SOC 100 - Slide 2 Flashcards
Culture
Leads to familiarity and comfort in social interactions or divisions and “otherness”
Language
Reflects priorities, history and spirit of a culture
- Includes slang, argot, euphemisms - Includes non verbal communication
Sapir- Whorf Hypothesis
Language influences cognition
- Mailman; fireman; anchorman
Formal Norms
Laws; professional certification requirement
Taboos
Intense prohibited behaviour
ex. Incest
Mores
Reflect our most cherished principles
- Child Labour
Informal Norma
Give up bus seat to elderly person, queue in hall until classroom is empty; face doors in elevator
Folkways
Questioning/ not your instructor - cultural differences
Sanctions
Rewards and penalties for conduct
Discourse
Refers to the way we conceptualizer and talk about an issue
-Individualist discourse
stresses importance of the community
versus
individualist discourse
focused on importance of individual common good as a coherent concept
Addiction is an illness or an individual failing
Subculture
group that shared the cultural elements of the larger society but also has its own distinctive values, beliefs, norms, style of dress, and behaviour patterns
Hippies, cosplay
Counterculture
subculture that rejects conventional norms and values and adopts alternative ones
High Culture
High income group preferences, tastes, and norms
- Ex. fine arts, ballet
Excludes more people than it includes
Popular (mass) culture
culture of “ordinary” ( majority) people; objects, preferences, and tastes that are widespread in society
Cultural Capital
Body of knowledge and social skills that help people get ahead socially
- People with a lot of cultural capital also have a lot of social capital
Social Capital
Includes resources ( both economic and non economic that gains from being part of a network of social relationships
Cultural Literacy
Enough general knowledge of a society’s popular culture that allows one to communicate effectively with an adult member of that society
Dimension of Culture (PST)
- Physical
Ex. Metropolitan Toronto - Social
Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Social Class - Temporal
Ex. Culture Evolves
Globalization
Increased flow of goods, services and information beyond state boundaries
Cultural Lag
Non- material culture struggles to keep up with material culture
techno change or smtg similar like tools, develop faster than society can process the change
Cultural Imperialism
Global Dominance of American Culture
Cultural Functionalism
Culture reflects the needs of society
value of multiculturalism because we need to increase our population through immigration and not enough people of british or french stock want to immigrant here
Marxist
Culture determined by political-economic structure
Capitalism requires that we are generous towards those in need because capitalism is responsible for inequalities
- culture can be manipulated by dominant groups and employed to maintain hegemony
Hegemony
Set of relatively non-coercive methods of maintaining power used by the dominant class
- through media or legal system
Antonio Gramsci ( 1891-1937)
Notebook (Prison)
*Theory of cultural hegemony
Cultural Hegemony
The domination of the masses by prevailing ideas and cultural forms important to smaller but more dominant groups in society
The dominating groups wins the voluntary consent of popular masses
Domination - uses state force
Max Weber
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism - Symbolic Interactionism
Culture is not a product of social or political structure but is a product of creative individual members of society
concluded that Protestantism aided the advancement of capitalism
Erving Goffman / Symbolic Interactionism/ total institution
we perform a role based on cultural script in our interactions with others
manage impressions of ourselves on the front stage and our real selves are back on back stage
- dramaturgical perspective
Front stage is what we show society and back stage is our true self
