Slide1: Lecture 3: Culture
Culture and Taken-for-Granted Orientations to Life: Culture and Taken-for-Granted Orientations to Life What is Normal, Natural, or Usual? The Culture Within Us Culture as Lens Culture Shock Ethnocentrism
Practicing Cultural Relativism: Practicing Cultural Relativism Understanding Cultures on Their Own Terms “ Sick Cultures ” − Robert Edgerton Confronting Contrasting Views of Reality
Slide4: What some consider food, even delicacies, can turn the stomachs of others. These roasted grub worms were for sale in Bangkok, Thailand.
Components of Culture : Components of Culture Symbolic Culture Material Culture
Symbolic Culture: Gestures: Symbolic Culture: Gestures Conveying Messages without Words Gestures ’ Meanings Differ Among Cultures Can Lead to Misunderstandings Is it really true that there are no universal gestures?
Symbolic Culture: Language: Symbolic Culture: Language Allows Cumulative Human Experience Provides Social or Shared Past Provides Social or Shared Future Allows Shared Perspective Allows Complex, Shared, Goal-Directed Behavior
Language and Perception: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Language and Perception: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Language Has Embedded Within It Ways of Looking at the World Sapir-Whorf Reverses Common Sense
Symbolic Culture: Values, Norms, and Sanctions: Symbolic Culture: Values, Norms, and Sanctions Values − What is Desirable in Life Norms − Expectations or Rules for Behavior Sanctions − Reaction to Following or Breaking Norms Positive & Negative Sanctions Moral Holidays and Places
Folkways, Mores, and Taboos: Folkways, Mores, and Taboos Folkways − Norms not Strictly Enforced Mores − Core Values: We Insist on Conformity Taboos
Subcultures: Subcultures Subculture − A World Within the Dominant Culture
Countercultures: Countercultures Countercultures − Groups With Norms and Values at Odds With the Dominant Culture
An Overview of U.S. Values: An Overview of U.S. Values Achievement and Success Individualism Hard Work Efficiency and Practicality Science and Technology Material Comfort Freedom
An Overview of U.S. Values Continued: An Overview of U.S. Values Continued Democracy Equality Group Superiority Education Religiosity Romantic Love
Value Clusters: Value Clusters Success Education Hard work Material comfort Individualism
An Emerging Value Cluster: An Emerging Value Cluster Leisure Self-fulfillment Physical Fitness Youthfulness Concern for the Environment
Value Contradictions: Value Contradictions U.S. values group superiority? Change over time
When Values Clash: When Values Clash Culture Wars
Values as Distorting Lenses: Values as Distorting Lenses What society “ ought ” to be like
“Ideal” Versus “Real” Culture: “ Ideal ” Versus “ Real ” Culture Ideal: What a group considers worth aiming for Real: What people actually do
Cultural Universals: Cultural Universals Some Activities are Universal − Courtship, Marriage, Funerals, Games Present in all cultures, but the specific customs differ from one group to another
Technology in the Global Village: Technology in the Global Village The New Technology Cultural Lag and Cultural Change Technology and Cultural Leveling