CULTURE

SOC 3533
1/2021
1 What is Culture

2 Development of Culture around the World

3 Cultural Variation

4 Norms and Values

5 Culture and the Dominant Ideology

 WHAT IS CULTURE

 Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs,

knowledge, material objects, and behavior.
 It is a complex system of meaning and behavior that defines the way
of life for the given group or society.
 Culture includes the ideas, values, customs, and artifacts of groups of
people.
 Culture is shared and learned (directly and indirectly).
 Culture varies across time and place.
 Culture includes:

Values Ways of thinking

Laws Manners

Dress Medical care

Music Jokes
 Aristotle once said:
“We are what we repeatedly do.”
DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE AROUND
THE WORLD
Cultural Globalisation
Innovations globalisation
Universals
Culture lag
Material Culture
Non Material Culture
Sociobiology
Diffusion Technology
Diffusion
Technology
DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE AROUND
THE WORLD
Cultural Universals
 All societies have developed certain common practices and
beliefs.
 Cultural universals change over time and from one society to
another.
 E.g. Cooking, dance, medicine, athletic sports, funeral cere-
monies, gender roles
DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE AROUND
THE WORLD
Innovation
 The process of introducing a new idea or object to culture.
 Innovation may take the form of either discovery or invention.
e.g. Languages, Working culture, hipster, graffiti (drawings, words,
symbols)
DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE AROUND
THE WORLD

 Globalisation, Diffusion, and Technology

 Globalisation consists of cultural expressions and practices that
cross national borders and have an effect on the traditions
and customs of the societies exposed to them.
 Ideas are also moving across borders, thanks to the many
developments in communication technologies.
e.g. business franchise (starbucks), #kikichallenge
DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE AROUND
THE WORLD
 Globalisation, Diffusion, and Technology
 Diffusion is the process by which a cultural item spreads from group to group or
society to society (the process by which an idea, invention, or ways of behaving is
borrowed from a foreign source and adopted by the borrowing people).
 Diffusion can occur through a variety of means, including exploration, mass media
influence, military conquest, tourism, missionary work, the Internet.
 Through cultural diffusion, horizons are broadened and people become more
culturally rich.
* Adopt – religious, LGBT
DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE AROUND
THE WORLD
 Globalisation, Diffusion, and Technology
 Technology can be defined as using the material resources of the
environment to satisfy human needs and desires (Nolan and Lenski,
1999).
 Technology accelerates the diffusion of scientific innovations.
 Technology transmits culture.
DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE AROUND
THE WORLD
 Globalisation, Diffusion, and Technology
 Material culture refers to the physical or technological aspects
of our daily lives, including:
 food
 houses
 buildings
 These items can be collected in a museum or archives and can
be analysed for meaning
DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE AROUND
THE WORLD
 Globalisation, Diffusion, and Technology
 Nonmaterial Culture refers to ways of using material objects as well as to:
 customs
 beliefs
 laws
 norms
 philosophies
DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE AROUND
THE WORLD
 Globalisation, Diffusion, and Technology
 Culture Lag refers to a period of maladjustment when the nonmaterial
culture is still struggling to adapt to new material conditions.
(the fact that culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations,
resulting in social problems).
e.g. covid-19 vaccine
 Sociobiology is the systematic study of how biology affects human social
behavior e.g. fierce (genes), career (father-son)
 CULTURAL VARIATION
 Aspects of Cultural Variation
 A subculture is a segment of society that shares a distinctive pattern
of mores, folkways, and values that differs from the larger society.
 A subculture is a culture existing within a larger, dominant culture.
 CULTURAL VARIATION
 Aspects of Cultural Variation
 A counterculture is a subculture created as a reaction against the
values of the dominant culture. Nonconformity to the dominant
cultures’ values is the main characteristic of the counterculture.
 Examples of countercultures:
 Hippies (make love, not war)
 mafia
 CULTURAL VARIATION
 Aspects of Cultural Variation
 Culture shock is experienced if one feels disoriented, uncertain, out
of place, or fearful when immersed in an unfamiliar culture.
e.g. Paris (city of love) – pickpockets, France (nudity)
 Ethnocentrism is the tendency to assume that one’s own culture and
way of life are superior to all others.
e.g. Nazis, US
 CULTURAL VARIATION
 Attitudes toward Cultural Variation
 Cultural relativism is the idea that a person's beliefs, values, and
practices should be understood based on that person's own culture,
rather than be judged against the criteria of another.
 Xenocentrism is the belief that the products, styles, or ideas of one’s
society are inferior to those that originate elsewhere. E.g. Honda
 NORMS AND VALUES
 Norms are specific cultural expectations for how to behave in a certain
situation (folkways, mores, taboos, laws)
 Implicit norms: expectations that do not to be spelled out to understand
them
 Explicit norms: rules governing behavior that are written down or normally
communicated
 NORMS AND VALUES
 Folkways mark the distinction between rude and polite behavior, so they
exert a form of social pressure that encourages us to act and interact in
certain ways. However, they do not have moral significance, and there are
rarely serious consequences or sanctions for violating them.
 E.g. waiting in line, the practice of raising one's hand to take turns
speaking in a group
 Taboos are the behaviours that result in the strictest of negative social
sanctions (e.g incest, cow,widow)
 NORMS AND VALUES
 Mores are more strict than folkways, as they determine what is considered
moral and ethical behavior; they structure the difference between right and wrong.
People feel strongly about mores, and violating them typically results in disapproval.

For example, many religions have prohibitions on cohabitation with a romantic

partner before marriage. If a young adult from a strict religious family moves in with
her boyfriend, her family might punish her behavior by scolding her, threatening
judgment in the afterlife, or shunning her from their homes. 
 NORMS AND VALUES
 A law is a norm that is formally inscribed at the state or federal level and
is enforced by police or other government agents.
 Laws exist to discourage behavior that would typically result in injury or
harm to another person, including violations of property rights. Those who
enforce laws have been given legal right by the government to control
behavior for the good of society at large.
 NORMS AND VALUES

 Social sanctions are the social controls that enforce norms.

 They are penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm.
 Sanctions may be either positive or negative.
█ Table 3.1: Norms and Sanctions

Norms Sanctions
Positive Negative
Formal Salary bonus Demotion
Medal Jail sentence
Diploma Expulsion
Informal Smile Frown
Compliment Humiliation
Cheers Belittling
 NORMS AND VALUES
 Values are the abstract standards in a society that define ideal principles.
 They define what is desirable and morally correct.
 However, even within society, these values are often debated.
 CULTURE AND DOMINANT IDEOLOGY
 Dominant Ideology
 Dominant Ideology describes the set of cultural beliefs and practices
that help to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests.
(it is the culture of the most powerful group in the society.)
 Dominant groups control the means of producing beliefs about reality
through religion, education and the media.
 E.g. Male superiority - Men are more suited to positions of power and
more suited to decision-making at work and home.
Thank you!