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Chapter 2. Culture. Chapter Outline. Introduction to Culture Basis of Human Behavior: Culture and Biology The Carriers of Culture Cultural Diversity and Change. Chapter Outline. Sources of Cultural Diversity and Change Consequences of Cultural Diversity and Change Uses of Culture.
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Chapter 2 Culture
Chapter Outline • Introduction to Culture • Basis of Human Behavior: Culture and Biology • The Carriers of Culture • Cultural Diversity and Change
Chapter Outline • Sources of Cultural Diversity and Change • Consequences of Cultural Diversity and Change • Uses of Culture
What Is Culture? • The way of life shared by members of a community. • Nonmaterial culture - language, values, rules and knowledge shared by a society. • Material culture - physical objects a society produces—tools, streets, sculptures, and toys. • Material objects depend on the nonmaterial culture for meaning.
Two Approaches to the Study of Culture • The first approach treats culture as the underlying basis of interaction. • More interested in how culture shapes us than in how culture itself is shaped. • The second approach focuses on culture as a social product. • Asks why particular aspects of culture develop.
Characteristics of Culture • Problem solving - culture is the way human societies adapt to their natural environments. • Relative - different groups come up with different ways to solve problems. • A social product - cultural diversity is not the product of gene pools, but of cultural evolution.
Biological Perspective • Maintains that human behavior is based in biology. • Sociobiologists argue that humans have developed altruism (unselfish behavior) as an adaptive mechanism.
The Carriers of Culture • Language • Values • Norms
Language • Permits humans to coordinate behavior and cooperate to survive as a social species. • It is an embodiment of culture. • It is a framework. • It provides symbols of social identity.
Values • Tell us what is good or bad, sacred or profane. • Tenderness and toughness, self-reliance, and finding one’s identity in the group are values.
Norms Three basic categories: • Folkways are day-to-day norms for ordinary behavior. • Mores are norms that carry heavy social sanctions. • Laws are norms endorsed and associated with sanctions enforced by a government.
Sources of CulturalDiversity and Change • Environment may dictate norms. • Isolation results in diversity because cultures evolve without other influences. • Technology can radically alter a culture. • Dominant cultural themes affect how cultures respond to innovations.
Consequences of Cultural Diversity and Change • Culture Shock can happen when a person is thrust into a new cultural environment. • Cultural lag occurs when one part of a culture, like its technologies, change faster than other parts, such as the patterns of marriage, residence, and child raising.