Intro. To Culture

1. Intro. To Culture Have you ever been told that you resemble your mom or dad? In what ways does your personality resemble your family members?

3. In what ways are you alike/different from your family? • Do you dislike the music your parents play? • Do you wear a style of dress because it is popular?

4. Material Culture Skyscrapers Computers Cell phones Cars TVs Non-material Culture Beliefs Rules Customs Family system Capitalist economy Culture • Knowledge, language, values, customs, and physical objects passed down from generation to generation • Helps explain human social behavior • Culture is LEARNED; human cultural behavior must be LEARNED

5. Society • Group of people that live in a defined territory and participate in a common culture

6. Culture vs. Instinct • What makes up your cultural personality? • Nature • Genetic make-up (biology)

7. Nature/Biology • Reflex • Biologically inherited reaction to a physical stimuli • Pupils contract in bright light • Drives • Impulse to reduce discomfort • Hungry? - you eat; Tired? - you sleep • These do not control all human behavior

8. Nature vs Nurture • What makes up your cultural personality? • Nurture • Environmental factors • Culture

9. WE ARE A PRODUCT OF OUR HEREDITY AND CULTURE!!! It’s Nature AND Nurture BABY!

10. Let's look at NURTURE! Knowing your culture the sword • The pen is mightier than… • Better safe than… • Don’t bite the hand that… • No news is… • A penny saved is a… • Children should be seen and not… • Better late… sorry feeds you good news penny earned heard than never

11. Let's look at NURTURE! Culture is learned through…SYMBOLS • Physical objects, sounds, smells, tastes, words • words are a symbol for an object • Applause • Concert in US = positive • Athlete in Latin America = negative • Language frees us of time and place • Allows future generations to access the same material • Cultural Transmission • Passing of culture from generation to generation

12. Language • Symbols that guide reality • The more important the idea/concept/physical object the more words we have to represent it • US: snow = few wordsInuit (Eskimo): snow = more than twenty • Your perception of the world differs/alters as you learn new language Hypothesis of linguistic relativity List all the words you use for “clothes”? “food”?

13. Accoutrement Apparel Costume Dress Duds Ensemble Frock Garb Garments Gear Hand me downs Outfit Rags Regalia Sunday Best Threads Wardrobe Bite Chow Cooking Cuisine Diet Eats Entrée Fare Feast Fuel Groceries Grub Meal Mess Munchies Nourishment Ration Slop Snack Sustenance Clothing Food

14. Body language and gestures are not always universal. Based on our reading of “What’s A-OK in the U.S.A is Lewd and Worthless Beyond” what happens when the gestures we use here in the United States don’t cross over our borders? Answer the following: What is the gesture? What does it mean here in the US? What is its meaning in at least one other country mentioned in the article?

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17. Culture Components of • Norms • Rules defining behavior in a specific situation • Taught through the use of sanctions (rewards and punishments) • Standing in line for concert tickets • Applaud for a guest speaker • Laws against stealing • Unaware that we are guided by norms, until they are broken • Cutting in line for concert tickets • Values • Broad ideas about what most people in a society/group consider desirable • Do not dictate a specific behavior • Beliefs • Ideas about reality • Can be true or false • Germans believed if they put a poster of Hitler on their walls, it would prevent the walls from crumbling during bombing (false) • No intelligent life exists on Mars (true – based on scientific evidence) • Behavior is based at some level on our beliefs • Physical objects • Material culture • How we relate to physical objects

18. Norm Physical Object Language Symbol Value Broad ideas about what most people in a society consider desirable Rules defining a specific behavior Material Culture Sounds, smells, tastes, words Frees us from place and time Matching B C E D A

19. Types of Norms • Folkways • Mores • Taboos • Laws

20. Folkways • Norms that lack moral significance • Not considered vital to group welfare • Disapproval for breaking a folkway is not costly • Sleeping on the floor vs. in a bed • Talking on a cell phone in the movies • Smoking in public places (folkway turned law as norms changed)

21. Mores • Norms with GREATmoral significance • Vital to well being of society; therefore, conformity is a social requirement • Cheating on a test • Do not cry “fire” in a public place • Pay back borrowed money

22. Remember… • A folkway is more of a preference than a requirement • How does your family eat dinner? (At the table, in front of the tv, together, on-your-own, eat out, daily discussion) • What are the folkways of the cafeteria?AND • A more is more of a requirement than a preference

23. MORE Mores • Most serious mores are TABOOS • Violation demands punishment by group • Not laws, but unacceptable • Many relate to sexual behaviors • Incest • Cannibalism

24. Laws • Formally defined and enforced by officials • Consciously created and enforced • Guided by mores – as culture changes so do the laws (ie. smoking ban in public places) • Essential for society’s well being • Running a red light • Murder p84 pictures, what is being followed or broken? p.86 silly laws chart

31. Sanctions • Rewards/Punishments that encourage people to follow norms • By a certain age we conform to norms, etc. without threat of sanctions • Believe specific behavior is appropriate • Avoid guilty feelings • Fear social disapproval

32. Sanctions Are Used To Enforce Mores Laws Folkways Which Are Types Of Norms That Are Based On Values

33. Sanctions • Formal • Applied only by officials (judges, teachers) • Reward – Congressional Medal of Honor • Punishment – Hockey player’s loss of eligibility after hitting another player in the face (requiring more than 20 stitches) • Informal • Applied by most members of a group • Reward – thanking someone for their help • Punishment – staring at someone for talking while someone else is talking

34. Values Broad ideas about what most people in a society/group consider desirable Norms are based on them – even societies with different norms can have similar values! EXAMPLE: Norms: Free Speech Norms: Medical Care Free Enterprise Education Freedom

35. Differing Values Duggar Family (US) – 19 kids and counting! One Child Policy (China) Values affect how family relationships are conducted, how people treat each other, how organizations are run, how people worship, etc!

36. Beliefs Ideas about reality Can be TRUE or FALSE WWII Germans – Poster of Hitler on wall would prevent it from crumbling No intelligent life on Mars – Scientifically proven Behavior is based at some level on beliefs regardless of whether or not they are true!

37. Beliefs Help us to assign cultural meaning to physical objects (material culture) Not defined by physical characteristics Rather defined by our beliefs, norms, & values -Out of service trolley: restaurant - More “secular” instruments in church - The CLAW

38. Beliefs Have your group select a physical object (material culture) from the box. Explain its cultural significance. Over time, has its meaning changed? Explain

39. OPENING ACTIVITY Think of an example of real and ideal culture at Council Rock North. Should the aspect of ideal culture be abandoned? Why or why not?

40. Simply because we have cultural guidelines… Ideal Culture Cultural guidelines publicly embraced by society – “how we should behave” High set of standards that most people aim for Help to detect deviant behavior – (Sanctions!) Society’s actual behavior! – “how we actually behave” Real Culture

41. IDEAL vs. REAL EXAMPLES IDEAL CULTURE = HONESTY REAL CULTURE =student cheat on tests, people violate tax laws EXTREMES like murder, rape, etc. are part of NEITHER culture because they violate both!

42. Let’s Practice… • Cultural Components Worksheet

43. Culture does change over time Grandparents may not have gone to college As teenagers, your parents did not email or text friends (communication) Interracial dating (still not very common but much more widely practiced)

44. Culture does change over time 3 REASONS 1) Discovery – process of finding something that already exists EXAMPLE: Athletic ability of women – always existed but recently acknowledged 2) Invention – creation of something new EXAMPLE: Steam engine, cell phone, i-Pod 3) Diffusion – borrowing aspects from other cultures EXAMPLE: Food: tacos, pizza, hamburgers (McDonalds) Piñatas - celebrations

46. i-Pod?

47. United States Latin America

48. Cultural Diversity exists... • Once people learn a culture we become strongly committed to it, can’t think of/imagine any other way to live • When people judge others based on our own cultural standards = I can’t imagine my life without my trusty cell phone! Ethnocentrism

49. Cultural Diversity exists... However, differences do exist in society because of various social categories Social categories – groups that share a social characteristic (age, gender, religion, etc.)

50. Cultural Diversity exists... Subculture - Part of a larger culture/society but differs in an important respect EXAMPLES: Chinatown – Chinese immigrants pass down their native culture while also being affected by American culture …Youth…musicians…jocks and athletes…