Culture (BS2 CH4) Flashcards
material culture
Material culture consists of all of the physical objects that human beings make and use.
Material culture is essential for the survival of all humans as it allows us to manage our environment and mitigate its negative impacts upon our lives (e.g., clothing protects us from the sun and shelter protects us from extreme temperatures).
Material culture also allows humans to expand upon and manipulate their existing environment so that it will better suit their needs (e.g., agriculture produces more food than the natural environment would, dams regulate the flow of water to crops, and skyscrapers increase the area available for people to live).
symbolic culture
Symbolic culture refers to everything that is known, rather than produced.
This includes not just intellectual or empirical knowledge, but also values and beliefs.
Symbolic cultural knowledge is organized around important social institutions like the family, religion, education, government, and economy.
Symbolic culture can be thought of consisting of the knowledge necessary to interact with other individuals, the natural world, and material culture in accordance with the rules, values, and norms of a particular society.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a linguistic theory positing that our experience of reality is based upon, and partially constrained by, our language and culture.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is also termed linguistic relativity or linguistic theory.
Some linguists consider a stronger form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, called linguistic determinism, wherein thought processes are not just guided, but strongly determined by an individual’s native language.
Individuals from different cultures will have different experiences of similar events because of how their language and culture frame and shape their experiences.
symbols
Symbols are anything that is used to represent something besides what they actually are, and are given meaning simply because individuals agree upon (and mutually understand) that meaning.
The meaning of a symbol is generally arbitrary:
Example: Mourners in the U.S. wear black, but those in Asia typically wear white; the content of the symbol is the same but the symbol is opposite.
Example: A “thumbs up” gesture in the U.S. signifies satisfaction or agreement, but in some Middle Eastern countries, particularly Iran, the gesture is considered extremely rude and insulting; the symbol is the same but the content is opposite.
All aspects of culture, both material and nonmaterial, have symbolic meaning.
rituals
Rituals are formalized activities or modes of behavior that may include gestures and postures, actions, objects, clothing, music, and words, among other things.
Rituals are typically performed in specific spaces at specific times in a specific sequence (e.g., a Catholic Mass is often performed on a Sunday morning, inside of a church, with a certain order of standing, sitting, kneeling, and praying).
Rituals may fall under the umbrella of norms (e.g., it would violate cultural norms to talk loudly or make jokes during a Catholic Mass).
Rituals often are religious in nature, but they do not need to be (e.g., baseball batters may approach the plate to a particular song and may perform very specific sets of actions prior to taking their batting stance [touching the plate with their bat, for example]; this is a ritual, but is not religious in nature).
Norms
Norms are culturally prescribed rules for acceptable behavior that set shared limits on social interaction.
• Example: There are different norms for greeting another person in different cultures.
In the U.S., it is considered appropriate to shake hands when greeting someone you do not know very well, whereas in Japan individuals are expected to bow to each other.
Even cultures that have similar norms can have variations in what is considered acceptable.
• In many cultures, it is considered appropriate to give a kiss to greet a friend or acquaintance, but how the kiss is executed may vary widely. In some cultures, individuals will actually kiss the other person’s cheek. In others, they may just kiss the air. Some cultures expect two kisses—one for each side of the face—while others only perform one.
Not all norms require absolute conformity to their standards, and they can be modified by individuals or groups, and evolve over time (e.g., it was once a norm for men to wear hats in public, but it is no longer).
ideal norms
Ideal norms are expectations of what people should do under perfect conditions.
real norms
Real norms are qualified norms that take into account variations in individual behavior.
Folkways
Folkways are customs or common conventions drawing lines between what is considered polite and appropriate and what is considered rude and inappropriate.
Folkways are informal, unwritten norms that dictate behavior, but hold no moral component. Folkways are generally followed, and expected to be followed, but not following folkways is generally not considered offensive.
Examples: Ways of greeting strangers, modes of dress in various circumstances.
Mores
Mores (“more-ays”) are moral guidance drawing lines between “right” and “wrong.”
Mores are informal, unwritten norms that are nonetheless widely observed and hold moral significance.
Sociologist William Graham Sumner drew these distinctions between mores and folkways around the turn of the 19th century.
taboos
Taboos are strictly forbidden behaviors.
Taboos are actions, clothing, words, symbols, language, etc. that are prohibited (if not outright banned) on the basis of morality, religious practice, or other cultural norms. Taboos are typically absolutely forbidden. Taboos may be formal or informal, written or unwritten, and may change over time, although generally, taboos do make their way into written law.
Example: On the Indian subcontinent, it is taboo (though not illegal) to eat with the left hand, as that is the hand typically used for washing after defecation.
Example: Sexual attraction to, and sexual contact with, minors (people under the age of 18) is taboo in most Western (and many other) cultures; the contact aspect of this taboo is written into law in most Western countries.
subculture
Subculture refers to the values, norms, and beliefs of a distinct group or division within society.
The term “subculture” originated from studies of delinquency and deviance, so it can sometimes be considered to have a negative connotation.
Many sociologists, however, now use the term neutrally to refer to the culture of a particular subsection of broader culture, in particular the cultures of various ethnicities, religious groups, or social classes.
Not all divisions within society would be considered a subculture; instead a subculture must affect a member continually through their life.
Subcultures can arise for a variety of reasons; ethnicity, religious or political beliefs, geography, and social class may all give rise to distinct subcultures.
Immigrant groups may give rise to subcultures through partial assimilation.
counterculture
Counterculture is a specific type of subculture that is distinctly at odds with the broader, dominant culture of which it is a part.
- Typically, members of a counterculture will try to withdraw from society to a certain extent because of their rejection of the dominant culture’s beliefs, values, and goals.
culture brain hypothesis
Culture can be viewed as one of the major evolutionary advantages/strategies available to human beings.
The culture dependence of human beings is a unique evolutionary specialization rooted in the size and structure of the human brain.
Culture makes human beings extraordinarily adaptable to their environment, and as such confers a huge competitive advantage in a struggle for resources.
The cultural brain hypothesis puts forth that larger brains have a selective advantage for their ability to deal with information acquired from sociocultural interactions.
cultural diffusion
Cultural diffusion is the way information spreads between cultural groups or within a particular cultural group.
