Sociology
Culture
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How Many Cultures Are Represented in this Class?
What criteria are you using to determine how many cultures are here?
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What is Culture?
All the shared activities and beliefs that a group of people agree upon
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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.
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LANGUAGE
There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most popular language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 1,213,000,000 people in the world that speak that language.–
Cultural Relativism
Understand another culture from their perspective, do not use your culture to judge another
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Body Modifications Over Time
https://www.bradley.edu/sites/bodyproject/disability/modification/
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Record for Face Piercing
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Other Examples?
Can you think of different behaviors from our own?
Food, holidays, pets, etc.
Where do we draw the line?
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Muslim & Hindu Parents in India Drop Babies 50 ft. for Good Health
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbpRPaIpj1s
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FGM – Female Genital Mutilation
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/
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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
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Fatima from Somalia
22 years old, lost two sisters in the war and is a survivor of FGM.
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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.
Dr. Nahid Toubia, Columbia U.
www.RAINBO.org
Taboos
A strong social prohibition
Examples?
Incest, cannibalism, etc.
A mores or a folkway?
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Incest
Three groups required brother-sister marriages for their high nobility: the ancient Egyptians, the Incas of Peru, and the old kingdom of Hawaii.
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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.
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Azande of Central Africa
Permit high nobles to marry their own daughters.
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Burundi of Tropical Africa
When a son is impotent the mother is supposed to have sex with him in order to cure his impotence.
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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.”
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Material & Ideational Culture
Material Culture
– objects and products of a culture
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Ideational Culture
Ideas of a culture
General Knowledge – facts and setting info. Statements
Guidelines for Behavior – norms and values
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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
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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
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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)
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Ideational Culture
General knowledge
– facts
– setting information statements
Guidelines for behavior
– norms
– values
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Norms
What is a norm?
William Graham Sumner (1840-1910), Yale U.
Two types of norms?
Mores
Folkways
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Mores
Formal, written rules for behavior
Usually with rigid consequences
Examples?
Laws, company/school policies, etc.
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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…
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The Handshake
Bowing
Rubbing Noses
The Air Kiss
Cultural Universals
An element, pattern, trait, or institution that is common to all human groups.
Examples?
Language, family, religion, art, etc.
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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
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Cultural Leveling
Process by which material or ideational culture is spread in a culture
Examples?
Advertising, word of mouth, etc.
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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
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Popular Culture
Popular culture – what the masses have access to
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High Culture
High culture – usually only the elite have access to
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American Culture
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American Culture is also about:
Values – that which we desire
What do we value?
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What Americans Value…
Money
Freedom
Houses
Family
Education
Religion
Equality…
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Global Culture?
What is meant by a global culture?
That the world is moving towards one culture (a unicultural world)
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Evidence of a Global Culture
Global flow of people
Global flow of information
Global flow of goods
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Cultural Groups
Dominant Culture
Subculture
Counterculture
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Dominant Culture
The group, usually largest in size and/or has the power
Sets the norms and values for all
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Subculture
Smaller part or group from the dominant culture
Rejects norms OR values set by the dominant culture/group
Examples?
Teens, gangs, Dems/Reps
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Counterculture
Rejects BOTH norms AND values set by the dominant culture
Negative and positive groups
Charismatic leader
Separatism
Examples?
Relig. Cults, KKK,
Amish
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Jim Jones (1931-1978)
Peoples Temple, IN, CA, Guyana
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Jonestown, Guyana, So. America
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Amish Video
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The Amish – Subculture or Counterculture?
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P. Diddy & the Amish?
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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.”
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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
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Ethnocentrism
Belief that one’s group is superior
Produces Us v. Them mentality
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Can Also Produce
In-Group Solidarity
1989
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Out-Group Hostility
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Egocentrism
The belief that others think like you and have the same beliefs and/or that they should!
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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
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