The document is a chapter from a sociology textbook that discusses the concept of culture. It defines culture as the totality of learned behaviors and beliefs shared by a society. It explores how culture has developed around the world through processes like innovation, diffusion, and responses to technology and globalization. The chapter also examines key elements of culture, including language, norms, values, and how the dominant ideology can shape a culture. It analyzes cultural variation through subcultures and discusses cultural shock. In the end, it discusses different attitudes toward cultural variation such as ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.

1. 3-1
Richard T. Schaefer
SOCIOLOGY:
Eighth Edition
McGraw-Hill
McGraw-Hill
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. 3
chapter
CULTURE
CHAPTER OUTLINE
•Culture and Society
•Development of Culture around the World
•Elements of Culture
•Culture and the Dominant Ideology
•Cultural Variation
•Social Policy and Culture: Bilingualism
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3. Culture and Society
3-3
█ Culture: totality of learned, socially
transmitted customs, knowledge,
material objects, and behavior
– Culture includes all objects and ideas
within a society, values, customs, and
artifacts of groups of people
• Does not refer to fine arts or intellectual
taste
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4. Tattooing?
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3-4
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5. Development of Culture
Around the World
3-5
█ We have come a long way from our
prehistoric age and we are
remarkably different from other
species of the animal kingdom.
█ Human culture has been evolving for
thousands of years.
█ Tracing human culture is not easy.
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6. Development of Culture
Around the World
3-6
█ Cultural Universals
– All societies have
developed certain
common practices and
beliefs.
– They are not uniform
– Most human cultures
change and expand
through innovation and
diffusion
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7. Development of Culture
Around the World
3-7
█ Innovation
– Process of introducing a new idea or
object to a culture
– Innovation may take the form of either
discovery or invention
• Discovery: making known or sharing
existence of an aspect of reality
• Invention: when existing cultural items are
combined into a form that did not exist
before
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8. Development of Culture
Around the World
3-8
█ Globalization, Diffusion, and
Technology
– Globalization: worldwide integration of
government policies, cultures, social
movements, and financial markets
through trades and the exchange of
ideas
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9. Development of Culture
Around the World
3-9
█ Globalization, Diffusion, and
Technology
– Diffusion: process by which a cultural
item spreads from group to group or
society to society
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10. Development of Culture
Around the World
3-10
█ Globalization, Diffusion, and
Technology
– Technology: “cultural information about
how to use the material resources of the
environment to satisfy human needs
and desires” (Nolan and Lenski 1999).
• Accelerates the diffusion of scientific
innovations
• Transmits culture
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11. Development of Culture
Around the World
3-11
█ Globalization, Diffusion, and
Technology
– Material culture: physical or
technological aspects of our daily lives
•Food
•Houses
•Factories
•Raw materials
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12. Development of Culture
Around the World
3-12
█ Globalization, Diffusion, and
Technology
– Nonmaterial Culture: ways of using
material objects
•Customs
as well as:
•Beliefs
•Government
•Patterns of
communication
•Philosophies
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13. Development of Culture
Around the World
3-13
█ Globalization, Diffusion, and
Technology
– Culture Lag: period of maladjustment
when nonmaterial culture is still
struggling to adapt to new material
conditions.
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14. Elements of Culture
3-14
█ Language
– Abstract system of word meanings and
symbols for all aspects of culture.
Includes speech, written
characters, numerals, symbols,
and gestures and expressions of
nonverbal communication
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15. Elements of Culture
3-15
█ Language
– Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Language precedes thought.
Language is not a given.
Language is culturally determined.
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16. Elements of Culture
3-16
█ Language
– Nonverbal Communication
• Use of gestures, facial expressions, and
other visual images to communicate
• Not the same in all cultures
• Learned just as we learn other forms of
language
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17. 3-17
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18. Elements of Culture
3-18
█ Norms
– Established standards of behavior
maintained by a society
To be significant, must be widely
shared and understood
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19. Elements of Culture
3-19
█ Norms
– Types of Norms
• Formal norms
– Generally written down; specify strict
punishments for violations
• Informal norms
– Generally understood but not precisely
recorded
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20. Elements of Culture
3-20
█ Norms
– Types of Norms
• Mores
– Norms deemed highly necessary to the welfare
of a society, often because they embody the
most cherished principles of a people
• Folkways
– Norms governing everyday behavior
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21. Elements of Culture
3-21
█ Norms
– Acceptance of Norms
• Subject to change as political, economic,
and social conditions of a culture are
transformed
█ Sanctions
– Penalties and rewards for conduct
concerning a social norm
• May be either positive or negative
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22. Elements of Culture
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3-22
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23. Elements of Culture
3-23
█ Values
– Collective conceptions of what is good,
desirable, and proper—or bad,
undesirable, and improper—in a culture
Influence people’s behavior
Criteria for evaluating actions of
others
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24. Elements of Culture
3-24
█ Values may be specific or they may
be more general.
█ Values may change but only slowly.
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25. Culture and the Dominant
Ideology
3-25
█ Dominant Ideology
– Describes the set of cultural beliefs and
practices that help to maintain powerful
social, economic, and political interests
• Control wealth and property
• Control the means of producing beliefs
about reality through:
– religion
– education
– the media
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26. Cultural Variation
3-26
█ Aspects of Cultural Variation
– Subculture: Segment of society that
shares distinctive pattern of mores,
folkways, and values that differs from
the larger society
• A subculture is
a culture existing
within a larger,
dominant culture
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27. Cultural Variation
3-27
█ Aspects of Cultural Variation
– Counterculture: subculture that
conspicuously and deliberately opposes
certain aspects of the larger culture
• Hippies
• JMB
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28. Cultural Variation
3-28
█ Cultural Variation
– Culture shock: Feeling disoriented,
uncertain, out of place, or fearful when
immersed in an unfamiliar culture
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29. Cultural Variation
3-29
█ Attitudes Toward Cultural Variation
– Ethnocentrism: Tendency to assume that
one’s own culture and way of life represents
the norm or is superior to all others.
– Cultural relativism: views people’s behaviors
from the perspective of their own culture
– Xenocentrism: Belief that products, styles, or
ideas of one’s society are inferior to those that
originate elsewhere
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© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.