capacity to create a
  complex social life by establishing norms.

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• 2. The Sapir-Whorf thesis holds that
• genes account for specific behaviors and social
  practices
• high culture is consumed mainly by upper classes
  and popular culture by all classes
• the language we speak influences how we see the
  world
• none of these choices

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Answer c

• The Sapir-Whorf thesis holds that the language we
  speak influences how we see the world.

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• 3. Advocates of multiculturalism argue that
• school and college curricula should present a
  picture of America that better reflects its
  ethnic and racial diversity
• multicultural education hurts students by forcing
  them to spend too much time studying noncore
  subjects
• multicultural education results in more
  interracial conflict
• none of these choices

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Answer a

• Advocates of multiculturalism argue that school
  and college curricula should present a picture of
  America that better reflects its ethnic and
  racial diversity.

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• 4. Consumerism is
• a subculture
• a rite of passage
• a product of multiculturalism
• the tendency to define ourselves in terms of the
  goods we purchase
• none of these choices

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Answer d

• Consumerism is the tendency to define ourselves
  in terms of the goods we purchase.

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• 5. As suggested by the rise of consumerism,
  rationalization makes us freer.
• True
• False

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Answer b

• Rationalization does not makes us freer.