Assignment 3 Sociology
mattymatt121
CULTURE.pdf
Culture
How Many Cultures Are
Represented in this Class?
• What criteria are you using to determine
how many cultures are here?
What is Culture?
• All the shared activities and beliefs that a
group of people agree upon
Components of Culture
• What makes up culture?
• Symbols, language, norms, values, beliefs
customs, traditions, food, sports, art,
music, dress, technology, objects, religion,
education, families, government,
economies, etc.
Cultural Relativism
• Understand another culture from their
perspective, do not use your culture to
judge another
Body Modifications Over Time
• http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/online_exhi
bits/body_modification/bodmodpierce.shtml
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoxHUuiA8cU
Record for Face Piercing
Other Examples?
• Can you think of different behaviors from
our own?
• Food, holidays, pets, etc.
• Where do we draw the line?
Muslim & Hindu Parents in India Drop
Babies 50 ft. for Good Health
• http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoI
d=81490
FGM – Female Genital Mutilation
• http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ0l9yDgN-8
FGM
• FGM is the cutting of the clitoris of girls in order
to curb their sexual desire and preserve their
sexual honor before marriage. Those who
survive are often traumatized and may suffer
adverse health effects during marriage and
pregnancy. Human rights activists and
international human rights organizations view
FGM as a pervasive form of violence against
women and have been vocal in the global
awareness campaigns to end the practice.
Top Model Katoucha Niane
• Yves Saint Laurent Model
Fatima from Somalia
• 22 years old, lost two sisters in the war
and is a survivor of FGM.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in
Iraqi-Kurdistan
• FGM is a major problem in some Islamic
societies, and the practice has a
tremendous cost—many girls bleed to
death or die of infection.
Taboos
• A strong social prohibition
• Examples?
• Incest, cannibalism, etc.
• A mores or a folkway?
Incest
• Three groups required brother-sister
marriages for their high nobility: the
ancient Egyptians, the Incas of Peru, and
the old kingdom of Hawaii.
Thonga of East Africa
• Some groups also allow sex between
fathers and daughters.
• Permit a hunter to have sexual intercourse
with his daughter before he goes on a lion
hunt.
Azande of Central Africa
• Permit high nobles to marry their own
daughters.
Burundi of Tropical Africa
• When a son is impotent the mother is
supposed to have sex with him in order to
cure his impotence.
Concept of ―Culture Bound‖
• Humor/Jokes depend upon cultural
context
Q: ―Why did the chicken cross the street?
A: ―To get to the other side.‖
Material & Ideational Culture
• Material Culture
- objects and products of a culture
Ideational Culture
• Ideas of a culture
• General Knowledge - facts and
setting info. Statements
• Guidelines for Behavior – norms and
values
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
• Postulated by Anthropologist Edward Sapir and
Benjamin Whorf
• Culture gives us language
• Language gives us ideational culture
• Ideational culture gives us material culture
• So, language, ideational culture, and material
culture are all positively correlated
Anthropologist Edward Sapir
(1884-1939)
• Born in Poland
• Educated at Columbia U.
• Arguably the most influential
figure in American linguistics
• Studied Wishram Chinook,
Navajo, Nootka, Paiute,
Takelma, Yana, etc.
• Pioneer of Yiddish
Benjamin Whorf (1897-1941)
• Student of Edward Sapir
• American Linguist
• Chemical Engineering, MIT
• Linguistics, Yale U
• Studied Native American lang.
• Hopi Language (found it to
contain no words, grammar
or expressions that refer to
―time‖, or to past, present, or
future)
Ideational Culture
• General knowledge
- facts
- setting information statements
• Guidelines for behavior
- norms
- values
Norms
• What is a norm?
• William Graham Sumner (1840-1910),
Yale U.
• Two types of norms?
• Mores
• Folkways
Mores
• Formal, written rules for behavior
• Usually with rigid consequences
• Examples?
• Laws, company/school policies, etc.
Folkways
• Unwritten, informal rules for behavior
• Not always severe consequences if not
followed, but in some cases yes
• Examples?
• Manners, family rules, how fast to drive,
how we greet each other…
The Handshake
Bowing
Rubbing Noses
The Air Kiss
The Political Air Kiss…
…and in some cultures men kiss to
greet each other…
Cultural Universals
• An element, pattern, trait, or institution that
is common to all human groups.
• Examples?
• Language, family, religion, art, etc.
Cultural Diffusion
• The rate or speed at which material or
ideational culture is spread.
• Radio 40 years to gain 50 million listeners
in the U.S.
• T.V. 14 years to gain 50 million viewers
• Internet 4 years to gain 50 million users
Cultural Leveling
• Process by which material or ideational
culture is spread in a culture
• Examples?
• Advertising, word of mouth, etc.
Cultural Laggard
• When an individual or group does not use
a part of the material or ideational culture
of their culture, or uses it much after most
Popular Culture
• Popular culture – what the masses have
access to
High Culture
• High culture – usually only the elite have
access to
American Culture
American Culture is also about:
• Values – that which we desire
• What do we value?
What Americans Value…
• Money
• Freedom
• Houses
• Family
• Education
• Religion
• Equality…
Global Culture?
• What is meant by a global culture?
• That the world is moving towards one
culture (a unicultural world)
Evidence of a Global Culture
• Global flow of people
• Global flow of information
• Global flow of goods
Cultural Groups
• Dominant Culture
• Subculture
• Counterculture
Dominant Culture
• The group, usually largest in size and/or
has the power
• Sets the norms and values for all
Subculture
• Smaller part or group from the dominant
culture
• Rejects norms OR values set by the
dominant culture/group
• Examples?
• Teens, gangs, Dems/Reps
Counterculture
• Rejects BOTH norms AND values set by the dominant culture
• Negative and positive groups
• Charismatic leader
• Separatism
• Examples?
• Relig. Cults, KKK,
Amish
Jim Jones (1931-1978)
• Peoples Temple, IN, CA, Guyana
Jonestown, Guyana, So. America
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY3cx3
U0gYE
Amish Video
• http://www.libraryvideo.com/streaming.asp
?sku=D6672
The Amish – Subculture or
Counterculture?
P. Diddy & the Amish?
Diddy Spent His Summers with an
Amish Family
• Sean Combs spent his childhood summers with
an Amish family, shoveling horse manure daily.
His mother enrolled him in the Fresh Air Fund,
an organization for inner-city kids to spend time
in rural communities each year.
• He says, "I stayed with an Amish family every
summer. No electricity, a bunch of farm work,
moving horse manure every morning, no
telephones. It was a great experience for me, it
was something I really enjoyed."
Dominant, Subculture or
Counterculture Groups Often
Feel… • Ethnocentrism
• Egocentrism
• Xenocentrism
• Tommie Smith (gold medal) and
John Carlos (bronze medal) display
the Black Power salute on the
200 m winners podium at the
1968 Summer Olympics
Ethnocentrism
• Belief that one’s group is superior
• Produces Us v. Them mentality
Can Also Produce
In-Group Solidarity
• 1989
Out-Group Hostility
Egocentrism
• The belief that others think like you and
have the same beliefs and/or that they
should!
After 9/11
• Americans shocked we were not liked by
everyone
Xenocentrism
• The preference for the products, styles, or ideas
of someone else's culture rather than of one's
own; thinking your culture is inferior
