Part 3: Cultural Variation

• Cultural Universals: common features found in all cultures

• 1940’s study results: Body adornment, cooking, dancing, family, feasting, forms of greeting, funeral ceremonies, gift giving, housing, language, medicine, music, myths/folklore, religion, sports and toolmaking

What do we have in Common?

Ethnocentrism/Cultural Relativity• Ethnocentrism:

• The practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture

• Culture Shock: Personal disorientation accompanying exposure to an unfamiliar way

• Cultural Relativity:• The practice of evaluating any

culture by its own standards

Subculture• DEFINITION:

cultural patterns that differentiate some segment of a society’s population

• Can be based on:• Age, residence,

sexual preference, ethnicity and occupation

Counterculture

• DEFINITION: cultural patterns that strongly oppose conventional culture

• Likely to question the morality of the majority group & to engage in some form of protest

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Cultural Change• Cultural change is continuous

• Cultural Lag:• Cultural elements change at

varying rates; often disrupts a cultural system

• Causes of cultural change:

• Social Movements• Invention/Technological

Advances• Population Changes• Physical Environments• Diffusion- Globalization

Cultural Change

Part 4: Theoretical Analysis of Culture

Structural-Functionalism

• A FUNCTIONALIST view of culture:• Draws on the philosophical

doctrine of idealism; holds that ideas & nonmaterial elements are the basis of human reality

• Focus on cultural universals

Conflict Theory• A CONFLICT view of culture:• Inequality among different

groups of people creates social conflict within a culture

• Leads to social and cultural tensions

Symbolic-Interactionism

• A SYMBOLIC view of culture:• Humans constantly negotiate

their cultural surroundings, especially with regards to symbols, values and beliefs

• No two people interpret their culture in the same way

• Leads to tension and misunderstanding