Culture

Culture Overview

  • Culture: the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior.

  • Defines importance and unimportance, right and wrong during interactions.

  • Society: a collective of interacting people sharing a culture and territory.

Objectives

  1. Define the term culture.

  2. Discuss various elements of culture.

  3. Describe different cultural variations.

Material vs. Non-Material Culture

Material Culture

  • Tools and technology enabling the accomplishment of tasks.

Non-Material Culture

  • Symbols, norms, and intangible elements that shape behavior.

Cultural Lag

  • Occurs when values change slower than technology advancements.

Culture as Meaning Generator

  • Concrete experiences by themselves lack meaning.

  • Culture provides meaning to concrete experiences.

Symbols

  • Symbol: an entity that meaningfully represents something else.

  • Culture relies heavily on symbols for meaning.

Language

  • Language: a set of symbols expressing ideas, facilitating thought and communication.

  • Sapir-Whorf Thesis:

    • Language influences thought and perception of reality.

    • Worldview is limited by learned language.

    • Language shapes our understanding of reality.

Symbols, Meaning, & Relativity

  • Reflect on how symbols evoke thoughts and feelings.

Values

  • Values: beliefs about right and wrong, which define societal standards.

  • Core Canadian values discussed as examples.

  • Value Contradictions: conflicts between values that may oppose each other.

  • Ideal Culture: professed values and standards in society.

  • Real Culture: values and behaviors actually followed by people.

Norms

  • Norms: accepted behaviors in society.

Types of Norms

  • Formal Norms: codified norms specified through laws and regulations.

  • Informal Norms: unwritten but understood standards.

  • Folkways: social preferences; less serious norms.

  • Mores (singular: Mos): core norms seen as essential for group survival.

  • Taboos: strongest norms, violations cause severe community reactions.

  • Laws: codified norms with formal sanctions.

Sanctions

  • Sanctions: penalties or rewards concerning social norms.

Types of Sanctions

  • Formal Sanctions: administered by those in official positions.

  • Informal Sanctions: applied by any group member, not officially defined.

Cultural Universals

  • Cultural Universals: practices or beliefs common across all cultures (e.g., sports, cooking, funeral ceremonies).

  • Expressed in diverse manners across cultures (e.g., differences between funeral practices).

Culture Shock & Ethnocentrism

  • Culture Shock: disorientation upon encountering different cultural practices.

  • Ethnocentrism: judging other cultures by one's own cultural standards.

Cultural Relativism

  • Cultural Relativism: belief in equal cultural value.

  • Max Weber's emphasis on "value-free" sociology.

  • Verstehen: to understand the world from others' perspectives, aiding cultural insight.