Chapter 2 - Culture Flashcards
What is Culture?
The sum of the socially transmitted ideas, practices, and material objects that enable people to adapt to, and thrive in their environments.
Society’s total way of life
Not just the language we speak, or the holidays we celebrate. It is much much more than that
We know that icebergs are MUCH bigger than they APPEAR (same as culture)
Largely below our conscious, there are things that we take for granted.
Literally everything we say or do is somehow tied to our reflection of culture
Culture isn’t just “created”, its something that humans manufacture.
Culture is something we LEARN
Culture is SOCIALLY TRANSMITTED, it is passed on from one generation to another.
We create it, and we learn it.
The Origins and Components of Culture
Abstraction, Cooperation, and Production…
ABSTRACTION: Our ability to create new symbols (Anything that can carry a meaning)
- Language is made up of words, that are formed by letter stringed together, and those words themselves, are SYMBOLS
- Symbolic Meaning, something that is attached to something by the culture
COOPERATION: The human capacity to create a complex social life by sharing resources and working together
- Norms and values
- Norms are generally accepted ways to act, and how we should do certain things (Behavioural expectations)
- Values are abstract ideas, about what is right and wrong. Ex. Justice (Cultural value),, Equality,
Norms: Can be classified as folkways, mores, or taboos.
1) Folkways: Expectations that we just don’t violate (When we give someone a turn to speak, don’t stand in their personal space. They are important, but not that important) We wouldn’t get thrown into jail if we don’t.
2) Mores: Important for the social order, if people violate these, they violate the moral fabric of society. Ex. Theft, social assault, murder. Laws of Mores are reflected in law, but not ALL of them
3) Taboos: When people violate or engage in taboos, you get really offended. Ex. Incest, beastiality
Breaching Experiments: Until we break a norm, we take it for granted.
PRODUCTION
- Ideas or practices in non material culture
- Production relates to our creation of material
Ex. Cars, clothes, buildings.
Language
Language is a system of symbols strung together to communicate thought
Language is also the primary facilitator of culture
Language is the PRIMARY facilitator for culture, because this is how culture gets passed on from generation to generation.
THE SAPIR-WHORF THESIS
- We experience certain things in our environment, and we develop concepts (ways of thinking of those things), and we come up with a language to come up with ways to address those concepts
- For examples, in Russia and the colour blue
- In the arctic, there are different types of snow. But we don’t know it, because that is not in our environment.
- Our environment influences our language, and our laungague affects the way we interpret and see thihngs.
- Experience, thought, and language
__________________
Thesis holds that we experience certain things in our environment and form concepts about those things. We then develop language to express our concepts. Finally, language itself influences how we see the world; language both shapes and is shaped by reality
Theory and Culture
FUNCTIONALISM
When we face cultural elements that are not familiar to us, we then encounter Ethnocentrism
- We see those norms and cultures as strange, and somehow inferior. The way WE do things, is better.
Ex. Cow worship, doesn’t make sense to westerners, we don’t get it. But there are actually some really good reasons for cow worship (Functionalism), cows basically serve two KEY functions.
- They are used to plow fields
- And they are used for milk.
Cow dung is used for fertilizer and fuel They refuse to slaughter and eat cows due to all of these benefits they get from them.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
We create and re-create culture to suite our diverse and changing needs.
CONFLICT THEORY
Rights Revolution:
Ex. Gay rights, gender rights etc.
Cultural Relativism – The belief that all cultures have equal value
Culture as Freedom
Postmodernism
Blending of Cultures:
Religion, clothing styles. We can blend elements of culture to satisfy our personal tastes.
The Erosion of Authority:
Back then, people would more likely respect authority. But now days, people are morel likely to CHALLENGE authority.
Instability of our Core Values:
Everyone within the same culture tended to share the same values etc. WE tend to vote on issues, as opposed to allegiance to a certain political party like people used to.
Culture as Constraint
Rationalization:
Weber terms. The most efficient want to do things. Bureaucracy is a classic term of Rationalization. The measure and use of time, we didn’t used to live our lives around the clock.
Consumerism:
We are what we buy. Hip hop originated in the 1970’s, largely in the black community. It was largely counter-culture, and rejected middle class norms and values. The crime, the drugs, the poverty, so hip hop emerged as a form of expression, expression contempt off of white middle class.
Counterculture transformed into a sub culture bc white ppl didn’t know the intercity environment
