Chapter 4 lecture notes PDF

Preview

Summary

Dr.Yang...

Description

I.

A Definition of Culture A. Culture refers to the ideas, values, practices, and material objects that allow a group of people, even an entire society, to carry out their collective lives in relative order and harmony. i. Acquiring culture helps people adjust to cultural change. ii. Internal change occurs within the individual and promotes and/or instigates cultural change; for example, the age of population: differences between a society dominated by the interests of the young or older people. iii. External change is beyond the control of the individual and affects the behavioral patterns of members of society: technological innovations are external changes—requires people to learn new aspects of culture and sometimes to unlearn aspects that are no longer relevant. iv. Culture (and cultural change) creates and reaffirms rules governing human behavior and establishes and reaffirms cultural boundaries. The rules can be both formal and informal. v. Different cultures have different norms, values, and symbols that are defined as “cool” or right, good, just, and proper—meaning culture, particularly “valued” culture, is relative to time, place, actor, and audience.

II. The Basic Elements of Culture i.

All groups have culture. Every culture has ideas, values and beliefs, practices,

and objects that relate to “things.” The meaning of these “things” varies by culture, these things differ because of the unique mix of ideas, values and beliefs, language acquired, and so on. B. Values i.

Values: The general and abstract standards defining what a group or

society considers good, desirable, right, or important. Values express a group’s or society’s ideals. It is the broadest element of culture. ii. Values are collective conceptions about what is considered good, desirable, and proper. They can also be collective ideas about what is bad, undesirable, and improper. iii. Values serve to evaluate the actions of others. Often values, norms, and sanctions are directly related. a. Examples: It is normative to marry in the U.S.; it is also normative to have

children. Family life and having a family of one’s own is highly valued (this is known as “pronatalism”). iv. Values and norms tend to remain relatively stable over one’s lifetime. C. Norms i.

Norms: The informal rules that guide what people do and how they live.

Oftentimes referred to as the “blueprint” for human behavior, norms are based on values and tell us what we should and should not do given a social situation. ii. Types of norms: a. Informal norms are not written down or codified; they tend to govern everyday forms of behavior and are particularly focused on “properness” in behavior. b. Formal norms are written and codified. Formal norms are also referred to as laws—written down and formally enforced through institutions such as the state. c. People do not follow norms in all situations. Weak norms will often be ignored. d. Adherence to norms is contingent on changes in political, economic, and social conditions of a culture. iii. Norms are reinforced through the use of sanctions, which refer to the application or rewards and punishments. a. Positive sanctions are rewards. b. Negative sanctions are punishments. iv. Folkways are defined as norms that are relatively unimportant and carry few sanctions (i.e., texting during lectures). v. Mores are defined as important norms whose violation is likely to be met with severe negative sanctions (i.e., using smartphones to cheat on exams). D. Material culture i. Material culture refers to all artifacts and “stuff” that reflects or manifests a culture. ii. These things are a reflection of the culture and include things such as clothing, houses, technology, and toys. E. Symbolic culture and language

i.

Symbolic culture refers to non-material aspects of culture. Examples of

symbolic culture are norms and values. ii. Language is an aspect of symbolic culture and refers to a set of meaningful symbols that facilitate communication. a. Language facilitates culture III. Cultural Differences A. Ideal and real culture i. Ideal culture refers to those norms and values of a society that influence what people think and do. ii. Real culture refers to what people actually think and do in their everyday lives. a. Examples: democracy and voting patterns, motherhood, and women who work. B. Ideology i.

Ideology: a set of shared beliefs that explains the social world and

guides peoples’ actions. ii. Example: U.S. meritocracy, the notion that all people have an equal chance of succeeding economically based on their hard work and skills. C. Subcultures i.

Subculture: a group of people who accept much of the dominant culture

but are set apart from it by one or more culturally significant characteristics. ii. Examples include LGBTQ and Harley Davidson motorcycle owners. D. Countercultures i.

Counterculture: a group that not only differs from the dominant culture,

but whose norms and values may be incompatible with those of the dominant culture. ii. Their actions may be in direct opposition to those of the dominant culture. a. Examples: computer hackers, voluntary simplicity, and World Social Forum. E. Culture wars i.

Culture war: A conflict between a subculture and counterculture against

the dominant culture.

ii. This term can also refer to conflicts between dominant groups and other dominant groups or subordinate groups in a society. Sometimes lead to the disruption of the social, economic, and political status quo. a. Example: conservative versus liberal views; corporate versus free access of Internet. F. Multiculturalism and assimilation i. Multiculturalism refers to an environment in which cultural differences are accepted and appreciated both by the state and the majority group. a. The groups can be based on race, ethnicity, national origin, age, language, and so on. ii. Assimilation refers to a form of (forced) adaptation to dominant culture by minority/subordinate groups. iii. Identity politics a. Identity politics: a group’s use of power to strengthen their within-group social position. b. Usually involve a minority group’s attempt to gain acceptance within dominant society, in an attempt to practice multiculturalism. c. Examples: Black power, feminist, and gay pride movements. iv. Cultural relativism and ethnocentrism a. Cultural relativism refers to the idea that aspects of culture, for example, norms and values, need to be understood within the context of the culture within which they occur. 1. It is the process of recognizing differences in cultural values. 2. Example: those in Western countries should not judge Islamic women’s use of headscarves. Conversely, those in the Islamic world should not judge Western women who bare their midriffs. b. Ethnocentrism refers to the belief that the norms, values, traditions, and material and symbolic culture of one’s own culture are better than those of other cultures. 1. Practicing ethnocentrism can act as a barrier to cultural understanding. IV. Major Types of Culture

A. Global culture i. Culture is constantly changing and being transmitted from one generation to the next. ii. Understanding the emergence of global, consumer, and cyber cultures will enhance our understanding of cultural change. iii. The globalization of values a. Globalization has brought with it greater acceptance of shared values throughout the world. b. Some suggest global values exist because there are universal tendencies and common values across many different societies. The global flow of information, ideas, products, and people produces realities in most parts of the world are more similar than ever before in history. iv. Cultural imperialism a. Cultural imperialism: the imposition of one dominant culture on other cultures. It tends to destroy local cultures. b. Americanization involves the importation by other countries of a variety of cultural elements, for example, products, images, technology, practices, norms, values, and behaviors that are closely associated with American culture. c. Cultural hybrids refers to the integration of different cultural elements into a local culture 1. Example: sitting in Albuquerque, NM, eating green chili sushi in a Japanese restaurant, listening to reggae music with your friend who is an exchange student from Mali. B. Consumer culture i.

The U.S. demonstrates a highly valued consumer culture, one whose

core ideas and material objects relate to conspicuous consumption, in which consumption is a primary source of meaning in life and a mechanism for displaying prosperity. ii. The meaning of things is found in the goods and services purchased, the buying process, and in the social aspects of consumption. iii. Inconspicuous consumption, purchasing inexpensive or moderately priced goods that are not ostentatious and do not symbolize materialistic values.

iv. Children in a consumer culture a. Consumption by children is highly valued. It is important that children are socialized into and actively involved in consumption. v. Nontraditional settings for consumption a. Consumer culture has spread to include the following arenas: the health industry, higher education, shopping via the Internet (i.e., Amazon and eBay), and social media (i.e., Facebook and Second Life). vi. A post-consumer culture? a. This refers to losing ability and desire to consume. b. This results from economic issues such as unemployment, an absence of income, and an overall fear felt by the general public that they and the economy are threatened by global forces. vii. Culture jamming a. Culture jamming refers to the radical transformation of an intended message in popular culture. b. It is typically instigated by the mass media, although much culture jamming occurs when independent social activists take up an issue—such as tagging cigarette billboards to challenge the practice of tobacco consumption. c. The purpose of the jamming is to bring cultural awareness to a particular issue with the hope of changing the realities associated with the issue covered in the jamming. d. Challenges the status quo. C. Cyberculture i.

Cyberculture: the characteristics of the Internet. The Internet has

characteristics of all culture, with its own distinct set of norms and values. ii. People need to be socialized in order to learn how to use the internet, and they increasingly interact online rather than on a face-to-face basis....