5: Culture

Culture

Material vs. Non-material?

(ways of thinking, behavioral patterns, and stuff!)

Brainstorm – what is culture?

"To cultivate" – i.e. to foster growth

status, style, fashion, taste (networks)

No particular way of life is "natural" to humans (biologically)

we will learn to walk, but not to talk, with biological determinism

culture shock, anomie & alienation

many cultures, cultural relativity and ethnocentrism (p.51)

story on Charles Schwab & Co using census data to reach out to cultures

symbols, words are the vocab of language

Sapir-Whorf – we understand the world through a language lens (Symbolic Interactionism)

all information passed between individuals and generations – memes

 symbols & memes are the elements of culture, LENSES through which we view the world

humans are the only species that relies on this external information storage to survive

Beliefs (statements about the world you endorse as true)

Values (how a culture determines good and bad)
p.42, list of 10 American values – Discuss?

Norms: laws, mores, folkways – all come with sanctions

Technology (material culture) and history

 example in football.

1. hunting/gathering
2. horticulture/pastoralism
3. agriculture/agrarian
4. industrial
5. information/postindustrial

How does culture change over time?

• invention
• discovery
• diffusion

  

Theoretical approaches...

Structural Functionalism - Culture is a complex strategy for meeting human needs.  What does this mean?

Look for patterns and universals.  

Stability of society rests on core values shared by all.

Social Conflict Approach – if there is inequality, assume that culture benefits the powerful by teaching us to accept the system.  

Accepting "material determinism" means that we view external culture as something that shapes our patterns of thought and behavior.

SOCIOBIOLOGY – how does our biology affect our culture?

Social darwinism in individuals, or in social forms (market competition)

QUIZ???

ASK ANTONIA AND MELISSA TO STAY

SOCIALIZATION

Nature vs. Nurture

http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/01/27/guest-post-jersey-shore-on-beauty-and-not-even-looking-italian/

http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2007/09/27/idea-traps-fryer-and-caplan-style/