Culture, Society, and Language

What is Culture?

• Culture encompasses learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior.
• It includes ideas, values, and artifacts (e.g., DVDs, comic books, birth control devices).
• Examples:
  • Patriotic attachment to the U.S. flag.
  • Passion for the tango in Argentina.
• Sociological definition: Culture includes all objects and ideas within a society, not just fine arts and intellectual tastes.
• Examples:
  • Slang words.
  • Ice cream cones.
  • Rock music.
• Culture applies to all societies, regardless of their technological advancement.
• Culture defines the group or society to which one belongs.

Society Defined

• A society consists of people in the same territory who are relatively independent and share a common culture.
• A society shares a common heritage and culture, transmitted across generations through various means (literature, art, video recordings).
• Culture influences human behavior through a toolkit of habits, skills, and styles.
• Common culture simplifies daily interactions (e.g., using credit cards).
• Shared cultural patterns are often taken for granted.
• Examples:
  • Theaters providing seats.
  • Physicians maintaining confidentiality.
  • Parents being cautious with children near streets.

Worldwide Culture Industry

• Standardizes goods and services demanded by consumers.
• Theorist: Theodor Adorno.
• Primary effect: Limits people's choices.
• Influence: Sometimes embraced, sometimes rejected.
• References: Adorno (1971, 1991: 98-106), Horkheimer and Adorno (1944, 2002).

Cultural Universals

• Common practices and beliefs that all societies have developed.
• Adaptations to meet essential human needs such as food, shelter, and clothing.
• Anthropologist: George Murdoch (1945).
• Examples:
  • Athletic sports.
  • Cooking.
  • Dancing.
  • Visiting.
  • Personal names.
  • Marriage.
  • Medicine.
  • Religious ritual.
  • Funeral ceremonies.
  • Sexual restrictions.
  • Trade.
• Expression of cultural universals varies from culture to culture and can change over time.

Ethnocentrism

• The tendency to assume that one's own culture is the norm or is superior to others.
• Coined by sociologist William Graham Sumner (1906).
• Ethnocentric individuals view their own group as the center of culture and see other cultures as deviations.
• Examples:
  • Westerners viewing cattle as food may look down on Hindu culture in India, which views cows as sacred.
  • Dismissing mate selection or child-rearing practices of other cultures.
• Ethnocentrism is not limited to citizens of the United States.
• Examples:
  • Visitors from African cultures being surprised at the disrespect that children in the United States show their parents.
  • People from India being repelled by the practice of living in the same household with dogs and cats.
  • Islamic fundamentalists viewing the United States as corrupt.

Cultural Relativism

• Viewing people's behavior from the perspective of their own culture.
• Prioritizes understanding other cultures rather than dismissing them.
• Employs value neutrality in scientific study (Max Weber).
• Stresses that different social contexts give rise to different norms and values.
• Requires a serious and unbiased effort to evaluate norms, values, and customs within their distinctive cultural contexts.
• Example: Examining practices like polygamy, bullfighting, and monarchy within their cultural contexts.
• Federal officials contend that child marriage deprives girls of education, threatens their health, and weakens public health efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.

Sociobiology

• Systematic study of how biology affects human social behavior.
• Asserts that many cultural traits are rooted in our genetic makeup, not learned.
• Founded on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution (1859).
• Darwin's theory: Natural selection - adaptation to the environment through random genetic variation.
• Sociobiologists apply natural selection to the study of social behavior.
• Assumes that particular behaviors become genetically linked to a species if they contribute to its fitness to survive (Van den Berg, 1978).
• Extreme form suggests all behavior is the result of genetic or biological factors, negating the role of social interactions.
• Focuses on how human nature is affected by the genetic composition of a group of people.
• General focus is on the basic genetic heritage that all humans share.
• Some researchers attempt to link specific behaviors (e.g., criminal activity) to genetic markers, but these markers are not deterministic.
• Social factors (family cohesiveness, peer group behavior) can override genetic predispositions.
• References:
  • Guo et al. (2008).
  • E. O. Wilson (1975, 1978).
• Most social scientists agree that there is a biological basis for social behavior.

Conflict Theory Perspective on Sociobiology

• Conflict theorists fear that sociobiology could be used as an argument against efforts to assist disadvantaged people.
• References:
  • Friest (2008).
  • Machalek and Martin (2010).
  • E. O. Wilson (2000).

Recap Summary

• Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior.
• A shared culture helps define the group or society.
• George Murdoch compiled a list of cultural universals.
• Ethnocentrism is assuming one's own culture is superior.
• Cultural relativism is viewing behavior from the perspective of their own culture.

Role of Language

• Language is a major element of culture and an important component of cultural capital.
• Cultural capital (Pierre Bourdieu): Noneconomic assets, such as family background and educational investments, reflected in a person's knowledge of language and the arts.
• Members of a society generally share a common language.

Language, Written and Spoken

• There are 7,000 languages spoken in the world today.
• Language is fundamental to shared culture.
• Language is the foundation of every culture; the ability to speak other languages is crucial to intercultural relations.
• Special language schools for diplomats and military advisers who dealt with the Soviet Union.
• Language shapes the reality of a culture.
• The Navajo have referred to cancer as Ludhunajahi.
• Feminist theorists note that gender-related language can reflect traditional acceptance of men and women in certain occupations.

Language's Influence

• Language can shape how we see, taste, smell, feel, and hear.
• It influences the way we think about people, ideas and objects.
• Language communicates a culture's norms, values, and sanctions.

Nonverbal Communication

• The use of gestures, facial expressions, and visual images to communicate.
• Learned from people who share our same culture.
• Like other forms of language, nonverbal communication is not the same in all cultures.
• People from various cultures differ in the degree to which they touch others during the course of normal social interactions.
• The meaning of hand signals can differ from one culture to the next.
• In Australia, the thumbs up sign is considered offensive.

Symbols

• Gestures, objects, and words that form the basis of human communication.
• Often deceptively simple, many symbols are rich in meaning and may not convey the same meaning in all social contexts.
• Around someone's neck, for example, a cross can symbolize religious reverence and over a gravesite, a belief in everlasting life.

Norms Define Appropriate Behavior

• Societies have ways of encouraging and enforcing what they view as appropriate behavior while discouraging and punishing what they consider to be inappropriate behavior.
• They also have a collective idea of what is good and desirable in life or not.

Norms

• Established standards of behavior maintained by a society.
• Must be widely shared and understood to become significant.

Types of Norms

• Formal norms are written down with strict punishments.
• Informal norms are generally understood but not precisely recorded.

Importance of Societal Welfare vs. Everyday Behavior (Mores and Folkways)

• Mores are norms deemed highly necessary to the welfare of a society.
• Folkways are norms governing everyday behavior.

Norms and Sanctions

• Conformity to a norm can lead to positive sanctions, such as a pay raise.
• Failure to conform can lead to negative sanctions such as fines.
• The entire fabric of norms and sanctions in a culture reflects that culture's values and priorities.

Acceptance of Norms

• People do not follow norms, whether formal or informal, in all situations.
• In some cases, they can evade a norm because they know it is weakly enforced.
• Teenage drinkers are conforming to the standards of their peer group when they violate norms that underage drinking.
• Norms are violated in some instances because one norm conflicts with another.

Values

• Cultural values are collective conceptions of what is considered good, desirable, and proper or bad, undesirable, and improper in a culture.
• Values influence people's behavior and serve as criteria for evaluating the actions of others.

Basic U.S. Values (Robin Williams)

• Achievement
• Efficiency
• Material comfort
• Nationalism
• Equality
• Supremacy of science and reason over faith

Changing Values of College Students

• Over the past half century, the value of being very well off financially has shown the strongest gain in popularity.

Is There a Clash of Civilizations?

• According to this thesis, cultural and religious identities rather than national or political loyalties are becoming the prime source of international conflict.
• Critics of this thesis point out that conflict over values is nothing new.

Sociological Perspectives on Culture

• Functionalist and conflict theorists agree that culture and society are mutually supportive, but for different reasons.
• Functionalists maintain that social stability requires a consensus and the support of society's members.
• Conflict theorists agree that a common culture may exist, but they argue that it serves to maintain the privileges of certain groups.

Dominant Ideology

• A set of cultural beliefs and practices that helps to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests.
• Hungarian Marxist, Gerd Lukacs (1923).
• Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci (1929).
• In Karl Marx's view, a capitalist society has a dominant ideology that serves the interests of the ruling class.
• Feminists would also argue that if all a society's most important institutions tell women they should be subservient to men, that dominant ideology will help to control women and keep them in a subordinate position.