TYPES

of
CULTURE
MAY 16, 2024 /THURSDAY

VALUESMAJOR20
 OBJECTIVES
a.) Discuss the different kinds of culture identified by
their purposes and methods.

b.) Manifest respect on the differences between the

various culture types.

c.) Illustrate the highlight of the various types of culture.

 LET’S PLAY!!!
WORDSEARCH
·Highlight Words: When you find a word, the game will
show it in a different color. This helps you see which
words you've already found.
·Timer: The game has a clock that counts down. You try
to find all the words before the time runs out. This
makes the game more exciting because you need to be
fast.
·Hints: If you're stuck, you can ask for help. The game
will give you a little clue about where a word might be.
But you only get a few hints, so use them wisely!
 CULTURE: NORMS
How can people uphold and enforce values in everyday life?
·They might develop rules for appropriate behavior based
on those values, called norms.

- Norms are conditional, can vary from place to place.

NORMS
Established rules of behavior or standards of conduct
·Prescriptive Norms
o What behavior is appropriate or acceptable
·Proscriptive Norms
o What behavior is inappropriate or unacceptable
Formal and Informal Norms

·Formal norms are written down, and often carry specific

punishments for violators
o Positive or negative; praise and honors; versus, disapproval
to the death penalty!
·Informal norms are unwritten, often carry informal sanctions
and are often not clearly defined (they often vary among sub
groups)
o Informal sanctions may include but are not limited to:
frowns, gestures, scoffs, remarks, etc.
 Example of a Norm
The way you behave at a football game is certainly different
then how you behave at a funeral.
– Our behaviors are linked to the situation.
It is normal to cry at a funeral, and not so acceptable to cry at a
football game unless your team got spanked!

Culture: Sanctions
• Norms provide the justification for sanctions.
• A sanction is a prize or punishment you receive when you either
abide by a norm or violate it.
– If you do as you are supposed to, you get a positive sanction;
if you break the rules you get a negative sanction.
 Example
Sanctions:
of aFormal
Norm vs. Informal
• Most sanctions are informal, like when your friend rolls her eyes
at your terrible joke.
• However, if we violate a law or some formal written rule, we
receive a formal negative sanction.
• Sanctions are both positive and negative, can reinforce values
by rewarding people who hold those values and punishing those
who have opposing values.
Examples of Positive Sanctions
A person who performs well at his or her job and is given a
salary raise or a promotion is receiving a positive sanction.
When parents reward a child with money for earning good
grades, they are positively sanctioning that child’s behavior.
 Examples of Negative Sanctions
Imprisoning a criminal for breaking the law, cutting off a thief’s
hands for stealing, and taking away a teenager’s television
privileges for breaking curfew are all negative sanctions.

Folkways, Mores, Taboos, OH MY!

• Folkways are informal types of norms.
– They provide a framework for our behavior and are based on
social expectations.
– Because they are a less serious type of norms, the sanctions
applied are less severe

For example, if you see a person struggling with packages, you

will hold the door for him or her. If you let the door slam on the
person, you might be considered rude, but won’t go to jail.
• Folkways are often social customs that, when violated, call for
minor informal negative sanctions if any at all.

Mores (pronounced MORE-ayes)

• Although folkways are informal norms, mores are more serious.
• Mores are norms that represent a community’s most important
values.
• Taboo is an act that is socially unacceptable.

Examples of Mores & Taboos

If you murder a person, you’ve violated one of society’s mores.
People who violate mores are given a particularly serious type
of formal negative sanction.
• In this way, mores can be considered the basis of laws in a
society.
Acts that lead us to feel revulsion, such as murder itself are
taboo.
 DEGREES OF NORMS
The following are considered to be of increasing degree as one
progresses downward
Norms are often classified by their relative social importance

·Folkways
o Informal, everyday customs that if violated carry little
consequences, and are not enforced
o Lack of: deodorant, brushing teeth, or appropriate clothing
·Mores
o (“Mor-ays”) A particular cultures strongly held norms with moral
and ethical connotations that may not be violated without serious
consequences
o May result in loss of employment, ridicule, or imprisonment
 o “Taboos,” strong mores that their violation is extremely offensive,
and unmentionable
o Incest is a widely accepted taboo
·Laws
oFormal, standardized norms enacted by legislatures and enforced
throughout

The Study of Culture

• When you study culture it’s a good idea to consider whether a
particular behavior or event is a cultural universal, or common to all
cultures.

For example, funeral rites are a cultural universal because all cultures
have methods of disposing of the dead.
–George Murdock
• Specific customs differ from one group to another
• Customs found were courtship, marriage, funerals, games, laws,
music, myths, incest taboos and toilet training.

Cultural Universals: Adaptations that meet human needs that

all societies practice…

Can you
think of any
other
cultural
universals?
 Micronesia Case Study
Bronislaw Malinowski witnessed a funeral ritual in which native
islanders ate part of the dead person to maintain a connection.
After eating, they would vomit in an attempts to create
distance from the deceased.

Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism

When studying culture from a sociological perspective, you
must not allow your personal biases to complicate your
understanding (Weber).
 Ethnocentrism
• Ethnocentrism occurs when a person uses his or her own
culture to judge another culture.

Nearly all people in the world are ethnocentric, but

ethnocentrism is potentially dangerous to sociologists because
it can lead to incorrect assumptions about different cultures.

Xenophobia
• Xenophobia refers to fear and hostility toward people who are
from other countries or cultures.

When the United States entered World War II after Japan

bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, people in the US began to fear
Japanese Americans and locked many in internment camps.
 Xenocentrism
Not all personal biases result in a negative view of foreign
cultures.
• Sometimes, we engage in xenocentrism when we perceive
other groups or societies as superior to our own.
Cultural Relativism
Thinking like a sociologist means striving to practice cultural
relativism when studying other cultures.
• Cultural relativism consists of a deliberate effort to appreciate
a group’s ways of life in it’s own context, without prejudice.
• Philosophers sometimes refer to this effort as normative
relativism because it bases the evaluation of a society on that
society’s own norms
 ACTIVITY
I will give a 5 multiple item tests for my students.

ASSIGNMENT
In a ½ crosswise paper answer the following
question:

Reflect on how you can apply different culture types

in our daily life. Additionally, explain how those skills
could benefit you in your personal and/or
professional life.
REFERENCE
Lesson-5.1.pdf
THANKS
to all of
YOU