Cultural Diversity and Similarity

1. Cultural Diversity and Similarity Cultural Change • All cultures experience change. • Although norms, values, and beliefs are relatively stable, they do change over time. • One cause of cultural change is discovery, the process of finding something that already exists. • Culture also changes through invention, the creation of something new. • A third cause of cultural change is diffusion, the borrowing of aspects of culture from other cultures.

2. Cultural Diversity and Similarity Cultural Diversity • Cultural diversity exists in all societies and is often a result of social categories, or groups that share a social characteristic such as age, gender, or religion. • Folk culture refers to cultural patterns practiced by traditional groups, often in isolation, while pop culture refers to cultural patterns that are widespread among a society’s population. • A subculture is part of the dominant culture but differs from it in some important respects. • A counterculture is a subculture that is deliberately and consciously opposed to certain central beliefs or attitudes of the dominant culture.

3. Cultural Diversity and Similarity Ethnocentrism • People often become so strongly committed to their own culture that they may judge others in terms of their own cultural standards, a practice called ethnocentrism. • Ethnocentrism is almost always in conflict with globalism since, as the countries of the world become more interconnected, cultural diffusion brings new ideas. • Ethnocentrism builds group loyalty and helps maintain traditions that are central to a society. • Extreme ethnocentrism can prevent change for the better since societies whose members are convinced of their superiority tend not to accept new ideas. • Extreme ethnocentrism can divide people and lead to hatred and violence.

4. Cultural Diversity and Similarity Cultural Universals • Although it may seem that different cultures have little in common, researchers have identified more than 70 common cultural traits, or cultural universals, that exist in all cultures. • Cultural particulars are cultural universals carried out by different cultures in culturally unique ways. • The biological similarities shared by all human beings help to account for many cultural universals. • The physical environment provides another reason for the existence of cultural universals. • Cultural universals also exist because of the similarity of the types of social problems societies face.