What is culture?

CULTURE

I. Culture and Society

•The Importance of Culture in a Changing World

•Material and Nonmaterial Culture

•Cultural Universals

A. The Importance of Culture in a Changing World:

• 1) Culture refers to the knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or society.

• 2) Since people cannot rely on instincts to survive, culture has been referred to as our “tool kit” for survival. Not only is culture essential for our individual survival and communications with others, but also it is fundamental for the survival of societies since it makes the actions of individuals intelligible to the group.

• 3) As society becomes more diverse and international communication more frequent, the need for cross cultural understanding and mutual tolerance also increases.

B. Material and Nonmaterial Culture

• 1) Material culture consists of the physical, or tangible creations that members of a society make, use, and share.

• 2) Raw materials are transformed into material culture through technology— the knowledge, techniques, and tools that make it possible for people to transform resources into usable forms, and the knowledge and skills required to use these forms after they are developed.

• 3) Nonmaterial culture consists of the abstract or intangible human creations of society that influence people’s behaviour (e.g., language, beliefs, values, rules of behaviour, family patterns, and political systems).

C. Cultural Universals:• 1) According to anthropologist George Murdock, cultural

universals (he list seventy) are customs and practices that occur across all societies. Murdock’s categories included: appearance (i.e. bodily ornament and hairstyles), activities (i.e. dancing, sports), social institutions (i.e. family, religion), and customary practices (i.e. cooking, gift giving).

• 2) While these customs and practices may be present in all cultures (since all humans must fulfill the same basic needs), their expression may vary from one group to another, and from on time to another within the same group.

II. Components of Culture

•Symbols

•Language

•Values

•Norms

A. Cultural could not exist without symbols – anything that meaningfully represents something else because there would be no shared meanings among people.

• 1) Symbols can include objects, gestures, colours, and words.• 2) Symbols can simultaneously produce intense and opposite

emotions, such as loyalty and animosity, love and hate e.g. flags. • 3) In different cultural contexts the same symbol can mean different

things – e.g. A siren going off during a football game versus an emergency. • 4) Symbols can impact our thoughts (and thereby our behaviour)

when it comes to:• A. gender – pink versus blue clothing• B. race and ethnicity – labels and metaphors like primitive and

blackhearted

B. Language is a set of symbols that express ideas and enable people to think and communicate with one

another; it may be either verbal (spoken) or nonverbal (written or gestured).

• 1) Language is not solely a human characteristic; other animals use sounds, gestures, touch, and smell to communicate with each other, but they use signals with fixed meanings that are limited to immediate situation (the present) and cannot encompass past or future situations. • 2) Humans are unique in their ability to manipulate symbols to express

abstract concepts and rules and to create and transmit culture from one generation to the next.• 3) Language and Social Reality:• A. according to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis language shapes reality, however many

social scientists feel that this hypothesis overstates the relationship between language and thought. • B. Most sociologists contend language influence an individual’s perception of time

as being either an indivisible abstract expanse (Hopi) or something that can not only be divided but also lost and saved (English speakers).

B. Language continued• 4) Language and Gender:• A) According to some scholars, the English language ignores women

by using the masculine gender to refer to human beings in general. In addition English nouns and pronouns show the gender of the person we expect to be in a particular occupation.• B) Words have positive connotations when relating to male power,

prestige, and leadership; when related to women, they carry negative overtones of weakness, inferiority, and immaturity. • C) Thinking and referring to women in sexual terms (i.e. fox, doll)

reinforces the notion that women are sexual objects• D) Attempts to introduce more inclusive language (i.e. use of

genderless titles like firefighter instead of fireman for example) have been met with resistance.

B. Language continued• 5) Language, race, and ethnicity:• A) Language may create and reinforce our perceptions about race

and ethnicity by transmitting preconceived ideas about the superiority of one category or people over another. • B) Consider:• i. Words that have more than one meaning (i.e. black as in

blackhearted) which reinforces a negative image.• Ii. Derogatory terms (especially those popularized in movies,

music, or comedy routines)• Iii. The pejorative use of certain adjectives such as primitive,

savage.• iv. The voice of certain verbs, which minimizes a group’s

achievements, i.e. given the right to vote versus, fought for the right.

B. Language continued

• 6) Language Diversity in Canada• A) Canada is a linguistically diverse society consisting of Aboriginal

languages, French, and English, and many other languages. A major issue throughout Canadian history has been how to balance a cultural policy of multiculturalism against a language policy of bilingualism. • B) Canada’s Aboriginal languages are tangible symbols of

Aboriginal culture and group identity. Aboriginal cultures are oral cultures – identity is transmitted through speech rather than the written world. Despite the efforts of Canadian Aboriginal people to maintain their languages, these languages are among the most endangered in the world.

C. Values are collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture – they provide the criteria

for evaluating people, objects and events.• 1) A decade ago participants in the Citizens Forum on Canada’s Future

identified the following core Canadian values:• A) Equality and fairness• B) Consultation and dialogue – Canadians settle their differences in peaceful

consultative manner.• C) Accommodation and tolerance• D) Support for diversity• E) Compassion and generosity• F) Canada’s natural beauty• G) Canada’s world image: Commitment to freedom, peace, and nonviolent change.

C. Values continued• 2) Value contradictions are a values that conflict with one

another or are mutually exclusive. For example, values of morality and humanitarianism may conflict with values of individual achievement and success.

• 3) Ideal culture refers to the values and standards of behaviour that people in a society profess to hold; real culture refers to the values and standards of behaviour that people actually follow. The degree of discrepancy between the two serves as an indicator of social change and potential social problems.

D. Norms: established rules of behaviour or standards of conduct.

• May be prescriptive (specifying acceptable behaviour), or proscriptive (specifying unacceptable behaviour). Whether they are formal (written) or informal (unwritten but understood) norms may be enforced through the use of social sanctions. Sanctions, rewards or penalties, can range from praise or medals to mild disapproval and imprisonment. Norms may include: • 1) Folkways are informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without

serious consequences within a particular culture (e.g. using underarm deodorant).• 2) Mores are strongly held norms with moral and ethical connotations that may not

be violates without serious consequences in a particular culture. The strongest of the mores are referred to as:• 3) taboos– mores so strong that their violation is considered to be extremely

offensive and even unmentionable (e.g. incest).• 4) Laws are formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and

are enforces by formal sanctions. Laws may be either civil (disputes between individuals or groups) or criminal (dealing with public safety or well-being).

III. Technology, Cultural Change and Diversity

•Cultural Change

•Cultural Diversity

•Culture Shock

•Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

A. Culture Change:

• is continual in all societies, however all parts of a culture may not change at the same pace.

•Sociologist William F. Ogburn identifies cultural lag as a gap between the technical development (material culture) of a society and its moral and legal institutions (nonmaterial culture).

Cultural Changes are often set in motion by:

•1) Discovery is the process of learning about something previously unknown or unrecognized (e.g., discovery of the polio vaccine).

•2) Invention is the process of reshaping existing cultural items into a new form (e.g., guns, video games, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, computers).

•3) Diffusion is the transmission of cultural items or social practices from one group or society to another (e.g. Piñatas from China, to Italy, to Spain, to Mexico).

B. Cultural Diversity:•Refers to the wide range of cultural differences found

between and within nations. It may be a product of natural circumstances (i.e. climate or geography) or social circumstances (i.e. level of technology or population composition). •1) Homogeneous societies include people who share a

common culture and are typically from similar social, religious, political, and economic backgrounds (e.g. Sweden). •2) Heterogeneous societies include people who are

dissimilar in their backgrounds. These may be differences of ethnicity, religious, class, and language (e.g. Canada).

Two other forms of diversity include a:

•A) Subculture: which is a group of people who share a distinctive set of cultural beliefs and behaviours that differ in some significant way from that of the larger society (e.g. Hutterites).

•B) Counterculture: which is a group that strongly rejects dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles (e.g. neo-Nazi skinheads, Ku Klux Clan).

C. Culture Shock:

•Is the disruption that people feel when they encounter cultures radically different from their own, and they suddenly realize that they cannot depend on their own taken-for-granted assumptions about life (e.g. Napoleon Chagnon and the Yanomamo).

D. Ethnocentrism:• Is the practice of judging all other cultures by one’s

own culture and is based on the assumption that one’s own way of life is superior to all others.

•1) Ethnocentrism can serve a positive function by promoting group solidarity and loyalty (e.g. flag, school songs, national anthems).

•2) Negative ethnocentrism is manifested in derogatory stereotypes, conflict, hostility, and even war.

Cultural relativism—• the belief that the behaviours and customs of any

culture must be viewed and analyzed by the culture’s own standards – is an alternative to ethnocentrism.•1) According to Marvin Harris religious prohibitions

such as the Hindu taboo against killing cattle can be explained as an economic adaptation to an ecological system (live cows are more valuable than dead ones since they produce oxen, manure for fertilizer, and milk).•2) The downside to relativism is that it may be used to

excuse customs and behaviour that may violate basic human rights (e.g. cannibalism).

IV. Global Popular Culture

•High Culture and Popular Culture

•Forms of Popular Culture

A. High Culture and Popular Culture•A. High Culture and popular culture are ideal types used by sociologists to distinguish between different cultural forms. •According to Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory high culture is a device used by the dominant class to naturalize the differences between social classes.

A. High Culture and Popular Culture

•1) High Culture consists of activities such as classical music, ballet, opera, or live theatre, which are usually patronized by an elite audience (upper middle and upper classes) who have the time, money, education, and knowledge assumed to be necessary for their appreciation.

•2) Popular culture consists of activities, products and services – for example, rock concerts, soap operas, television and the Internet. Also referred to as mass culture, many of the associated mediums also serve as outlets for racism, sexism, nativism, and hate groups.

B. The Three Prevalent Forms of Popular Culture:•1) Fads: generally short-lived but widely copied

activities that can consist of objects (e.g. Beanie Babies), ideas (e.g. New Age ideologies), activities (e.g. body piercing), and personality (e.g. Tiger Woods).

•2) Fashion: a currently valued style of dressing, behaving, or thinking, that is longer lasting and more widespread than a fad.

•3) Leisure activities: For example, thanks to immigration soccer has become a very popular and widely played sport in Canadian schools.

V. Sociological Analysis of Culture

•Functionalist Perspective

•Conflict Perspective

•Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives

•Postmodern Perspectives

A. Functionalist Perspective•1) Assumes society is a stable orderly system with interrelated parts that serve specific functions.•2) According to anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski culture helps people meet their biological, instrumental, and integrative needs.•3) According to functionalist theorists, while societies where people share a common language and core values are more likely to have consensus and harmony, all societies have dysfunctions.

A. Functionalist Perspective

•4) The role of popular culture is two edged:•a. It may be the glue that holds culture together –

through exposure to common images, beliefs and values via television, recent immigrants can be more quickly homogenized or integrated into the mainstream and the mainstream can be made more homogeneous.

•b. Alternatively, when a society contains numerous subcultures, popular culture may undermine core cultural values, and so produce discord rather than harmony, in two significant ways:

A. Functionalist Perspective• i. First it encourages the development of various subcultures (music types for example) each of which may have its own language and value system.•Ii. Second, the messages of popular culture (i.e. movies and television) differentially target teens and young adults as an audience, rather than older or middle aged adults. Creating an information or interests “gap”.

A. Functionalist Perspective

•5) The strengths of this perspective lie with its focus on social needs and stability, its weakness with the overemphasis on harmony and cooperation (it fails to acknowledge the societal factors that contribute to conflict such as racism and sexism).

B. Conflict Perspective•1) Conflict perspectives are based on the assumption

that social life is a continuous struggle in which members of powerful groups seek to control scarce resources.

•2) Values and norms help create and sustain the privileged position of the powerful in society.

•3) Early conflict theorist Karl Marx stressed that ideas are the cultural creations of a society’s most powerful members. Applied in the form of ideology (an integrated system of ideas that is external to and coercive of, people) they maintain the dominance status quo.

B. Conflict Perspective•4) Conflict theorists believe popular culture is no longer

‘popular’ in that it no longer originates with the everyday person, but rather, it serves the interests of the capitalist economy. Popular culture: promotes consumption of commodities, markets as ‘needs’ items that are minor at best, and reinforces cultural images that negatively stereotypes women and people of colour.

•5) The strength of this perspective is that it highlights sources of social inequality and emphasizes the inevitability of change. Its limitations lie with its almost exclusive focus on discord and divisiveness.

C. Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives

•1) Symbolic interactionists engage in a microlevel analysis that views society as the sum of all people’s interactions.

•2) According to symbolic interactionist theory, people continually negotiate their social realities. Values and norms are not independent realities that automatically determine our behaviour, we reinterpret them in each social situation we encounter.

C. Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives•3) Sociologist Georg Simmel warned that eventually the

larger cultural world – material and nonmaterial – eventually takes on a life of its own apart from the actors who daily re-create it. Money for example was initially created as a means of exchange, but then it acquired a social meaning that made money an end in itself rather than a means to an end.

•4) While this perspective does highlight how individuals maintain and change culture through social interaction, it does not provide a systematic framework for analyzing how we shape culture, how we are shaped by culture, and how shared meanings are developed.

D. Postmodern Perspectives

•1) Postmodern theories believe that much of what has been written about culture in the Western world is Eurocentric, and that we should speak of cultures rather than culture.

•2) Jean Baudrillard believes that social life is much more a spectacle that simulates reality than reality itself, and that this simulation (or hyper-reality) has become more real to us than the actual world it mimics.

D. Postmodern Perspectives

•3) According to postmodernism no one authority or perspective can claim to know social reality, we should focus on deconstructing existing beliefs and theories about culture in hopes of gaining new insights. •4) Criticism of his perspective revolves around three

ideas:•a. a lack of clear conceptualization of ideas•b. it criticizes other perspectives as being “grand

narratives” then turns around and offers its own version of the same thing.•c. some analysts believe that postmodern analyses of

culture lead to profound pessimism about the future.

Questions and Issues:

•What part does culture play in intolerance toward others and

in hate crimes?

Questions and Issues:

•What part does culture play in shaping individuals?

Questions and Issues:

•What are the essential components of culture?

Questions and Issues:

•To what degree are we shaped by popular culture?

Questions and Issues:

•How do subcultures and countercultures reflect

diversity within a society?

Questions and Issues:

•How do the various sociological perspectives view culture?