unit 6 - lecture notes

Question 1

What are three aspects of culture?

Answer 1

1. It is created and sustained by human interaction.
2. Culture is acquired through learning, not inheriting.
3. Culture is almost imperceptible.

Question 2

What are three intersections of culture and society?

Answer 2

1. No culture can exist without a society and no society can exist without a culture.
2. Cultural characteristics can be transmitted from society to society; cultural diffusion/ globalization.
3. Societies can share common cultural characteristics.

Question 3

When understanding culture and society, what metaphor can be used to further one’s comprehension.

Answer 3

Culture is the script that people live by, society is the connection or network of actors within a defined territory.

Question 4

What are 6 aspects that distinct humans from non human animals?

Answer 4

1. Human beings are self-conscious, not only conscious.
2. Creation and use of symbols to communicate.
3. More adaptable to different physical environments.
4. A capacity or interest in year round mating.
5. Humans kill other humans more than other animals do.
6. The knowledge of mortality.

Question 5

What are the two segments of culture? Explain.

Answer 5

1. Material culture- the physical things created by members of a society.
2. Non material culture - the ideas created by members of society; values, norms, ideology etc.

Question 6

When thinking of an iceberg, what are the three levels of culture and society?

Answer 6

1. material culture
2. social organization
3. world view assumptions

Question 7

What are eight components of culture?

Answer 7

1. Symbols
2. language
3. stock of knowledge
4. values
5. norms
6. ideology
7. forms of expression
8. technology

Question 8

As a component of culture, what are symbols?

Answer 8

Symbols are social products that only come into existence upon mass agreement.
ex. the sound fish means the thing that swims in water, a maple leaf is associated with Canada etc.

Question 9

As a component of culture, describe three aspects of language.

Answer 9

1. Language = thought
   “The limits of my language are the limits of my mind.”
2. It is enabling- allows people to express themselves, understand each other, access and manipulate others, reach beyond the here and now, and generates an abstract reality.
3. It is constraining- it affects our perception of reality, everything around us, relationships, cultures etc.

Question 10

As a component of culture, what does a stock of knowledge entail?

Answer 10

Cultural myth; Beliefs become objectified as knowledge.

Question 11

As a component of culture, what is the relevance of values?

Answer 11

They are shared ideas about what is desirable; the ideal v. the real.

Question 12

As a component of culture, what are 5 aspects of norms?

Answer 12

1. provides social do’s and don’ts
2. are more specific than values
3. are justified by values
4. are often situation specific
5. provides a hierarchy of obligation

Question 13

What are the three levels of the hierarchy of obligation? What do they mean?

Answer 13

1. Folkways - customary, normal, habitual way of doing something
2. Mores - strong feelings of right or wrong
3. laws - rules enforced by authority of the state.

Question 14

As a component of culture, how does ideology function?

Answer 14

Ideology creates and maintains social order. It functions as a set of limits to consciousness.

Question 15

As a component of culture, what is the purpose of forms of expression?

Answer 15

These are activities done for an individual’s own sake; All forms of art are a social experience because all art uses symbols.

Question 16

As a component of culture, what is the role of technology?

Answer 16

Technology is a part of material culture.
It is:
1. instrumental
2. science is used to create tools to meet human demand
3. cumulative- continually built upon.
4. evaluated according to efficiency
5. technology can be recovered and displayed in museums.

Question 17

What are five problems created by technology?

Answer 17

1. It can dictate the character of life- control society by demanding efficiency and rational.
2. Can create a dependency- it depowers, deskills, and replaces people.
3. Distorts reality- the effects of social media.
4. Accelerates environmental degradation - the materials needed from the environment to produce technology degrade the quality of our environment faster.
5. The tyranny of the possible- should something be done just because it can be? Cultural lag can be a consequence of this.

Question 18

What are 6 concepts of cultural diversity?

Answer 18

1. Universals
2. Identity
3. Relativity v. relativism
4. Subcultures v. countercultures
5. High culture v. Popular/Mass culture
6. Assets

Question 19

What are some examples of cultural universals?

Answer 19

-Arts and leisure,
-basic needs,
-beliefs,
-communication and education,
-family,
-government and economy,
-and technology.

Question 20

What are two aspects of cultural identity?

Answer 20

1. Culture shock
2. Ethnocentrism

Question 21

In understanding cultural relativism, what is an important rule to remember?

Answer 21

Cultures can only be judged according to their own ethical standards.

Question 22

What are two aspects of subculture?

Answer 22

1. Agrees with some patterns of society but disagrees with others
2. They share an overall society but maintain a distinctive set of values, norms, language etc.

Question 23

What is the difference between art and entertainment? Which one belongs to high culture? Which one belongs to low culture?

Answer 23

Art - High culture; Is seen to challenge an enlightened the mind and move the human spirit deeply.

Entertainment- low culture; occupies one’s mind and time agreeably and amuses one’s feelings securely.

Question 24

What are three aspects of cultural assets?

Answer 24

1. Capital
2. Literacy
3. Culture of Poverty