Outline: Culture – Socialization, norms, roles

1. Outline: Culture – Socialization, norms, roles • Biological bases of cultural learning • Mirror neurons • Development of the Self • Social Roles • Goffman: performing social roles • The Importance of Subsistence Technology • Hunting and gathering societies • Horticultural Societies • Agrarian Societies • Ascribed versus Achieved Statuses • Industrial Societies • Cultural differences • Socialization

2. Culture • Culture is the totality of norms, values, beliefs, behavior and material objects that form a people’s way of life • All human societies have a distinctive culture • Part of our species makeup is the ability to learn a culture, including a language

3. Language • The predisposition to learn language is especially noticeable in the early years • All small children learn a language, or languages, very quickly

4. As we get older, it becomes harder to learn a language • Almost impossible to learn to speak a language without a marked accent after about 15

5. Mirror neurons • Neurons in the brain that “mirror” the neurons of others performing a behavior, including saying words • These neurons speed the learning process for learning a language, and other skills

6. Mirror neurons and empathy • Mirror neurons are likely involved in learning to see things from other people’s point of view, or empathize • Feeling another’s pain • The ability to empathize is fully developed in normal 4 year olds. • Sally Ann test

7. Development of the self • Differentiating between ourselves and others, and what we believe and what others believe, is key to developing a sense of a separate self. • Understanding of how others see us contributes to our sense of self.

8. Our experiences with others over our life also influences our sense of self. • Do other people find us funny, smart, quiet, helpful? • This is also influenced by our individual genetic makeup • Personality traits are inherited

9. Always a two-way street – both the situation and characteristics of the individual matter

10. Social roles • Our experiences with other people are shaped by the roleswe play – as student, worker, colleague and friend. • Our roles and the social rules that shape the way we play our roles also shape our sense of self

11. Goffman • Distinguished between social rules for “front stage” and rules for “back stage” behavior • E.g. a waiter in front of customers and a waiter in the kitchen

12. Importance of subsistence technology • Different societies have different roles • These roles vary a great deal, but there are regularities by the subsistence technology of the society

13. Types of societies by subsistence technology • Hunting and Gathering • 90% of time humans have existed they were hunting and gathering • Horticultural • Began about 15,000 years ago • Agrarian • Industrial • Began about 1780

14. Industrial societies often have similar roles, as do agrarian societies and hunting and gathering societies

15. Hunting and Gathering Societies • In hunting and gathering societies, people survive by hunting wild animals, birds or fish and gathering wild foodstuffs such as nuts, fruits, berries, roots and seeds. • In these societies, there are very few roles to take, and they are mostly decided on the basis of age, sex and kinship status.

16. Horticultural Societies • Horticultural societies are similar to hunting and gathering societies, but food intake is supplemented with foods that are planted in gardens and tended by people.

17. More social differentiation in horticultural societies so more roles • Women do much of the gardening work, except for ground breaking which is usually performed by men.

18. Each settlement is usually several hundred people. There is usually a headman, who is often head of the most extensive family or tribe. • There are more status differences between individuals in these societies – as the headman and his extended family are often given some special prerogatives and privileges.

19. Some occupational specialization in these societies • The larger the horticultural society, the greater the occupational specialization

20. Agrarian societies • Agrarian societies are distinguished from horticultural societies by the use of the plow in agriculture. • Agrarian societies are often very large and have much occupational specialization • Many roles – priest, soldier, tinker, tailor, etc.

21. Many status differences between those at the top of the agrarian society (the monarch or ruler and his family and officials) and the farmers or peasants at the bottom of the agrarian society.

22. Industrial Societies • Industrial societies most people earn a living outside of agriculture • Industrial societies have complex economies with a great many different occupations and roles • A lot of inequality between people at the top and bottom of society, but not as much as in agrarian societies

23. Cultural Differences • Not all societies that share a subsistence technology are alike • Roles are similar, but how people play those roles is different • E.g. U.S. and Japan, Australia and Germany etc.

24. Japan and the U.S. • Reasons for differences: • America has a history as a frontier society settled primarily (at first) by the English; Japan has a history as a distinctive feudal agrarian society.

25. Religious practices in each country are also historically different – the United States was founded by Puritans, Japan is home to Shinto Buddhism. • Shinto Buddhism is a distinctive Japanese form of Buddhism that combines ancestor worship and animist beliefs (beliefs in spirits) with Buddhism.

26. Demography also makes a differenc • America - sparsely settled place compared to Japan. • Formal institutions (rules) make a difference • Japanese democracy is not quite the same as American democracy, even though Americans wrote the first democratic Japanese constitution (after World War II).

27. Culture Shock • Often people going from one culture to another experience culture shock • Become depressed

28. Socialization • The way people learn about the appropriate roles and attached social rules in their society • Can be formal (e.g. in school) • Can be informal (at home, in the neighborhood, at friends’ homes)