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Chapter 3

Chapter 3. Cultural Crossroads. Overview. What is Culture? Components of Culture Exercise Variations in Culture Cultural Change. The entire way of life of a group of people or society Language, ideas, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors and objects

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Chapter 3

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  1. Chapter 3 Cultural Crossroads

  2. Overview • What is Culture? • Components of Culture • Exercise • Variations in Culture • Cultural Change

  3. The entire way of life of a group of people or society Language, ideas, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors and objects Passed from one generation to the next Fundamental feature of who we are Why we think and act the way we do Culture is internalized Lens through which we view the world Effects tend to remain imperceptible to us What is Culture?

  4. YouTube Clip “Borat” movie trailer

  5. PRACTICING CULTURAL RELATIVISM • Each cultural group as relative to others • Seeing differences and distinctions rather than: • right and wrong • normal and abnormal • good and bad • better and worse

  6. SuspendingETHNO*CENTRISM: Use of one’s own culture as a standard to evaluate others, usually leading to a negative judgment

  7. “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”by Horace Miner • Understanding the Nacirema culture • Who are they? • See article on Everyday Sociology Blog • A study of culturally-prescribed rituals • Highly-developed techniques to care for the body • All members conform to some degree with these practices • They pass these practices along to their children

  8. Who are the Nacirema? • North American people • Live in a specific geographic territory • They suffer from a negative self-image • They dislike the appearance of unaltered body • They have an aversion to natural bodily functions • Ritual and ceremonial activities • Transform health and appearance • Native cultural aesthetics dictate certain practices • They are obsessed with magic

  9. Every household has one or more shrines devoted to the body ritual • Each has a charm-box or chest built into the wall with a small holy-water font below • Other elements • Members visit medicine men, holy-mouth men and other specialized practitioners • To procure potions and implements to use in rituals • Very afflicted people visit certain temples • Where more radical procedures are performed

  10. So …Who are the Nacirema? How might an understanding of the Nacirema culture help us to better understand ourselves?

  11. Hint: To understand the Nacirema you must think sociologically: • practice culture shock • suspend ethnocentrism • practice cultural relativism N A C I R E M A = A M E R I C A N

  12. Components of Culture:Material Culture • Physical objects belonging to a culture • To which we give meaning • Art, artifacts, architecture, clothing, utensils, tools, machines, technologies, etc.

  13. Components of Culture:Non-Material or Symbolic Culture • Symbols • Signs • Gestures • Language • Symbols allow for abstract concepts • Ideas, beliefs, values, norms, rules • Social systems, patterns, ways of thinking

  14. YouTube Clip “Hand Gestures Across Cultures”

  15. LANGUAGE • A human universal • Do animals have language? • A system of communication • Vocal sounds and written symbols • The basis of culture • Knowledge and experience is cumulative • Shared and exchanged

  16. Language and Perception • The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis— • Ways of looking at the world are embedded in language • Language allows us to “see” things • Example of the Inuit or Eskimo • Language structures thought

  17. Language and Social Reality • Example of language and culture of high school girls • From the book “Queen Bees and Wannabes” • Basis for the movie “Mean Girls”

  18. Mean Girls

  19. Can you solve this riddle? A man and his son are involved in a serious car accident. The man is pronounced dead at the scene, but his son is rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition. A famous surgeon on staff at the hospital is summoned from a golf game to save the boy's life. Arriving at the hospital, the surgeon takes one look at the boy and says, “Oh my God, I can't operate, get someone else. That's my son!" WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

  20. Symbolic Culture:VALUES AND NORMS • Values— • What a group values and honors • Standards and ideas about good or bad, right or wrong, normal or abnormal • Norms— • Rules and guidelines for acceptable and appropriate behavior • Based on a group’s values • We conform so readily that we are not usually aware

  21. Types of Norms • Folkways— • Customs and practices that ensure smooth interaction • Loosely enforced • Mores— • Norms that are key to core values • Serious and formal repercussions • Taboos— • Deeply engrained mores • The thought of violating evokes horror or revulsion

  22. SANCTIONS and SOCIAL CONTROL • Sanctions— • Positive or negative reactions to people • Reward conformity • Punish violation • Social Control — • Means to insure that people behave in acceptable and expected ways • Formal – through outside authorities • Informal – through internalization • Social Control— > “Self Control”

  23. Positive Sanctions Social Control Negative Sanctions

  24. Moral Holidays

  25. VARIATIONS IN CULTURE:Subcultures and Countercultures • Subculture – • A group within dominant culture • Large or small • Each has distinctive values, norms and lifestyle

  26. VARIATIONS IN CULTURE:Subcultures and Countercultures • Counterculture – • Openly rejects or opposes society’s values and norms • May actively challenge dominant culture

  27. In-Class Exercise CULTURAL GROUP MEMBERSHIP

  28. Ideal culture: what a group aspires to Values, norms and behaviors that should be followed Real culture: what a group actually does Values, norms and behaviors that are practiced in reality VARIATIONS IN CULTURE:“Ideal” Versus “Real” Culture Contradictions

  29. VARIATIONS IN CULTURE:Culture Wars • Controversies within mainstream society • Which values and norms to follow • Often described as clashes between: • right and left • conservatives and liberals • Resistance to those who want to change values • Struggle over values can lead to social change

  30. Culture Wars

  31. Values, Norms and Laws in Flux:The Case of Marijuana • 1770: George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grow hemp • Used to make paper for the Declaration of Independence • 1937: “Reefer Madness” leads to the outlaw of marijuana use in U.S. • 2002: Some states decriminalize, allow for medical use

  32. CULTURAL CHANGE • Cultural Diffusion • The dissemination of beliefs and practices from one group to another • Material • Symbolic • Exposure to new cultural elements may lead to adoption

  33. CULTURAL LEVELING • Result of widespread cultural diffusion • Cultures may eventually resemble one another • Loss of distinctiveness • Cultural diffusion tends to come from the West • Process is not necessarily one-way

  34. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM • The imposition of one culture’s beliefs, practices and artifacts on another culture • Through mass media and consumer goods • “Invading” and taking over another country • No longer necessary to send military • May not be welcomed • Could threaten local, traditional cultures

  35. More about cultural change Later in the semester …

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