Studying Culture

Studying Culture

u  How do we define culture?

u  What are its elements?
u  How does culture shape society?
u  Culture and practice
u  How do we study culture?

u  BONUS: on Edward Said’s Orientalism

What is Culture?

u  (Schaefer,2009): Totality of learned, socially

transmitted customs, knowledge, material
objects, and behavior

u  Culture can be Material or Non-material

u Material: objects, artifacts, technology etc.
u Non-Material:values, beliefs, symbols,
language, etc.
What are the Elements of Culture?

u  Symbols
u  Both material and non-material
u Gestures and non-verbal symbols

u  Language
u  Ex: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

From the University of Minnesota Open Library: http://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/3-2-the-elements-of-culture/

What are the Elements of Culture?

u  Norms (and Normativity)

u  Formal (Mores) and Informal
u Customs and Laws
u Rituals

u  Values and Beliefs

u  Artifacts

From the University of Minnesota Open Library: http://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/3-2-the-elements-of-culture/

Culture and Practice

u  Culture
and Gender
u  Normal vs. Normative
u  Angela Ponce

u  The Heterosexual questionnaire

How to study culture

u  Academic disciplines:
u  Anthropology

u  Archaeology

u  Sociology
u  Cultural Studies
Culture and Practice

u  Culture is Ordinary – Raymond Williams

u  “Every human society has its own shape, its own
purposes, its own meanings”

u  Culturehas two aspects: The known meanings

and the new observations – both accompany
meaning
u The common meanings – a whole way of life
u The special processes of discovery and creative
effort: the arts and ‘learning’
Culture and Practice

u  High Culture vs. Popular/Mass Culture

u  Opera vs. the Broadway Musical

u  Taste, good taste? – Economics of culture

u  Industrialism, the culture industry, The Frankfurt School
u  A culture of stupidity
Orientalism

u  Edward Said
Orientalism
Orientalism

u  Orientalism by Said:  “the basic distinction between East

and West as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics,
novels, social descriptions, and political accounts
concerning the Orient, its people, customs, ‘mind,’ destiny
and so on.”

u  Orientalism is a way of looking at culture that adapts the

lenses used by the West to look at “The Other” in Non-West
cultures.

u  Postcolonial Theory:
Decolonizing culture, Decentering the West.