Ch. 5 Culture, Demographics, and Social Inequality

Culture

Culture: a shared way of life, including the beliefs and practices that a social group shares.

Symbolic culture: symbols that are recognized by people of the same culture.

Material culture: involves physical objects or artifacts (clothing, hairstyles, food, and design of homes)

-the importance placed on material objects can reflect the culture’s values; for example, the American dream often includes a car, a symbol of mobility and independence.

non-material culture: specific to social thoughts and ideas, such as values.

Popular culture: phrase used to describe features of a culture that appeal to the masses (features of a culture that are popular). Often those communicated through mass media such as radio and television.

High culture: describes those often limited to the consumption of the elite, like the ballet or opera.

Universals: patterns or traits that are common to all people (pertain to basic human needs, such as food and shelter)

-two of the most crucial elements of culture are its 1. values and 2. beliefs. People within a given culture tend to share common values and beliefs.

-values: culture’s standard for evaluating what is good or bad, define how people in a society should behave.

-beliefs: convictions or principles that people hold

-norms: visible or invisible rules of social conduct within a society.

Cultures and Social Groups

Sociobiology: the study of how biology and evolution have affected human social behavior.

-applies Darwin’s principle of natural selection of social behavior, suggesting there is a biological basis for many behaviors. Particular social behaviors persist over generations because they are adaptive for survival.

Cultural Construction and Transformation

Cultural diffusion is the transfer of elements of culture from one social group to another. Cultural diffusion contributes to cultural similarities.

Cultural diffusion is able to be direct or indirect, sometimes forced. Cultural imperialism is forced cultural diffusion.

Cultural competence: the ability to understand, communicate, and effectively interact with people from cultural backgrounds and belief systems different from one's own

Cultural transmission: the process through which this information is spread across generations.

Cultural assimilation is the sociological process in which individuals or minority groups adopt the values, behaviors, language, and customs of a dominant majority culture.

(Assimilation is the process where individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage adopt the traits, customs, and language of a dominant culture until they become socially indistinguishable from it).

Elements of culture are not static, social change occurs, which societies experience a change in state. This can be subtle, like with the development of new linguistic phrases, or radical, like revolutions.

Social change is the significant alteration of cultural norms, social structures, behavioral rules, values, and institutions over time. It can happen gradually through everyday interactions or rapidly through sudden revolution

Cultural lag: a concept describing the time gap and unequal rate of change between material culture (such as technology, tools, and physical infrastructure) and non-material culture (such as values, beliefs, laws, and social norms).

Transition shock is a state of distress, disorientation, and anxiety that happens when you experience a major change in your life, role, or environment. When this disorientation is the result of individuals being subjected alternative cultures and foreign environments, such as leisure travel or permanent relocation, it is called culture shock.

Reverse culture shock: the same experiences but upon an individual’s return to their initial environment.

Sociocultural evolution: a set of theories describing the processes through which societies and cultures have progressed overtime.

Two modern theories of sociocultural evolution, modernization and sociobiology.

Modernization is the ongoing, dynamic process of transforming a traditional, agrarian, or rural society into a secular, urban, and industrial society

Sociobiology: the study of how biology and evolution have affected human social behavior.

Population Studies

Human population is the collection of people in a defined geographical area, and also refers to the number of people in an area.
Population studies are interested in demographic shifts and can be quite complex.

There is periodic population growth and population decline as a result of population birth rates, death rates, and migration rates.

Population growth and decline are measured using population growth rate, the rate of population change in a specified time period, reported as a percent of the initial population.

Overpopulation is a condition in which the number of individuals in a species or human population exceeds the sustainable carrying capacity of its environment

In societies that are experiencing economic decline, there are concerns about economic success.

Carrying capacity: the total possible population that can be supported with relevant resources and without significant negative effects. Populations tend to increase or decrease until population equilibrium is met at this maximum load.

Population equilibrium: A state where a population's size remains relatively constant over time because the overall birth rate equals the death rate, and immigration equals emigration.

Population projection: estimates of future populations made from mathematical extrapolations of previous data. Traditional projections are based on birth rates, death rates, and migration rates. and thus do not consider unpredicted effects on population, such as the change of catastrophes.

Developed countries have lower birth rates (due to contraceptives)

Underdeveloped countries have higher birth rates

Population distributions: age and sex distributions, are represented through Population Pyramids (Figure 1). X-axis: population, Y-axis: separates men and women with the tradition positioning males on the left and females on the right. For example, an expansive population pyramid is wide at the base, representing a high birth rate and a high death rate. Thus, population pyramids can help predict population trends and determine the social needs for dependents, such as children and people of retirement age.

Fertility and Mortality

Crude birth rate (CBR): the annual number of births per 1,000 people in a population. Experts consider crude birth rates of 10-20 to be low and those of 40-50 to be high.

Crude death rate (CDR): is the annual number of deaths per 1,000 persons in a population. Experts consider crude death rates below 10 to be low and those above 20 to be high.

rate of population change: the difference between crude birth rate and crude death rate.

age-specific death rates: the annual number of births or deaths per 1,000 persons in an age group.

Fertility: the ability of a woman to reproduce.

General fertility rate: annual number of births per 1,000 women in a population.

Total fertility rate: the total number of births per single woman in a population with the assumption that the woman experiences the current recorded age-specific fertility rate and reaches the end of her reproductive life.

-childbearing years: most women are capable of reproduction between the ages of 15 and 45

replacement fertility rate: the fertility rate at which the population will remain balanced

sub-replacement fertility: the birth rate is less than the death rate, thus the population size will not be sustained.

population-lag effect: changes in total fertility rates are often not reflected in the birth rate for several generations. Population lag effect is the result of population momentum, in which the children produced during periods of higher fertility rates reproduce; there are more women of reproductive age and thus more births overall, regardless of the number of births per women.

1. population momentum → 2. population lag-effect

Because crude birth rates do not consider age or sex differences, fertility rates offer a clearer idea of demographic trends.

Decreases in population

Mortality: the death rate in a population

Morbidity: the nature and extent of a disease in a population

prevalence rate: the number of individuals experiencing a disease

incidence rate: the number of new cases of a diseases.

case fatality rate: the proportion of individuals diagnosed with a specific disease who end up dying from it

-The current leading cause of death worldwide is ischemic heart disease, but there are also variations in causes of death by location; for example, age-related issues are a major cause of death in developed countries while malnutrition is a major cause of death in developing countries.

There is an inverse correlation between a nation’s crude death rate and its gross domestic product (GDP). (as GDP increases, crude death rate decreases, because a higher-GDP means a wealthier nation).

1There are two additional common and reliable indicators of important qualities of life: the infant mortality rate and life expectancy.

infant mortality rate: the annual number of deaths per 1,000 infants under one year of age. This rate is the lowest in European countries (such as Iceland, at 5%), and highest in sub-Saharan regions of Africa, such as Sierra Leone, at a high of 170.

Life expectancy: the number of years that an individual at a given age can expect to live at present mortality rates. Global life expetencies range from 36 to 79 years.

-Developed regions have lower birth rates (due to contraceptives) and lower death rates (improvements in agriculture, medicine, and sanitation).

Migration

-Migration: the geographical movement of individuals, families, or other small or large groups of people.

-Migration is distinct from non-permanent movement.

-Nomadism: method of continuous travel in search of natural resources as a method of sustenance (‘hunting and gathering”). Nomadism is not considered migration because there is no intention to settle.

-External migration: cross-boarder or international migration, involves migration to another nation

-Internal migration: migration to another region of the same nation

-Voluntary migration: the result of internal factors (a personal decision).

-Involuntary migration: also called forced migration, the result of external factors that pose a threat to the individual in their initial environments and are often a form of social control, such as ethnic cleansing.

Ethnic cleansing is the systematic and forced removal of an ethnic, racial, or religious group from a specific geographic area to make it ethnically homogeneous.

Settlers: people who migrate to unsettled areas (and thus become settlers)

Refugees: people who migrate to settled areas as a result of displacement

Colonization: migration to settled areas in which dominance is exerted over the foreign state.

Immigration: entering a new area (and the people are called immigrants, can be either legal or illegal residents)

Emigration: leaving an old area (and the people are called emigrants)

People who are immigrants are also emigrants.

Reverse migration: the return of individuals to their former homes

Everett Lee: differentiated between push and pull factors in migration

Push factor: things that are unattractive about an area and “push” people to leave

Pull factor: things that are attractive about an area and “pull” people there

The interaction between push and pull factors contributes to the rate of migration.

Genocide: mass execution with intention of eliminating a specific social group

Urban growth, decline, and renewal?

Internal migration includes the movement between rural and urban areas.

The spatial distribution of individuals and social groups is an interest of social geography.

Urbanization: the growth of urban areas (as people move from rural to urban areas) as the result of global change. Urbanization is tied to industrialization the process through which societies transform from agrarian to industrial in nature, and industrialized countries have more people living in urban areas than non-industrialized countries do.

Rural flight: the migration from rural areas to urban areas from other perspective.

Emigration from rural areas is often related to a decreasing emphasis on agricultural processes.

In contrast to urban growth, suburbanization leads to urban decline. Suburbanization refers to population growth on the fringes of urban areas (as people move from urban areas to suburban areas). The suburbs are residential satellite communities located in peripheral regions of major urban centers that are often connected to the cities in some fashion.

White flight: a historical example of suburbanization that involved the migration of whites from cities to more racially homogenous suburbs. Migration to these metropolitan regions is an example of urban sprawl, or the migration of people from urban areas to otherwise remote areas.

Urban sprawl: the migration of people from urban areas to otherwise remote areas.

Urban blight: The negative effects of urban sprawl is urban blight, less functioning areas of large cities degrade as a result of urban decline. These forms of migration can thus lead to desolate properties (condemned houses, increase in crime levels in blighted areas

(Blight is a rapid and severe discoloration, withering, and death of plant tissues caused by fungi, bacteria, or viruses, now you see why it’s called urban blight).

Gentrification: the renovation of urban areas in a process of urban renewal. Gentrification is often specific to the introduction of wealthier residents to the cities who then help restore the existing infrastructure, which alters the region’s demographics and economics. Gentrification is a form of urban renewal, or the redevelopment of urban areas. This causes much social change with both positive and negative effects, for example, it can increase the tax base, but it can also lead to the displacement of the original local people. Urban renewal can be a mechanism for reform or a mechanism for control (for example, eminent domain).

Eminent domain is the legal power of the government to seize private property and convert it into public use, even if the property owner objects.

Theories of population change

There are multiple theories of population change.
demographic transition is the historical shift in a society's population from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as it develops industrially and economically

Demographic: “people”

Transition: “going across”

-Thomas Robert Malthus: argued that population is the result of available resources for sustenance, such as productive farmland. Humans are inclined to reproduce and thus population growth is often exponential, especially during times of excess.
-Malthusianism: states that the possible rate of population increase exceeds the possible rate of resource increase. Malthus described two forms of checks on population growth:

1. positive checks that raise the death rate

2. preventative checks that lower the birth rate

In Thomas Malthus’s theory of population, positive checks and preventive checks are defined by how they control population growth to keep it aligned with available food supplies.

Malthusian Catastrophe: occurs when the means of sustenance are not enough to support the population, resulting in population reduction through actual or predicted famine.

-Neo-malthusianism is a movement based on these principles that advocated for population control in order to reduce the negative effects of population strain.

Demographics in U.S Society

Demography is the study of human population, including the size, structure, and distribution of a population and changes in the population over time due to birth, death, and migration.

Demographic: “people”

-in regards to population studies, there has been a rapid decline in the total global fertility rate; this is of particular concern in the U.S. where the average women has less than two children, which is below the population replacement level. The infant mortality rate experienced a 50% decrease in 20 years and is now approximately 7 (per 1000 live births).

The current migration rates (external migration) have caused increases in population despite low birth rates and death rates (although population growth is nonetheless near a historical low).

There are also examples of internal migration. There have been historic migrations from the eastern states to the western states (expansion), as well as migration of African Americans from the eastern states to the western states (expansion), as well as the migration of African Americans from the rural south to urban north (after abolition of slavery), called the Great Migration. The New Great Migration is an example of a domestic reverse migration. During this period, there was an increase in black migration to the now urban South as racial relations improved.

The Great Migration (1910–1970) was the mass relocation of approximately six million Black Americans from the rural Southern United States to urban centers in the Northern, Midwestern, and Western states.

The New Great Migration: is the ongoing demographic trend that began in the 1970s, where African Americans have moved in historic numbers from Northern and Western U.S. cities back to the American South.

Researchers often use aggregate statistics to provide a demographic profile of a specific population (based on region or time).

Minorities: demographic groups that receive differential treatment through processes of prejudice and discrimination due to their shared characteristics. These groups have lower statuses than other groups, and are thus considered inferior. It is important to note that these groups are termed minorities not for their size but instead for their disparate social experiences and the descriptions holds regardless of population size. Thus, despite the gender and sex distributions being near equal in most societies, women are sometimes considered minorities because of their perceived status as inferior and subordinate to men.

Dominant groups: those with social power to assign these labels.

Demographic measures discussed below include age, gender, race, and ethnicity, sexual orientation, and immigration status.

Age

People’s position between birth and death is measured through age.

In western societies, the most common use is numerical age, a chronological measurement that begins at birth (thus babies are age 0 at birth).

Numerical age is distinguish from measures of prenatal development, such as gestational age, although some societies do consider this period (thus babies are age 9 months at birth if full-term).

Years are the most common units of measurements for age, but months or even weeks are also used in certain situations, such as with infants.

Age cohorts are an example of statistical cohorts in which a group of subjects share the characteristic of age.

Generations: groups of people born in the same period

Demographic age profiles describe populations in terms of age groups. Populations with a proportionate distribution are the most stable.

Population aging: occurs when there is a disproportionate amount of older people in a population.

Ageism: prejudice or discrimination against a person based on age, often against older people.

Social aging: refers to the changes in a person’s roles, relationships, and social identities as they grow older, occurring within families, friendships, and formal structures like workplaces and community organizations.

-young people are more likely to contribute to social changes (such as creation of new technologies or push for political change).

-Eastern cultures tend to respect older people for their experiences and wisdom. Western cultures, however, tend to see aging as undesirable.

-Retirement homes are more popular in developed societies and public perceptions of these resources are accepting, in less modern societies, it is expected that children will care for their parents and assisted living options might be seen as disrespectful.

Gender

Sex is a biological characteristic that is assigned at birth; it is based on chromosomes, external genitalia, gonads, and hormones. Thus, categories of sex are male (XY) and female (XX). The third sex, rare, is intersex. This classification is applicable when a single sex cannot be identified.

Gender is a social characteristic that is based on behavioral role expectations. Thus, categories of gender are masculine and feminine.

Gender is thought to be influenced by both nature and nurture. In terms of nature, biological nature can have behavioral effects (for example, hormones influence emotions). The natural sciences are interested in the consequences of biological differences between men and women on gender. In some cases, genetic abnormalities (such as the XXY chromosomal ability in Klinefelter’s syndrome) might cause unexpected presentations when compared to the assumptions made from one’s biological sex.

In terms of nurture, our social surroundings have a profound effect on the development of our gender identities. Gender identification occurs through multiple agents of socialization and gender roles (the socialization of gender roles is also known as gender conditioning) describe the social and behavioral expectations for men and women. These expectations are internalized and become connected to our self-identities (how we think about ourselves) and thus influence our behaviors.

A gender role is a social and cultural expectation that dictates how people should act, dress, speak, and conduct themselves based on their assigned sex or gender

Gender expression: the external way a person communicates their gender identity to the world through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice, mannerisms, and body characteristics

Gender schema theory: It explains how individuals internalize cultural beliefs about gender and organize behaviors, traits, and expectations into mental frameworks known as schemas

Gender Script refers to the socially constructed, temporally organized sequence of events, behaviors, and roles that a culture expects an individual to follow based on their assigned gender.

Sexism: prejudice or discrimination against a person on gender or sex, often against women (men are viewed as dominant and women are viewed as subordinate)

Feminist theory: the extension of feminism into theoretical, philosophical, and social discourse, aiming to understand, analyze, and challenge the nature of gender inequality.

Gender roles: behaviors that are considered appropriate or proper for men and women.

Transgender: people that have gender identities that are inconsistent with their biological sex.

Transgender individuals may decide to become transsexual.

Transsexual: individuals who have made permanent changes to their bodies through hormone therapy, surgery, or some other means.

Race and Ethnicity

Race: description of distinct social groups based on certain shared characteristics (black/african american, white, asian, american indian/alaska native, native hawaiian/other pacific islander, and “other”).

Ethnicity: cultural rather than biological. Ethnicities are distinct from nationalities. For example, Arab populations originate in the Arabian Peninsula, which includes several modern nations including (1) Egypt, (2) Algeria, (3) Iraq, (4) Sudan, and (5) Morocco.

Ethnicity (or ethnic group) is a socially defined category of people who identify with each other based on shared cultural, traditional, and historical experiences (Hispanic or Latino: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, and Dominican

• European / White: Irish, Italian, Polish, German, and English

• Asian: Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, and Filipino)

Nationality is the legal status and bond of belonging to a particular nation or sovereign state, usually acquired by birth, descent, or naturalization. (• United States → American

• Canada → Canadian)

Ethnogenesis: social process that results in the creation of separate ethnicities.

Racism: prejudice and actions that discriminate based off race, or hold that one race is inferior to another. Racism is seen when a dominant holds prejudice or discrimination against a non-dominant.

Racial formation perspective: created by Michael Omi and Howard Winat with the purpose of deconstructing race in its modern form. Race is seen as a complex and fluid social construct, enforced through both macro- and micro- level processes. In contrast to other theories that do not present race as an exclusive social construct, the racial formation perspective argues that without these processes, the differences in biological features are meaningless.

Racialization is the sociological process of giving a racial or ethnic identity to groups, social practices, or relationships that did not previously have one. These processes are used as forms of social control.

Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation: describes the direction of a person’s romantic or sexual attraction or behavior.

There are there main sexual orientations:

1. Heterosexual: the orientation towards the opposite gender or sex

2. Homosexual: the orientation towards the same gender or sex

3. Bisexual: the orientation towards both gender or sex

Bisexual identities do not necessitate an equal attraction toward both genders or sexes, in some cases, there is a distinct, but not exclusive, sexual preference toward one gender or sex.

Bisexual communities include those who are pansexual:

pan: every

sexual: sex

Pansexuality is a sexual, romantic, or emotional orientation characterized by an attraction to people regardless of their sex, gender identity, or gender expression.

Asexuality: a sexual orientation defined by experiencing little to no sexual attraction to others.

Kinsey scale (Hetersexual-homo-sexual Rating Scale): assigns a number from 0 (exclusively heterosexual) to 6 (exclusively homosexual).

Heterosexism is a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination that favors heterosexuality

Heteronormative beliefs: often enforce strict gender roles and involve prejudice and discrimination against non-heterosexual individuals.

Immigration Status

Immigration: the migration of people to a new area

American Dream: an ideological construct that offers individuals the opportunities for happiness and success with the proper amount of determination. This central promise has contributed to the rise in migration to the U.S. in the search for a better life with enhanced personal freedoms.

The United States has four main periods of immigration:

1. The seventeenth (1601-1700) and eighteenth centuries (1701-1800): English colonists migrated to the U.S. (the colonial period). Indentured servants also migrated through this process, accounting for more than half of all immigrants from Europe during the period.

2. The mid-nineteenth century (1840s-1860s): During this period, the most migrants came from northern Europe

3. The early twentieth century (1900-1930s): During this period, the most migrants came from southern and Eastern Europe. For example, Jewish refugees moved to the U.S. in flight from the Nazi regime during World War II (1939-1945). The peak of European migration was 1907, after which the social context of the U.S. made conditions less suitable for immigration. The Great Depression (1929-1939), for example, led to a period of higher national emigration rates than immigration rates (this occurred in the early 1930s).

4. The late twentieth century (post-1965) to the present: During this period, the majority of migrants have been from Asia and Latin America. The rates of immigration during this period have been unprecedented. For example, the decade with the historical highest rate of immigration was from 1990 to 2000; between 10 and 11 million legal and illegal immigrants entered the U.S. during this phase. There are now more than 37 million legal immigrants and an estimated 1.5 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

The United States has restrictive legal limits on immigration.

Immigration controls: formal policies that define and regulate who has the right to settle in an area.

-immigrants are often mistreated, and in some cases, there rights are violated in the immigration process.

-immigrants are also a common target of prejudice and discrimation

-Public attitudes are more positive toward established migrants (such as the Polish and Italian communities)

-more negative toward recent migrants (such as Hispanic communities).

Demographic Shifts an