CLASS 3

CULTURE

Prof. dr. Jannick Demanet

Academic year: 2022-2023
CONTENTS

1) Culture and its components

2) Cultural diversity
3) Theoretical perspectives
4) Globalisation of culture
1. CULTURE AND ITS COMPONENTS
 1. CULTURE AND ITS COMPONENTS

What is culture?
Culture consists of shared meanings people give to
their actions and the objects in their environment,
formalized in symbols, language, values, norms, and
material culture
Non-material culture
Material culture
Cultural practices
p. 144
 1. CULTURE AND ITS COMPONENTS

The origin of culture

Closed instincts vs Open instincts (Midgley)
Genetically predisposed vs learned
Continuum

p. 144-145, !!!
 1. CULTURE AND ITS COMPONENTS

1) Symbols
An object that carries a particular meaning, similarly
understood by members of same culture, that does
not automatically stem from the physical appearance
Differences
Space, context, time
Culture shock
Semiotics
p. 146-148
 1. CULTURE AND ITS COMPONENTS

2) Language
A system of symbols that
allows to communicate
Essential for culture
Share meanings
Share a past and a future
Cultural reproduction
Verbal vs non-verbal
Oral vs written
Who controls communication?
p. 148-149
 1. CULTURE AND ITS COMPONENTS
12 1
2) Language
Sapir-Whorf
11 hypothesis 2
Language shaped by reality, or
reality shaped by language?
10 3
If we have no word for
something, do we perceive it?
If9we have more words for 4
something, do we perceive more?
Linguistic relativity
8 5
Linguistic determinism
7 6
Davidoff experiment with Himba (Namibia)
p. 150
 1. CULTURE AND ITS COMPONENTS
3) Values and beliefs
Values
General standards about what is good and bad
We shouldn’t kill, we should be compassionate
Beliefs
Statements about specific matters
Policemen can kill if they act for the greater good, We should
help refugees
Value inconsistency
Cultural diversity and cultural change
p. 148-149, p. 152
 1. CULTURE AND ITS COMPONENTS
World values (Inglehart)
Traditional vs secular-rational
Traditional authority
Individualism, rationality
Survival vs self-expression
Well-being and health
Industry vs Ecology
Trust and outgroups
Gender inequality
Materialism vs postmaterialism
Differences between/within societies
p. 151
 1. CULTURE AND ITS COMPONENTS

4) Norms
Standards, rules, guides, expectations
for actual behavior
Proscriptive and prescriptive

p. 152
 1. CULTURE AND ITS COMPONENTS

Norms (Sumner)
Folkways
Customary practices
Informally sanctioned
right vs rude
Mores
Applied rules
Formally sanctioned
right versus wrong
p. 153 Folkways can transform to mores
 1. CULTURE AND ITS COMPONENTS

5) Material culture
Artefacts
Tangible elements of culture
‘Big C’ cultural objects
Everyday objects

p. 154
2. CULTURAL DIVERSITY
 2. CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Civilizations

p. 145
 2. CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Within societies
Monocultural Multicultural society
Subculture
Cultural pattern setting apart a group (<-> mainstream culture)
Counterculture
Cultural pattern opposing dominant culture

p. 154, p. 156
 2. CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Cultural change
Cultural integration
Cultural lag
Mechanisms of change
Invention
Discovery
Diffusion

p. 156
 2. CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Judging other cultures

Ethnocentrism
By your own standards
Unavoidable (?)
Cultural relativism
By their standards
From their norms, values, …
Problems?

p. 157-158
3. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
 3. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

Functionalist approach
Cultural system
Core values  cohesion
Idealism
Cultural reproduction
Cultural components exist because they satisfy
basic human and societal needs
Cultural universals?

p. 161
!!!
!!!
!!!
 3. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

Critical theory
Gramsci
Cultural hegemony
Ruling class’ worldview becomes norm
Adorno (Frankfurt School)
Mass culture industry
Cultivation of needs
Critical conscioussness

p. 163
 3. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

Pierre Bourdieu
Social class
Cultural capital
High vs popular culture
Aesthetic preferences
Educational credentials
Distinction
Social reproduction
p. 155-156
4. GLOBALISATION AND CULTURE
 4. GLOBALISATION AND CULTURE

Towards a global culture?

Contact and cooperation
Goods
Information
People
Unification or hybridization?
YouTube

p. 167
 4. GLOBALISATION AND CULTURE
But
Tale of cities
Poverty and illiteracy
Glocalisation
Particular response to universal phenomena

p. 168
SO…

Culture
Shared meanings
Symbols, language, values/beliefs, norms, material
Diversity
Civilizations
Social class, sub- and counter, ethnocentrism vs. relativity
Theories
Functionalism: stability and cohesion
Conflict: Power, control, and legitimation
Globalization
Towards a global culture?
CHAPTERS NOT TO BE STUDIED

Dead language and ethnicity booms (p. 149)

European values? (p. 150)
Asian values (p. 151)
Muslim cultures: an example (p. 158)
The UK tradition: class and resistance (p. 163)
The North American tradition of cultural studies (p. 165)
Postmodernism and the new culture (p. 167)