Chapter 3: Culture

Chapter 3: Culture What is Culture The ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together form a people’s way of life. Refers to a shared way of life. Shared ideas through social heritage. Nonmaterial Culture: the ideas created by members of a society. example: values and norms Material Culture: the physical things created by members of a society. example: technology Culture Shock: personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life. Nation A political entity, a territory, with designated borders Society The organized interaction of people who typically live in a nation or some other specific territory. Multicultural: People follow various ways of life that blend. Cultural transmission The process by which one generation passes culture to the next. Elements of a culture Symbol: anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture. Language: a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another. Sapir-Whorf thesis: people see and understand the world through the cultural lens of language. Values: culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living. Beliefs: specific thoughts or ideas that people hold to be true. Values are abstract standards of goodness Beliefs are particular matters that individuals consider to be true or false. Norms: rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members. Proscriptive: stating what we should not do. Mores: norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance. Folkways: norms for routine or causal interation. Causes of cultural change Inventions: creating new cultural elements Discovery: recognizing and understanding more fully about something that already exists. Diffusion: the spread of cultural traits from one society to another. Ethnocentrism and Exenocentrism Ethnocentrism: the practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture. Exenocentrism: the practice of involving one’s self into other cultures. Idealism in culture Considers values as the core of a culture Example: no prejudice or racism. Meeting human needs \Subculture cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society’s population. Example: Spanish-Americans have their own food, dance, and music. They may speak Spanish together; however, when in the dominate society they speak English. Counterculture Refers to cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society. Based on ideologies Challenges the dominate society and are apart of dominate society as well. Usually comes from younger generations and have the choice of change.