6. The generally shared knowledge, beliefs and
values of members of society. Culture is
conveyed from generation to generation through
the process of socialization. While culture is
made up of ideas, some sociologists also argue
that it is not exclusively ideational but can be
found in human-made material objects. …Culture
and social structure are considered as the two
key components of society and are therefore the
foundation concepts of sociology.
(Athabasca University online
dictionary)
6
9. 9
This is what William Fielding Ogburn
(June 29, 1886 – April 27, 1959) described as
“Cultural Lag”
10. Technology and Production:
Gerhard Lenski:
Change from technology and
economy leading to
organization of power
stratification systems
10
11. 11
While transistor count increases according to
Moore's law, overall performance rises only
very slowly. According to Lanier, this is
because human productivity in developing
software increases only slightly, and software
becomes more bloated and remains as error-prone
as it ever was. "Simply put, software
just won't allow it. Code can't keep up with
processing power now, and it never will."[13]
Jaron Lanier "One-Half of a Manifesto" (2000)
36. A human community, usually with a relatively fixed
territorial location, sharing a common culture and
common activities. There is cultural and institutional
interdependence between members of the society
and they are, to some extent, differentiated from other
communities and groups. Societies are generally
identified as existing at the level of nation states, but
there can be regional and cultural communities within
nation states that possess much of the cultural
distinctiveness and relative self-sufficiency of
societies.
(Athabasca University online dictionary)
36
45. Semiotics is the study of
signifiers or signs. Signifiers
can be speech sounds, other
sounds, or marks on paper.
Then there is the signified which
exists in reality but only needs
naming.
45
47. But signifiers can also be other
things such as dress, pictures or
visual signs, modes of eating or
forms of architecture. Consider
the following contrasts and
comparisons:
47
52. 52
But I wish to express the notion of how symbols
can signify a culture’s sense of historical character, or,
Just the opposite: an obsession with the present only.
64. Culture is the grooves we fall in to as we become
socialized. The components of our culture
(norms, mores, beliefs, etc) are specific to our
group formation, whether it be bordered
geographically or strictly by political borders.
64
66. People
Language
Social organization (kinship and network of
agreements)
Ideology (belief systems/world view)
66
67. Incest taboo
Social Structure
Belief in a higher power
Food quest
Clothing
Settlements
Fine arts
Social stratification
Kinship
Political behavior
Etc.
67
69. ethnocentric
|ˌeTHnōˈsentrik|adjectiveeva
luating other peoples and
cultures according to the
standards of one's own
culture.DERIVATIVESethno
centrically |-(ə)lē|
adverb.ethnocentricity |-
ˌsenˈtrisitē|
noun.ethnocentrism |-
ˌtrizəm| noun
69
70. Nazi Party (Europe)
American Nazi Party
White Supremacy
Fundamentalism: any Religion
Capitalism
Nationalism (with God on our side)
Cultural norm differences:
Food, marriage, religion,
music, dress, language
[…]
70
71. 71
Cultural Relativism: Truth Is Relative
Cultural relativism is the view that no culture is
superior to any other culture when comparing
systems of morality, law, politics, etc. It's the
philosophical notion that all cultural beliefs are
equally valid and that truth itself is relative,
depending on the cultural environment.
72. Female Genital Mutilation
Wife Burning
Honor Killing
Stoning Women for What They Are Wearing or
not Wearing
Beheading as a Form of Execution
Censorship of the Press
Imprisonment for Political Expression
72
81. 'Human beings do not live in the objective world
alone, nor alone in the world of social activity
as ordinarily understood, but are very much
at the mercy of the particular language which
has become the medium of expression for
their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine
that one adjusts to reality essentially without
the use of language and that language is
merely an incidental means of solving
specific problems of communication and
reflection. The fact of the matter is that the
"real world" is to a large extent
unconsciously built up on the language habits
of the group.' Sapir 1958 [1929], p. 69
81
82. 'We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native
languages. The categories and types that we isolate
from the world of phenomena we do not find there
because they stare every observer in the face; on the
contrary, the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of
impressions which has to be organized by our minds -
and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our
minds. We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and
ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are
parties to an agreement that holds throughout our
speech community and is codified in the patterns of our
language. The agreement is, of course, an implicit and
unstated one, but its terms are absolutely obligatory;
we cannot talk at all except by subscribing to the
organization and classification of data which the
agreement decrees.' (Whorf 1940, pp. 213-14)
82
83. In an empirical test of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis,
John A. Lucy (1991) compared Maya speakers from
southern Mexico with English speakers from the
United States. Linguistic analysis showed that
English speakers almost always identify a noun as
singular or plural (“book” or “books”). Maya
speakers often ignore number by using so-called
mass nouns (such as “cattle” or “the news” in
English). The Mayan language has more terms for
the materials out of which objects are made (wood,
metal), whereas English has more terms for shape
(round, flat). When Lucy compared the performance
of subjects from the two groups on a variety of
cognitive tests, he found that English speakers
more often recalled number and classified objects
by shape, whereas Maya speakers rarely
mentioned number and grouped objects made from
similar substances.
From Richard Gelles and Ann Levine
Sociology: An Introduction 6/e 1999
83
