chapter 2: culture and society Flashcards
what is culture
Culture is a set of values, norms, and behaviors shared by a social group.
Culture can be divided into material (physical and tangable like food,culture, books ect) and non-material culture like non physical intangable values, belief, and traditions
values and norms
Values are Beliefs about what is right and wrong and what is important in life.
Norms are basic rules of social conduct. Standards of behavior that are accepted within a particular group or society.
cultural variations
Culture varies both across and within societies.
What is important and seemingly “normal” in one society may not be in another.
Even within a society, the dominant values and norms change over time.
what makes humans different
- Culture versus instinct.
- The ability to reason and think allowed for the development of culture.
- Development of complex systems of communication and future-oriented thought and planning.
- Complex thinking also makes humans strong innovators.
cultural diversity
- Comparative research is common in cultural diversity.
- age, gender, religion, culture, language, ethnicity, nationality, education, prrsonality
subculture and counterculture
- Subculture:
Asubcultureis a group of people with distinguishing characteristics, but who consider themselves part of the general culture. - Counterculture:
A counterculture is a group of people who explicitly reject the values and norms of the mainstream culture.
Ethnocentrism
considering your culture more superiour
xenocentrism
considering other cultures superior over others
cultural reletivism
understanding other cultures through their own perspective
types of cultures
- Subculture:
Asubcultureis a group of people with distinguishing characteristics, who consider themselves part of the general culture. - Counterculture:
A counterculture is a group of people who reject the values and norms of the mainstream culture.example drug lords and terrorists
diversity today
In diverse societies like the United States, studies of assimilation and multiculturalism are common.
- Assimilation is a process wherein minority groups merge into the mainstream culture. blend in host country’s culture.
- Multiculturalism is retain your cultural identity in the host country
Globalization has led to increased diversity in most countries.
assimilation
Assimilation is a process wherein minority groups merge into the mainstream culture. blend in host country’s culture.
govt does not assure security against your practices
multifunctionalism
Multiculturalism is retain your cultural identity in the host country
govt assures security
cultural universal
Aspects of culture found virtually in all societies are called cultural universals.
Language is one of the most significant cultural universals.
what is society
Societies are systems of relationships between people that can be small (like a family) or large (like a nation-state).
Shared culture is important in holding a society together.
Conformity and social control
Societies need a significant degree of conformity to function smoothly.
Those who do not conform are subject to measures of social control.
Members learn norms through the process of socialization.
conformity obeying social norms and deviance not obeying social norms
internal social control ex sitting in a class
external social control sitting outside
CULTURE AS A SYSTEM OF NORMS
what are norms
Norms
Ideal (standard) Real (followed)
or or
Expected Acted
or or
Cultural Statistical
TYPES OF NORMS
- Folkways are simply the customary, normal, habitual ways a group does things. no penelty
- Mores are those ideas of right and wrong which require certain acts and forbid others. sometimes penelty can be taken
- Taboos are norms that society holds so strongly that violating it results in extreme disgust.(murder)
4) Laws are codified form of norms.
TYPES OF HUMAN SOCIETY
Hunting and Gathering
Agrarian Societies
Pastoral Societies
Civilizations or Traditional States.
hunting and gathering
Hunting and gathering societies are small groups or tribes numbering not more than 30-40 people.
No class structures.
Cooperative rather than competitive.
invites (green land, Canada, Alaska)
awa tribe brazil
Hadza Tanzania
Okike Kenya
sentinels India
Pastoral and agrarian societies
Somewhat less egalitarian
More accumulation of wealth and goods; larger groups
Civilization or city states
These societies were typically large and had a significant degree of inequality.
They were based on the development of cities and were ruled by kings or emperors.
Major inequalities existed among different classes.
Industrialization
Beginning in the eighteenth century in Britain, mass production, via mechanized factories, rapidly changed the economy.
The Western European countries and the United States were the early industrializers.
Early industrializers colonized other countries for economic gain.
Modern, industrial societies
In these societies, greater than 90 percent of the population lives in urban settings.
Work is almost exclusively non-agricultural.
Such societies are often characterized as impersonal though not all sociologists agree with this representation.
