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7/29/2019 Lecture 5 Culture
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CULTURE
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What is culture?
Culture refers to the total lifestyle of a
people, including all of their ideas, values,
knowledge, behaviors, and materialobjects that they share
Culture shapes and guides peoples
perception of reality
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Culture determines
Food we eat
Clothing
Music Games we play
How to express emotions
What is good or bad What is high or low culture (if any)
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High Culture Low Culture
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Culture and appearance
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Society vs. Culture
Societyrefers to a group of people who
are relatively self-sufficient and who share
a common territory and culture Members of the society preserve and
transmit it from one generation to the next
(through literature, art, video recording andother means of expression)
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Society vs. Culture
Culturerefers to that peoples traditions,
customs, and behaviors. It includes ideas,
values, and artifacts Sharing a similar culture helps to define
the society to which we belong
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Characteristics of Culture
Culture is a universal feature of human
social life
Culture is cumulative
Culture is learned
Culture is shared
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Material and Nonmaterial Culture
Material Culture includes all those things thathumans make or adapt from the raw stuff ofnature: houses, computers, jewelry, oil paintings,
etc (Stick from the forest might be a part ofmaterial culture)
Nonmaterial culture is a group's way of thinking(including its beliefs, values) and doing (its
common pattern of behavior, including languageand other forms of interaction) (Poem aboutstick)
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Diffusion
Is the process by which a cultural item is
spread from group to group or society to
society Diffusion can occur through a variety of
means, among them exploration, military
conquest, missionary work, influence ofmass media, and tourism
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Diffusion may take place over long
distance The use of smoking tobacco began when
Indian tribes in the Caribbean invented the
habit of smoking the tobacco plant Over the periods of hundred of years,
tobacco traveled through Central America
and across the North America
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Diffusion is not always easy
Societies resist ideas which seem too
foreign (or threatening to their own beliefs)
Each culture tends to be selective in whatit absorbs (food vs. beliefs)
Europe accepted silk, magnetic compass,
chess, and gunpowder from Chinese butrejected the teaching of philosophy
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Culture and taken-for-granted
orientations in life Ourspeech, ourgestures, ourbeliefs, our
customs are usually taken-for-granted
We assume that they are normal or natural,and almost always we follow them without
questions
Culture provides implicit instructions that tell us
what we ought to do in various situations. It
provides a basis for our decision making.
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Cultural Shock
Culture becomes the lens through which weperceive and evaluate what is going around us
We have expectations of the way people ought
to be
Cultural shock- is the disorientation that peopleexperience when they come in contact with afundamentally different culture and can no
longer depend on their taken-for-grantedassumptions about life
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Segments of the populations of Australia, Asia, and Africa
consume protein-rich insects. In the photograph, a woman
enjoys a dry-roasted insect
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An American tourist who goes out to dinner in
Seoul, Korea and learns that a local specialty is
dog meat might well experience cultural shock
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Attitudes toward Cultural Variation
Ethnocentrism is a tendency to evaluate
and judge the customs and traditions of
others according to ones own culturaltastes, beliefs, and standards
We learn that the ways of our own group
are good, right, proper, and superior toother ways
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Example of ethnocentrism
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Subservience to Males? Moral Depravity?
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Ethnocentrism
Has bothpositive and negative
consequences
On the positive side, it creates in-grouployalty
On the negative side, ethnocentrism can
lead to harmful discrimination againstpeople whose ways differ from ours
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Body Ritual of Nacirema
Pathological horror and fascination with
the mouth
Holy-mouth-man and rituals with mouth
Women bake their head in small ovens
Latipso ceremonies
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Attitudes toward Cultural Variation
Cultural relativism is a tendency tounderstand and evaluate a culture in the
context of its own special circumstances None of us can be entirely successful at
practicing cultural relativism
We cannot help viewing a contrasting wayof life through the lens that our own cultureprovides
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Cultural Relativism and Practice
Chinese immigrant was convicted in a New York court ofbludgeoning his wife to death with a hammer
He was sentenced to only 5 years of probation
The judge took into consideration the culturalconsiderations
The deceased women confessed extramarital affair
Testimony of an expert in Chinese culture revealed thathusbands in China exact severe punishment on their
wives In posttrial hearings, the judge declared that the
defendant took all his culture with him to the U.S. andtherefore was not fully responsible for his violent act///
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Xenocentrism
Reverse to ethnocentrism
Xenocentrism is the belief that the
products, styles, or ideas of ones societyis inferior to those that originate elsewhere
People in the U.S. assume that French
fashion or Japanese electronic devices aresuperior to our own
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People in Saudi Arabia may prefer to buy Pepsi
Cola and other food products that originate in the
United States
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Xenocentrism
People are charmed by the lure of goods from
exotic places?
Such fascination with British china or Danishglassware can be damaging to the U.S.
competitors
Some companies have responded by crating
products that soundEuropean like Haagen-Dazsice cream (made in Teaneck, New Jersey)
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Components of Culture
Norms
Sanctions
Values
Symbols
Language
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Norms
Norms are established standards of
behavior maintained by a society
Formal norms have been written down andinvolve strict rules or punishment of
violators (Law is the body of rules ,made
by government for society, interpreted by
courts, and backed by the power of the
state (Wise, 1993)
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Norms
Informal norms are generally understood
but are not precisely recorded
Examples: standards of proper dress orproper behavior at school
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According to the informal norms of culture of the
mountainous Asian kingdom of Bhutan, people greet
each other by extending their tongues and hands
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Types of Norms (according to their
relative importance to society) Folkways are norms governing everyday
behavior whose violation might cause a
dirty look, rolled eyes, or disapprovingcomment
Example: Walking up a down escalator in
a department store challenges ourstandards of appropriate behavior
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Types of Norms (according to their
relative importance to society) Mores are norms deemed highly
necessary to the welfare of a society, often
because they embody the most cherishedprinciples of people
Each society demands obedience to itsmores (violation can lead to severe
penalties Examples: murder, child abuse
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Sociologists Ian Robertson illustrated the difference between Folkways
and Mores: A man who walks down a street wearing nothing on the upper
half of his body is violating a folkway; a man is wearing nothing on the
lower half of his body is violating one of mores (requirement that peoplecover their genitals and buttocks in public (1987)
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Types of Norms (according to their
relative importance to society) Taboos are norms that are so deeply held
that even the thought of violating them
upset people In the U.S. There is a taboo against
eating human flesh
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Sanctions
Sanctions arepenalties and rewards for
conduct concerning a social norm
Conformity to a norm can lead to positivesanctions such as pay raise, a medal, a
word of gratitude, or a pat on a back
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Norms and Sanctions
NORMSSANCTIONS
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
Formal
Salary bonus Fine
Medal Jail sentenceDiploma Execution
Testimonial
dinnerExpulsion
Informal
Smile Frown
Compliment Humiliation
Cheers Ostracism
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Values
are collective concepts of what is
considered good, desirable, and proper-or
bad, undesirable, and improper- in a
culture
Values indicate what people find important
and morally right (or wrong)
Values influence people's behavior andserve as criteria for evaluation the actions
of others
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Americans traditionally prized success throughindividual effort and initiative, Japanese emphasize
collectivism and loyalty to the company
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An overview of U.S. Values made by
sociologists Robin Williams (1965) Achievement and success
Individualism
Activity and work Efficiency and practicality
Material comfort
Freedom
Democracy
Equality
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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Since people can conceptualize the world
only through language, language precedes
thought Word symbols and grammar organize the
world of us and determines our behavior
Language does more than describe reality,it shapes the reality of a culture
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Examples
The Solomon Islanders have 9 distinctwords for coconut, each specifying an
important stage of growth They have only one word for all meals of
the day
The Aleuts (northern Canada) have 33words for snow (texture, temperature,weight, color, load0carrying capacity, etc)
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Examples
The Hanunoo people of the Philippines
have different names for 92 varieties of
riceAmericans use a single word rice
Hanunoo would be incapable of seeing the
distinction b/w a Ford and a Toyota
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