1c - Essay for Prof. Raskoff PDF

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Essay for Prof. Raskoff...

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What is Culture? Culture includes all sorts of things that we take for granted such as language, standards of beauty, hand gestures, styles of dress, food, and music.... Technology has an effect on culture. We can see this with the types of societies that have evolved over time due to changes in technology. These changes relate to how the basic necessities of life are provided, what luxuries are available, and how many different options in society are available to people. Humans have lived in Hunting & Gathering Societies, Horticultural Societies, Agrarian and Agricultural Societies, Industrial Societies, and now Postindustrial Societies. Think about what you already know about these different types of societies… we’ll get back to them later. (Your text has a great description of each type – don’t rush through them!) Culture can be material or symbolic! Material Culture are the actual objects or things associated with a cultural group while Non-Material or Symbolic Culture are the ways of thinking, ways of behaving, all of which give meaning beyond any material items that may be involved.

Components of Culture includes signs, gestures, language, values, and norms. Signs (or symbols) are things that have meaning and are recognized by people in that culture. Our money has more meaning than the paper and ink or metals used to make it. Otherwise, would you burn up a $100 bill? No! It has meaning – it has worth beyond the material goods of which it consists. Gestures are physical movements that are a type of sign or symbol and communicate ideas much like verbal language. These include movements we don’t even consciously think about. When you’re talking to someone and they nod their head up and down, you probably know that means they’re agreeing with you. In another culture, that movement might not have the same meaning. Be careful what movements you make – some gestures in our culture are obscene in other cultures! Culture

Instructions: Read Chapter 3 & Article 3

We are social creatures to the inmost center of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong. ― Karl R. Popper

What is Culture? Culture includes all sorts of things that we take for granted such as language, standards of beauty, hand gestures, styles of dress, food, and music.... Technology has an effect on culture. We can see this with the types of societies that have evolved over time due to changes in technology. These changes relate to how the basic necessities of life are provided, what luxuries are available, and how many different options in society are available to people. Humans have lived in Hunting & Gathering Societies, Horticultural Societies, Agrarian and Agricultural Societies, Industrial Societies, and now Postindustrial Societies. Think about what you already know about these different types of societies… we’ll get back to them later. (Your text has a great description of each type – don’t rush through them!) Culture can be material or symbolic! Material Culture are the actual objects or things associated with a cultural group while Non-Material or Symbolic Culture are the ways of thinking, ways of behaving, all of which give meaning beyond any material items that may be involved. Components of Culture includes signs, gestures, language, values, and norms. Signs (or symbols) are things that have meaning and are recognized by people in that culture. Our money has more meaning than the paper and ink or metals used to make it. Otherwise, would you burn up a $100 bill? No! It has meaning – it has worth beyond the material goods of which it consists. Gestures are physical movements that are a type of sign or symbol and communicate ideas much like verbal language. These include movements we don’t even consciously think about. When you’re talking to someone and they nod their head up and down, you probably know that means they’re agreeing with you. In another culture, that movement might not have the same meaning. Be careful what movements you make – some gestures in our culture are obscene in other cultures! Language is technically “a system of symbols that allow people to communicate with each other.” We learn language as we grow. As your text so nicely states the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis holds that language structures thought. If a language (culture) has words for something, it is important in that culture. If a language has many words to describe something, this also signals importance in some way at least in that they encounter that thing in many ways. If you are multilingual and know more than one language, think about whether or not every word translates well, especially into English. There are usually many words that don’t translate into other languages because the culture that created the

language has experience and importance with that issue or item that another culture does not. Values are shared beliefs about what a group considers worthwhile or desirable. (Your text points out that beliefs are the underpinnings of values and are about truth but it’s fine for our purposes to focus more on values.) When thinking about how our own culture relates to that of others, we may have two options. Ethnocentrism is using one’s own culture as a standard to evaluate another group. This is a problem and is often a source of conflict between societies. The other option is Cultural Relativism which is the process of understanding other cultures on their own terms. It is not easy to do so if the culture is radically different from your own but it is important to try. Turn it around - wouldn't you want those from another culture to try to value yours on your terms rather than judge you by theirs?

Looking at these photos of food from some Asian cultures, realize that those are not noodles, they are stir fried grubs - much like worms, maggots, and other wiggly creatures that some cultures relish, we in American culture are not used to eating such items (Science News 2008). What is your reaction to this? Is it one of ethnocentrism or can you practice some cultural relativism? American Values are quite interesting and fun to play with as we learn how culture and society work. The text lists ten key values – equal opportunity, individual achievement and personal success, material comfort, activity and work, practicality and efficiency, progress, science, democracy and free enterprise, freedom, racism and group superiority. Think about these before you jump over to the discussion area. ;-) Norms are guidelines (standards) for expected behaviors. This is one of the most important concepts in sociology and is one that we will keep returning to throughout the semester. Keep in mind that norms are GUIDELINES (sorry for shouting) and that some or even many people might not follow the norms! (We’ll be discussing this…)

Types of Norms include Folkways (a loosely enforced norm), Mores (a norm with great moral significance), and Taboos (the strongest type of norm). My favorite example of a folkway norms is a formal table setting. Do you know what to do with such a thing? Do you remember the first time you sat down at a table (if you ever have) and wondered what to do with some of the things at your setting? Which bread plate is yours? Which

water glass is yours? What fork do you use for what? Basically, you use the silverware from the outside in – the salad is usually served first and that’s the outside small fork on the left. One of my daughters learned a handy way to remember the bread and glass dilemma: on each hand, touch your thumb to your index finger and extend your other fingers straight up – notice that your left hand makes a ‘b’ and your right hand makes a ‘d’ – b for bread, d for drink! Breaking a folkway isn’t a big deal but it can be embarrassing – if you’re having a formal dinner with your boss or the President. Feel free to use the ‘b’ and ‘d’ trick to avoid using the wrong plate or glass… How Does Society Enforce Norms? Sanctions help to establish social control. Positive sanctions are rewards for conformity while negative sanctions are punishments for norm violators. Formal controls like laws and policies are typically negative sanctions. Informal controls like interactions and behaviors can be either positive or negative sanctions. If you follow a norm and your parents says, “Good job, kid!” that can be a positive sanction. If you break a norm and people look at you weirdly or you get scolded, these are negative sanctions. Sanctions can be harsh (jail terms or the death penalty) or minimal (looks or verbal reminders). There are different types of culture in a society. There is the Dominant Culture - the values, norms, and practices of the group within society that is most powerful. Subcultures have distinctive values, norms, and lifestyle. Countercultures openly reject and/or actively oppose society’s values and norms. Cultural Change does occur, usually very slowly and incrementally. However, at times (and usually due to changes in technology or war), things can change in a very rapid and dramatic way. What happens when society changes very quickly? ANOMIE - a state of normlessness occurs. This is a concept brought to us by Durkheim. When society changes rapidly, the old norms no longer apply yet the new norms have not yet been adapted – this is not a good situation Socialization

Socialization is the process of learning and internalizing the values, beliefs, and norms of our social group. We are not capable of being fully human unless we are socialized. In fact, we cannot develop fully unless we have interaction with other humans. (The film Slingblade is a great example, as is Tarzan.)

Social scientists have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we become who we become. (This is where sociology and psychology overlap – and create a field called social psychology!) Much of that research has paid attention to the development of the Self - our personal identity that is separate and different from all other people. Basically, it is created and modified through interaction in our lives. Your text discusses many of the theories on this issue yet I’d like to highlight just a few. Freud’s model of personality is useful for its concepts, id, ego, and superego. The id is the energy center tied to our bodies, the ego is our self awareness and conscious awareness, while the superego is the cultural values and norms that we internalize. The id is present at birth, the ego soon emerges while the superego develops over time as a child grows into an adult. George Herbert Mead lived at the same time as Freud and also saw the self as developing in childhood. Learning to “take on the role of the other” by interacting with others and understanding what others are doing in society is a major contribution of his theories. His concepts, the “I”, the “me”, and the “generalized other” are somewhat analogous to Freud’s id, ego, and superego, respectively. Both Mead and Freud saw the growth from childhood into adulthood as going through stages (as did may other theorists). Mead’s stages, however, had to do with perceiving oneself in relation to others. As we grow, learning to play – go through the motions of doing what adults do, e.g., playing house – and later learning how to play games – where you have to anticipate the actions of the other players and know the rules – are hallmarks of those stages of developing the generalize other. One can think about the id and I as the devils on our shoulder, whispering in our ears to act on every impulse, while the superego and generalized other are whispering in the other ear about what society

expects and to follow those norms. The ego and me are evaluating both of these sources of information and made decisions – likely to follow the id/I if we are younger or less mature or follow the superego/generalized other if we are older and fully mature. Differences between Mead and Freud would include that Mead didn’t think (as Freud did) that the sex drive was the main engine behind everything that we do. Charles Cooley coined a handy phrase that Mead uses – the lookingglass self. As we move through our lives, every day, every minute, we (subconsciously) evaluate ourselves based on how we think others see us. The looking glass metaphor is a handy one but not meant literally. If someone were to see you right now, what would they think of you? How do you feel about that? How do you behave as a result? That is the basic process of the looking glass self but we do this constantly and subconsciously. Agents of Socialization are those entities in society that socialize us. By the way, socialization does not just occur in childhood – it is a lifelong process! Major agents include: Family, Religion, Education, Peers, and Media. The family is our first and single most significant agent of socialization in all societies and teaches us the basic values and norms that shape our identity. We encounter religion and education as we grow and these bring in more diverse examples and pressures. Both religion and education have manifest functions and latent functions. Manifest functions are those that are intended – religion provides meaning and education teaches us culture. Latent functions are unintended consequences – both religion and education give us a marriage market in which we might meet and marry a partner. While these two institutions are not designed specifically for that, it happens anyway. Another (hopefully) fascinating aspect of the educational socialization process is the hidden curriculum in which many things are informally taught. Much like latent functions, the hidden curriculum is not planned but it happens. Your text uses the example of sports having the hidden lesson of realizing that we divide people up into winners and losers and learning cooperation and competition. Peers and the media are the last socializing agents to enter our lives yet they both become more important as we mature. Even though these agents socialize us throughout our lives, re-socialization can occur if we participate in a total institution. A total institution is one in which one’s ‘total’ life is

controlled, e.g., hospital, jail, the military. These places typically need to re-socialize us to fit into their rules and structures. This is why the U.S. military puts you in a uniform and, in basic training, shaves the heads of the men and ensures the women know their hair cannot go below their collar.

Social Interaction, as we saw in the last section about socialization, is of paramount importance to humans and their societies. Our interactions are not just random or haphazard. There is structure to what we do and how we do it. Structure that we can’t always see until we look intentionally. People hold positions in society, called Status or statuses. These positions may change over our lifetimes and we hold multiple status positions at any given time. Statuses can be ascribed or achieved.Ascribed statuses are those that we are born into or get without trying, e.g., cousin. An achieved status is one that we earn or take on intentionally, e.g., athlete. One’s master status has more importance than other statuses and typically includes race, gender, and/or class. A role is a behavior expected of those with specific status. Typically each status includes more than one role. The best way to remember which is what is, as your text mentions, a person holds a status and they perform a role. One can experience problems with multiple roles and statuses getting in each other’s way. Role conflict exists when we are pulled in different directions from roles in different statuses. Role Strain is when we have incompatible role demands within a single status. Role Exit occurs when we leave our roles. Typically this is not an instant easy process and it may affect large areas of life. When you leave the status of student, you will leave behind some roles such as attending class, doing homework, and writing papers. This often leaves people uncomfortable – at the same time you feel a newfound sense of freedom. Of course, if you take on a new status, of graduate student or employee, you will have new roles to fill your time, many of which involve the same activities you did as a student. However, your identity changes as the status and roles change. The Social Construction of Reality is an elegant idea, a theory, that people actively create society, forget that they do this, and then exist as if society is in control of them. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann have a book by this title and discuss how, basically, society is created by people through their interactions, and that society continues because of all the interactions that continue. This then creates our sense of reality as a given even as we continue interacting and, as they say, creating society. This is a big idea but you can see where it comes into play when noticing how your reality is not the same as someone else’s reality. What you perceive and take for granted is not necessarily similar to that of others, especially if they are not in the same culture. The Thomas Theorem is useful here to further explain how we create reality and how it affects our interactions. W. I. Thomas stated that “if people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” Thus, if we think something is real, we will behave as if it is real, and that creates a specific reality. If you’ve heard of “The Secret” you have heard of a modern version of this idea. In the Secret, the basic idea is that if you think about something enough, you will draw it to you. Thomas would say that it’s not magic, it’s just priming your subconscious to act on these ideas and guide your behavior to attain what it is that you wish. If it is attainable, your behavior will subtly change to get you there.

Goffman – our premier Interactionist – has developed an elegant theory on interactions generally called "The Presentation of Self". It’s all about how we work (not consciously) to present a certain face to others. He uses an acting metaphor thus his theory is called Dramaturgy. Our Performances reveal information about us and we manage our behaviors carefully to do so. Nonverbal Communication is an important part of our performance, as we use our bodies to convincingly perform our part. We perform gender, we perform race, we perform class when we interact with others. In other words, we perform our statuses and we do so without thinking. Society provides the script and we enact our parts based on how we’ve been socialized – and how closely we conform to the norms....