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3
Culture

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Chapter Outline
• Culture and Society
• Development of Culture Around the World
• Elements of Culture
• Culture and the Dominant Ideology
• Cultural Variation
• Social Policy and Culture: Bilingualism

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 Culture and Society

•Culture is the totality of learned, socially

transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects,
and behavior.
•Culture includes the ideas, values, customs, and
artifacts of groups of people.
•Sociologically, culture does not refer to fine arts or
intellectual taste.

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 Development of Culture Around the
World
Cultural Universals
•All societies have developed certain common
practices and beliefs.
•Cultural universals change over time and from one
society to another.

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 Development of Culture Around the
World
Cultural Universals, some examples

•Murdoch (1945)
--Athletic Sports
--Cooking
--Funeral Ceremonies
--Medicine
--Sexual Restrictions
among others...

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 Development of Culture Around the
World
Innovations

•The process of introducing a new idea or object to

culture.
•Innovation may take the form of either discovery
or invention.

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 Development of Culture Around the
World
Globalization, Diffusion, and
Technology
•Globalization consists of cultural expressions and
practices that cross national borders and have an
effect on the traditions and customs of the societies
exposed to them.
•Globalization is rapidly escalating throughout the
world today.

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 Development of Culture Around the
World
Globalization, Diffusion, and
Technology
•Diffusion is the process by which a cultural item
spreads from group to group or society to society.
•Diffusion can occur through a variety of means,
including:
--Exploration --mass media influence
--Military conquest --tourism
--Missionary work --the Internet

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 Development of Culture Around the
World
Globalization, Diffusion, and
Technology
•Technology can be defined as using the material
resources of the environment to satisfy human needs
and desires (Nolan and Lenski 1999).
•Technology accelerates the diffusion of scientific
innovations.
•Technology transmits culture.

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 Development of Culture Around the
World
Globalization, Diffusion, and
Technology
Material culture refers to the physical or
technological aspects of our daily lives, including:

--food --houses
--factories --raw materials

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 Development of Culture Around the
World
Globalization, Diffusion, and
Technology
Nonmaterial Culture refers to ways of using
material objects as well as to:

--customs --beliefs
--government --patterns of communication
--philosophies

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 Development of Culture Around the
World
Globalization, Diffusion, and
Technology
Culture Lag refers to a period of maladjustment
when the nonmaterial culture is still struggling to
adapt to new material conditions.

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 Elements of Culture
Language

•Language is an abstract system of word meanings

and symbols for all aspects of culture.
•It includes speech, written characters, numerals,
symbols, and gestures and expressions of nonverbal
communication.

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 Elements of Culture
Language

•Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
--Language precedes thought.
--Language is not a given.
--Language is culturally determined.

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 Elements of Culture

Figure 3.1: Languages of the World

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 Elements of Culture
Language

•Nonverbal Communication
--Nonverbal communication is the use of
gestures, facial expressions, and other visual
images to communicate.
--Nonverbal communication is not the same in
all cultures.
--Nonverbal communication is learned.

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 Elements of Culture
Norms
•Norms are established standards of behavior
maintained by a society.
•Types of Norms
--Formal norms
--Informal norms
--Mores
--Folkways
•Acceptance of Norms
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 Elements of Culture
Informal norms Formal norms
Mores

Homicide
Severe Suicide Child molestation
penalties Drunken driving
Child Abuse
Child support
Folkways
Drunkenness in private Public drunkenness
Rudeness Traffic violations
Mild Using obscene language Curfew violations
penalties Clothing style Licenses
Table manners Parking regulations
Penalties for Violations of Norms

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 Elements of Culture
Sanctions
•Sanctions are penalties and rewards for conduct
concerning a social norm.
•Sanctions may be either positive or negative.

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 Elements of Culture
Values
•Values are our collective conceptions of what is
good, desirable, and proper–or bad, undesirable, and
improper–in a culture.
--Values influence people’s behavior.
--Values are criteria for evaluating actions of
others.

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 Elements of Culture

Table 3.1: Norms and Sanctions

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 Elements of Culture

Figure 3.2: Life Goals of First-Year College Students in the United States, 1966–2001
(Source UCLA Higher Research Institute)

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 Culture and the Dominant Ideology
•Dominant Ideology
•Dominant Ideology describes the set of cultural
beliefs and practices that help to maintain powerful
social, economic, and political interests.
•Dominant groups control wealth and property.
•Dominant groups control the means of producing
beliefs about reality through:
--religion
--education
--the media

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 Cultural Variation
Aspects of Cultural Variation

•Subcultures
•A subculture is a segment of society that shares a
distinctive pattern of mores, folkways, and values
that differs from the larger society.

•A subculture is a culture existing within a larger,

dominant culture.

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 Cultural Variation
Aspects of Cultural Variation

•Countercultures
•A counterculture is created when a subculture
conspicuously and deliberately opposes certain
aspects of the larger culture.
•Examples of countercultures:
--hippies
--militia groups

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 Cultural Variation
Aspects of Cultural Variation

•Culture Shock
•Culture shock is experienced if one feels
disoriented, uncertain, out of place, or fearful when
immersed in an unfamiliar culture.

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 Cultural Variation
Attitudes Toward Cultural Variation

•Ethnocentrism is the tendency to assume that

one’s own culture and way of life are superior to all
others.
•Cultural relativism views people’s behaviors
from the perspective of their own culture.
•Xenocentrism is an extension of cultural
relativism; it is the belief that the products, styles, or
ideas of one’s society are inferior to those that
originate elsewhere.

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 Social Policy and Culture
Bilingualism

•The Issue: Bilingualism refers to the use of two or

more languages in a particular setting, such as the
workplace or schoolroom. Thus, a program of
bilingual education may instruct children in their
native language while gradually introducing them to
the language of the host society.

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 Social Policy and Culture
Bilingualism
•The Setting: Languages know no political
boundaries. Minority languages are common in
many nations. Schools throughout the world must
deal with incoming students speaking many
languages.
•Do bilingual programs in the United States help
these children to learn English?
•It is difficult to reach firm conclusions because
bilingual program in general vary so widely in their
approach.
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 Social Policy and Culture
Bilingualism
•Sociological Insights: For a long time, people in
the United States demanded conformity to a single
language. This demand coincides with the
functionalist view that language serves to unify
members of a society.
•Recent decades have seen challenges to this pattern
of forced obedience to our dominant ideology.
•The perspective of conflict theory also helps us
understand some of the attacks on bilingual
programs.
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 Social Policy and Culture
Bilingualism
•Policy Initiatives: Bilingualism has policy implications
largely in two areas–efforts to maintain language purity
and programs to enhance bilingual education.
•Nations vary dramatically in their tolerance for a variety
of languages.
•In many nations, language dominance is a regional
issue.
•Policymakers in the United States have been somewhat
ambivalent in dealing with the issue of bilingualism.

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 Social Policy and Culture

Figure 3.4: States with Official English Laws

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