SOCIETIES AND CULTURETerms and ideas

Society is the largest form of group

Sociology is the study of people in groups Sociology is a way to think

about social action Society is composed of

social actions with a group of people who share Culture

(and related subcultures) Defined geography A Specific time period And are relatively

autonomous

Culture

To understand a society we must first understand its culture

Where does culture come from?

Culture is handed down to us through the process of socialization. Learning a culture is also called

aculturalization Culture is learned

The ability to have culture is biological but the specific culture is learned

We are constantly socialized We are always learning more

about our culture Culture is shared

No one has their “own culture” Always shared with someone

Culture has a material basis We use material “things” to support ourselves

and survive Culture is limited by our ability to

Obtain material goods or the resources to make them Use material goods in settings for which they were

not designed Culture adjusts to new uses of environmental

resources through Material change …Technology (technological change) And through non-material adaptation (ideological

change)

Culture has a non-material basis Knowledge

Ideas Skills

Organized into Philosophies Beliefs Customs Institutions Language

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Thinker,_Auguste_Rodin.jpg

Different cultures meet the same needs differently Cultural Universals

Every culture must provide a set of routine behaviors that make it possible for the people in the culture to meet their human needs. George Murdock, an Anthropologist, compiled a

list of 72 areas that are addressed by all cultures. He found great diversity in the way in which

cultures handled the same area of human need, emotion or behavior Importantly, he believes that all cultures do address

all these areas; these areas of culture are the cultural Universals

The “Universals”age-gradingathletic sportsbodily adornmentcalendarcleanliness trainingcommunity organizationcookingco-operative laborcosmologycourtshipdancingdecorative artdivinationdivision of labordream interpretationeducationeschatology

ethicsethno-botanyetiquettefaith healingfamily feastingfire-makingfolklorefood taboosfuneral ritesgamesgesturesgift-givinggovernmentgreetingshair styleshospitalityhousing

hygieneincest taboosinheritance rulesjokingkin groupskinship nomenclaturelanguagelawluck / superstitionsmagicmarriagemealtimesmedicineobstetricspenal sanctionspersonal namespopulation policy

postnatal carepregnancy usagesproperty rightspropitiation of supernatural beingspuberty customsreligious ritualresidence rulessexual restrictionssoul conceptsstatus differentiationsurgerytool-makingtradevisitingweather control weaving

Source:http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/powerpt/define.ppt

List from: Howard Culverson’s summary of Murdock’s Universals

The same culture often meets the same need differently at different times and places

Cultural ChangeObviously time can bring new technologies and techniques to solve old problems.But it may be that ideas will change as well. This results in changes in the social rules and expectations.

Resources Matter Materialism

Marx (who controls materials) Diamond (geographic luck) Lenski (technology drives

change) Ideas Matter

Beliefs Weber (Protestant Ethic)

Culture changeCulture LagSometimes culture changes faster than people within the culture can keep up.When non-material culture falls behind material culture it is called culture lag

The rate of change can be very slow or very fast… or anywhere in between Culture changes in

response to Population changes Environmental changes Resource changes Discovery, Innovation,

Invention Ideas

LanguageSapir-Whorf HypothesisThe words that a culture uses transmit more than communication, they transmit the values, what is good/bad; right/wrong; important/not important.Language shapes not only what we say, but how we think about the world. Learning a new language involves learning how the culture perceives reality, in fact how it defines and constructs what is real.

The Rosetta Stone, written in 3 languages provide a clue to the translation of hierogyphics

Dominant Ideology

Cultural beliefs that help to maintain control by the powerful in society.

Two views Conflict Theory

This term is defined as the conflict theorists see it Ideas that provide advantage to the

powerful and disadvantage to the less powerful Ex: bank policies

Functionalism Social stability requires consensus “Strong values” (i.e. dominant

ideology) provides the needed agreement

Everyone benefits when we all agree

Dominant Ideology… an exampleAre we Christian nation? Would this change our experience of living as Americans? Congress shall make no

law respecting an establishment of religion,

or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of

speech, or of the press; or the right of the people

peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress

of grievances.

The Intersection of History & Biography

Background image http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/show/itl05/

Society

History

(Culture)

Biography

(Culture)Culture is an intrinsic part of our history and our biography

Societies are unique Society emerges from the actions of all the

members of the interrelated social group Actions take place in real time and are affected

by earlier actions Culture is expressed

Through the norms of the actors Through the rules of the society Through the institutions of society Through material objects

People are free to deviate Deviation may or may not bring cultural change