Culture

1. Unit 1, Chapter 2 Culture

2. The knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or society Culture

3. Why is culture important? Reflection

4. Material Culture • The physical or tangible (see, touch) that members of a society make, use, and share • Raw Materials → Technology → Stuff • Non-Material Culture • The abstract or intangible human creations of society that influences people’s behavior • Language, beliefs, values, rules of behavior, family patterns, political systems Material World

5. Customs and practices that occur across all societies Cultural Universals • Marriage • Food • Divorce • Housing • Language • Religion • Family

6. Symbols • Anything that meaningfully represents something else • Language • A set of symbols that expresses ideas and enable people to think and communicate with one another • Values • Collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture • Norms • Established rules of behavior or standards of conduct • Folkways • are relatively weak norms which are only mildly enforced in a society (Manners, appropriate dress, etc.) Components of Culture

7. With a partner, generate a list of the following components of culture • Symbols • Language • Values • Norms Come Up with Your Own

8. Would you like to live in a place where everyone: • Is the same? (Homogeneous) or • Is different? (Heterogeneous) Reflection

9. Cultural diversity refers to the wide range of cultural differences found between and within nations • Can be a result of natural circumstances (climate, geography) or social circumstances (technology or demographics) • Societies can be homogeneous or heterogeneous • Heterogeneity in the U.S. What is Diversity?

10. When societal tensions arise, people may look for others on whom they can place blame or single out persons or groups who are the “outsider”, who do not belong. Have you ever been made to feel like an outsider?

11. A category of people who share distinguishing attributes, beliefs, values, and/or norms that set them apart in some significant manner from the dominant culture. Subculture

12. A group that strongly rejects dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles Counterculture

13. The practice of judging all other cultures by one’s own culture • Based on the assumption that one’s own way of life is superior to all others • Can be positive or negative Ethnocentrism

14. Why might this map be considered ethnocentric?

15. The belief that the behaviors and customs of any culture must be viewed and analyzed by the culture’s own standards Cultural Relativism

16. A socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties • Examples are “Father, Husband, Brother, Son, Banker.” • Ascribed statuses • Achieved statuses • Which status, if any, would be considered your master status? Status

17. In all cultures individual members of the society will hold many different statuses. • ROLES… • used to refer to the behavior pattern which is associated with a particular status • Each status has its own pattern of behavior which a person occupying that particular status will follow Status Continued

18. When we occupy a status, we play a role What expectations are there in some of the roles you play? Give an example of a relational (complementary) role in your life. Have you ever experienced role ambiguity? If so, what was the situation? Roles

19. Role conflict – occurs when one is pulled in different directions from different statuses (provide examples from your own life) Role Strain – Incompatible demands are built into a single status (again, examples) Conflicts and Strains

20. What are the differences between… • Ideal Role and Actual Role • Role Expectations and Performance • What is a Role Model? Roles Continued…