Comprehensive Notes on Culture and Society

Preamble: Quotes and Ethnicity Context

  • Quote (Wade Davis):
    • "The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you. They are unique manifestations of the human spirit."
  • Ethnicity estimate (illustrative data):
    • Ethiopia & Eritrea: 39\%
    • Egypt: 34\%
    • Arabian Peninsula: 12\%
    • Levant: 4\%
    • Northern Africa: 4\%
    • Senegal: 2\%
    • Eastern Bantu Peoples: 2\%
    • Somalia: 2\%
    • Mali: data not shown in transcript
  • Takeaway: Ethnicity data can show diverse regional ancestries within a population, illustrating the complexity of culture and identity.

Difference Between Culture and Society

  • Culture
    • The shared way of life of a group of people, including everything they learn and pass down to others.
    • Includes ideas, values, beliefs, customs, and artifacts.
    • Encompasses material (physical objects) and non-material (knowledge, language, traditions, behaviors) aspects.
  • Society
    • A large group of people who live in the same area and are connected through shared legal, economic, political, and cultural institutions.
    • The largest form of organized human group.
    • Within a society, culture is learned and passed down from one generation to the next.

Our Goal: Culture as a Product of Society

  • Aim: See culture as not inevitable, but a product of social arrangements.
  • Challenge common assumptions about the world being taken for granted.
  • Culture is what we notice in foreign contexts but might overlook at home; sociologists also notice at home.
  • Reference concept: Culture is learned, shared patterns of meaning, and practiced routines.

The Nacirema: Body Rituals and Cultural Self-Reflection

  • How they see the body: "The human body is ugly and its natural tendency is to debility and disease."
  • If not for ritual/ceremonial influences, decline in health is imagined.
  • Nacirema shrines: Private, ritual spaces in households dedicated to body care.
  • Mouth rituals:
    • Belief that without mouth rituals, teeth would fall out, gums bleed, jaws shrink.
    • Rituals are private, not family ceremonies; discussed with children only during initiation or toilet instruction.
  • Public/private divide: Rituals are private and secret, not common family activities.
  • Identity clue: Read word backwards to get NACIREMA = Holy-Mouth-Men = American; Holy-mouth men = dentists.

Culture Shock

  • Definition: A feeling of disorientation, uncertainty, or fear when immersed in an unfamiliar culture.
  • People tend to take their own cultural practices for granted.
  • Customs that seem strange in one culture may be normal in another.

Culture in Common and the Culture Industry

  • Having a common culture simplifies daily interactions (shared expectations).
  • People take for granted small cultural patterns (examples):
    • Theaters provide seats for the audience.
    • Physicians will not disclose confidential information.
    • Parents with children will take care when crossing the street.
  • The culture industry:
    • The worldwide media industry that standardizes goods and services demanded by consumers.
    • Theodor Adorno’s view: the primary effect of media is to limit people’s choices.

Common Culture and Cultural Universals

  • Common culture reduces friction in daily life; small norms are taken for granted.
  • Cultural universals: practices/beliefs all societies develop to meet essential human needs.
  • George Murdock’s list (illustrative):
    • Athletic sports
    • Visiting behavior
    • Personal names
    • Marriage
    • Funeral ceremonies
    • Sexual restrictions
    • Others???

Ethnocentrism vs Cultural Relativism

  • Ethnocentrism: Belief that one’s own culture is the standard or superior; viewing others as deviations.
  • Cultural relativism: Judging other cultures by their own standards; seeks understanding with value neutrality.
  • Important caveat: Cultural relativism does not require unquestioning acceptance of all cultural variations.
  • Question to ponder: Is it okay to judge other cultures?

Child Marriage: Statistics and US Context

  • Figure 9-1: High child marriage rates in some countries
    • In 17 countries, 40% or more of women under 16 are married.
    • Data timeframe: recent data, 2015–2021; UNICEF 2018 source cited.
  • US context: How does cultural relativism apply to youth marriage in the United States? Can it occur in some states?

Cultural Variation

  • Cultures adapt to specific circumstances (climate, technology level, population, geography).
  • Within a single nation, subgroups develop patterns different from the dominant society.
  • Subculture: a segment of society with distinctive mores, folkways, and values differing from, but not opposed to, the larger society.
  • Counterculture: a subculture that consciously opposes aspects of the larger culture.
  • Subcultures are common in complex societies; countercultures challenge the social order.
  • Examples: (prompted for discussion; consider real-world cases)

Elements of Culture

  • Core elements:
    • Language (written, spoken, nonverbal)
    • Values
    • Norms

Language and Culture

  • Language shapes shared reality through symbols and meaning.
  • It facilitates communication (spoken, written, nonverbal).
  • Essential for understanding, sharing, and connecting across cultures.

Values

  • Values: collective conceptions of what is good, desirable, and proper—or bad, undesirable, and improper—within a culture.
  • They indicate what people in a culture prefer and consider morally right or wrong.
  • Can be specific or general; values shape norms and sanctions.
  • Values can differ subtly across individuals, groups, and cultures.
  • Example discussions of value: Freedom
    • Democrats: Freedom = creating social/economic opportunities, often via government action to address inequality.
    • Republicans: Freedom = less government interference, esp. in the economy, with traditional morals.
    • Libertarians: Freedom = maximum personal liberty with minimal government involvement.

Core United States Values (Robin Williams, 1970)

  • The ten core values (as listed):
    • Equal Opportunity
    • Achievement & Success
    • Material Comfort
    • Activity & Work
    • Practicality & Efficiency
    • Progress
    • Science
    • Democracy & Free Enterprise
    • Freedom
    • Racism & Group Superiority
  • Note: Values interact with social change; tension between core cultural values can drive social change.

Core US Values: Summary from Robin Williams (1970)

  • Recap of values and their role in shaping social norms and policy debates.
  • Consider how modern changes (e.g., justice, equality, technology) may shift emphasis on specific values.

Norms

  • Norms: Shared expectations of behavior maintained by a society; reflect values.
  • For a norm to be significant, it must be widely shared and understood.
  • Example: Heterosexuality has been a persistent social norm; views on homosexuality vary (e.g., ~20% consider it abnormal; ~25% parents think their child might be gay or lesbian).
  • Other examples: Encourage discussion of other prevailing norms in your context.

Types of Social Norms

  • Folkways: norms that organize casual interactions.
  • Mores: norms that differentiate right from wrong; more serious sanctions if violated.
  • Taboo: strong negative norm; violation triggers extreme disgust or moral outrage.
  • Law: norms formally inscribed at state or federal level.

Norms Sanctions

  • Sanctions penalize or reward conduct related to norms.
  • Positive sanctions: formal (salary bonus, testimonial dinner, medal, diploma); informal (smile, compliment, cheers).
  • Negative sanctions: formal (demotion, firing, jail, expulsion); informal (frown, humiliation, bullying).
  • Sanctions can be formal or informal, and may vary in intensity.

Norms and Change

  • People do not follow norms in all situations; norms may be weakly enforced.
  • A behavior may align with a group norm but not with a wider societal norm.
  • Norms may be violated when they conflict with other norms; acceptance of norms can change over time.
  • Example: Norms regarding interracial marriage have evolved; sudden cultural norm violations can provoke wide social reactions.

Global Culture War

  • The term culture war refers to polarization over controversial cultural elements.
  • Origin in political debates of the 1990s (abortion, religious expression, gun control, sexuality).
  • After 9/11, the term gained global resonance, though some scholars interpret conflicts as a clash of civilizations.
  • Note: Clashes often reveal intra-group divisions; avoid assuming monolithic blocs.

Sociological Perspectives on Culture (Table Overview)

  • Four main perspectives: Functionalist, Conflict, Feminist, Interactionist.
  • Comparison criteria include norms, values, culture-society relationship, cultural variation, and transmitted customs.
  • Functionalist Perspective
    • Norms: Reinforce societal standards
    • Values: Collective conceptions of what is good
    • Culture & Society: Culture reflects strong central values
    • Cultural Variation: Subcultures serve broader societal interests
    • Customs/Traditions: Transmitted through intergroup contact and media
  • Conflict Perspective
    • Norms: Reinforce patterns of domination
    • Values: May perpetuate social inequality
    • Culture & Society: May reflect dominant ideology
    • Cultural Variation: Countercultures challenge the dominant order; ethnocentrism devalues other groups
    • Customs/Traditions: Transmitted via media and power dynamics
  • Feminist Perspective
    • Norms: May reinforce gendered roles
    • Values: May perpetuate men’s dominance
    • Culture & Society: Reflects view of men and women
    • Cultural Variation: Relativism respects different gender norms across societies
    • Customs/Traditions: Transmitted through daily life and media
  • Interactionist Perspective
    • Norms: Maintained through face-to-face interaction
    • Values: Defined and redefined through social interaction
    • Culture & Society: Perpetuated through daily interactions
    • Cultural Variation: Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism shaped by micro-interactions
    • Customs/Traditions: Shaped by everyday communication and media exposure

Development of Culture Around the World

  • Global interconnectedness is driven by:
    • Innovation: bringing new ideas/objects to a culture
    • Discovery: making known the existence of an aspect of reality
    • Invention: combining existing items into a new form
    • Diffusion: spread of culture from group to group or society to society
  • Examples of diffusion in practice:
    • McDonaldization of society: fast-food principles spreading globally (George Ritzer)
    • Hair salons and medical clinics now offer walk-in services

Globalization, Diffusion, and Technology

  • Technology: how to use material resources to satisfy human needs; accelerates diffusion of scientific innovations; transmits culture.
  • Material culture: physical/technological aspects of daily life.
  • Nonmaterial culture: ways of using material objects, and beliefs, philosophies, governments, and patterns of communication.
  • Culture lag: the period of maladjustment when nonmaterial culture struggles to adapt to new material conditions.
  • Relationship summary:
    • Technology accelerates diffusion and transmission of culture.
    • Nonmaterial culture often lags behind material innovations.

Thursday Film Note

  • Upcoming activity: Film on Thursday with attendance code to be distributed after the film.
  • Sign-up: Shifts available via SignUpGenius for Sept 19, 2pm–10pm.