Introduction to Culture

2. Introduction to Culture Explanations of everyday behavior

3. Why would this clip relate to culture?

4. Culture is… • The language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even objects of a society that are passed from one generation to the next. • In other words, the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us.

5. Material Culture • Objects that define a group

6. What are some material objects that define American culture?

7. Nonmaterial Culture • A group’s way of thinking and doing

8. Sociological Imagination • Understanding different cultures can help us develop our sociological imaginations.

9. Culture Shock • Disorientation when coming into contact with a fundamentally different culture. • Commonly occurs through travel, work, college, military, etc.

10. Traveling

11. Ethnocentric • Tendency to use our own group’s ways of doing things as a yardstick for judging others. • Can be positive (group loyalty) or negative (discrimination)

12. How has ethnocentrism impacted history?

13. Cultural Relativism • Trying to understand a culture on its own terms. • Well-intentioned, but morally dangerous? • Because of their culture they think that is right/ wrong…

14. Norms • Expectations of behaviors that reflect and enforce values. • Sanctions (positive and negative) are used to enforce the norms.

15. Moral Holidays • Used by some cultures to relieve the pressure of following norms. • Other examples in our culture might be: bachelor/bachelorette parties, block parties, party areas in a town or on a lake where the police avoid unless a major crime is committed, and even tailgating might be considered a moral holiday.

16. Folkways • Norms that are not strictly enforced. • Not always easy to define. • Chivalrous? Or Sexist?

17. Folkway Violation? • I cannot show a similar picture of the opposite gender.

18. Mores • Norms that are strictly enforced, which is why the previous slide included a group of men with their pants on!

19. Examples of Mores • Stealing, rapes, killing

20. Taboo • The most powerful violation of a norm, will get the most shocked reaction. • Severe sanctions: Prison, banishment, death.

21. Conclusion on Behavior • Within a culture, defining and labeling behaviors depends on the level of societal reaction/outrage. • The more serious reactions influence society to create laws and sanctions to get conformity.

22. Subcultures • A world within the larger world of the dominant culture. • Dependent on shared interests, backgrounds, values, norms, etc. • See pages 54-55

23. Countercultures • Groups whose values, beliefs, and related behaviors are opposed to the dominant culture

24. Create Own Culture • Material culture (clothes, jewelry, art, buildings, weapons) • Non-material culture (beliefs, values, assumptions of the world) • Core values (honesty, respect, familial piety) • Norms (eat at a table, make eye contact, be respectful to elders) • Folkway (which side of street you walk on) • More(strictly enforced norms) • Taboo (very bad) • Subcultures (sports fans)

25. Evaluate a Cultural Scenario • Use the sociological perspectives, imagination • Use the terms to evaluate this scenario • Be culturally sensitive • Can you display cultural relativism when you evaluate the scenario?

26. Closure • Share responses • Word Web