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Culture: the way of thinking, acting, and material objects that together form a person’s way of life. (Thoughts & Things)Neither society nor culture would exist with out each otherMaterial Culture: refers to the physical objects, resources, and spaces that people use to define their culture. These include: homes, neighborhoods, cities, schools, churches, temples, offices, tools, goods, food, etc.Ex: technology is a vital aspect of material culture in the U.S. today. In contrast Amazon societies must learn to build weapons to hunt.Non-material Culture: refers to the nonphysical ideas that people have about their culture including: beliefs, values, rules, norms, morals, language, organizations, and institutions.Ex: the non-material concept of religion consist of a set of ideas and beliefs about God, worship, morals, and ethics. These beliefs then determine how the culture responds to religious topics, issues and events.Conspicuous Consumption: spending of money on and acquiring of luxury goods b/c of the statements they make about socioeconomic status or economic power.  attaining/maintaining a social status (“new money”)Ex: buying a bottle of water instead of using the water fountainCulture Shock: personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar culture of way of life (inflicting/experiencing)Ex: college students visiting and Amish community, An American ordering cow in a Hindu community, Asian countries eating dog, and studying abroadElements of CultureSymbol: anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a cultureGiving meaning to the things around us, transforming the elements of the world into symbolsSymbolic meanings also vary within a single societyEx: confederate flagLanguage: a system of symbols that allows people to communication with one anotherEx: The creation of alphabets and rules of writingCultural transmission: the process by which one generation passes culture to the next through languageLanguage skills links us to the past and allows the passing of information as well the creation of new symbols and ideas. Language sets humans apart as the only creatures which are self-conscious, aware of our limitations and ultimate mortality yet are able to dream and hope for a future better than the present.Sapir-Whorf thesis: holds that people see and understand the world through the cultural lens of language.Ex: belief that Eskimos experience “snow” differently b/c they have many words for it.So how does language affect out reality?  Current thinking is that although we do fashion reality out of our symbols, evidence supports that claim the language does not determine reality in the way Sapir-Whorf claimed. For example we know that children understand the idea of “family” long before they learn the word; similarly, adults can imagine new ideas or things before devising a name for them.Values: culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living. Values are what people who share culture use to make choices about how to liveAbstract standards of goodnessBeliefs: specific ideas that people hold to be true.Particular matters that people accept as true of falseEx: b/c most U.S. adults share the value of providing equal opportunity for all, they all have the belief that a qualified women could serve as president of the United States.Key Values of U.S. Culture (value cluster) – Robin Williams Jr.1) Equal opportunity2) Individual achievement and personal success3) Material comfort4) Activity and work5) Practicality and efficiency6) Progress7) Science8) Democracy and free enterprise9) Freedom10) Racism and group superiorityValue Conflict  sometimes one cultural value contradicts another. For example: Equal Opportunity vs. Racism and group superiority. Members say they believe in equal opportunity yet many also look down on others b/c of race or sex.Values Change  over time like all aspects of society values change over time. People in the US have valued hard work but in recent times that value is giving way to an increasing importance on leisure time.Value importance varies from culture to culture around the world. For example low-income nations develop cultures that stress survival while higher-income nations develop cultures that value individualism and self-expression.Technology and cultureArtifacts: physical human creations part of a cultures material cultureEx: Chinese eat with chopsticks, Japanese place mats on the floors and Indian people prefer flowing robes to close-fitting clothing common in the USTechnology: knowledge that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings.The more complex a societies technology, the easier it is for members of that society to shape the world for themselvesSociocultural evolution: the historical changes in culture brought about by new technology.Hunting and Gathering: the use of simple tools to hunt animals and father vegetation. (Early homo-sapiens societies)Horticulture: the use of hand tools to raise crops. (early Mesopotamia, Babylonia, fertile crescent societies)Pastoralism: the domestication of animals. (nomadic societies)Agriculture: large-scale cultivation using plows harnessed to animals or more powerful energy sources. (agrarian societies)Turning of the soil, plows, allow land to be farmed for centuries, so agrarian people can live in permanent settlements with food surpluses and population growth.Brings about dramatic social inequality. Most people live as serfs or slaves.Industry: the production of goods using advanced sources of energy to drive large machinery.Innovations such as the railroad and steamships, raised living standards and increased human life spanReduce economic inequality and steadily extend political rightsIntensifies individualism and expands personal freedomPostindustrial: the production of information using computer technologyChanges the skills that define a way of lifeCultural DiversityHigh Culture: refer to cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elitePopular Culture: cultural patterns that are widespread among a society’s populationSubculture: cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society’s population. Smaller cultural groups that exist within but differ in some way from the prevailing culture interest.Ex: “heavy metal” music devotees, body-piercing and tattoo enthusiast, motorcycle gang members, and Nazi


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UD SOCI 201 - Chapter 2

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