Culture

1
Chapter 3

• Culture

2
Chapter Outline

• Defining Culture
• The Elements of Culture
• Cultural Diversity
• Popular Culture
• Theoretical Perspectives on Culture
• Cultural Change

3
Defining Culture

• Complex system of meaning and behavior that
  defines the way of life for a society.
• Includes beliefs, values, knowledge, art,
  morals, laws, customs, habits, language, and
  dress.

4
Characteristics of Culture

1. Culture is shared.
2. Culture is learned.
3. Culture is taken for granted.
4. Culture is symbolic.
5. Culture varies across time and place.

5
Culture is

• Concrete
• We can observe cultural practices that define
  human experience.
• Abstract
• It is a way of thinking, feeling, believing, and
  behaving.

6
Elements of Culture
Element Examples
Language English Spanish hieroglyphics
Norms Manners
Folkways Cultural forms of dress food habits
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Elements of Culture
Element Examples
Mores Religious doctrines formal law
Values Liberty, freedom
Beliefs Belief in a higher being
8
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

• Language determines what people think because it
  forces them to perceive the world in certain
  terms.
• Critics question whether language single-handedly
  dictates the perception of reality.

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The Social Meaning of Language

• Language affects peoples perception of reality.
• Studies find that when college students look at
  job descriptions written in masculine pronouns,
  they assume women are not qualified for the job.

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The Social Meaning of Language

• Language reflects the social and political status
  of different groups in society.
• The term working woman suggests that women who
  do not work for wages are not working.

11
The Social Meaning of Language

• Groups may advocate changing language referring
  to them as a way of asserting a positive group
  identity.
• Some advocates for the disabled challenge the
  term handicapped, arguing that it stigmatizes
  people who may have many abilities.

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The Social Meaning of Language

• The implications of language emerge from specific
  historical and cultural contexts.
• The naming of so-called races comes from the
  social and historical processes that define
  different groups as inferior or superior.

13
The Social Meaning of Language

• Language can distort actual group experience.
• The terms Hispanic and Latino lump together
  Mexican Americans, island Puerto Ricans,
  U.S.-born Puerto Ricans, people from Honduras,
  Panama, El Salvador, and other Central and South
  American countries.

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The Social Meaning of Language

• Language shapes peoples perceptions of groups
  and events in society.
• The statement that Columbus discovered America
  implies that Native American societies didnt
  exist before Columbus found the Americas.

15
The Social Meaning of Language

• Terms used to define groups change over time and
  can originate in movements to assert a positive
  identity.
• In the 1960s, Black American replaced Negro.
• Earlier, Negro and colored were used to
  define African Americans.
• Currently, it is popular to refer to all
  so-called racial groups as people of color.

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Norms

• Specific cultural expectations for how to behave
  in a given situation.
• A society without norms would be in chaos with
  established norms, people know how to act, and
  social interactions are consistent, predictable,
  and learnable.
• Social sanctions are mechanisms of social
  control that enforce norms.

17
Beliefs

• Shared ideas people hold collectively within a
  culture.
• Beliefs are the basis for many of a cultures
  norms and values.
• Beliefs orient people to the world by providing
  answers to otherwise imponderable questions about
  the meaning of life.

18
Values

• Abstract standards in a society or group that
  define the ideal principles of what is desirable
  and morally correct.
• Values determine what is considered right and
  wrong, beautiful and ugly, good and bad.
• Values can provide rules for behavior, but can
  also be the source of conflict.

19
Cultural Diversity

• The United States has enormous cultural diversity
  from religious, ethnic, and racial differences,
  as well as regional, age, gender, and class
  differences.
• 11 of people living in the United States are
  foreign-born.
• In a single year, immigrants from more than 100
  countries come to the United States.
• 18 of young people speak a language other than
  English at home.

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Speaking LanguageOther Than English at Home
21
Polling Question

• Do you favor or oppose an amendment to the U.S.
  Constitution that would make English the official
  language of the United States?
• A.) Favor
• B.) Oppose
• C.) No opinion

22
Dominant Culture

• The dominant culture is the most powerful group
  in society.
• It receives the most support from major
  institutions and constitutes the major belief
  system.
• Social institutions in the society perpetuate the
  dominant culture and give it a degree of
  legitimacy that is not shared by other cultures.

23
Subcultures

• The cultures of groups whose values and norms of
  behavior differ from the dominant culture.
• Members of subcultures interact frequently and
  share a common world view.
• Subcultures share some elements of the dominant
  culture and coexist within it.

24
Countercultures

• Subcultures created as a reaction against the
  values of the dominant culture.
• Members of the counterculture reject the dominant
  cultural values and develop cultural practices
  that defy the norms and values of the dominant
  group.
• Nonconformity to the dominant culture is often
  the mark of a counterculture.

25
Ethnocentrism

• Judging a culture by standards of ones own
  culture
• builds group solidarity
• discourages understanding
• can lead to conflict, war, and genocide

26
Popular Culture

• The beliefs, practices, and objects that are part
  of everyday traditions.
• It is mass-produced and mass-consumed.
• Has enormous significance in the formation of
  public attitudes and values, and plays a
  significant role in shaping the patterns of
  consumption in contemporary society.

27
The Influence of the Mass Media

• The average person consumes some form of media 71
  hours per weekmore time than they likely spend
  in school or at work.
• 95 of all homes in the United States have at
  least one televisionmore than have telephone
  service.
• Watching television is the most popular leisure
  activity of Americans 26 say it is their
  favorite way to spend an evening.

28
Of Americans Who Say They Are Offended by
Television Content (by Age)
29
Polling Question

• Rate yourself on attractiveness to the opposite
  sex compared with the average person your age and
  in your culture.
• A.) Highest 10 percent
• B.) Above average
• C.) Average
• D.) Below Average
• E.) Bottom 10 percent

30
Theoretical Perspectives on Culture
Theory Culture.
Functionalism Integrates people into groups.
Conflict Theory Serves interests of powerful groups.
31
Theoretical Perspectives on Culture
Theory Culture.
Symbolic Interaction Creates group identity from diverse cultural meanings.
New Cultural Studies Is unpredictable and constantly changing.
32
Sources of Cultural Change

1. A change in societal conditions.
2. Cultural diffusion
3. Innovation
4. Imposition of cultural change by an outside
   agency.

33
Fast Food and the Transformation of Culture

• The average person in the United States consumes
  3 hamburgers and 4 orders of French fries per
  week.
• Americans spend more money on fast food than on
  movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos,
  music, computers, and higher education combined.
• 1 in 8 workers has at some point been employed by
  McDonalds.

34
Fast Food and the Transformation of Culture

• McDonalds is the largest private operator of
  playgrounds in the United States.
• McDonalds is the single largest purchaser of
  beef, pork, and potatoes.
• 96 of American schoolchildren can identify
  Ronald McDonald, which is only exceeded by the
  number who can identify Santa Claus.

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Quick Quiz
36

• 1. Culture includes all of the following
  excepta. impulsesb. lawsc. artd.
  knowledge

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Answer a

• Culture does not include impulses.

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• 2. Which of the following statements about
  culture is not true?
• a. Cultural beliefs and practices are learned.
• b. Cultural beliefs and practices are
  constantly questioned.
• c. Culture is dynamic that is it changes over
  time.
• d. A significant aspect of culture is that it
  is shared.

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Answer b

• The statement, cultural beliefs and practices are
  constantly questioned, is not true.

40

• 3. Expectations about what is appropriate
  behavior in particular situations are referred to
  as
• a. values
• b. laws
• c. norms
• d. beliefs

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Answer c

• Expectations about what is appropriate behavior
  in particular situations are referred to as norms.

42

• 4. Values can best be defined as
• a. What is considered appropriate behavior
• b. Shared ideas that provide a life theme
• c. Shared ideas held collectively by people
• d. What is considered socially and morally
  desirable

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Answer d

• Values can best be defined as what is considered
  socially and morally desirable.

44

• 4. Which of the following is not an example of
  subcultures?
• a. Inner-city youth
• b. Deadheads
• c. The Amish
• d. Militia groups

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Answer d

• A militia group is not an example of a subculture.

46

• 5. Which of the following statements reflects the
  symbolic interactionist view of culture?
• a. Culture creates norms and values that help
  integrate people into society
• b. Culture serves to reinforce the position of
  power enjoyed by the elite
• c. Culture is socially constructed
• d. Culture can be a source of political
  resistance

47
Answer c

• That statement, culture is socially constructed,
  reflects the symbolic interactionist view of
  culture.