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CULTURE BASICS Cultural Landscape

CULTURE BASICS Cultural Landscape. AP HG Mr. Hensley SRMHS. The Social Sciences Umbrella. What is the sociological perspective?.

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CULTURE BASICS Cultural Landscape

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  1. CULTURE BASICSCultural Landscape AP HG Mr. Hensley SRMHS

  2. The Social Sciences Umbrella

  3. What is the sociological perspective? • The sociological perspective means you seek to understand social interactions through data and the scientific method – not through anecdotes, folk tales and “common sense” beliefs

  4. Functionalist Perspective • Group structures exist to help keep things stable • Group structures have manifest (obvious) functions or latent (not-so-obvious functions) • Dysfunctional structures tend to make society less stable and do not become permanent

  5. Conflict Perspective • Resources are limited and social structures exist to help one group get those scarce resources at the expense of other groups • Winners and losers, the zero-sum game • Change is inevitable, chaos is part of life • Associated with Marx

  6. Interactionist Perspective • Concerned with symbols and how groups use symbols to interact with each other • Social groups give meanings to people – then people use those definitions to make decisions • Reality is what social groups decide it is • More “micro” than other two

  7. What is a GROUP? • Needs 2 or more people • Requires interaction • Members share expectations (values) • Group members share common identities (traits, norms) • NOT a group – “aggregates”

  8. Groups Have CULTURE • Culture – a groups shared system of ideas, values, traits, norms, and customs; a learned behavior expressed in dress, food, work, language, etc. • Norms or traits: shared rules of conduct that tell people how to act in specific situations - expected behaviors not actual behaviors

  9. Culture is System I • Cultural traits are rules-of-thumb, heuristics that help people function efficiently in a complex world • Cultural traits can break down when subjected to System II thought

  10. Hierarchy of Culture • Traits (norms) are the fundamental building block of culture • Related traits are cultural complexes • Complexes that share geography are cultural systems or regions • At the top are cultural realms (usually grouped by languages, religions)

  11. Cultural Realms

  12. Structure of Culture Three building blocks or “subsystems”: • Ideas: beliefs, language, religion • Technology: artifacts, tools, material objects • Social Organization: kinship, family, all interpersonal relationships

  13. Cultural Landscape and Possibilism • As humans act upon their environment, they create a cultural landscape • Possibilism says that the environment only provides constraints – within those constraints, humans are the dynamic force behind cultural development • Different directions of causation

  14. Human Impacts • Extinction of megafauna (aka Pleistocene overkill) • North African over-farming (Roman Empire) • Easter Island collapse • Dutch dike system • Current irrigation of American Southwest • Construction of Dubai • Global warming?

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