Soc. 001 1st Edition Lecture 17 Outline of Last Lecture I. Homework 5 AnalysisI. In-class exampleII. Culture controls the way we thinkIII. Clicker QuestionOutline of Current Lecture IV. Cultural definitionV. Five Constitutes of CultureVI. Chapter 7 Reading AssignmentCurrent Lecture- Culture is foundational- Culture is socialized: we learn it in interactions with others- Cultures differ: people do things differentlyo Japanese toiletso But because culture is foundations, to members of different cultures, these seem wrongo It is hard and takes practice- Cultures just growo Cultures “form” more or less randomlyo No one person “makes” themo No ultimate purposeo But each one of us encounters our culture as something fully formedo CHANGE looks orderly, inevitable in hindsight But it is really disruptive as it occurso Seem obvious in hindsight, but not so if you’re living through it- Cultures are very complex, specializedo Complex: there’s a lot going ono Specialized: sophisticated and specifico No single individual know the entire culture- “The Code of the Street”o Widely shared concern among students:o “Street” and “Decent”o These are labels that Anderson’s subjects useChapter 7 Reading Assignment: CultureThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.- Culture is ubiquitous: it is everywhere/all around us- Material culture: includes all those things that humans make or adapt from raw stuff of nature; consists of sophisticated and complex thingso Ex: houses, computers, telephones, jewelry, oil paintings, socks, utensils, etc.o Material culture is made up of artifacts, which are a by-product of human behavior- Nonmaterial culture: made up of intangible things, and these things can vary from simple to complex itemso Ex: truth, beauty, happiness, boredom, funniness, ideals about right and wrong- Nonmaterial culture can be divided into five basic categories:o Symbols: anything that represents something else to more than one person Symbols on computer keyboard include: % (percent), $ (dollar), & (and) Symbols stand for something other than itself Symbols are social things; if an object has meaning only to one individual, it is not a symbol They are powerful because humans react to them as if they were real things Are powerful enough to evoke emotion o Language: organized set of symbols, and an essential part of nonmaterial culture Best way of conveying the meaning behind symbols Made up of certain kinds of symbols- Spoken or written words and gestureso Nodding head up and down communicates a different message than shaking head back and forth- Rules: grammar and syntaxo Norms: rules about behavior The way to judge the importance of a norm (or if it even exists) is to observe how people respond to behavior Two categories of norms proposed by William Graham Sumner- Folkways: casual norms; violations are not taken very seriouslyo When riding in an elevator, face the door, do not look at strangers’ faces, do not enter into strangers’ conversations- Mores: reflect important rules, such as norms against unjustified assaults on other persons Later a third category was added by society- Taboos: norms so deeply held that even the thought of violating them upsets people- Ex: eating human flesh in the US Negative sanction: response if norm is violated; seriousness of sanction dependson norm violated- Violations of folkways might receive a nasty glance or a comment, whereas violation of a taboo could result in expulsion from social group, imprisonment or death- Formal negative sanction: official responses from specific organizations within society, such as government (imprisonment or fines), universities (library fine expulsion) or churches (penance or excommunicated)- Informal negative sanctions: come from individuals in a social group (range from being laughed at/humiliated to being given the cold shoulder by everyone in the group) Positive Sanction: reward received when behavior is in keeping with a norm, or going beyond what is expected- Formal positive sanction: given out officially by some organization and can range from receiving an A in a sociology course to winning the NobelPeace Prize - Informal positive sanctions: range from a smile to a standing ovationo Values: general or abstract ideas about what is good and desirable, as opposed to what is bad and undesirable, in a society Expressed by norms that are followed Can create problems when people accept the same values in principle but then cannot agree on how to put these values into practice- If a friend asks you to copy your test answers, does your loyalty to your friend win against your commitment to honesty?o Beliefs: people’s ideas about what is real and what is not real; what people accept as factual Beliefs and values are often related- Culture systems (entirety of material and nonmaterial cultural things) are created by humans and are therefore a product of actiono Language and gestures have very different meanings between cultureso There is no gesture or body motion that has the same meaning in all societieso The differences in norms, values, beliefs and language between cultures is what sometimes causes travelers’ sense of “culture shock”- Culture conditions our actions or behaviors by putting us in a ruto People solve problems that arise (such as finding food, shelter, clothing, etc.) and once this problem is solved, people tend to stick to that solution and pass it on throughout the generationso Creates the feeling that this is “natural” and becomes so comfortable that the people within it do not realize they are in a rut- Institutions: set of ideas about the way a specific important social need ought to be addressed o Those solutions to problems which have been given social statuso “University is an institution of higher learning”o After a particular pattern of responding to important social needs has become established, it becomes institutionalized- Not every solution to societal problems becomes institutionalized, some solutions can be adopted from other cultures (termer “cultural diffusion”)o Ex: Americans adopted sushi bars from Japanese culture, and Japanese have adopted baseball from American cultureo **As cultural diffusion increases, the differences between cultures decreases Creates the sense of “cultural