“A lens through which we see the world”
How Do Sociologists Study Culture?
• Structural functionalists
▫ Culture as the underlying basis of interaction
• Conflict theory
▫ Stresses why particular aspects of a culture
develop
• Symbolic interactionism
▫ Stresses how culture is learned and
communicated
A Sociological View of Culture
Class Activity
• Rules:
▫ Do not respond (make eye contact or speak) until
touched on arm
▫ You may only speak to or address an individual for
about 15 second increments
▫ You may only address one individual at a time
▫ Only answer “non-jackets” with Yes or No
• Language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and
material objects
• Material culture
▫ Jewelry, art, buildings, weapons, machines, hair
styles, clothing
• Nonmaterial culture
▫ Beliefs, values, behaviors, language, gestures
▫ Also referred to as symbolic culture
Cultural Characteristics
NOVA
• Language
▫ All words are symbols
with specific meanings
▫ Allows for development
of culture
Learning from mistakes
of the past
• Gestures
▫ Use of body to communicate with others
Facilitate communication
▫ Differ around the world
Can lead to misunderstandings or embarrassment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRQSRed58XM
What does it all mean?!?
•
Australia, Greece, and Middle East – “Up yours”
Italy – your wife is cheating on you
African countries - curse
•
•
Brazil, Germany, and Russia
• Depicts private bodily orifice
Japan – money
France - zero
China, Japan, Indochina, Latin America
– rude, impolite
Cultural Characteristics
• Values
▫ Shared beliefs about what
is desirable in life
▫ Standards by which
people define good and
bad, right or wrong, etc.
Can change over time
▫ Examples:
Importance of education
Involvement in religion
Consider: What is good in one culture may
be bad in another
• Norms
▫ Shared rules of
conduct/behavior
▫ Expectations about right
way to reflect values
• Two types:
▫ Mores – more serious
Do not kill people
▫ Folkways – not as serious
Good etiquette
Cover mouth when yawning
Culture Broken Down
• Subculture
▫ A world within a larger
world of the dominant
culture
U.S. society contains tens of
thousands of subcultures
▫ Values and norms are
compatible to larger society
• Counterculture
▫ Group’s values and norms
place it in opposition to
dominant culture
Culture Broken Down cont’d
• Folk culture
▫ Traditional practices by
small homogenous groups
typically living in an
isolated area
▫ Promoted by isolation
• Pop culture
▫ Found in large
heterogeneous societies
that share certain habits
and customs
▫ Examples:
Music/Dance
Clothing
Foods
▫ Much of popular culture
refers to leisure time in
affluent populations
Ethnocentrism
• Individuals develop
a “learned” culture
▫ Embedded as they • Positive consequence
▫ In-group loyalties
grow up
• Ethnocentrism
▫ Using your own
group’s ways of
doing things as a
measuring stick to
judge other
groups
• Negative consequence
▫ Harmful discrimination
against those who differ
Cultural Relevance
• Helps us understand a culture in its own terms
▫ Suspending your perspective in order to
grasp the perspective of others
▫ Viewing things from the perspective of the
culture in which they take place
• How the elements of a culture fit together
▫ Examination of the elements of another culture…
without judgment
• Coming into contact
with radically
different culture
▫ Disorientation
• Not being able to make
sense of the world
around you
• Globalization: becoming increasingly
more integrated and interconnected
with people around the globe
• How does globalization impact culture?
Social Structure
• Network of interrelated statuses and roles that guide
human interaction
▫ Social structure guides behavior
What IS/IS NOT acceptable
• Status
▫ Socially defined position
Father, son, lawyer, etc.
“You occupy a status, but
you play a role”
▫ Where do you fit within society?
▫ Types:
Ascribed – assigned (race, sex)
Achieved – earned (priest, spouse)
• Role
▫ Behavior of someone occupying a certain status
▫ Based on the many statuses that one has, an individual may play many
different roles daily
▫ Role conflict
Fulfilling one role makes it difficult to fulfill another
ROLE
The behavior expected of someone occupying a particular status
• Role Expectations
▫ Socially determined behaviors
expected of a person performing
a role
Example – police enforcing
laws
• Role Conflict
▫ Fulfilling role of one status
makes it difficult to fulfill that
of another
Example – working parttime job results in missing
practice for sport
• Role Performance
▫ Actual role behavior
▫ Might not match that which is
expected
▫ Remember – role behaviors
differ in different societies
Example – teachers manage
classes in different ways
• Role Strain
▫ Person has difficulty fulfilling
role expectations for one
status
Example – sickness results
in student missing school
Types of Societies
Society – that which shares a culture and a territory
Hunting and
Gathering
Society
First Revolution:
Domestication
(of plants and
animals)
Second Revolution:
Agricultural
(invention of plow)
Horticultural
Society
Pastoral Society
Agricultural Society
Third Revolution:
Industrial
(invention of steam engine)
Industrial Society
Fourth Revolution:
Informational
(invention of microchip)
Postindustrial Society
Types of Societies
• Hunting and
Gathering societies
▫ Simplest societies
▫ Society cannot support
a large number of
people
Limited resources
▫ Small, nomadic groups
▫ Cannot accumulate
possessions due to
constant migration
Emerged about 10,000 years ago:
• Pastoral societies
▫ Based on the pasturing of
animals
Remained nomadic
Followed animals
• Horticultural societies
▫ Based on cultivation of plants
▫ Developed permanent
settlements
• Both pastoral & horticultural societies
transformed human society
• Dependable food supply; larger
groups; division of labor; etc.
Types of Societies cont’d
• Agricultural societies
▫ Agricultural surplus
Increase in population
Development of cities
Other activities
Art, literature, etc.
▫ “The dawn of civilization”
▫ Emergence of social
inequality
Competition over
resources
• Industrial societies
▫ Began in Great Britain
▫ Produced great surplus
…and greater inequality
▫ Led to great class struggles
• Postindustrial societies
▫ Based on information,
services, and the latest
technology
▫ Trend away from
production/manufacturing
▫ Growth of service industry
Health, Education, Research
Social Institutions
• Organizing of statuses and roles in
order to fit a need within society
▫ Set limits and guide our behaviors
• Tend to be more formal in industrialized
societies
▫ Education more highly valued than in
preliterate society
• Each “institution” has its own roles,
values, and norms
• Examples:
▫
▫
▫
▫
▫
Religion
Law
Medicine
Family
Education
Types of Social Interactions
• Exchange
▫ When people interact in an effort
to receive a reward or a return for
their actions
▫ Can be material or non-material
• Competition
▫ When two or more people, or
groups, oppose each other to
achieve a goal
• Conflict
▫ Deliberate attempt to…
Control a person by force
Oppose someone
Harm someone
▫ Competition can lead to conflict
• Cooperation
▫ Occurs when two or more people
or groups work together to
achieve a goal that will benefit the
group
• Accommodation
▫ Involves a “give and take”
▫ A balance between cooperation
and conflict
▫ Can have many forms:
Compromise – agreement based
on cooperation
Truce – agreement to end a
conflict
Mediation – third party stepping
in to resolve conflict
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