Soc 100 - Culture

Question 1

What is culture? How is it manifest? What are we looking at when we analyse culture? How do we describe features of different cultures?

Answer 1

answer

Question 2

Culture & Practice: How does culture affect the way people behave? What is the connection between values, beliefs, and specific cultural practices?

Answer 2

ans

Question 3

Cultural Integration: What role does culture play in integrating individuals into society? How much are we affected by the culture we live in?

Answer 3

ans

Question 4

Cultural Difference: Can we talk about a single, monolithic culture? How do we explore cultural differences and multiculturalism?

Answer 4

ans

Question 5

What do sociologists look at when analysing culture?

Answer 5

Folkways-Informal norms; guide everyday behaviour, e.g. politeness, Nacirema hygiene.�Mores-More strictly-enforced moral norms, e.g. prohibitions against murder.Taboos-Things that it’s forbidden to do or touch – e.g. public excretion for Nacirema�Rituals & Practices - Behaviour that follows on from folkways and morals – e.g. washing.

Question 6

How does Miner use a symb int approach when describing the nacirema?

Answer 6

Miner’s description of the Nacirema emphasises connections between beliefs (mores, folkways, customs etc) and specific rituals and practices.A belief in the need for cleanliness leads to specific patterns of behaviour around cleanliness.Miner therefore uses broadly symbolic interactionist approach:He looks at the meanings people attribute to objects and to one another, and uses these symbolic meanings to explain cultural actions.

Question 7

What are symb ints interested in when looking at culture?

Answer 7

Symbolic interactionists are interested in cultural values and beliefs, and use them to explain social developments.

Question 8

What does it mean to say Protestantism is predestinarian?

Answer 8

you can’t do enough good works to justify salvation; you’re saved or damned at birth. Individual therefore looks for signs of being saved in success�.

Question 9

What did Protestants think of the material world?

Answer 9

Moreover, material world is totally sinful: we should abstain from all its pleasures and impose rational divine scheme on it.

Question 10

In general, where were the protestants able to become richer?

Answer 10

PredestinarianAbstaining from the material worldBecause Protestants rejected pleasure, they were able to accumulate wealth and become richer.

Question 11

How does Weber go about analyzing religion (symb int)?

Answer 11

He identifies the core beliefs of a religion: what values does it prioritise? What is commanded and what is forbidden?He explains how these beliefs are manifest in a set of practices: how do the beliefs guide actions? How can they be seen in everyday behaviour?He extrapolates from this to explain an overall culture or spirit of capitalism – a collected, established set of practices.

Question 12

What are some problems with the symb int approach to culture?

Answer 12

Symbolic interactionist approach may try to explain too much by cultural values.

Question 13

What are some difficulties of cultural explanations in general?

Answer 13

Is there only one source of cultural values? How do we weight relative influence?How far are individuals genuinely motivated by religious belief? How closely does an individual’s belief approximate ideal?How culturally homogeneous are societies? Can we say that whole groups of people behave in the same way?

Question 14

How does Struct funct approach culture in contrast to symb ints?

Answer 14

Structural functionalists ask how and why cultural values are inculcated into individuals.Whilst symbolic interactionists explain the particular details of a society by its cultural values, structural functionalists try to understand why we’d have a culture at all.

Question 15

What do st funct think culture should be seen as?

Answer 15

Culture should be see as a form of social integration:By encouraging people to behave in certain ways, it ensures uniformity.If beliefs and behaviour patterns are the same, social order benefits; heterogeneity (difference, variety) = threat to society

Question 16

What is the I in AGIL? (struc funct)

Answer 16

Integration: ensure members conform to relatively homogeneous set of beliefs and values.

Question 17

What do mass media and religion do for society according to parsons? (st fu)

Answer 17

they preserve and transmit values held collectively.�

Question 18

What does Parson argue about where cultural systems lie?

Answer 18

Parsons argues that cultural systems lie at the root of other social forms: patterns that shape conditions of individual action.

Question 19

What reveals the basic ruels of the social game?

Answer 19

Analysis of culture, language, values etc thus reveals the basic “rules of the social game”�

Question 20

How do the rules of the social game affect social interactions?

Answer 20

doesn’t determine outcome, but does limit how it might turn out.�

Question 21

What did Sapir and Whorf develop?

Answer 21

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis:Our thought and our picture of reality is expressed in a set of concepts, ideas, and words.If we don’t have a word for something, we can’t think about it; the way we define a word is taken from society.�

Question 22

How is Latin and Greek morality a good argument for the linguistic relativity hypothesis?

Answer 22

Latin and Greek didn’t have a word for morality in the modern sense of absolute right and wrong; their moral philosophy focused on virtue, i.e. characteristics expected of noble citizen.Thus, our individual thoughts are expressed through socially-defined terms.

Question 23

What do the words or phrases “Policeman, Businessman, Mankind, Rights of Man” have to do with the linguistic relativity hypothesis?

Answer 23

Androcentric or sexist language uses words that denote males to describe humanity as a whole.Similarly, designating authority figures as “man” (policeman, instead of police officer) pushes us to assuming that such authoritative roles are inherently masculine.

Question 24

What did Pierre Trudea introduce in canada in 1971? What was his reasoning?

Answer 24

The official policy of multiculturalism in Canada:“Although there are two official languages, there is no official culture, nor does any ethnic group take precedence over any other.”

Question 25

What was Trudeau trying to accomplish with multiculturalism?

Answer 25

By giving official recognition to different cultures, Trudeau sought to integrate their members further�

Question 26

How is canadian society compared to american society described?

Answer 26

Canadian society is often described as a cultural mosaic, in contrast to the American melting pot.

Question 27

What problem can arise with enforcing cultural homogeneity?

Answer 27

problem of alienation, as members of minority groups feel excluded from society, and undervalued.Used in explanation of assorted social problems�

Question 28

What do people who feel excluded from the dominant culture sometimes do?

Answer 28

Those who feel excluded from the dominant culture may set themselves up against it in various ways – They may form their own cultural groups, with their own norms, values, and customs defined in opposition to mainstream culture.

Question 29

Counterculture(against mainstream�)

Answer 29

Usually formed by people excluded from society: little to lose from nonconformityExplicit rejection of mainstream norms, and adoption of new values.

Question 30

Subculture(distinct part within mainstream)

Answer 30

E.g. Hipsters: usually from middle-class background, and don’t seek overthrow of society, but stand out from mainstream.

Question 31

How do sociologists view culture, in summary? What do they talk about to describe it?

Answer 31

a coherent set of shared values; a society is defined, in some ways, by its shared cultural beliefs.We talk about folkways, mores, taboos, and customs to describe the sets of beliefs and regular actions that constitute culture.

Question 32

What do st fu examine about culture in summary?

Answer 32

Structural functionalists in particular examine the integrative functions of culture: how does culture hold society together?�

Question 33

What do sym ints say about cultural values in summary?

Answer 33

Cultural values can often be shown to lead directly to action by individuals, as in Weber’s Protestant Ethic:Symbolic interactionists look at culture as motives for action.�MOTIVES FOR ACTION

Question 34

What questions does modern cultural heterogeneity (difference) raise?

Answer 34

What values are shared in a multicultural society?What about subcultures and countercultures?