Part 3: Cultural Variation

• Cultural Universals: common features found in all cultures

• 1940’s study results: Body adornment, cooking, dancing, family, feasting, forms of greeting, funeral ceremonies, gift giving, housing, language, medicine, music, myths/folklore, religion, sports and toolmaking

What do we have in Common?

Ethnocentrism/Cultural Relativity• Ethnocentrism:

• The practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture

• Culture Shock: Personal disorientation accompanying exposure to an unfamiliar way

• Cultural Relativity:• The practice of evaluating any

culture by its own standards

Subculture• DEFINITION:

cultural patterns that differentiate some segment of a society’s population

• Can be based on:• Age, residence,

sexual preference, ethnicity and occupation

Counterculture

• DEFINITION: cultural patterns that strongly oppose conventional culture

• Likely to question the morality of the majority group & to engage in some form of protest

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Subculture or Counterculture?

Cultural Change• Cultural change

is continuous

• Cultural Lag:• Cultural elements change at

varying rates; often disrupts a cultural system

• Causes of cultural change:

• Social Movements• Invention/Technological

Advances• Population Changes• Physical Environments• Diffusion- Globalization

Cultural Change