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Culture

Culture. What is Culture??. Culture is the TOTAL way of life shared by members of a society. What do you think culture includes? 2 Categories of Culture Material Non-Material. Types of Culture . Material Culture. Non-Material Culture. Physical Objects that a society produces

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Culture

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  1. Culture

  2. What is Culture?? • Culture is the TOTAL way of life shared by members of a society. • What do you think culture includes? • 2 Categories of Culture • Material • Non-Material

  3. Types of Culture Material Culture Non-Material Culture • Physical Objects that a society produces • Examples: Tools, streets, sculptures, toys, • Jewelry, weapons, • Dependent on non-material culture for meaning. • Non-tangible values (It’s there, but you can’t touch it.) • Examples: language, values, rules, knowledge

  4. Culture Shock • When people are thrown into a new and unfamiliar culture • Leaving everything behind and find their new way in a foreign country • Can be difficult for some… • Example?

  5. Carrier of Culture- Norms • Norm- • Shared rules of conduct that specify how people ought to feel, think, and act (Culture is our blue print for life.) • Ex: brushing your teeth, bathing, getting dressed, going to school… the list can be overwhelming. • Vary in importance • Fashion doesn’t last • Democracy and Monogamy are central • 2 kinds: Folkways and Mores

  6. Folkways • Norms that are the customary, normal, habitual way that a group does something. • Cover relatively permanent customs • Fireworks on the 4th of July • Cover Fads • Tongue Piercing • **There is no strong feeling of right and wrong attached to each folkway. If you violate it, people just think you are weird.**

  7. Mores (More- ayz) • Mores are norms associated with strong feelings of right and wrong. • Ex: Eating your dog, spending the last dollar on a video game when you need food, running around naked. • If you violate mores, you won’t be punished formally, but you might be shunned, ostracized( isolated), or reprimanded. • These punishments reduce the likelihood that you will violate the more again.

  8. Mores … Laws • Laws are rules that are enforced and sanctioned by the authority of the government. • Important Mores become laws. If a law does not support a more, it becomes a dead-letter law. • Not all laws are supported by public mores, instead, they are trying to create norms. • Ex: Seatbelt law, teenage curfew.

  9. Elite and Pop Culture • The values of the upper class tend to be perceived as superior to the norms and values of the lower class, hence, Elite and Popular Culture • Ex: Going to the opera vs. Monday Night Football • Elite- culture of the educated upper class, funded by wealthy patrons, govt. funding • Popular-what the rest of us like, driven by market forces (commercial value) • Both cultures express the aesthetics and values of their participants

  10. Sports and Pop Culture • Sports are: • Criticized for- • promoting potentially harmful male aggression • directing minority students to athletics, rather than academics, for the road to success. • Encouraged because they reinforce norms and values, as well as integrating communities. • Do you all agree with these reasons?

  11. Mass Media- Carrier of impersonal communications directed towards a very large audience Developed with communication technology newspapers Electronic media 98% of homes in US have a tv 61% are wired for cable 75% have VCR’s Average household watches 7 hours of tv a day Suggested that tv violence influences people to be more violent towards their peers, etc. Mass Media and Pop Culture

  12. Ethnocentrism Its normal to sometimes have a negative response to culture traits that are different than our own • Example: polygamy • Ethnocentrism- to view one’s own culture and group as superior

  13. How ethnocentrism can affect a society • On the Positive side • It can create group unity • On negative side • Culture can slow down because by limiting the “pool” of culture, societies run the risk of excluding new influences that might be beneficial • Ex: U.S. adapting a longer school year from the Japanese

  14. Cultural Relativism • Scientists attempt to keep an open mind toward variations on culture • Cultural Relativism • The belief that cultures should be judged by their own standards rather than by applying the standards of another culture.

  15. Questions • Can you do this? • Can you look at a society with an open mind? • Look at their cultural practices from their own point of view? • Its hard to do this especially if you don’t agree with the practices

  16. Example • look at the religious practices of India. • Prohibition against killing a cow even when food shortages exist. • Cows play a vital role in feeding the people. BUT not by killing them. Milk, and use for plowing the fields • Can you see from their point of view?

  17. Group work: One sheet of paper for everyone. • Give 3 examples of material and non-material culture (not ones I have used) • Give an example of Culture Shock • Give an example of 2 norms, folkways, and mores in your life/culture

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